Doctor Number 33: The Tenth Doctor
So, after the turmoil of the Ninth Doctor, things should be straight forward from this point on right? Oh boy no.
The Tenth Doctor is anything but simple. In fact, he may be the most complicated of all the Doctors on the list.
You see, after having regenerated from the Ninth Doctor, the Tenth Doctor got himself into a sword fight and lost a hand. Because this happened within the first few hours of his regeneration, his hand grew back again. So, from his first day, the Tenth Doctor had three hands! But we’ll get back to that soon.
Things get more complicated because the Tenth Doctor got fatally shot by a Dalek which prompted his regeneration which lead to…
Doctor Number 34: The Tenth Doctor…again
When his regeneration started, the Tenth Doctor blasted his regeneration energy into his spare hand which had been found by Captain Jack Harkness and the Doctor just had laying around in a jar.
This allowed the Doctor to heal from the fatal Dalek attack and retain his same physical appearance without changing. It can be argued that this is the same Doctor as the first Tenth Doctor, but it’s without question that this regeneration counted, and this was another life of the Doctors. This was confirmed in the lead up to the Eleventh Doctor’s regeneration who faced the total end of the Doctor’s life as the War Doctor and the two Tenth Doctors were all being counted towards the thirteen lives limit at the time.
This second Tenth Doctor would eventually regenerate into the Eleventh Doctor, but with the interesting detail that he was able to hold off his regeneration after being fatally wounded and took time to visit all his past companions. This means that there was a significant amount of time not fully explored on screen where the Doctor was on the verge of regeneration. It’s unlikely that any more Doctors could be squeezed into this time, but with the Tenth Doctor, the story isn’t quite over yet because…
Doctor Number 35: The Meta Crisis Doctor
Remember that hand we mentioned earlier? The Tenth Doctor had three hands because one was cut off, and another grew back. And then when he was mid regenerating he blasted excess regeneration energy into the hand so he could keep his same appearance. Well, all that regeneration energy lead to the hand sprouting another entire Tenth Doctor out of it.
With the regeneration energy running through it, a single touch from companion Donna Nobel caused it to come back to life and a new David Tennant with a slight aspect of Donna Nobel’s personality was formed. The Meta Crisis Doctor was part human as a result and this detail would call back to the Eighth Doctor claiming to be half human and may be another sign that something similar could be the case for the Eighth Doctor we saw in the TV movie.
Some would say that this Doctor shouldn’t count as an additionally numbered Doctor, but it’s hard not to as he was formed from the original Tenth Doctor’s hand meaning he is in fact still made of the original Doctor that had regenerated from the Ninth Doctor. Add on to this that this is the Doctor that ends up with Rose Tyler and as far as we can tell is still out there with Rose in another dimension. I think based on this alone, it would be difficult for many fans to say that this Doctor shouldn’t count.
As a side thought here, with the Doctor being able to grow a hand back within the first 24 hours after a regeneration, and then being able to grow an entire clone of himself from the hand years later, you have to question why the Doctor doesn’t cut off a hand every time he regenerates. If he was to do so it could mean he could always have a way of keeping his previous generation’s appearance and also growing a clone of himself. But that’s another theory we’ll flesh out (pun intended) another day.
Doctor Number 36: The DoctorDonna
Now I’m sure many of you reading this will be convinced this is where this theory jumps the shark (if you didn’t already ages ago). But when Donna Nobel touched the Tenth Doctor’s extra hand and gave it a spark of human DNA which caused the hand to grow, there was a two way exchange of DNA. Whilst the Meta Crisis Doctor got some traits of Donna Nobel’s personality, Donna received the Doctor’s mind. This wasn’t activated until she was blasted by electricity by Davros, but afterwards she became a version of herself known as the DoctorDonna.
The Tenth Doctor’s memories and knowledge and intelligence became part of Donna and fulfilled the premonition of the DoctorDonna as had been alluded to by an Ood earlier in Season 4. This wasn’t just access to his mind however but a transfer of DNA and so it is fair to say that this places Donna as an additional form of the Doctor in the show’s history.
If you question this logic I would point to various forms of the Master where he stole bodies of others and placed his mind and timelord DNA into them to continue life. People don’t question if those incarnations of the Master should count and as such the DoctorDonna shouldn’t be scrutinised either.
Certainly, a less obvious continuation of a single being as most others on this list, but with the Meta Crisis Doctor forming from a hand and the DoctorDonna forming from DNA and intelligence transferring to another body it shows that the Doctor can splinter off into more than one concurrent being.
As a final note on the DoctorDonna, we quickly learn that a human mind cannot cope with a Time Lord’s mind kicking about inside and this starts to kill Donna. To save her life The Doctor uses psychic abilities to erase all memories of himself from Donna’s mind ending her time as the DoctorDonna.
What makes this so interesting in regards to resolving issues of the full chronology of Doctors on this list is how easy it was for the Doctor to erase Donna’s memories, and specific memories at that. This may give a big clue to how The Doctor wouldn’t be aware of the Timeless Children, or have memories of the Fugitive, Morbius, Curse of Fatal Death or Shalka Doctors. If a chameleon arch isn’t required to remove or hide memories, it could be that other Time Lords, or the Doctor themself erased memories of certain lives for unexplained reasons.
