Poll: Is Matt Smith the 11th or 12th Doctor

[wamdue]

ok this has come up on a couple of threads, the the forum seems divided so lets vote on this issue.

basically did the botched regeneration in Journeys End, count as a full regeneration, making Tennant both the 10th & 11th Doctors, or did the Doctor not use up one of his last few regeneration and is still the 10th Doctor.

 

[Worf2DS9]

He's the 11th, obviously.

 

[The]

He's the 11th, obviously.

Yes. This whole fanwank debate about what regeneration the Doctor is on becomes more and more absurd as the years go by. First, the Morbius-faces. Then, does Paul McGann count? Then, did Eccles come directly after McGann? And now this? Give me a break...

 

[wamdue]

maybe I should have asked if the Doctor used up a regeneration in Journeys End

 

[Saul]

He is introduced on the offical website and by the producers as the 11th Doctor.
There's no debate here. There regeneration energy was used to heal the Doctor.

 

[O'Dib]

Maybe starting a regenerative cycle isn't what a Time Lord can do only 12 times. Maybe completing it is. In the sense that going through a physical and personality change is a painful, damaging process that one can withstand only so many times.. In which case Matt Smith is the 11th. He would've been the 11th even without this possible explanation, but it's a fact I now find easier to accept.

 

[Worf2DS9]

The way I see it is the regeneration process was reversed in that scene so no full regeneration was completed, thereby keeping the 10th intact. Tennant remained 10 and Smith is 11.

 

[JoeZhang]

People who matter (The BBC, the writers and the producers) say he is the 11th Doctor.

People who don't matter (the fans).. well who cares? they don't matter.

THE END.

 

[Jax]

The 11th, the hand used it its own energy up so did not force a regeneration. I would always chop off a hand after Regenerating if I was the doctor.

 

[captcalhoun]

he's not the eleventh or the twelth. he's the....

um, waita sec...

Scream of the Shalka, stage play, Cushing, Atkinson, REG, Hugh, Broadbent, Lumley, Weir, Warner, Hurndall...

21st!

 

[Allyn Gibson]

At a minimum, 19.

 

[Jon1701]

He's the eleventh.

If early indications are anything to go by, the forum (for the most part) is in agreement.

 

[Bacl]

The Doctor did not regenerate in Journey's End.

He began to regenerate, but stopped himself from actually regenerating once his body had healed itself.

Thus, Matt Smith is the 11th Doctor, since the 10th Doctor only began regeneration in Journey's End but did not regenerate in Journey's End.

 

[Starkers]

11th!

 

[Jim Steele]

He's the 11th.

He's the 11th in the eyes of everyone responsible for the show. He's the 11th as far as the on screen evidence is concerned. He's the 11th distinct human being to take on the role, bringing a new face and personality to the part - the two things that actually matter as far as defining a new regeneration.

If some dipshits on the internet choose to argue black is white in the face of all the above, then so be it. Doesn't change the fact.

 

[Tulin]

11.

Done.

 

[John Picard]

The Doctor did not regenerate in Journey's End.

He began to regenerate, but stopped himself from actually regenerating once his body had healed itself.

Thus, Matt Smith is the 11th Doctor, since the 10th Doctor only began regeneration in Journey's End but did not regenerate in Journey's End.

And he *clearly stated* that he "did not want to" regenerate. He repaired the damage to his body and then needed a repository for the excess energy, hence the use of the right hand in the jar he'd been carrying around all these years.


Therefore, he's #11.

I'm curious about the next Companion.

 

[Newspaper Taxi]

The 'Regeneration' scene in between "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End" was a gimmicky cliffhanger that should be regarded as such, and as no more.

 

[diankra]

Matt Smith will be the 11th Doctor - a term that only exists outside the series's 'reality' (I'm pretty sure that while the Doctor's occasionally said he's in his nth incarnation, or has regenerated n times, he's never said 'Hello, I'm the nth Doctor'). Phrases like Nth Doctor exist only in PR, articles and reference books.
But the Doctor has now used 10 of his 12 regenerations (with the 10th being half-used to heal the Tennant Doctor, and half saved down to the severed hand, only to be transferred into Donna and then to the Doctor duplicate), so he only has one regeneration and hence two incarnations to go (ie, Matt Smith and one more).
BUT... explaining in every PR release how Tennant actually played two incarnations is not going to happen, and you can get round SE/JE by saying that a regeneration is only 'spent' if it's completed (even if the whole internal logic of the sequence says that regeneration is gone - it started, he vented it into the Hand, the Hand then created an entire duplicate Doctor out of the saved energy!). How it's actually dealt with in the long term is a bit of small print to be handled by whoever's in charge at the time it all gets past the 12 regen limit, whether that happens in two or three Doctors' time.
And we can then retcon around it if we're bothered.

 

[CommodoreKong]

He's the 11th.

And after seeing the results of this poll hopefully no one will bring it up again.