Spoilers The Timeless Children grade and discussion thread

I don't remember if there was anything to contradict this, but what if Ruth-Doctor is actually a mindwiped future Doctor?

That would explain why the TARDIS is still a police box, but the Doctor can't remember anything?

Maybe Chibnall is playing a long game and has basically cast the next Doctor before they have even filmed the final season of the current Doctor. Basically a reboot. Ruth being the First post-mindwipe Doctor.

 

He's not that smart. The most obvious explanation is that Ruth is what she appears to be, a pre-Hartnell incarnation of the Doctor.

 

Afraid so too. Only thing against that is the police box TARDIS. Let's hope that Chibnall has a good explanation in store for that.

 

So is Shalka Doctor an earlier pre Hartnell incarnation or The War Doctor ?

What evidence is there ?

 

Glass half empty: A fuck ton of the Wilderness Era Whoniverse just became an alternate Whoniverse.

Glass half full: Liz Sladen's Big Finish audio series Sarah Jane Smith fits neatly back into continuity now. It's just part of the 7th & 8th Doctor novel/Bernice Summerfield/Faction Paradox universe.

 

That would be cruel and unfair to Jo Martin then, as the last of the viewing audience would be walking out the door at that point.

 

I just had a random thought. All of those actors whose images were used in "The Brain of Morbius" can now, with confidence, put "Played The Doctor" on their resumes! LOL. I sincerely hope that those who are still alive, feel some sense of satisfaction. I'm sure they are all far to long in the tooth to make an actual appearance on the show, but wouldn't that be fun? Is there even a list of who those actors are, floating around?

 

They're not actors

 

Just thinking nothing came of the series opener.

Lenny Henry escaped at the end, the aliens never came back and we never found out about them as the series went on.

I have enjoyed this series but there is a lot of dead ends, things get set up but are never satisfactorily (sp?) resolved.

 

The series itself was in general slightly better, but the last episode killed it. Raped it. Destroyed it. Ruined it.

 

Also, child is not timeless, just deathless.

‘Chibnall, imagine you are trapped inside a giant tent made of paper, like a big bag say...the only item you have at your disposal is a pen. You can choose fountain or biro. Now...Escape!’

Reader, Chibnall starved to death after two weeks trying.

 

The TARDIS does exist across all time and space. She may not tell the Doctor about the previous incarnations, but she knows and decided to be a Police Box each and every time they started over.

I like the idea that the TARDIS really did steal the Hartnell Doctor, despite the fact they inserted Clara in that moment.

 

The Tardis has no soul since her latest redesign.

 

Robert Holmes (script editor for Seasons 12-14 and most of Season 15; frequent writer for both Blake's 7 and Classic Who seasons he didn't script edit) Passed in 1986.
Philip Hinchcliffe (producer for Seasons 12-14) Still kicking and producing the occasional 4th Doctor story for Tom Baker at Big Finish.
Douglas Camfield (frequent director for Classic Who and the Blake's 7 episode "Duel") Passed in 1984.
Christopher Barry (frequent director for Classic Who and the unlicensed 1995 short film "Downtime") Passed in 2014.
Graeme Harper (frequent director for Classic Who, NuWho and The Sarah Jane Adventures) Still kicking.
Robert Banks Stewart (writer of the 4th Doctor serials Terror of the Zygons and The Seeds of Doom). Passed in 2016.
George Gallaccio (production unit manager for Seasons 12-13) Still kicking.
Christopher Baker (played an unknown role on the production team at the time) ???
Source: https://tardis.fandom.com/wiki/The_Doctor_(The_Brain_of_Morbius)

 

Decor critique?

 

Not sure I'd go quite that far, but there is a certain passivity and lack of agency on the Timeless Child's part in that tale that I can't help but feel uncomfortable about it.
She may very well have NOT been fine with it at all, but the story is being told from an outside and demonstrably biased perspective.

I'd be surprised if any of this is intended, I just think there's some implications to this story that they may not have fully thought through.

There's a very simple answer to that problem: when the Doctor ran off with Susan, he stole his own old TARDIS without even realising or remembering it.

IIRC the idea was that the Clara fragment was correcting something The Great Intelligence had altered. So either way, he would have picked that one.

 

Raped it? Come on. It wasn’t a good. It didn’t resolve the series, but do you really need to use sexual violence against another person to describe your dislike?

 

Just because they didn't return this season doesn't mean they're left unresolved. I would only make that claim after Chibnall has left. I highly suspect we haven't seen the last of either of them.

 

It might be a bit too far to say, but the implication is that the Doctor's OK with having her body experimented upon like a lab experiment because "what she did in the past doesn't matter" or some bullshit like that (which as a take itself doesn't make a lot of sense, since the Doctor ALWAYS judged himself by his own past actions).

Except the TARDIS herself, in The Doctor's Wife told him she chose him on that very day. Meaning the day he run away.

 

I think my problem with the "revelation" is that it doesn't really give insight to the Doctor in the present. Like the reveal that the "drums" inside the Master's head being revealed as a signal for the Time Lords, it affected the present, the very thing we were watching.

But, this? Unless we're going to get a series where the Doctor is... what? Going to find out the truth? But, we won't get that. For the most part, it will be business as usual. So, while it may be a "cool" moment... which it really wasn't... it was odd that the Doctor, of all people, needed a reminder of who she is and what's she's capable of...

I'm not sure the point, in the end, dramatically. It's like at the 50th, I thought, ok, the Doctor is going to look for Gallifrey... oh, there it is back a few seasons later... meh.

So, basically, it becomes a who cares reveal for me. It's fine, it's mildly interesting... but, again we're stuck with a "special person because they were born that way"... but, I think going forward there won't be much of a difference.