The Timeless Children (TV story)

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

The episode revealed that the Timeless Child was the Doctor all along; a child being from another planet who had been adopted by one of the earliest Gallifreyans, the Shobogan Tecteun, and who originally had the ability to regenerate infinitely. The episode at the same time seemed to conclude various loose ends on why the First Doctor might not have been the first, mostly seen in expanded media, such as the mysterious 8 faces from The Brain of Morbius and others such as the incarnation from Fugitive of the Judoon, although it pointedly refused to confirm whether those specific faces had been among the Timeless Child's many regenerations.

Synopsis
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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.

Culture

 * When showing the destroyed Citadel to the Doctor, the Master references Ozymandias, a sonnet by Percy Shelley.

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.
 * This is the first series finale since Last of the Time Lords to end on a cliffhanger that leads directly into a seasonal special. The ending of the episode, incidentally, calls back to both Last of the Time Lords and The Runaway Bride by ending with the Doctor caught by surprise inside her TARDIS, and her continuous exclamations of "what?" in response to the events rapidly unfolding around her.

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)
 * 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 sees the "Ruth" Doctor within the Matrix. (TV: Fugitive of the Judoon)
 * The Master claims Tectun was a member of the Shobogan. (TV: The Deadly Assassin)
 * The Master recalls fleeing from Borusa (TV: The Deadly Assassin et al.) when they were young.
 * 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 "Ruth" 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, 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, 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, the Sixth Doctor, the Fifth Doctor, the Fourth Doctor, 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) , 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, the "Ruth" Doctor (TV: Fugitive of the Judoon) and the Timeless Child. (TV: Spyfall, Can You Hear Me?)
 * 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)

Home video releases
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