random1377 said:
parker said:
I think the whole 'limited number of lives' thing got retconed into the Timelords eventually getting bored with life and letting themselves die.
My understanding was that it was a self-policing thing to keep them from getting power hungry and dominating all of time-space.
And SPOILER FOLLOWING the Master showed in season 3 of the new series that you can choose NOT to regenerate, so if it was an anti-boredom measure, they could always just choose to dodge it.
The problem with it is the Master during the Tom Baker era. He was horribly disfigured, and if he 'could' regenerate, he most likely 'would' have. Also, the Five Doctors episode indicates that the 12 regenerations is an actual innate limitation. One that the Council has the technology to overcome, but still an innate limitation.
There was another episode that backs this up, during the Sixth Doctor's era. I believe it was the intro episode for Turlough, the last episode that Brigadier Stewart was shown in I believe. In that episode, the Doctor was going to sacrifice seven of his regenerations, commenting that it would be 'all' of his remaining regenerations.
The best way around it, is either to have the Doctor get into a situation where his ability to regenerate is 'recharged' if you will, or discover that one of his many adventures recharged him. That, or the Tardis was somehow equipped with the tech to allow him to do so.