So, it's just a mistake....
I found a website concerning it (
http://www.physics.mun.ca/~sps/serials/4k.html)
And it seems that (like the Romana choosing her regeneration) this was another part added by the script editor to the original writer's script, and also inspires controversy amongst fans to this day.
Quote:
One addition Holmes made to Dicks' scripts was the inclusion of the "mind battle" between the Doctor and Morbius, a scene which continues to inspire controversy amongst fans to this day. In the scene in question, images of the Time Lords' past incarnations flash up on the screen as they duel. This includes a painted rendition of one of the clay busts of Morbius seen elsewhere in the episode, a shot of the Fourth Doctor taken from another camera feed, and still photographs of the Morbius monster, the Third Doctor (Jon Pertwee), the Second Doctor (Patrick Troughton), the First Doctor (William Hartnell) and eight other individuals in various period costumes. It was the intent of Hinchcliffe and Holmes that these eight faces represent previously-unseen incarnations of the Doctor before Hartnell's, although this would be seemingly contradicted in other stories. Fans have used the fact that Morbius loses the battle as evidence that the faces are actually his past incarnations; this, however, neglects that Morbius seems to be winning the battle as the faces appear.
Hinchcliffe had originally hoped to secure celebrities to play these "past Doctors", but this did not pan out. In the event, the photographs were of members of the crew for The Brain Of Morbius and The Seeds Of Doom, the subsequent serial which was in preproduction at the time. These included Hinchcliffe, Holmes, Barry, Seeds director Douglas Camfield, production manager George Gallacio, Seeds writer Robert Banks Stewart, and production assistants Chris Baker and Graeme Harper. However, this decision incurred the wrath of Equity, the actors' union, because of the use of non-Equity members for the scene. A special payment was made to Equity by the BBC as restitution.
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Every source I can find quotes the Doctor having regenerated seven times, yet it was clearly the intention here to show eight incarnations previous to William Hartnell.
Yet in 'Mawdryn Undead' Peter Davidson says that he has 12 regenerations and has already used
4!!!
I guess that continuity was never a strong point in Doctor Who.