Spoilers Hot Take: Chibnall didn't obliterate Doctor Who's continuity. He actually fixed it.

[Emperor-Tiberius]

An episode during the Troughton era was originally going to make it explicit that Hartnell wasn't the very first Doctor but the line was cut, so objecting to a Showrunner doing exactly that makes very little sense to me.

Oh my, welp, I guess that showed me! How dare I not take into account a deleted scene from a serial made years and years before other serials added to the background of the Doctor?

Very well, demonstrate.

In the meantime, what do you think of the hints we got of the Cartmel Masterplan back around season 26? Chibnall’s not the first to suggest the Doctor’s past goes a lot farther back than we thought.

While not a fan, I find it on the whole to be way, WAY better an alternative than this Timeless Children dreck. On the other hand, Cartmel was sensible enough to recognize that that storyline presented more problems than it solved, ultimately diluting the very mystery it seeked to deepen as a result of the stangant Davison/Baker years, thus why he is not resentful of the fact they never got to produce that storyline.

RTD even jokingly suggested it as per The Writer's Tale, for the Tenth Doctor's regeneration story, that as a result of his sacrifice he'd basically create the Time Lords and Gallifrey. But he also argued that no one would care and it'd be boring. Wise man.

 

[Starkers]

I don't hate the idea that there were other Doctors pre-Hartnell, especially if the Doctor doesn't remember being them, and can never remember being them, effectively our Doctor is almost a different person. I do hate the idea that the Doctor is super special, whether it's the Timeless Child or The Other, but that's just me. I prefer that the Doctor is just A.N.Other Timelord, and all that makes him/her different is their rebellious nature. (I also preferred it when Rey was just a nobody in The Last Jedi)

 

[DigificWriter]

Oh my, welp, I guess that showed me! How dare I not take into account a deleted scene from a serial made years and years before other serials added to the background of the Doctor?

What I was referencing was a line of dialogue from a filmed scene in The Power of the Daleks that Troughton, for some reason, never read on-camera.

For more information, see the following:
https://screenrant.com/doctor-who-regenerations-before-william-hartnell-first-plan/

 

[Steve Roby]

I do hate the idea that the Doctor is super special

Super special enough to be the last of the Time Lords following a time war with the Daleks. Super special enough that pretty much every Dalek in every time knows who he is and fears or hates him. Super special enough that all of his enemies teamed up to try to capture him in the Pandorica. Super special enough that he, his Tardis, and a couple of friends rebooted the universe. Super special enough that he could look at an enemy and say, "I'm the Doctor. You know who I am. Basically, RUN." and expect them to do just that. Yeah, all that did take a lot away from the idea that the Doctor was just this guy who was fed up with life on Gallifrey and decided to wander and have some adventures. I'm not sure what Chibnall had to do with all that, though.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

Super special enough to be the last of the Time Lords following a time war with the Daleks. Super special enough that pretty much every Dalek in every time knows who he is and fears or hates him. Super special enough that all of his enemies teamed up to try to capture him in the Pandorica. Super special enough that he, his Tardis, and a couple of friends rebooted the universe. Super special enough that he could look at an enemy and say, "I'm the Doctor. You know who I am. Basically, RUN." and expect them to do just that. Yeah, all that did take a lot away from the idea that the Doctor was just this guy who was fed up with life on Gallifrey and decided to wander and have some adventures. I'm not sure what Chibnall had to do with all that, though.

One is earned, the other isn't. Being the last of the time lords is a logical step forward for the show, that started out with just one lowly old alien who bumped from one adventure to the next and not his entire civilization and race right next door to him any time someone wanted to do an anniversary of sorts. Being the progenitor of his own race, however, is entirely misdjuged an idea of a story, as is the notion that the Master casually destroyed all of Gallifrey off-screen and with unjustified motivation to boot.

 

[Steve Roby]

I honestly don't see any more substance to your argument than "I don't like it." Which is fine, you don't have to, but it's not going to convince anyone else.

I mean, Chibnall's still got some stories left to tell. Maybe we don't have the whole picture yet regarding the destruction of Gallifrey. We went for years thinking it had been destroyed before. Turned out that time that we didn't have the whole picture yet.

 

[DigificWriter]

I prefer that the Doctor is just A.N.Other Timelord, and all that makes him/her different is their rebellious nature. (I also preferred it when Rey was just a nobody in The Last Jedi)

I haven't even seen half of the Modern Doctor Who Era, but I still know that the notion you're clinging to isn't really true.

 

[The Nth Doctor]

I haven't even seen half of the Modern Doctor Who Era, but I still know that the notion you're clinging to isn't really true.

Ah, yes, the classic "I haven't seen as much of the show as you have, but I still know more than you do" take. Can't argue with that!

 

[DigificWriter]

Ah, yes, the classic "I haven't seen as much of the show as you have, but I still know more than you do" take. Can't argue with that!

It's not really about me "knowing more"; it's about the fact that the Doctor not actually being "just another Time Lord" is fairly ubiquitous knowledge.

 

[Richard Baker]

"I'm the Doctor. You know who I am. Basically, RUN."
Rewatched that clip.
The aliens had no idea of who he was until they scanned him. They then ran a short film of all the enemies who attacked Earth, followed by a short review of all different Doctors who defeated those enemies. Matt Smith then steps through that review screen and says that "I'm the Doctor. You know who I am. Basically, RUN." line.

 

[Australis]

Ugh. I've heard that theory twice (the basics of it) now and I really don't like it.

I've heard it once and I think it sucks.

The Timeless Child stuff sucks as bad as TROS.
There! I said it!

 

[publiusr]

In the meantime, what do you think of the hints we got of the Cartmel Masterplan back around season 26?

I think it ties in perfectly.

While Tom’s Fourth Doctor is my favorite—Seven to me is almost Q from TNG.

The Flash was the most Cosmic of DC superheroes…well, Sylvester’s Doctor is the most Cosmic of the Time Lords. Seven could recognize River without ever having met Soong.

Seven is the number of perfection after all.

 

[Emperor-Tiberius]

I think it ties in perfectly.

While Tom’s Fourth Doctor is my favorite—Seven to me is almost Q from TNG.

The Flash was the most Cosmic of DC superheroes…well, Sylvester’s Doctor is the most Cosmic of the Time Lords. Seven could recognize River without ever having met Soong.

Seven is the number of perfection after all.

The Q comparison is very apt, though Seven is more "human" in a way Q isn't, but yeah, he''s definitely several steps ahead in a way no other Doctor was or has been since.

I'm not a fan of the Cartmel Masterplan, in that it alienates the Doctor from his personal history, being a clone essentially of his original Other self, and the whole Time Lord reproduction is an iffy addition, but I do believe it does at least keep the Doctor development of a character in contact with the show. Its not fannish in the way the Timeless Children is, which is literally an old fan of the show fanboyishly re-retconning the Morbius Doctors in for the sake of doing so, and I appreciate it at least, even if I don't exactly like it.

 

[publiusr]

See, I thought those other “Doctors” were Morbius’ more numerous early selves and he was burying Four under their weight. But having the Doctor be unique doesn’t bother me…although you could say that it was an implanted false memory of something that wore the Doctor like a suit perhaps…and that was the entity from outside. Lots of directions this could go…but I want to see this other realm…the inside of a Dyson Megasphere perhaps.

If I were an outsider and wanted to latch onto the Doctor during the most vulnerable incarnation…it would be Six. The number of man.

The Doctor had some regen troubles that seemed to come to a head and…to steal a quote from Exorcist III…catatonics are easy to possess.

With Seven…the two came to a sense of rapport…more together than they ever were apart.

 

[Jedman67]

Finally watched the end of Series 12. I just found it boring. Maybe I was just tired, but I found myself skipping through just to pass the time.
The Doctor as the Timeless Child? Ok, it's different but if the next showrunner wants to retcon that again, nothing is stopping them. Watching it though, just wasn't enjoyable for me.

 

[Kor]

I was thinking that the Fugitive Doctor must be a previously unknown incarnation from some time between the "First" Doctor (Hartnell) and the current Doctor. If she was from before the Doctor's memory wipe and forced regression to childhood, then it's awfully coincidental that she also flies around in a TARDIS that looks like a police box, since the Doctor's current TARDIS got stuck with that appearance during the time of the First Doctor.

Kor

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

The Doctor takes a moment to work it all out, before the realisation is writ large upon her face,
“Oh you” she says, “you really had me there!”

I don't get it.

 

[DigificWriter]

I was thinking that the Fugitive Doctor must be a previously unknown incarnation from some time between the "First" Doctor (Hartnell) and the current Doctor. If she was from before the Doctor's memory wipe and forced regression to childhood, then it's awfully coincidental that she also flies around in a TARDIS that looks like a police box, since the Doctor's current TARDIS got stuck with that appearance during the time of the First Doctor.

Kor

The Fugitive Doctor is pretty clearly pre-Hartnell.

 

[Relayer1]

In the meantime, what do you think of the hints we got of the Cartmel Masterplan back around season 26? Chibnall’s not the first to suggest the Doctor’s past goes a lot farther back than we thought.

To be honest, it looks to me like the Timeless Child stuff IS the Cartmel Masterplan.

A mysterious backstory going back to the early days of the Time Lords, a role in their origin, an undisclosed story, The Doctor being far more etc...

 

[Kor]

I thought the Cartmel Masterplan was for the Doctor to turn out to actually be one of the ancient ruling founders of Time Lord society, known as "The Other." But the Timeless Child storyline was different because Tecteun was the one in a founding role, using knowledge gained from exploiting the Timeless Child. Even though the (Spy) Master said "The foundling had become the founder," the foundling was really a victim.

Kor