The twelve Doctors, or 11 Doctors and one War Doctor (Picture: BBC)

Confused about the Doctor’s regenerations after watching The Day of the Doctor? Steven Moffat has sought to clear up any misunderstandings.

So, when John Hurt was introduced as the Doctor earlier this year it caused a problem among fans. Which Doctor is he?

When we saw eighth Doctor Paul McGann regenerate into John Hurt in Night of the Doctor it confirmed he was the ninth Doctor – moving former ninth Doctor Christopher Eccleston to the 10th Doctor. David Tennant became the 11th Doctor and Matt Smith formerly the 11th became the 12th.

Or not. Because John Hurt is the War Doctor – and thus outside the numbering, apparently. But, actually not really.




Oh, dear.

Speaking at the Doctor Who Official 50th Celebration at London’s ExCeL Moffat cleared the whole thing up… sort of.

‘He has no more ever called himself the 11th Doctor than he would call himself Matt Smith. The Doctor doesn’t know off the top of his head [what number he is]’ he said.

‘If you worry about such things, and I do, then I specifically said John Hurt’s Doctor doesn’t use the title. [Matt Smith’s Doctor] is in his 12th body but he’s the 11th Doctor, however there is no such character as the 11th Doctor – he’s just the Doctor – that’s what he calls himself.’

BLOG: The 4 big Doctor Who questions from The Day of the Doctor

Hmmm. Not sure that’s going to satisfy all the fans – so maybe this explanation from Steven Moffat will convince you:

‘The numbering doesn’t matter, except for those lists, that you and I have been making for many years,’ he said. ‘So I’ve given you the option of not counting John Hurt numerically – he’s the War Doctor.’

(And also at the panel Matt Smith wanted to point out that he actually liked being the 11th Doctor because he likes the number, and Moffat seemed ok with that.)

Matt Smith – still 11th – because he likes the number (Picture: BBC)

Ok, so does that mean that Peter Capaldi’s Doctor (the 12th Doctor) still has a regeneration left if we’re not counting John Hurt? Because according to a Tom Baker story The Deadly Assassin the Doctor can regenerate only 12 times and have 13 bodies.

Er, no.

‘Paul McGann turns into John Hurt so they’re not the same incarnation,’ said Moff. ‘He used up another regeneration and I’ll expect he’ll be in trouble shortly – you can’t break rules laid down in The Deadly Assassin.’

So John Hurt isn’t a numbered Doctor but he still used up a regeneration. And Peter Capaldi is the last one – unless someone decides to re-write everything all over again.

There you go. Hope that clears things up for you.

The Day of the Doctor is released on DVD on December 2