Average lifespan of a Time Lord

[RoJoHen]

One of the things that has kinda bugged me about Moffat's run of Doctor Who (and I say that as someone who has actually enjoyed it for the most part) is the constant leaps in the Doctor's age.

He was 907-ish when we first met him.

By the time he "died" at Lake Silencio, he was 1100-something.

In "The Day of the Doctor," he claims to be 1200-something (he thinks, but he's not sure if he's lying).

In the most recent episode, at the end of Matt Smith's run, we get two more huge time jumps. He spends 300 years defending Trenzalore during the first jump...and then when Clara returns a second time I can only assume based on the Doctor's appearance that we've seen yet another 300-400 year jump.

So by the end of this, Smith's Doctor has lived for nearly 1000 years. He's lived longer than all of the other Doctors combined?! I find this insane, especially given how familiar he still is with his companions. If I was friends with Clara, and then I went 300 years without seeing her, I would have no idea who the hell she was by the time she reappeared. 300 years is a LONG TIME! Even if he recognized her at all, I doubt he would have the same familiarity with her as he did when he was "young."

I get that he's a Time Lord and he perceives time differently than the rest of us, but it still seems pretty ridiculous. I don't see any reason why the time jumps needed to be so huge. And in the 600+ years that he was there, the town of Christmas didn't change at all? What a waste!

Though I will say it does lend some insight into Madame Kovarian's line about the "endless, bitter war" against the Doctor...even though at some point the Silence and the Doctor were on the same side.

 

[Count]

Well, the way I see it, at least from the point of view as it's presented, is each timelord life gets around about 80-100 years, so they age normally, if a timelord regenerates due to injury (as every doctor bar Hartnell) has, the "extra years" stack up into the next regeneration, so they could potentially live twice as long.

Now, we know 9 and 10 had short lives (combined, maybe 10 years between them), so running on my theory that would have meant the 11th would have about 210 or so years to his live alone, if you add the meta crisis regeneration in too, that's another 80 or so years, so the 11th's natural lifespan would be about 300 or so years longer then a normal timelord life if they'd regenerated from old age.

In any case, all conjectural, I like my idea, but the math does fall apart a bit if the doctor was over 1000 years old after the end of TOTD.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

Hurt also regenerated due to "wearing a bit thin".

I don't see any of the aging accumulating into the next incarnation. I would assume each regeneration would have so many years to grow old, barring accidents, like tripping on a brick or whatever.

How many years #1 and the new #9 lived would give a good idea of a "normal" lifespan per incarnation.

Of course, if a regeneration creates an old looking incarnation, would that one be shorter if allowed to progress naturally?

 

[Tom]

Im guessing the Doctor is about 1800 or so at this point. Another thing that adds confusion is the War Doctor he was young when Mcgann regenerated into him based on his reflection and is old in the DOTD, so he must have been around for 300-500 based on how long the doctor visibly ages in the new series.

 

[Tom]

Well Hartnell from birth to regeneration was about 450 years old based on the statements made by the second doctor in 'Tomb of the Cybermen'. Maybe after the the first time a regeneration happens (1st to 2nd doctor) the Doctor can now live longer (approx 600-900 years) in each incarnation.

 

[EliyahuQeoni]

Im guessing the Doctor is about 1800 or so at this point.

Or older. The Seventh Doctor said that he (and the Rani) were 953 during his first adventure & he was visibly aged by the time he regenerated. Since The Ninth Doctor claimed to be around 900 years old in the new series (lost track, only counting his time in the TARDIS, lying about his age again...) it would seem that he may be a few hundred years older than he is claiming these days, depending on how long you think 7, 8 and the War Doctor lived.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Or maybe there is no pattern on how long he can live. Maybe the potential lifespan of each regeneration can vary as wildly as the physical age he regenerates into. Lifespan and appearance don't even have to correlate.

Or the theory that a Timelord has maybe 2000 years total as a lifespan and physical age kinda is linked to how many regenerations and years he has left
If he has still half his life left on his last incarnation he would regenerate into his youngest body possible and age slowly the rest of the way.
That more or less fits what we have seen with the Doctor getting progressively younger after several very short lives.
Now he has another 2000 years, but also 12 lives counting against that, so his new body is on the far end of middle-aged. Making the average lifespan of each regeneration around 160 years?

 

[diankra]

Well Hartnell from birth to regeneration was about 450 years old based on the statements made by the second doctor in 'Tomb of the Cybermen'. Maybe after the the first time a regeneration happens (1st to 2nd doctor) the Doctor can now live longer (approx 600-900 years) in each incarnation.

You can argue that Hartnell was aged by the Time Destructor (a nice retcon for the downturn iñ the actor's health) so he regenerated earlier than would otherwise be the case. That would let normal lifespan be longer, maybe 700 years... of course, late 20s seems to be about 130 for a first incarnation Time Lord (judging by Romana) but that would still let Hurt and Smith notch up 600odd years each.
The big puzzle is how the Doctor got from 450 in Tomb to 700ish on Frontier in Space...

 

[Green Lantern]

I'm guessing that the doctor lost count. There's no way he's now nearly 2000 fucking years old. I like to think he's much younger than he thinks.

 

[Pavonis]

I, too, think the Doctor has lost count, since he's pretty much said as much. But he's likely far older than he thinks, rather than being too young. How would a time and space traveller keep track of his age? He could be 2000 years old, or 18,000. How would we tell? How would he? Does it even matter?

 

[Alidar Jarok]

I'm guessing that the doctor lost count. There's no way he's now nearly 2000 fucking years old. I like to think he's much younger than he thinks.

Why is there no way he's 2000 years old? I think he's older than he thinks.

 

[Reverend]

I think Moffat has said that as far as he's concerned, the Doctor has no clue how old he is and lost all count a *long* time ago. As 11 said in DotD, he's so old he can't even remember if he's lying about his age or not.

IMO I'd say he's a lot closer to 10,000 than he is to 2000.

As for how long a Time Lord can last between regenerations; didn't the Master age 10 by something like 1000 years without him regenerating? Then again that also turned him into a wrinkly bald mogwai so perhaps that's not the best benchmark...

 

[Pavonis]

I know the elderly shrink a bit with age, but turning Ten into Doby the elf was ridiculous. The Master must've been using a tissue compressor or something in his laser screwdriver.

 

[Ar-Pharazon]

I know the elderly shrink a bit with age, but turning Ten into Doby the elf was ridiculous. The Master must've been using a tissue compressor or something in his laser screwdriver.

It was Gollum....he got turned into Gollum.

 

[ROBE]

I think the Master aged him by human standards.
Also the Doctor seems to be able to give some of his lifeforce away, he gave 10 years to the TARDIS. and some to heal River Songs hand which explains why she was so angry, he may have knocked decades off his life.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Didn't the Doctor (Hartnell?) once say that his people could live forever, barring accidents? Of course this would be way before regeneration was even thought of but, hey, what the heck.

 

[Sci]

Didn't the Doctor (Hartnell?) once say that his people could live forever, barring accidents? Of course this would be way before regeneration was even thought of but, hey, what the heck.

It was Troughton's Second Doctor, actually. But I think between the Master being so desperate for a new set of regenerations back during the Fourth Doctor era, and now the Eleventh Doctor saying he was dying of old age, I think it's safe to say that the idea that Time Lords can live forever barring accidents has now been retconned away.

 

[Cutter John]

It was Troughton's Second Doctor, actually. But I think between the Master being so desperate for a new set of regenerations back during the Fourth Doctor era, and now the Eleventh Doctor saying he was dying of old age, I think it's safe to say that the idea that Time Lords can live forever barring accidents has now been retconned away.

Well, not necessarily. It could be that active Time Lords like the Doctor, Romana, or The Master burn through their life energy (or whatever) and age at a faster rate than the ones who stay home. It might be one of the reasons why most TL's lead such dull, contemplative lives.

 

[Alidar Jarok]

With the ability to grant new regenerations, it certainly is possible for a Time Lord to live forever barring accidents. Granted, I don't think they give those away like candy but, if we're just talking about possibilities, it's definitely possible.

 

[Sci]

With the ability to grant new regenerations, it certainly is possible for a Time Lord to live forever barring accidents. Granted, I don't think they give those away like candy but, if we're just talking about possibilities, it's definitely possible.

Fair -- but that doesn't seem like it's their natural maximum lifespan. I suppose we could creatively reinterpret the Second Doctor's line as referring to the hypothetical granting of multiple regeneration cycles rather than a natural Time Lord lifespan, thereby reconciling his line with subsequent episodes.