Summary

• Doctor Who's regeneration rules are malleable and not limited to a set number, ensuring the show's longevity and narrative flexibility.
• The Timeless Child retcon is now a core element of the series, embraced by Steven Moffat and Russell T Davies for the Fifteenth Doctor's storyline.
• The impact of the Timeless Child storyline was limited under Chibnall, but with Gatwa's Doctor, exploring his origins and loss becomes more prominent.

Steven Moffat addresses Doctor Who's ever-changing regeneration rules, sharing his perspective on how every retcon such as additional cycles and the Timeless Child revelations fit into the expanding lore of the series. Moffat made his return to the sci-fi series for the first time since 2017 to pen a new story for Doctor Who season 14 with "Boom", as Ncuti Gatwa's Fifteenth Doctor is trapped on a landmine. Under previous showrunner Chris Chibnall, the Doctor's origins were rewritten as the Time Lord was established to not only have infinite regenerations, but played a part in developing Time Lord society.

Following his writing return, Moffat unpacked his thoughts on the Timeless Child and its effects on the series' lore to Cinemablend. The former showrunner stated that he had always assumed the Doctor had infinite regenerations, both as a writer to continue the show's longevity and due to the story "The Brain of Morbius" pre-William Hartnell incarnations, even explaining how it fits into past regeneration-focused stories like "The Time of the Doctor." Check out Moffat's full explanations below:

I'll tell you the truth about The Doctor's regeneration. He's always had an infinite number of regenerations because it wasn't like we were ever going to stop the show because he ran out! ‘Oh, I have to stop now. It's number 13.’ That was never going to happen. So it's always been a narrative contrivance. There are no contradictions.

You can make everything fit. If you know your Doctor Who, you know that there were more incarnations of The Doctor in the past than we thought because there were some we saw in 'The Brain of Morbius.' We don't know quite what happened in 'The Time of the Doctor.' He thought he'd been given more regenerations. The fact is, turns out maybe he wasn't. Maybe they were just doing a bit of smoke and mirrors on him.

So no, there's, there's no contradiction there at all. And the fact is Doctor Who will keep finding new faces for as long as we need him to and by whatever narrative contrivance comes to hand at that point.

The Timeless Child Is Here To Stay

The Rules Of Doctor Who Are Always Changing

While it may have been controversial upon its initial reveal in 2020's season 12, Doctor Who's Timeless Child storyline is now truly enshrined in the series. Not only has Moffat shared his approval, but current showrunner Russell T Davies has taken the change and established it as a core element of the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday's (Millie Gibson) relationship, as the pair find common ground as foundlings and her desire to know where she comes from weighs heavily on their journeys. As such, the retcon now plays an essential part in the current series and is irremovable.

One weakness of the storyline within Chibnall's Doctor Who tenure was a lack of impact. Beyond playing a brief motivator at the start of season 13, the Thirteenth Doctor never tackled the question head-on due to greater dangers, ultimately choosing to banish the watch that could hold all the answers deep within the TARDIS. By having Gatwa's Doctor not only faced by someone without a home or family, but who could hold the same potential to change a world as they did on Gallifrey, the Time Lord has no choice but to look back on those lost years.

With Moffat offering a definitive explanation of how he views Doctor Who's regeneration rules, it is clear all three showrunners have a more malleable view of regeneration. From Metacrisis to hidden incarnations to bigenerations, each contributor has added to the series' convenient death-cheating mechanic in their own ways, often leading to some of the show's most intense, nail-biting moments. As such, with Davies' fully making use of the foundations Chibnall set, perhaps perspectives can shift by the time the Fifteenth Doctor's first full arc has unfolded.

Doctor Who season 14 releases every Friday simultaneously on Disney+ for international audiences and BBC iPlayer for UK viewers.

Source: Cinemablend