LOL at the people trying to decode the lore of a series that's run for 50 years and had hundreds of creative staff work on it. There are already retcons and contradictions all over the place. Some series haven't even been internally consistent.
The Doctor is going to have as many regenerations as the people making the show at any given moment need him to have. Never let a minute plot point get in the way of a good story.
As to how popular Dr. Who is outside the UK, I haven't got hard evidence, but I get the impression that it's the BBC's biggest export next to Top Gear.
"The worst part about these reviews is they are [subjective]--and their scores often depend on how drunk you got the media at a Street Fighter event." — Mona Hamilton, Capcom Senior VP of Marketing
*Image indefinitely borrowed from BrainBoxLtd without his consent.
