Moffat on Doctor Numbering (Again)
Speaking at the Doctor Who Celebration convention over the weekend, Moffat said: “He has no more ever called himself the 11th Doctor than he would call himself Matt Smith. The Doctor doesn’t know off the top of his head.
“If you worry about such things, and I do, then I specifically said John Hurt’s Doctor doesn’t use the title. Smith’s Doctor is in his 12th body but he’s the 11th Doctor, however there is no such character as the 11th Doctor – he’s just the Doctor, that’s what he calls himself.
“The numbering doesn’t matter, except for those lists that you and I have been making for many years. So I’ve given you the option of not counting John Hurt numerically – he’s the War Doctor.”
On the regeneration issue, he said: “Paul McGann turns into John Hurt so they’re not the same incarnation. He used up another regeneration and I expect he’ll be in trouble shortly – you can’t break rules laid down in ‘The Deadly Assassin’.”
