The Doctor is Immortal-no Regen limit says BBC.

[johnmiic]

This is going to cause all kinds of problems:

Doctor Who is now immortal, reveals the BBC | Television radio | The Guardian

[bobws]

They could leave itat that or maybe address it later on still. this just gets it over with for now. i always figured he was given more regenerations during the Time War so as to help with it. not to memntion the energy he absorbed from Rose could have turned him immortal?

[Meule]

Whovians (famously likened by Sarah Jane creator Russell T Davies to a swarm of mosquitoes) will be disappointed that there is no technical reason given for the change: it is simply stated in passing.

Personally this doesn't bother me one bit. Dr. Who lives on, that's all I care about

[jds1911a1]

This is going to cause all kinds of problems:

Doctor Who is now immortal, reveals the BBC | Television radio | The Guardian

they gave the master a new regernation cycle already so not really a huge bit of news....unless Matt Smith has announced he's leaving already

[palitoy]

Heh, so they just made him immortal one Doctor early, not really a big deal to me seeing as we know they would never let the Doctor die.

[Doc]

they gave the master a new regernation cycle already so not really a huge bit of news....unless Matt Smith has announced he's leaving already

Just what I was thinking.

[Mikey]

Wonder if this news is a subtle hint the BBC isn't happy with Matt Smith and they're planning on booting him ?

[Godzilla]

We all new it was coming, but I was hoping for a more substantial explanation.

[wolfie]

I would think there would be something in one of the upcoming episodes that would show this happen so everybody knew.

[jwyblejr]

I think it's smart on their part. Let's say somewhere down the road the series gets canned. Then a couple years later they want to bring it back. Problem is with the way it was,it wouldn't have been on for very long. This way,they're all set.

[Mikey]

I just hope they logically explain it and not try and pass it off as a known fact.

A few reasons could be ...

1. The Time War did something to the Doctor regeneration cycle - perhaps endlessly renewing it.

2. Play up on the "other" storyline where the Doctor is even more mysterious than we expect (see McCoy)

I just hope they don't insult us older fans and treat it as fact without a proper explanation

[samurainoir]

I'm sure fans will be up n arms when their beloved show is NOT cancelled after the 13th doctor kicks it.

[Doc]

Like the Doctor Who Holiday Special Curse of Fatal Death.... "I'll explain later"

[johnmiic]

I just can't fathom why they would pass up the chance to build up some suspense & write a story about it. It would be like starting of Star Trek III The Search For Spock with Leonard Nimoy at the front of the film saying, "I'm Baaaaack!" Yes we know he's back/not dead for good. But build it up some and tell a really good story about it. Give us a good reason and perhaps a glimpse of something we haven't seen yet. Could it be The Doctor has access to the device which Rassilon used to make Time Lords Immortal, (The 5 Doctors)? Perhaps it has to do with the Time War, (a flashback story could be told guest starring Paul McGann). Perhaps the Valeyard & The Master had something to do with it, (Trial of a Timelord). There are a variety of ways to play with this.

[samurainoir]

Being a new Doctor Who fan I'm not overly familiar with the past storylines, how important is the 12 regens to the ongoing mythology of the Who universe? What was the reasoning behind it? Was there some kind of biological or scientific reasoning behind it, or was it a self imposed rule that Time Lords created to keep themselves in check?

If it was the latter, then one could easily just assume that The Doctor no longer has anyone to answer to in that regards so it's not really worth making it into a "thing". Given the fact that the Master has access to additional regenerations in this new series leads me to believe that it a Time Lord restriction rather than a limitation of the biology/technology/science behind the concept of regeneration.