Doctor Who lore can be a difficult thing to keep track of. After 60 years of timey-wimey goodness, multiple origin stories and numerous plot twists, staying on top of the Doctor’s myriad lives has become a much trickier task…
Of course, the quick answer to the question is 15. There have been 15 Doctors to date, but this is more of a real world answer than a Doctor Who lore answer. The current Doctor, Ncuti Gatwa, is widely referred to as the Fifteenth Doctor, and this makes sense when you line all the actors up: William Hartnell, Patrick Troughton, Jon Pertwee, Tom Baker, Peter Davison, Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy, Paul McGann, Christopher Eccleston, David Tennant, Matt Smith, Peter Capaldi, Jodie Whittaker, David Tennant again, and Ncuti Gatwa.
Definitive, no? No. Because Doctor Who lore doesn’t work like that. For a start, in the early days of New Who, we couldn’t even be certain that Eccleston was actually the Ninth, as the Eighth Doctor hadn’t filmed a regeneration. It wasn’t until ‘The Next Doctor’ firmly placed Eccleston as the subsequent incarnation after McGann that the definitive Time Lord line-up was complete.
And so, for five years, fans could be certain of this piece of Doctor Who lore: Christopher Eccleston was the Ninth Doctor, and David Tennant was the Tenth, and Matt Smith was the Eleventh.
But then came ‘The Day of the Doctor’ – the series’ 50th anniversary special, which turned everything on its head. It transpired that there was a ‘forgotten’ incarnation of the Doctor which came after McGann – the War Doctor, played by John Hurt. The BBC even filmed a special minisode which showed the regeneration, with the Time Lord choosing a warrior body in order to fight in the Time War.
Technically, this ‘new’ incarnation changed all of the Doctor Who numbering – so Eccleston became the Tenth Doctor, Tennant became the Eleventh, and Smith became the Twelfth. Fans did, however, have an ‘out’ if they wanted to preserve the numbering, as the War Doctor didn’t actually call himself the Doctor during this particular incarnation, so in some ways he didn’t count. Eccleston would still be the Ninth Doctor, as John Hurt was technically someone else.
At the same time, there’s no denying the War Doctor’s place in Doctor Who lore; he is a legitimate incarnation, so if we add him to the list then we effectively have 16 Doctors to date.
And you could stick with this answer and not lose any sleep, but you would have to address the question of the Tenth Doctor’s regeneration in ‘The Stolen Earth.’ In this instance, the Doctor died after being shot by a Dalek and underwent a legitimate regeneration. But because he had one of his severed hands sitting in a glass jar on the floor of the TARDIS (for complex reasons) he was able to syphon the regenerative energy into it, meaning he could prevent his body from his changing.
This is when Doctor Who lore gets a bit confusing, because this was a legitimate regeneration. And if we use the aforementioned numbering (which includes the War Doctor) then this ‘new’ incarnation would bring our running total to 17.
And again, you could justify using this figure within the parameters of Doctor Who lore, but you would need to consider the bonus Doctor which grew out of the Time Lord’s spare hand on the floor of the TARDIS. Because, when the Doctor poured his regeneration energy into the hand, it spawned a brand new Doctor – albeit a half human one. He was a legitimate version of the Time Lord with the same thoughts, personality and memory, only he didn’t (as far as we know) have the ability to regenerate.
And so, arguably, this extra incarnation of the Time Lord should be factored into Doctor Who lore, meaning our running total of Doctors is now 18, so get those tattoo needles ready.
But before you leave an indelible mark on your bicep, you might want to consider the ‘in between’ incarnations of the eponymous Time Lord. These beings are altogether more mysterious, but they still count as the Doctor. The first is the Watcher – a creature who came between the Fourth and Fifth incarnations and was introduced in the Fourth Doctor’s last story ‘Logopolis.’ He may not have been piloting his own TARDIS around the cosmos, but he was a conscious being and he could talk, and as such he is a legitimate piece of Doctor Who lore.
The Watcher was followed in 1986 by the Valeyard, who was a more sinister being. He was described as a composite of the dark side of the Doctor’s nature, sitting between the Twelfth and Thirteenth incarnations. He wanted to steal the Sixth Doctor’s remaining lives in order to extend his own existence, and acted as the prosecutor at the Time Lord’s trial.
And so, on this point, Doctor Who lore is quite clear: both the Watcher and the Valeyard were undeniably the Doctor, as they came from his timeline and his regeneration cycle. So this brings our total to 20. There are 20 Doctors.
Keeping up? Don’t worry – we’ll soon throw you into a vortex of confusion, as we now come to the conundrum of the Fugitive Doctor and the Timeless Children. In Series Twelve, showrunner Chris Chibnall turned Doctor Who lore on its head by revealing that William Hartnell was not the First Doctor, but that the Time Lord had in fact begun life as a little girl. She regenerated, and in the 2020 episode ‘The Timeless Children‘ we see the child undergo five additional regenerations, with the Fugitive Doctor (played by Jo Martin) coming later in this timeline, presumably pre-dating Hartnell.
So, in short, we’re given an extra seven Doctors to play with, plus Jo Martin. And if we’re to assume that these events really took place and weren’t some trick by the Celestial Toymaker, that means we now have 27 Doctors firmly rooted in Doctor Who lore.
Now all we need to do is figure out where to place Peter Cushing, Rowan Atkinson, Richard E Grant, Richard E Grant again, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, Joanna Lumley, the Curator, David Warner, and all the images from Morbius’ mind scanner. And for that, we might need a bigger blog post!
In the meantime, tell us: how many Doctors do you think there have been? And how do you count them? Let us know in the comments below.
This whole debate has changed so much over the years. The of the number if Dictor is thrown into chaos by the fact that in classic Who lore, timelords were only suppose to regenerate twelve times
. For instance, by the time of ‘The Deadly Assassin ‘ the Master had used up his lives and was reduced to a withered husk. So, in theory, Matt Smith should have been the last Doctor. However, the timelords rewarded him with another life cycle for saving Gallifrey in the 50th anniversary special This isn’t without precedent. The High Council offered the Master a new life cycle in the ‘Five Doctors’.
Then, in recent time we get the ‘Renegade Dr’ who existed before William Hartnell. Also, don’t forget, in the “Brain of Morbius’ we may also have had a glimpse of the Doctor’s past incarnations.
Unfortunately the show didn’t have a “bible” that provided consistency from day one; things were just made up by various producers and writers over 60 years to suit a storyline and just become lore.
So, in the end, we may never know how many doctors have existed beyond the number of actors on television.