Timeless Child questions. Mere days after Jodie Whittaker made her debut as the Thirteenth Doctor, Doctor Who season 11 started hinting towards something big. In "The Ghost Monument," The Doctor and her new companions were pitted against the Remnants - deadly scraps of mind-reading toilet paper who somehow reached into the darkest recesses of the protagonist's head and pulled out a deep, dark secret known as "the Timeless Child." Stunned, The Doctor seemed to recognize this phrase as some foggy, inaccessible file lodged in the back of her memory.
The incident wasn't mentioned again that season, but fans immediately recognized this as Chris Chibnall's Bad Wolf, or Harold Saxon - a long-running storyline with cataclysmic consequences. When Doctor Who finally revisited the Timeless Child in season 12, however, those consequences proved far more cataclysmic than anyone anticipated. After getting lost in the Matrix (Gallifrey's own virtual Wikipedia), The Master learned the truth behind his species' origin, the story of the Timeless Child, and the reason The Doctor has always been so special. The Master wasn't a fan, and burned Gallifrey into the ground.
But the Timeless Child toothpaste wouldn't go back into the tube; The Master eventually had no choice but to reveal his discovery to The Doctor, and make her pay for being present within his very veins. In a canon-breaking nutshell, the Timeless Child reveals The Doctor isn't who she (and we) always believed, and harbors an untold, forgotten history stretching back even before William Hartnell. Naturally, this proved controversial with fans, and after the 2021 New Year's Day special awkwardly glossed over the issue, Doctor Who season 13 has some serious explaining to do.
Where Did The Doctor Come From?
Ever since the Patrick Troughton/Jon Pertwee years, fans have known The Doctor as a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. Snobbish and egalitarian, the Time Lords supposedly mastered the art of traveling through time many eons ago, and imposed a strict rule of non-interference. Then along came The Doctor, who strongly disagreed with this policy and decided to run away. The Timeless Child reveals a far more complex backstory, in which Gallifrey's population were originally known as the Shobogans, and had barely cracked traveling in space, let alone time. A Shobogan scientist named Tecteun ventured from Gallifrey, discovered a rift in space, and was shocked to see a child fall through the boundary. That mysterious youngster would be adopted by Tecteun, taken back to Gallifrey, and later became known as The Doctor.
Perhaps the biggest question left by the Timeless Child revelation is where The Doctor truly comes from, if not Gallifrey. The unknown nature of the rift means any place and time is possible, but The Master speculates his nemesis fell from another dimension altogether. This line wouldn't have been included without good reason, so we can perhaps assume The Master's speculation is accurate. But was her universe closely parallel to ours, or extremely different? What specific planet was The Doctor born on? What species does she belong to">Kasaavin, so it's entirely possible she could return home and discover her hidden heritage - or what's left of it, at least.
Why Did The Doctor Leave Her Home?
After confirming The Doctor's home world and species, Doctor Who season 13 must also address why she left. Falling from the sky into the care of Tecteun, there's no indication of how and why The Doctor transcended the barrier between realities but, broadly speaking, there are two possibilities - either The Doctor fell through by accident, or escaped on purpose. If we assume The Doctor's species are incredibly advanced, the Timeless Child's adventurous nature might've caused her to fiddle with technology she didn't understand, and accidentally enter a different universe.
Alternatively, The Doctor could be a refugee from some kind of war or calamity - like Superman, but with a British accent and less punching. The Doctor's home world might've descended into tragedy, forcing the race's last remaining child to seek safety elsewhere. That the Timeless Child doesn't seem to these details would suggest she was sent through the boundary by a mystery figure who wanted to protect her, rather than walking through of her own accord. Or she might've just fallen through a dusty wardrobe in her uncle's mansion - at this point, we have no idea.
How Many Regenerations Does The Doctor REALLY Have?
The Timeless Child forces a major change upon Doctor Who's regeneration mythology. Previously, Doctor Who established a limit to the gimmick; twelve lives, then you're out... unless you can threaten or charm the Time Lords into granting more. During The Master's Matrix flashbacks in Doctor Who season 12, however, The Doctor is seen flipping through regenerations like Tom Baker did Jelly Babies. Though not stated explicitly, it seems The Doctor could regenerate infinitely before the scientists of Gallifrey engineered her power and transferred it to the entire species.
Did the Time Lords lie to The Doctor about having a twelve regeneration ceiling? This would certainly explain why they were so keen to "grant" him a new cycle in "The Name of The Doctor." Or, in order to hide The Doctor's secret history, did Gallifrey somehow impose the limit they gave themselves onto The Doctor also, restricting her natural gifts to fall in line with their stolen copies? Another possibility is that The Doctor does have a regeneration limit, but it's much, much higher than previously suggested.
What Did The Doctor Do While Working For The Division?
Doctor Who season 12's "The Timeless Children" reveals how, after providing a template for the entire Time Lord race, The Doctor was recruited by The Division - a shady, clandestine unit of Gallifreyan agents who took dangerous missions and changed history as they deemed fit. Thanks to Jo Martin's Fugitive Doctor (otherwise known as Ruth), viewers know The Doctor eventually rebels against The Division and tries to break free, but why did she in the first place? The Division's mission statement and general sketchy demeanor is exactly the type of thing The Doctor would usually steer clear of. Was she simply young and naive? Or was the temptation of adventure too great?
Doctor Who must then offer some idea of what The Doctor got up to between ing The Division and jumping into the TARDIS with Susan. Does she hide a darker past that would incite feelings of shame, if she could it? And did any significant events occur during this period, aside from the numerous regenerations? The Doctor might have spouses or children they completely forgot existed.
Finally, what became of The Division after The Doctor's departure from Gallifrey? For such an omnipotent, time-traveling force, it's surprising The Division haven't bothered The Doctor before now. Obviously, this is because they were only invented for season 12, but even assuming The Division was destroyed during the Time War, they still should've been active during the classic era between William Hartnell and Paul McGann.
Who Knew Of The Timeless Child (& The Doctor's Parents)?
The Master helpfully explains that the Timeless Child was Gallifrey's most protected secret. Minds were wiped, records were deleted, and every effort was made to ensure no one knew how the Time Lords truly started out. But someone must have uncovered the truth before The Master stumbled across it. Heading straight to the top, there's a chance Rassilon would've been privy to his planet's Timeless Child baggage, and the leaders of The Division might've been clued-in also.
Then there's The Doctor's Gallifreyan parents. Modern Doctor Who has often teased The Doctor's parentage, with the Tenth Doctor era sort-of revealing the character's mother. Nevertheless, The Doctor has referenced having parents on numerous occasions and, at the very least, his mother must've known The Doctor's secret origin was a matter of great importance to Gallifrey. Perhaps The Doctor's "mother" has always been Tecteun - even in "The End of Time."
How Many Doctors Have There Actually Been?
When John Hurt first appeared as the War Doctor, Steven Moffat carefully explained how, because he left the "Doctor" name behind, the show's numbering system remained perfectly intact. In other words, Tennant was still Ten, Smith was still Eleven, etc. Frankly, he needn't have bothered. The Timeless Child confirms numerous different Doctors before William Hartnell, and you can probably throw the Morbius Doctors and other unseen regenerations into that mix too. Jodie Whittaker is more likely the 43rd Doctor than the 13th, and since Jo Martin does call herself "The Doctor" in "Fugitive of the Judoon," the old War Doctor excuse can't be used on this occasion. While fans probably shouldn't expect a full run-down of every past regeneration, it'd be nice to know how many faces have ed.
Why Is Ruth's TARDIS A Blue Box?
When Jodie Whittaker dug Ruth's TARDIS out of the ground in "Fugitive of the Judoon," the ship was instantly recognizable as the blue police box Doctor Who first made famous in 1963, and the first of many Timeless Child plot holes emerged. In Doctor Who's opening episode, Hartnell's First Doctor and Susan accidentally whisk Ian and Barbara from contemporary London back to the prehistoric era of cavemen. Upon exiting the TARDIS, The Doctor is surprised to see his ship still taking the form of a blue police box. The chameleon circuit hasn't kicked in and morphed the vessel into something less conspicuous for the time period, and nor would it for quite some time. But if Ruth was a Doctor before Hartnell, why does her TARDIS still look like a blue police box? Since Doctor Who has long treated the TARDIS like a sentient entity, this quirk can be explained easily enough, but the inconsistency certainly is worth addressing.
Who Had Two Hearts First?
The Master's Matrix deep-dive confirms The Doctor's DNA was replicated to gift an entire race regenerative abilities - but what about the Time Lords' other defining biological feature, the two hearts? Most likely, the Timeless Child had dual tickers when she fell into our universe, and once the Shobogans began altering their biology to match The Doctor's, they slowly evolved to develop a second heart. A more interesting scenario might be if the Shobogans were the ones with two hearts, and in order to ensure The Doctor remained ignorant of her true heritage, the Time Lords surgically implanted an extra organ into her chest, all to maintain the lie. Once again, this plot hole isn't likely to sit at the heart of Doctor Who season 13, but it's a wrinkle that needs ironing out if the Timeless Child retcon is to be successful.