Leon Colbert from "The Reign of Terror" is the War Chief from "The War Games" incognito and collecting humans to dump into his war zone...
Just like the Morbius Eight were, "The Fugitive Doctor" is The Doctor, prior to Hartnell. At the time of "Morbius", fans were questioning the Doctor's number count as well. Even more fun, she's not part of The Timeless Child storyline (any more than the Morbius Eight, Davison or McCoy or the others were) - TTC is just a rehashed origin story for the Doctor, one that didn't really need to
be told and is a bit much, even by mid-80s standards. I wish Chibnall gave more time to Jo's Doctor than the contrived flapdoodle that TTC brought in as Jo's and Jodie's on-screen chemistry were marvelous, but at the same time, how he handled Jo not recognizing the future incarnation led to some great material as well.
Speaking of the Morbius Eight, the producer of "The Brain of Morbius" - Philip Hinchcliffe - has specified that those eight
are the Doctor:
https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-f...ese eight,Hartnell incarnations of the Doctor. (No actors wanted their photos taken, oddly, so they had to get the writers and other staff to do it!) Add in the inference being that, in "The Deadly Assassin", the Doctor's lifespan was limited to 13 lives/12 regenerations, which now makes Tom Baker's the final one. Whatever was to happen regarding all of that must have been quietly dropped when Williams took over, with him and future showrunners adhering to Tom as being the 3rd regeneration, save for script editor Adams who'd have the Doctor (Tom) say a joke or two flippantly, as well as Romana going through more lives than (
insert tame compariive allusion here)... even the 1996 TV movie fell in line. The modern era has a new hand, a new incarnation, a new set of (unspecified) lives, and more over its 19 year run so far.
Also, speaking of lore being quietly dropped and the show has done that plenty of times and usually worked because the new stories were superb and gave needed dramatic weight to the revised continuity: The Doctor being a product of experimentation is pretty gruesome - as well as explaining a backstory that takes away the fun of the mystery - but then add in the "some other dimension and came into ours" and the result is overkill that doesn't add anything, arguably removes the Doctor's mystery, and arguably doesn't need to be again, apart from - if anything - retconning it out as "Master made it up by tampering with the Matrix just enough". Given the Master's history of tampering with the Matrix, it's just as much a possibility. The show has dropped ideas after dropping them and will do so again. Oops, wait, let me get back into 20th century mode: "The show has mentioned ideas then never referred to them again". Just like the 1996 TV movie where the Doctor is now half-human and the eye of orion is now not a location in the galaxy but every tardis has one and regenerations can be ported by hooking them up into an optometrist's chair and-- ugh, the 1996 TVM's only saving Grace, apart from characters of Grace and Chang, was the character of the new Doctor. Gloss over the plot and there's still enjoyment to be had for the most part, thanks to the three of them.
Lastly, the TARDIS has a perception filter - which is why Ian and Barbara perceive his having only one heart. That broke down one day as well, just like the camouflage/chameleon circuit had, and the Doctor did steal the ship at a point when the ship was starting to suffer malfunctions, and learned to repair what was needed most later on. Never mind the retcon that, due to telepathic circuits (now being used more than as a communications device), imagine all the TARDISes (TARDii?) getting Time Lords to do who knows what... no thanks, the show still needs some rules and self-imposed credibility, which is why humor works. Unlike the lengths seasons 17 and 24 went to where, among everything else, the comedy didn't land...
