Jandau said:
While I don't watch the show, I do posses a modicum of knowledge about the character (mostly thanks to SF Debris), so I gotta ask - Shouldn't the Doctor be running out of reincarnations by this point? I mean, each actor is supposed to be a different incarnation of the Doctor, after he dies/gets killed. And he's got a finite number of them. Doesn't he have like one left? Is this the last one?
You're right, this should be the Doctor's final regeneration. Of course, the writers have complete narrative control, and there are theories abounding that could easily circumvent this limitation. Eccleston not being the "9th" for example, but in fact, an imposter Doctor.
Though the way it's been recently, I wouldn't be surprised if the way they write themselves out of this regeneration limit is by canonising what could barely pass for fan fiction. Just throw together an, intentionally obtuse, string of "explanations", save it for a disappointing finale you've been "alluding" to all season, and there you have it. Infinite regenerations because the Doctor is in fact a Möbius fucking bow-tie.