If you follow the current timeline, it should go-
Hurt->Eccleston->Tennant->Tennant->Smith->Capaldi->Whitaker->Tennant->Tennant/Gatwa
Hurt was the real 9th doctor, but we call Eccleston the 9th doctor. And (if I get this all right) Tennant regenerated as himself twice, so he should be the 11th, 12th, 15th and Doctor 16 and a half. But people call him the 10th doctor. And Jodie Whitaker should have been the 14th Doctor, but people call her the 13th Doctor. And then Tennant came back and then there was the bigeneration of him and Gatwa.
And just to add to it all, there’s also a female clone of Tennant out there somewhere.
Is anyone else as confused as I am?
EDIT: Oh god, I just realized it gets even more confusing because now there’s all the Doctors before Hartnell.
SPOILERS BELOW!
As far as I can tell:
William Hartnell to Paul McGann are Doctors 1-8 in standard order. John Hurt is the 9th incarnation of the Doctor, but is called the War Doctor. Christopher Eccleston is the 10th incarnation, but called the ninth. David Tennant is the 11th, 12th, 16th and possibly co-17th incarnation, but is called 10 or 14. Matt Smith is the 13th incarnation. called the 11th. Peter Capaldi is the 14th (or possibly first of a new regeneration cycle), called 12. Jodie Whittaker is the 15th (or maybe 2nd new) incarnation, called the 13th. Ncuti Gatwa is the co-17th, or possibly third of the second set of Doctors, but is called the fifteenth.
Jo Martin is also some incarnation of the Doctor, but nobody (perhaps even including Chris Chibnall) knows what that’s about. Also the rest of the Timeless Child stuff makes this somehow even more of a clusterfuck, but I’m not even going near that one. Also the Curator exists in there somewhere.
See? This is why I’m confused!
All part of being a Doctor Who fan.
For naming purposes, we really only number the ones who are the “main character”, so John Hurt and Jo Martin don’t get numbers per se, and David Tennant gets 10 and 14 because those are treated as distinct and separate characters, while 10’s “fake-out” doesn’t result in a distinct incarnation so doesn’t get numbered separately.
Basically, lots of asterisks in the numbering, but the numbers are more for fans being able to easily differentiate them in conversation than anything. They’re only rarely referred to in the show itself.
You seem insistent on overcomplicating things that have explanation easily at hand. Hurt isn’t counted because the character relinquished the title for the period of time that he existed. Tennant is only 10th and 14th. The metacrisis Doctor was not the Doctor, they weren’t even Timelord. And Gatwa isn’t “sharing” the current generation. The bi-generation is best explained as time loop - 14 will continue to live and emotionally heal, and at some point will regenerate into 15, who pops up where they’re introduced in the show (ie “doing rehab out of order”). And to your last point, Jo Martin’s Doctor pre-dates the current cycle, which is pretty plainly established by Chibnall themselves, so I’m pretty sure they understand it.
To keep it even more simple, just believe the show runners when they say which iteration is which instead of deciding they’re wrong about the show they are making for reasons that have already been explained.
@CrabAndBroom @FlyingSquid There’s also the Valeyard, which fits in somewhere between the 12th and nth Doctor, as well as Arabella Weir’s alternate Doctor, Richard E. Grant’s Doctor (who might be an alternate universe Doctor or a future incarnation).
The Children in Need skit can be ignored - as much as I adore Rowan Atkinson in the role - as well as the stage version. And Mark Gatiss, as great as he would be in a legitimate story.
And that’s Numberwang, folks!