Does Doctor Who need to be beholden to season 12’s Timeless Child twist, or can season 13 perform a great escape? Jodie Whittaker’s tenure as The Doctor has already proven highly divisive. Although there was always going to be an undercurrent of grumbles from those who couldn’t wrap their heads around the concept of a female Doctor, criticism has largely been directed toward current showrunner Chris Chibnall and the writing of his Doctor Who era. The Thirteenth Doctor’s two seasons have certainly enjoyed plenty of acclaim too, but there’s an undeniable division among the audience.
Chibnall’s most controversial moment came in the final two episodes of season 12 – the reveal of the Timeless Child. First mentioned early in Whittaker’s reign, the Timeless Child was eventually announced as The Doctor herself, who had fallen through a portal from another dimension and been adopted by the Gallifreyans eons ago. The Doctor’s natural ability to regenerate was then scientifically replicated and the Time Lords were born from The Doctor’s DNA. Through seemingly endless regenerations, The Doctor was recruited into a shady outfit called The Division and lived many lives before the William Hartnell incarnation first appeared in 1960s England.
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Needless to say, this rewrite is a massive upheaval of Doctor Who lore, changing the very foundations of both the show and its leading figure. Naturally, not all fans have been on board with The Doctor’s new backstory, viewing the Timeless Child as a big middle finger to over 50 years of canon. Due to the divisive reaction the Timeless Child has provoked, it’s possible that the BBC might get cold feet ahead of season 13 and try to wriggle free of those controversial changes, reverting back to the traditional Doctor Who setup. Can it be done?
The Master & The Kasaavin Took The Doctor To Another World
Doctor Who‘s season 12 premiere was widely considered Chibnall’s best effort so far and introduced a brand new Master (Sacha Dhawan) alongside a mysterious alien race called the Kasaavin. Even The Doctor was unfamiliar with these light-based beings, since they hail from an entirely different universe. In “Spyfall,” The Doctor and her companions foil the Kasaavin invasion and reveal The Master planned to betray his new friends. The Doctor moves on to her next adventure and the Kasaavin take away The Master until he reappears (very conveniently, some might suggest) later in the season. But what if something deeper was going on in “Spyfall?”
Since the Kasaavin can move through dimensions, it’s possible that they secretly transported The Doctor, Graham, Yaz and Ryan into a parallel world, and entire remainder of season 12 took place in this new realm. This could have been The Master’s plan all along – if he can’t beat The Doctor after centuries of back-and-forth, trick her into ignorantly living in a completely different dimension, leaving the main universe undefended against The Master’s nefarious bidding. It would be the villain’s most successful plan yet.
Doctor Who season 12 taking place in a parallel world would not render 2019’s episodes meaningless – everything did happen, just not where fans (or The Doctor) thought. The theory fits neatly with the introduction of the Ruth Doctor, who is currently being touted as a pre-Hartnell regeneration. In reality, Ruth could be the Doctor of the Kasaavin world. Chibnall has denied the possibility of Ruth originating from an alternate world, but Doctor Who showrunners have been known to tell white lies to avoid giving away surprises.
The parallel universe idea would also explain why Doctor Who season 12 included so many villains that were almost copies of older antagonists. The Praxeus virus was a spin on the Autons, the Skithra were almost identical to the Racnoss and Zellin was an Immortal in the mold of the Celestial Toymaker from the First Doctor’s era. Perhaps Chibnall has fooled everyone with these doppelganger villains – they’re no rip-offs, they’re alternates designed to be deliberately similar to past enemies. Indeed, the only familiar face Doctor Who does bring back in season 12 is Captain Jack, who, strangely, never actually meets The Doctor. The reason could be because this Jack is the parallel variety of the Kasaavin universe, and the Doctor he knows is Ruth (back when she was a male). The Captain Jack featured in “The Fugitive of the Judoon” wouldn’t share the memories Whittaker’s Doctor has of adventuring with Jack Harkness, so Chibnall kept the pair apart to avoid spilling the truth.
The Timeless Child Story Is A Lie
So The Master conspires with the Kasaavin to secretly put The Doctor in an alternate dimension, ensuring he can fulfill his darkest desires uninterrupted back in the prime universe. What about the entire Timeless Child backstory The Master revealed to The Doctor via the Time Lord Matrix?
Put simply, it’s a fabrication. Despite his (almost) unrivaled genius, The Master maybe wouldn’t have expected Whittaker’s Doctor to run into Ruth so quickly. He needed to come up with an explanation for the existence of two parallel Doctors, neither of which recognized the other as a previous regeneration. The Master decides to trick the Thirteenth Doctor using the only method she might actually believe: the Matrix. Luring The Doctor to Gallifrey (which has long been destroyed in the Kasaavin universe), The Master concocts a cock-and-bull story about destroying the Time Lords in retaliation for learning about the Timeless Child and proceeds to show The Doctor her “true history” using the Matrix as his futuristic film projector. Not only does this give The Doctor a reason for Ruth’s existence (and thereby keeping her from suspecting she’s in another world), but it also allows The Master to indulge in his favorite hobby – messing with The Doctor’s head.
Even in classic Doctor Who, the Matrix has always been fallible. The Master himself once influenced the database by physically entering it in “The Deadly Assassin” and The Valeyard once tried to have The Doctor executed by inserting entirely fictional scenes into the Matrix‘s memory banks. There’s no reason to think The Master couldn’t have performed a similar trick to convince The Doctor the Timeless Child was real, and since Whittaker’s character is physically hooked up to the Matrix watching everything play out, this would account for the flashes and visions she experiences throughout season 12 – ripples of memories being altered in the future.
Doctor Who season 12’s “Brendan” story demonstrates just how inaccurate the Matrix can be. According to The Master, Brendan was a hasty way of covering up the Timeless Child history of the Time Lords, but if the truth can be concealed with a 1960s police drama, it can also be hidden within the story of a young girl falling from another dimension and being responsible for creating her own species. Potentially, the image of a child Doctor arriving in “our” universe and being raised by Tecteun could be the Matrix’s visual allegory for Whittaker’s Doctor being taken to the Kasaavin realm and manipulated by The Master.
Undoing The Timeless Child Sets Up A Better Doctor Who Future
Retconning the Timeless Child story might be viewed a backwards step – hastily rewriting the past instead of moving into a bright new future. However, revealing The Master’s alternate universe plan and his Matrix meddling could actually set up an more exciting road ahead for Doctor Who. If season 12 did take place in an alternate world, The Master had plenty of time to do as he wished back in The Doctor’s universe. Should the Thirteenth Doctor finally uncover the deception and return home, she’d no doubt arrive in a post-apocalyptic era dominated completely by The Master. Without The Doctor to stop him, Sacha Dhawan’s Time Lord achieves his lives-long ambition of conquering the universe and Doctor Who‘s future could center around undoing that damage.
The ominous words of the Remnants must also be considered. When the Timeless Child was first mentioned in “The Ghost Monument,” The Doctor was definitely not in a parallel world and the new Master hadn’t even arrived. This suggests that even if The Master was lying about the Timeless Child being The Doctor’s personal history, the phrase itself does hold some as-yet-undiscovered meaning. A previous example would be the “Silence Will Fall” warning in Matt Smith’s Doctor Who era, with the line’s real origins not revealed until the Eleventh Doctor’s final episode. When The Doctor uncovers The Master’s grand scheme and returns to her own world, she must find out what the Timeless Child really is, giving Chibnall an opportunity at a second explanation that doesn’t turn the entire franchise upside-down.
Doctor Who returns with “Revelation of the Daleks” this Christmas on BBC.