Since the recent goings on with which Doctor is which, and all the complications, I’ve put together a table to try to explain it. It might be wrong, but it is more for me than for anyone else.

And I think, as I’ve stumbled through this, I’ve finally got a handle on The Valeyard (more later).

And then the “Ruth Doctor” shows up and creates more confusion! And then The Timeless Children storyline messes everything up and I have to start again…

Incarnation	Regeneration	Looks like	Doctor #	Known as	Played by	Notes
The Timeless Children
1	n/a		n/a	Timeless Child 1	Unknown	Seven pre-Timelord incarnations known collectively as “The Timeless Children”.
2	n/a		n/a	Timeless Child 2	Unknown
3	n/a		n/a	Timeless Child 3	Grace Nettle
4	n/a		n/a	Timeless Child 4	Leo Tang
5	n/a		n/a	Timeless Child 5	Unknown
6	n/a		n/a	Timeless Child 6	Unknown
7	n/a		n/a	Timeless Child 7	Jesse Deyi
The “Morbius” Doctors
Incarnation	Regeneration	Looks like	Doctor #	Known as	Played by	Notes
?	n/a		n/a	A Morbius Doctor	Douglas Camfield	Eight incarnations from “The Brain of Morbius” which were theorised to be past Doctors. Seemingly ruted out by the 12 Regenerations rul established in “The Deadly Assassin”, these were brought back into Canon in “The Timeless Children”.
?	n/a		n/a	A Morbius Doctor	Robert Holmes
?	n/a		n/a	A Morbius Doctor	Philip Hinchcliffe
?	n/a		n/a	A Morbius Doctor	Christopher Barry
?	n/a		n/a	A Morbius Doctor	Graeme Harper
?	n/a		n/a	A Morbius Doctor	Christopher Baker
?	n/a		n/a	A Morbius Doctor	George Gallaccio
?	n/a		n/a	A Morbius Doctor	Robert Banks Stewart
The Original Series Doctors
Incarnation	Regeneration	Looks like	Doctor #	Known as	Played by	Notes
1	n/a		1	The First Doctor	William Hartnell also Richard Hurndall and later Michael Jones and David Bradley	William Hartnell played the main character with Richard Hurndall filling in after his death for “The Five Doctors” Michael Jones played The Doctor as a child, and David Bradley played the role in the revived series episodes “The Doctor Falls”, and “Time and Again”
2	1		2	The Second Doctor	Patrick Troughton
3	2		3	The Third Doctor	Jon Pertwee
4	3		4	The Fourth Doctor	Tom Baker (A wax dummy)
5	4		5	The Fifth Doctor	Peter Davison
6	5		6	The Sixth Doctor	Colin Baker, Sylvester McCoy
7	6		7	The Seventh Doctor	Sylveter McCoy
8	7		8	The Eighth Doctor	Paul McGann
Alternate Time-line Doctors
Incarnation	Regeneration	Looks like	Doctor #	Known as	Played by	Notes
9	8		9 (alt)	“The Shalka Doctor”	Richard E. Grant	(Animated version)
9	8		9 (alt)	“The Nineth Doctor”	Rowan Atkinson
10	9		10 (alt)	“The Tenth Doctor”	Richard E. Grant	“The Conceited Doctor”
11	10		11 (alt)	“The Eleventh Doctor”	Jim Broadbent	“The Shy Doctor”
12	11		12 (alt)	“The Twelfth Doctor”	Hugh Grant	“The Quite Handsome Doctor”
13	12		13 (alt)	“The Thirteenth Doctor”	Joanna Lumley	“The Female Doctor”
Original Time-line, Revived Series
Incarnation	Regeneration	Looks like	Doctor #	Known as	Played by	Notes
9	8		n/a	The War Doctor	John Hurt	(Not actually The Doctor)
10	9		9	The Ninth Doctor	Christopher Eccleston
11	10		10	The Tenth Doctor	David Tennant
11	11		10	The Tenth Doctor	David Tennant	Vanity Regeneration
n/a	n/a		n/a	Handy/John Smith	David Tennant	Human Meta-Crisis Doctor
12	12		11	The Eleventh Doctor	Matt Smith
“New Regeneration Cycle”
Incarnation	Regeneration	Looks like	Doctor #	Known as	Played by	Notes
13	13		12	The Twelveth Doctor	Peter Capaldi
14	14		13	The Thirteenth Doctor	Jodie Whittaker
Unknown “Doctors”
Incarnation	Regeneration	Looks like	Doctor #	Known as	Played by	Notes
n/a	n/a		n/a	Doctor Who	Peter Cushing	A human who created a time travel device called TARDIS. Non-canon, so I don’t even know why he’s listed here.
n/a	n/a		n/a	The Watcher	Adrian Gibbs	Facilitated the Regeneration between #4 and #5
n/a	n/a		n/a	The Valeyard	Michael Jaystone	an amalgamation of the Doctor’s darker sides from between his twelfth and final incarnations
n/a	n/a		n/a	The Curator	Tom Baker	Strongly implied to be the final incarnation of The Doctor, well into his retirement.
n/a	n/a		n/a	The “Ruth Doctor”	Jo Martin	See below…

 

The Valeyard

Now, after all that number counting and trying to work out which numbers apply to which Doctors, if you go by my reckoning then the Eleventh Doctor (Matt Smith) was still only the 12th incarnation, even though he was also the 12 regeneration. To quote The Master from “The Trial of a Time Lord: The Ultimate Foe“:

“There is some evil in all of us, Doctor – even you. The Valeyard is an amalgamation of the darker sides of your nature, somewhere between your twelfth and final incarnation, and I may say you do not improve with age.”

As the “final incarnation” is far off in The Doctor’s personal timeline, the Valeyard problem has been untangled for now, but could surface in the future as a plot point.

The “Ruth Doctor”

And the cat is well and truly amongst the pigeons now. Who is The Ruth Doctor (ha ha)?

From what we can gather, she is a past incarnation of The Doctor, somewhere between Hartnell and Whitaker’s portryals.

We know she’s post-Hartnell, as the TARDIS only adopted the Police Box shape in his first episode. Where she fits in is a bit sticky though. Sticky, but not ungluable…

Doc13 and RuthDoc don’t remember each other, indicating a mindwipe somewhere…

All the regenerations between Docs have been show on screen now, except the one between the Clown and the Dandy (Doc2 and Doc3). The regeneration was forced by the Timelords, at the same time that Zoe and Jamie had their minds wiped…

RuthDoc is apparently working for the Timelords… so is this the Series 6B theory at work? Only time will tell!