The Timeless Children (TV story)

The Timeless Children was the tenth and final episode of series 12 of Doctor Who.

The episode brought to light an account of the Doctor's origins in which, prior to becoming the First Doctor, they had lived many forgotten lives as the Timeless Child. This new thread in the ongoing tapestry brings the Doctor, once again, to the forefront of Time Lord history.

In this new account, the Timeless Child was discovered near a boundary to another dimension or reality by the Shobogan traveller Tecteun, who took her in as her own. Her regenerative abilities were attentively studied by Tecteun, and eventually replicated. This is put forward as the true origin of regeneration on Gallifrey. A radical result of this retroactive continuity is that the Doctor, in their earliest lives, was the biological template upon which Time Lord society was founded.

It also offers a new explanation for pre-Hartnell incarnations like the so-called "Morbius" Doctors, and continues to push the mystery around the "Fugitive" Doctor played by Jo Martin.

The Timeless Children also brought another redesign of the Cybermen not long after the warrior-class Cybermen in Ascension of the Cybermen in the form of CyberMasters - a branch created by the Master with the ability to regenerate.

The episode also brought about another shift in the current status quo, with the Doctor's companions, Ryan, Graham, and Yaz being returned to the 21st century without the Doctor, for their own protection, with the group still being separated by the end of the episode.

Synopsis
Gallifrey is dead, the Master is in control of an army of Cybermen ready to take over the universe, and Graham, Ryan, and Yaz are trapped, being hunted down with the last remnants of humanity. But for the Doctor, one question remains... Who is the Timeless Child?

Plot
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Cast

 * The Doctor - Jodie Whittaker
 * Graham O'Brien - Bradley Walsh
 * Yasmin Khan - Mandip Gill
 * Ryan Sinclair - Tosin Cole
 * - Sacha Dhawan
 * Ashad - Patrick O'Kane
 * Ko Sharmus - Ian McElhinney
 * Ravio - Julie Graham
 * Yedlarmi - Alex Austin
 * Ethan - Matt Carver
 * Bescot - Rhiannon Clements
 * Tecteun - Seylan Baxter
 * Solpado - Kirsty Besterman
 * Judoon Captain - Paul Kasey
 * Voice of Cybermen & Judoon Captain - Nicholas Briggs
 * Cybermen - Matthew Rohman, Simon Carew, Jon Davey, Richard Highgate, Richard Price, Mickey Lewis, Matthew Doman, Paul Bailey
 * Special guest appearance by Jo Martin as The Doctor

Crew
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Species

 * Shobogans were the original indigenous species of Gallifrey, who later genetically altered themselves into the Time Lords thanks to Tecteun's research.
 * The Timeless Child's species (here posited as the Doctor's species) are a species from another planet that have the ability to regenerate infinitely and continuously change their appearance. Because of Tecteun's research, their DNA was placed into the Shobogans's DNA and thus created the Time Lords.

Organisations

 * An early incarnation of the Doctor was recruited by The Division, an organisation which officially did not exist nor had operatives and acted against the non-interference policy of the Time Lords.

Culture

 * When showing the destroyed Citadel to the Doctor, the Master references "Ozymandias", a sonnet by Percy Shelley.
 * When the Master requests an alliance with the Cyberium, he references a TV show The Apprentice, claiming he "deserves to be its business partner, because he has performed well in all the tasks", a common excuse that the candidates from the TV show use to become Lord Sugar's business partner.

Weapons

 * One death particle was able to wipe out all organic life at least on a planet.

Story notes

 * This episode used the same kind of "cold opening" used in Spyfall: Part Two; a recap of the preceding episode.
 * This episode had the most extensive use of archive footage in any of the Doctor Who episodes or any other media, and indeed any of the spin-offs as of 2020.
 * Tecteun's and the Timeless Child's regenerations mark the first time female to male regeneration has been seen onscreen. However, the first depiction of a female regenerating into a male in any media was in AUDIO: Enemy Lines. In the case of the Timeless Child multiple regenerations were shown, both female to male and male to female.
 * The episode's cliffhanger ending calls back to the cliffhanger endings of both Doomsday and Last of the Time Lords, in which the dumbfounded Doctor repeatedly utters the word "what?" in response to the events suddenly and rapidly unfolding around them.

Ratings
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Filming locations
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Production errors
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Continuity

 * The Master reminisces about assassinating the President in the Panopticon. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)
 * The Master reveals the truth of the Timeless Child. (TV: The Ghost Monument, Spyfall, Can You Hear Me?)
 * The Doctor and the Master see Brendan and the Garda in "Ireland". (TV: Ascension of the Cybermen)
 * Graham and Yaz wear Cyber-suits to disguise as Cyber-Warriors, similar to the gambit Bates and Stratton attempted on Telos. (TV: Attack of the Cybermen)
 * The Doctor sees the "Ruth" Doctor within the Matrix. (TV: Fugitive of the Judoon)
 * The Master reveals that the original inhabitants of Gallifrey were the Shobogans. This is a term which, by their time, had come to be used by a group that lived outside traditional Time Lord society. (TV: The Deadly Assassin, PROSE: The Eight Doctors, All-Consuming Fire)
 * The Master refers to the Great Cyber War, which he claims to have lived through. (AUDIO: Last of the Cybermen, TV: Revenge of the Cybermen, Nightmare in Silver)
 * The Master recalls fleeing from Borusa (TV: The Deadly Assassin, The Five Doctors) when they were young.
 * The Master double-crosses Ashad and kills him as he done to a Cyber-Leader on the Death Zone (TV: The Five Doctors)
 * The Master names his Time Lord-converted Cybermen under his command the "CyberMasters". Previously, transformed humanity into what he dubbed the "Master Race". (TV: The End of Time) Before that,  named himself "Cyber-Master" while posing as a converted Cybermen. (AUDIO: Master of Worlds)
 * Incidentally, Karl believed the Cybermen to be "the master race". (TV: Silver Nemesis)
 * The Doctor's memories used to overwhelm the Matrix are of:
 * (TV: Spyfall)
 * Ashad and his Cyberguards (TV: Ascension of the Cybermen)
 * Herself absorbing the Cyberium (TV: The Haunting of Villa Diodati)
 * Rakaya (TV: Can You Hear Me?)
 * Gat, the "Fugitive" Doctor and Captain Jack Harkness (TV: Fugitive of the Judoon)
 * Nikola Tesla and the Queen of the Skithra (TV: Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror)
 * A Dreg (TV: Orphan 55)
 * The TARDIS beside the ruined Capitol (TV: Spyfall)
 * A Kasaavin (TV: Spyfall)
 * The reconnaissance scout Dalek (TV: Resolution)
 * The Ux (TV: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos)
 * The Solitract as Grace O'Brien (TV: It Takes You Away)
 * A Morax (TV: The Witchfinders)
 * Umbreen and Prem's wedding (TV: Demons of the Punjab)
 * A Kerb!am Man (TV: Kerblam!)
 * The Pting (TV: The Tsuranga Conundrum)
 * Giant spider's webs (TV: Arachnids in the UK)
 * Rosa Parks (TV: Rosa)
 * The remnants on Desolation (TV: The Ghost Monument)
 * Tim Shaw (TV: The Woman Who Fell to Earth)
 * Davros, Rose Tyler (TV: The Stolen Earth)
 * The leader of the Sycorax (TV: The Christmas Invasion)
 * Donna Noble (TV: Partners in Crime)
 * A Slitheen (TV: World War Three)
 * Amy Pond (TV: The Impossible Astronaut)
 * The Abzorbaloff (TV: Love & Monsters)
 * River Song (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)
 * An animated scarecrow (TV: The Family of Blood)
 * Wilfred Mott (TV: Journey's End)
 * Clara Oswald
 * General Staal of the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet (TV: The Poison Sky)
 * Bill Potts (TV: The Pilot)
 * An Ood (TV: The Impossible Planet)
 * Martha Jones
 * The Empress of the Racnoss (TV: The Runaway Bride)
 * Rory Williams (TV: A Good Man Goes to War)
 * Jatt of the Sisters of Plenitude (TV: New Earth)
 * Sarah Jane Smith (TV: The Stolen Earth)
 * The Twelfth Doctor, (TV: Listen)
 * The Eleventh Doctor
 * The Tenth Doctor (TV: Last of the Time Lords, The End of Time, The Runaway Bride)
 * The Ninth Doctor (TV: Rose, The Parting of the Ways)
 * The War Doctor (TV: The Name of the Doctor, The Day of the Doctor)
 * The Eighth Doctor (TV: The Night of the Doctor, Doctor Who)
 * The Seventh Doctor (TV: The Greatest Show in the Galaxy)
 * The Sixth Doctor (TV: The Ultimate Foe, Vengeance on Varos)
 * The Fifth Doctor (TV: The Caves of Androzani)
 * The Fourth Doctor (TV: Pyramids of Mars, The Brain of Morbius)
 * The Third Doctor
 * The Second Doctor
 * The First Doctor
 * A Sea Devil (TV: The Sea Devils)
 * (TV: World Enough and Time)
 * Sil (TV: Vengeance on Varos)
 * Sharaz Jek (TV: The Caves of Androzani)
 * The Rani
 * An Auton (TV: Terror of the Autons)
 * (TV: Utopia)
 * A Voc (TV: The Robots of Death)
 * (TV: Doctor Who)
 * Sutekh (TV: Pyramids of Mars)
 * An Ogron (TV: Day of the Daleks)
 * and the Ancient One (TV: The Curse of Fenric)
 * (TV: The Deadly Assassin)
 * Scaroth (TV: City of Death)
 * The faces seen during the mental battle against Morbius (TV: The Brain of Morbius)
 * Brendan (TV: Ascension of the Cybermen)
 * The "Fugitive" Doctor (TV: Fugitive of the Judoon)
 * The Timeless Child (TV: Spyfall, Can You Hear Me?)
 * The Doctor seeks to uphold the rule "No humans on Gallifrey", echoing her reason for leaving behind Sarah Jane Smith. (TV: The Hand of Fear)
 * The Doctor mentions Percy Shelley when she takes responsibility for the Cyberium. (TV: The Haunting of Villa Diodati)
 * Ko Sharmus was part of the resistance unit who sent the Cyberium through time and space. (TV: Fugitive of the Judoon, The Haunting of Villa Diodati)
 * The Doctor once again steals a TARDIS in order to run away from Gallifrey. (TV: The Name of the Doctor, AUDIO: The Beginning; TV: Hell Bent)
 * The Doctor responds to being ambushed by the Judoon aboard her TARDIS by repeatedly exclaiming "what?", as the Tenth Doctor had previously done when caught by surprise aboard his TARDIS. (TV: The Runaway Bride, Time Crash, Voyage of the Damned)
 * The Cybermen use transmat. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen, The Pandorica Opens, Nightmare in Silver)
 * The Doctor responds to being ambushed by the Judoon aboard her TARDIS by repeatedly exclaiming "what?", as the Tenth Doctor had previously done when caught by surprise aboard his TARDIS. (TV: The Runaway Bride, Time Crash, Voyage of the Damned)
 * The Cybermen use transmat. (TV: Revenge of the Cybermen, The Pandorica Opens, Nightmare in Silver)

Home video releases
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