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From: The Last Doctor <mike@xenocyte.com>
Newsgroups: rec.arts.drwho
Subject: Re: Toxic fandom
Date: Wed, 12 Jun 2024 12:19:20 -0000 (UTC)
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Hornplayer9599 <Hornplayer9599@aol.com> wrote:
> On 6/12/2024 01:27, Your Name wrote:
> 
>> 
>> The Doctor numbering continues mainly because that's a fan-based thing 
>> ... has the numbering ever been mentioned in-show??
> 
> I think Peter Davidson (in character) mentioned in "The Five Doctors" 
> that he was the fourth regeneration of the Doctor.

He does, and the first Doctor responds with “oh, so there are five of me
now.”

And there have been one or two other mentions down the years.

But it’s a rarity and regardless of whether you accept that the Timeless
Children shows a “reset” forgetting an unknown number of previous
regenerations, the existence of the War Doctor, David Tennant counting as
three (two incarnations but three regenerations) and now the insertion
somehow of not only the Fugitive Doctor but also the Shalka Doctor into the
Doctor’s pasts, indicates that any in-universe counting has become
meaningless. 

So these days the only place the number has meaning is in fannish
conversation and used to refer to the precedence of an actor to have had
the lead role for a season or TV movie - and even there we’re now counting
Tennant twice.

-- 
“Most of the Universe is knackered, babes.”  - The Doctor