Doctor Who: The Newest Twist In The Controversial Timeless Child Storyline May Add A New Layer To The Doctor's Relationship With Another Iconic Character

Doctor Who's 'Timeless Child' storyline, first teased at the beginning of the Thirteenth Doctor's tenure, before eventually being fleshed out and explained in series 12, is easily one of the most controversial stories in the sci-fi classic's nearly sixty-year history. The plotline, which revealed that The Doctor was in fact The Timeless Child, an endlessly regenerating creature from whom the people of Gallifrey engineered their own ability to regenerate, and that The Doctor has lived an unknown number of lives of which she has no memory, has divided fans.

A large number of Whovians believe showrunner Chris Chibnall went too far with the storyline, which they say tampers too much with Doctor Who canon, and gives convoluted answers to questions they never really wanted or needed answered. Many are expecting, or at least hoping, that the storyline will be retconned when Russell T Davies, who served as showrunner for the first four series, takes back the Tardis keys in 2023.

However, the series latest episode, 'Survivors of the Flux', offers a new interpretation of the Timeless Child story that has caused some fans to rethink their stance, and may even add new depth to The Doctor's relationship with a beloved character from the past.

Timeless Child..

In Doctor Who's series twelve finale, 'The Timeless Children', The Master tells The Doctor the story of the Timeless Child. One day, on the planet that would eventually become Gallifrey, an explorer and scientist known as Tecteun found a child seemingly abandoned at the entrance of a wormhole known as the Boundary. Tecteun took the child and raised it as her own, until the child had what should have been a fatal accident. Instead, the child changed into a new form, in the first example of regeneration.

Tecteun began experimenting on her adopted child to unlock the genetic secrets of regeneration, with the child regenerating multiple times in the process. Eventually, Tecteun spliced the ability to regenerate into herself and others, building the foundations of Time Lord Society on the genetic information she gained from her child. The Master then revealed that The Doctor was that child.

Many fans dislike the Timeless Child story for so drastically altering The Doctor's personal history in a way that wasn't needed. It's perfectly fine for The Doctor to simply be a madman/woman in a box, travelling space and time and doing good. He or She didn't need a back story that made them more important, or changed them into a mythical 'Chosen one' type figure. Some even claimed the story ruined the show entirely.

..Or Stolen Child?

After being reunited with The Doctor in Doctor Who: Flux's penultimate episode, 'Survivors of the Flux', Tecteun declares that she saved The Doctor when she took her from the Boundary as a child. However, The Thirteenth Doctor, despite having no memory of that time, sees the events very differently. She believes Tecteun was wrong to take her without seeing if anyone came to claim her first, and that she was wrong to use the Timeless Child as an experiment.

"You stole my life!"

The Doctor/Timeless Child wasn't a 'Chosen One'. She was a child from another world who was lost, stolen, and later tormented through Tecteun's experiments. Some Whovians are becoming more open to accepting this version of the story. Others have noted that The Doctor's version of events bears a striking similarity to that of another beloved Doctor Who character, River Song, and may in fact add another layer of depth to The Doctor's relationship with her.

Two Lost Children

Soon after her birth in the episode 'A Good Man Goes To War', baby Melody Pond is stolen away from her parents, Amy Pond and Rory Williams, by the Kovarian Chapter of the Order of The Silence. Baby Melody is to be experimented upon, raised and trained into a perfect psychopath to become a weapon against The Doctor. It is later revealed that Melody grew up to become The Doctor's ally and eventual wife, River Song.

The Eleventh Doctor is understandably angry at what Madame Kovarian has planned for Melody. At the time, this can be put down to the fact that Melody is the child of his best friends. However, in light of the Timeless Child revelation, the scene could now have an alternate interpretation, of The Doctor being subconsciously angered at the thought of another child being stolen and used.

The revelation also offers another reason why The Doctor was always so drawn to River. Deep down,they were both lost children who had suffered great horrors, survived, and come back all the stronger for it.

Doctor Who: Flux concludes next week. Perhaps The Doctor will find her answers, and the Timeless Child storyline could be saved.