The Timeless Children (TV story)

The Timeless Children
Adapted into:	Ascension of the Cybermen and the Timeless Children
Script release:	online here
Doctor:	Thirteenth Doctor
Companion(s):	Graham, Yaz, Ryan
Featuring:	Ashad, Fugitive Doctor
Main enemy:	The Spy Master
Main setting:	The Matrix, Gallifrey, Planet of the Boundary, far future
Key crew
Writer:	Chris Chibnall
Director:	Jamie Magnus Stone
Producer:	Alex Mercer
Release details
Story number:	295b
Premiere broadcast:	1 March 2020
Premiere network:	BBC One
Format:	1x65 minute episode
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Memorable moment
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Doctor Who television stories
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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 brought 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. Their regenerative abilities were attentively studied by Tecteun and eventually replicated. This was put forward as the true origin of regeneration on Gallifrey. A 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 offered a new explanation for pre-William Hartnell incarnations, such as the so-called "Morbius" Doctors, and continued to push the mystery around the Fugitive Doctor played by Jo Martin.

The Timeless Children also brought another redesign of the Cybermen, after the Cyber-Warriors in Ascension of the Cybermen, in the form of the CyberMasters - Cyber-Warriors converted from dead Time Lords by the Spy 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 protection, with the group still being separated by the end of the episode.

Synopsis

Gallifrey is dead, the Spy 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

Having just come through the Boundary, the Spy Master forces the Thirteenth Doctor to join him back through to Gallifrey, or else he will use his Tissue Compression Eliminator on Ryan, Ethan, and Ko Sharmus. Pulling her through, the others intend to follow, but a Cybercarrier appears overhead.

Inside, Graham, Yaz, Ravio, Yedlarmi, and Bescot attempt to sprint from Ashad and his Cybermen. Bescot holds them off as the others scramble through a vent, but she is killed in the process.

The Doctor and the Master land outside the ruins of Gallifrey's Capitol and he taunts her about his work. He plans on showing her a tour of the ruined Citadel and reminds her there is nothing she can do to help her friends.

On the Cybercarrier, the group makes it to a storage vault as Graham comes up with a mad idea. Reaching another carrier full of disabled Cyber-Warriors, he plans to hide in their armour as a disguise. Knowing how nasty the insides of a cyber-suit may be, Ravio works to disconnect the suits from their shared neural network as the others work on the bodies inside. Meanwhile, Ko Sharmus shows Ryan and Ethan his very limited weaponstore. Although Ryan has gained an aversion to weapons since travelling with the Doctor, the others say he has no choice.

Back on Gallifrey, the Master leads the Doctor to the centre of the ruined Citadel, reminding her of all the times they spent there. As he talks, a mini scanner in his pocket notifies him that the Cybermen have reached the Boundary. He extends a holographic call to Ashad and they introduce themselves. The Master coaxes Ashad to join him on Gallifrey and successfully convinces him to send some Cybermen to Ko Sharmus' planet as the carrier sets course for Gallifrey.

Meanwhile, Graham and Yaz take a moment to relax while Ravio and Yedlarmi work on the cyber-suits. He lets her know in case they do not survive that he thinks she is incredibly impressive, arguably more so than the Doctor, as she keeps fighting without Time Lord technology to help her. He says that she is doing the human race proud, leaving her deeply moved. With a tear in her eye, she jokes that he is not bad either, just as the others say their plan is ready. Meanwhile, the Cyberguards alert Ashad to the humans' meddling. Ashad plans to get them himself.

On Gallifrey, the Doctor tries to question the Master on why he would work with the Cybermen, but he prepares to show her the unbelievable truth that he had previously mentioned. Knowing she will not believe him, he takes her to the Matrix, the total of all Time Lord knowledge that he chose not to destroy. He explains that he was casually hacking the system when he found the truth for himself. He captures the Doctor in a paralysis field and she appeals to him to save her friends but he ignores her. Preparing to send her deep into the Matrix, he warns her that it will hurt.

Ashad enters the Cybercarrier's storage unit where the four humans have hidden in cyber-suits. After a lot of deep analysis of them, he decides nothing is wrong and is called away by one of his guards as they are reaching the Boundary. Graham tries to find a way out for the group.

In the Matrix, the Master shows a pained Doctor the secret history of Gallifrey, with both of them appearing in the projections of his story. He reveals that the Shobogans, not the Time Lords, were the indigenous species on the planet. One of them, the First Tecteun, was the planet's first space explorer and one day, upon searching another planet, she found a gateway to another dimension or universe. Beneath it lay a young girl. Tecteun adopted her and after she grew up a little, she brought the child back to Gallifrey to figure out where she came from, but with no luck. Then, one day, when playing on a cliffside with a friend, the child fell. However, instead of dying, she regenerated - the first time this ever had happened on Gallifrey.

The Master is briefly interrupted from telling his story by the arrival of the Cybercarrier over the Capitol. Near the Boundary, the Cybermen land to take down the humans, but they are distracted by Ko Sharmus' weaponry which they quickly destroy. It falls to Ryan to throw a bomb at a large group of them and he succeeds, overcoming his nervousness due to his dyspraxia. However, one Cyberman is left standing; Ryan runs.

Ashad finally arrives in the Citadel and the Master says he wants to help him. However, Ashad reveals his plan is to wipe out all organic life in the universe via the death particle, placed in his chest by the Cyberium. Ashad explains that his warriors will be fully automated, including himself, but the Master is disappointed in the lack of imagination of simply making themselves robots. Although Ashad is offended, he allows the Master to use his cyber-conversion processes. The Master follows him as his consciousness deals with the Doctor.

The Master's story continues. With the child having regenerated, Tecteun dedicated her life to solving the mystery, through several of the child's forced regenerations as they grew older. Finally, after many years, she cracked the code. Taking a risk to test it on herself, the regeneration eventually worked, turning her male. With the knowledge gained, Shobogans created the Citadel, discovered time travel, and Tecteun, as part of the ruling elite, chose to have the ability grafted into his species, transforming them into Time Lords. They chose to limit their regenerations to twelve, with the "Timeless Child" as the base of Gallifreyan genetics, "and the rest, as they say, is history." With the story all but finished, the Doctor asks what happened to the child. The Master laughs, calling it obvious, and reveals that the child is, and always has been, the Doctor herself. She cannot contain the revelation as the Matrix starts to warp around her.

Meanwhile, Ryan, Ethan, and Ko Sharmus run from the Cybermen, grab what few guns they have and try to take a few down. Although a few are killed, one captures Ethan and gives the others ten seconds to surrender before he is executed. As the two arrive to surrender, the Cybermen's weapons fire, but they arrive to find four Cybermen stood over some collapsed ones. One takes its helmet off, revealing Yaz inside, and the rest of her group appear as well.

Ashad leads the Master to the Cybermen's storage inside the carrier, but he says that his orders will be given by the Cyberium. He tells the Master that it will not vacate him while he lives, so the Master calmly uses his TCE to kill him. The Cyberium appears in mid-air, and the Master admits that he thought the death particle would be activated by Ashad's miniaturisation. Keeping the miniaturised Ashad and his death particle close, the Master proposes to be the Cyberium's "business partner" and it enters his body with the promise of absolute supremacy.

In the Matrix, the Doctor wakes up in a projection of a vast green landscape with the Master. She refuses to believe his story, knowing her own history, but he promises that it is true. The Master explains her real childhood did happen, it just was not the start of her life. He is most furious, however, that her genetics went into the creation of him. Shoving the Master to the ground, she demands he show her the rest. Tecteun and the child were inducted into a clandestine organisation called the Division, led by a Time Lord called Solpado, whose job it was to intervene in time when necessary, with the child's memories being erased of their time working for them. However, the scene shifts to that of Brendan from Ireland, which the Doctor admits to having seen visions of. It is revealed that his retirement clock reads "For Services To The Division" before the scene disappears. The Master explains that the details of the child, and the Doctor's, life were redacted from the Matrix, unrecoverable, but it took up a lot of space. Tecteun masked the story to be that of the fictional Brendan so it would appear unremarkable. The Master wonders how many more lives the Doctor has had.

The Doctor wakes up in the Citadel as the Master explains that, although he ruined the planet, he kept the Time Lords' bodies just in case. He reveals that he has decided to create a race of Cybermen made out of Time Lords, with the ability to regenerate, with which he will take over the universe. Several of these Cybermen, dubbed CyberMasters, enter the room. To test his experiment, the Master orders one to shoot another, and the Cyberman falls to the ground, seemingly dead. However, after a few seconds, it regenerates and returns to its rank. With the Doctor still paralysed, the Master leads off his new army.

Back by the Boundary, the Doctor's friends gather to visit Gallifrey. Of the seven of them, Yaz volunteers to try crossing first and the group successfully cross over to Gallifrey. Yaz swears that they will find the Doctor and save her as she saved them.

In the Matrix, the Doctor wakes up to find a vision of the Fugitive Doctor, who is equally confused as to how she is there. The Thirteenth Doctor asks if her memories of being her were erased before she was reverted to a child, but the Fugitive Doctor does not have the answers. However, she states that they have never been limited by their past before and should not be again. When the Thirteenth Doctor cannot think of how to escape the Matrix and stop the Master, the Fugitive Doctor tells her to focus on "the one thing he said that you didn't understand" and suggests she should blow the Matrix's mind. She vanishes and the Doctor decides to overload the Matrix with all of her memories from her past regenerations. Finding her energy back, she focuses intently and her entire history of faces, friends, and enemies in reverse chronological order flashes before her, going further past the First Doctor to the Fugitive Doctor, the so-called "Morbius" Doctors, and finally the Timeless Child before the Matrix explodes.

The Doctor collapses on the floor of the destroyed Citadel, freed but unconscious, as her friends find her. She comes to and they share their new findings, deciding to destroy the Cybercarrier, although the Doctor admits it will not stop the Master. However, the Doctor remembers the one thing she did not understand - Ashad claiming he held the death of everything - and the others tell her the story of the death particle. With a plan to detonate it on Gallifrey then escape, the Doctor locks on to the Master's location.

Around the Cybercarrier, the Doctor's allies set up bombs but cannot find the Master. However, the Doctor discovers Ashad's miniaturised body. The Master makes psychic contact with the Doctor, having laid her a false trail, but she tells them that they will meet in the Matrix Chamber alone. As Ko Sharmus' bombs detonate early, the group, split in two, leaves as fast as possible as the Cybercarrier blows up, destroying the Cyber-Army onboard and foiling Ashad's plan to restore the Cyber-Empire.

Escaping to the Capitol and finding a room of default and unused TARDISes, the Doctor programs one to take her friends and the refugees back to the 21st century. Ko Sharmus has one hand-detonated bomb left and the Doctor plans to use it on the death particle, destroying all remaining life on Gallifrey. Knowing she will die too, the Doctor bids one final heartbroken farewell, telling her "fam" to "live great lives".

In the Matrix room, the Doctor meets the Master, with his CyberMasters still in tow. He tells her that he will let her live to witness his victories and that the Cyberium lives in him now. He believes he has broken the Doctor, but she tells him she feels the opposite; she is so much more than she previously imagined. She pulls out the miniaturised body of Ashad attached to the explosive, but, despite being goaded by the Master to detonate it and become like him, she is unable to go through with her plan. However, Ko Sharmus appears, having left the TARDIS, and explains how he sent the Cyberium back through time and space and offers to take the death particle as penance for failing to suitably hide it. The Doctor sprints away and escapes in another TARDIS as Ko Sharmus triggers the death particle, the explosion consuming Gallifrey and everything on it.

The rest of the Doctor's allies arrive on contemporary Earth in their TARDIS, which materialises as a detached house to blend in with the housing estate where it has landed, with them unaware of the Doctor's fate. The Doctor lands the other TARDIS, in the shape of a tree, in a quarry on the refugees' planet near her own TARDIS, which she fondly greets. She takes a moment to herself, extremely shaken by the events, before going to pick up her friends. However, as she prepares to take off, a siren sounds and three Judoon beam in. A Judoon Captain introduces the trio as a cold case unit who have tracked down the long-lost escaped fugitive, the Doctor, and she is arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment in a maximum-security facility. Being teleported to a solitary prison located inside an asteroid in deep space, she can only stammer "what?!" as she looks out on her surroundings, completely isolated, with no way out, and very far from home.

Cast

• The Doctor - Jodie Whittaker
• Graham O'Brien - Bradley Walsh
• Yasmin Khan - Mandip Gill
• Ryan Sinclair - Tosin Cole
• The Master - 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
• The Doctor - Jo Martin

Uncredited cast

• First Timeless Child - TBA
• Second Timeless Child - TBA
• Third Timeless Child - Grace Nettle
• Fourth Timeless Child - Leo Tang
• Fifth Timeless Child - Jac Jones
• Sixth Timeless Child - TBA
• Seventh Timeless Child - Jesse Deyi
• Omega - Mark Corden
• Rassilon - TBA (Don Warrington-lookalike)
• Second Tecteun - Jake Nwogu

Crew

Executive Producers   Matt Strevens and Chris Chibnall

Series Producer   Nikki Wilson

Written by Chris Chibnall	Produced by Nikki Wilson	Directed by Jamie Magnus Stone	Director of Photography Sam Heasman	Production Designer Dafydd Shurmer	Visual Effects DNEG
Make-up Designer Claire Pritchard-Jones	Casting Director Andy Pryor CDG	Music Segun Akinola	Costume Design & Creature Design Ray Holman	Edited by Rebecca Trotman	Special Effects REAL SFX
Original theme music by Ron Grainer  •  Title sequence by Ben Pickles  Music orchestrated by Alec Roberts  •  Music mixed by Goetz Botzenhardt   Cybermen created by Kit Pedler & Gerry Davis  •  Judoon created by Russell T Davies

General production staff Head of Production - Radford Neville Executive Producer for the BBC - Ben Irving Production Executive - Tracie Simpson Line Producer - Steffan Morris Production Manager - Delmi Thomas Supervising Location Manager - Iwan Roberts Location Manager - Gareth Roberts Location Assistant - Kyle Yates Unit Manager - Jac Jones Production Co-ordinator - Sandra Cosfeld Assistant Production Co-ordinator - Jade Stephenson Production Assistants - Ariana Scott, Asha Bray Production Secretary - Ellie Simmons Executive Assistant - Caroline Cook Unit Drivers - Paul Watkins, Jolyon Davey, Steve Darwent Unit Medic - Glyn Evans Business Affairs - Elaine Evans, Kyle Parsons, Steve Robson Talent Team - Hannah Williams, Leanne Bowcott, Jeanette Sigsworth, Deborah Evans, Clare Baker Production Accountant - Rhys Evans 1st Assistant Accountant - Debi Griffiths Assistant Accountant - Rose Wasdell Cast Payroll - Helen Searle Script department Series Script Editor - Sheena Bucktowonsing Script Editor - Fiona McAllister Assistant Script Editor - Caroline Buckley Camera and lighting department 1st Assistant Director - Christopher J Thomas 2nd Assistant Director - Mark Corden 3rd Assistant Director - Lauren Pate Assistant Directors - Jennifer Day, Christian Jeffcoat Script Supervisor - Nicki Coles Camera Operator - Mark McQuoid ACO Focus Pullers - Jonathan Vidgen, Steve Rees Key Grip - John Robinson Grip - Ash Whitfield Grip Assistant - Steffan Allen Camera Assistants - Dan Patounas, Scott Waller, Gwilym Jenner, Evangeline Davies Gaffer - Mark Hutchings Best Boy - Andy Gardiner Electricians - Gawain Nash, Andrew Williams, Gareth Sheldon, Stuart Gale, Anthony Prendergast, Matthew Hutchings	Art department Construction Art Director - Julia Jones Art Director - Rebecca Brown Art Department Assistant - Celyn Davies Art Department Accountant - Hywel Thomas Production Buyer - Rosy Pearce Assistant Buyer - Billie Blue Williams Petty Cash Buyer - Hannah Miller Set Decorator - Chris House Set Dressers - Dewi Thomas, John Thomas, Anwen Haf, Tom Major Set Designers - Daniel Kennedy, Lauren Harper Concept Artist - Louis Knight Graphic Designer - György Simán Graphics Trainee - Anya Kordecki Standby Props - Matthew Ireland, Lewis Reece Standby Carpenters - Robert Hearne, Colm Garrett Junior Carpenter - Matthew Painter Standby Art Director - Ifan Lewis Rigging - Shadow Scaffolding Standby Rigger - Alex Herbert HOD Painter - Steve Fudge Chargehand Painters - Mark Reece, Lloyd Reece Storeman - Lucy Hammond Prop Master - Paul Aitken Props Chargehand - Trystan Howell Prop Fabrication - Penny Howarth Construction Manager - Mark Painter Workshop Manager - Mark Hill Workshop Assistant - Chris Slocombe Construction Chargehands - Dean Tucker, Joseph Painter Construction Driver - Darren Bousie Construction Labourer - Jason Tylke Construction Trainee - Marcus Scholl Practical Electricians - Colin Newman, Lee Price, Matthew Dunford Scenic Artists - Rachel Willsher, Natalie Oakley Carpenters - Terry Horle, Campbell Fraser, Dave Quinlan, Kristian Tucker, Charlie Wright, George Rees, Jonathan Tylke, Dave Hobbs, Stephen Crump Costume department Costume Supervisor - Grace Brooks Assistant Costume Designer - Simon Marks Costume Assistants - Andie Mear, Ian Fowler, Chloe Gauci Costume Trainee - Ashleigh Muza	Make-up and prosthetics Make-up Supervisor - Emma Cowen Make-up Artists - Amy Riley, James Spinks Junior Make-up Artist - Hanna Lewis-Jones Movement Stunt Co-ordinators - Crispin Layfield, Dani Biernat Stunt Performers - Rob Jarman, Robert Pavey, Matt Crook Casting Casting Associate - Ri McDaid-Wren Casting Assistant - Ray Böhm General post-production staff Post-production Producer - Ceres Doyle Post-production Co-ordinator - Liv Duffin Assistant Editors - David SJ Davies, Charlotte Baker On-line Editor - Christine Kelly Assistant On-line Editor - Luke Stanbury Special and visual effects Additional VFX - BBC Wales Graphics, Zodiak VFX, Ben Pickles VFX Editor - Georgina Careless Assistant VFX Editor - Alastair Gray Creature Effects - Robert Allsopp & Associates Colourist - Gareth Spensley Head Model Maker - Lee Radford Sound Sound Recordist - Deian Llŷr Humphreys Dubbing Mixers - Howard Bargroff, Kiran Marshall Sound Maintenance Engineers - Christopher Godin, Joe Malone Sound Designer - Harry Barnes Dialogue Editor - Darran Clement ADR Editor - Matthew Cox Foley - Bang Post Production

Not every person who worked on this adventure was credited. The absence of a credit for a position doesn't necessarily mean the job wasn't required. The information above is based solely on observations of the actual end credits of the episodes as broadcast, and does not relay information from IMDB or other sources.

Worldbuilding

Species

• Shobogans were the original indigenous species of Gallifrey, some of whom genetically altered themselves into the Time Lords through the First Tecteun's research on the Timeless Child.
• The Timeless Child's species are a species from another reality or dimension that have the ability to regenerate and change their appearance. Tecteun was able to splice elements of their DNA into herself and other Shobogans, creating the Time Lords.

Biology

• Time Lords have red blood; the Spy Master mentions that a "red carpet" is such because it is "drenched in the blood of [his] people".

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.
• The Judoon possess a "cold case" unit.

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 the TV show The Apprentice, claiming he "deserves to be its business partner, because he has performed well in all the tasks", which was a common excuse used to become Lord Sugar's business partner.

Weapons

• The death particle is able to wipe out all organic life on a planet.
• Ko Sharmus possesses sentry guns capable of killing Cyber-Warriors, as well as a large bomb capable of destroying a large group of them and hand-held explosives that can destroy a Cybercarrier.

Story notes

• This episode used the same kind of "cold opening" used in Spyfall: Part Two, recapping the preceding episode.
• This episode had the most extensive use of archive footage in any Doctor Who media as of 2021.
• Tecteun 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.
• This episode is the first time in the show's history, discounting full red and full blue from various previous stories, that clips from the William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton eras have been shown in colour.
• This marks the second time the theme music has been used during a TV story, playing across the Doctor's Matrix mind-blow-up sequence. The first time was in The Woman Who Fell to Earth.
• This story strongly implies that the faces in the mind battle with Morbius in The Brain of Morbius are incarnations of the Doctor, something long debated amongst fans, as these eight faces had not appeared since, with following stories seemingly debunking them.
• The Timeless Children made such a huge impact on the fandom as a whole that the episode made it into the satirical website News Thump.
• The episode used an anagram for actor Sacha Dhawan on the Doctor Who website; "Barack Stemis" which, if re-arranged, becomes "Master is Back", and playing a false character called "Fakout". This tactic, discounting in-universe examples from 2007's Utopia/The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords, has not been seen on television since The King's Demons in 1983. Back then it was used in the credits of the episode. Another more recent example is Mark Gatiss being credited, in the old tradition, as Sam Kisgart, for his role as a parallel universe Master, though this was more of a tongue-in-cheek reference to the classic trope than a genuine attempt at audience subterfuge.
• This story is the third consecutive finale for an even-numbered season to feature both the Master and the Cybermen, following Death in Heaven and The Doctor Falls.
• In the scene corresponding to the point where Tecteun's male incarnation stands alongside two other Time Lords in full high-collared regalia, the episode's script release mentions that "we can assume [the other two] might be Rassilon and Omega". 2nd assistant director Mark Corden cast himself as the Omega stand-in and hired a Don Warrington lookalike to play Rassilon, in homage to Warrington's portrayal of Rassilon in Big Finish.
• Similar to Hell Bent, this story takes place primarily on Gallifrey and is the second season finale for its respective Doctor.
• In a roundabout way, this episode also provides a televised fulfilment of the "Cartmel Masterplan".
• The premise of this episode also fulfils several elements of the Hybrid prophecy from Season 9.
  • A hybrid creature (the Spy Master had merged with the Cyberium), would stand over the ruins of Gallifrey and unravel the Web of Time (the Master had hacked into the Matrix), breaking a billion billion hearts to heal its own (the Master had also slaughtered the Time Lords after he became distraught at learning the truth of their origins).
• This story is the third to feature multiple on-screen regenerations, following Planet of the Spiders and Twice Upon a Time, and the first such story in which the then-current incarnation of the Doctor is not among those shown to regenerate.
• Early versions of this story referred to Ashad as the 'Cyberzealot', like the previous two episodes, and swapped the roles of Ryan and Yaz. Additionally, the death particle would have been created by the Cyberzealot as a mercy to kill humanity in the event of losing to the Cybermen. (DWM 570 supplement)
• On production documents, the Fugitive Doctor was named as Ruth, the Master as O, and Gallifrey as the village of Gilfach Goch in south Wales to disguise their real identities. (DWM 570 supplement)

Ratings

• 3.78 million (BBC overnight)
• 4.69 million (BBC final)

Filming locations

• Nash Point, Marcross, Llantwit Major - shanty town
• Garth Hill, Cardiff - The Matrix green landscape
• Taffs Well Quarry, Morganstown, Cardiff - Gallifrey
• Aberthaw Power Station - Cybercarrier corridors
• Craiglee Drive, Cardiff - House TARDIS' housing estate
• Mamhilad Park Estate, Pontypool - Cybercarrier
• St Fagans National Museum of History, Cardiff - Ireland

(All DWM 570 supplement)

Myths

• The Thirteenth Doctor would come full circle, with the pedestal holding the TARDIS key from the Meet the Thirteenth Doctor promotional teaser on 14 July 2017 appearing and the location playing a central part. (this was proven false, and the locations proving to be completely different)

Production errors

If you'd like to talk about narrative problems with this story — like plot holes and things that seem to contradict other stories — please go to this episode's discontinuity discussion.

• The extreme close-up shot of the bomb activating the death particle is in the wrong format, which causes a horizontal stretch of the image. This is due to a wrong de-squeeze of the footage filmed with an anamorphic lens.
• When the CyberMaster who was shot and regenerates stands up to resume its position, it can briefly be seen that its Cyber-helmet is not on correctly and the actor underneath is visible.

Continuity

• The Master and his army of CyberMasters mimic the rallying speech of Rassilon at the end of the Last Great Time War, as seen in The End of Time.
• The Master reminisces about assassinating presidents with the Doctor. (PROSE: Birth of a Renegade, TV: The Deadly Assassin)
• The Master reveals the truth of the Timeless Child, which had previously been mentioned in The Ghost Monument, Spyfall, and Can You Hear Me?.
• The Doctor and the Master see Brendan and the Garda in "Ireland", as prevously seen in Ascension of the Cybermen.
• Graham and Yaz wear Cyber-bodies to disguise themselves as Cyber-Warriors, similar to the gambit Bates and Stratton attempted on Telos in Attack of the Cybermen.
• The Doctor sees the "Fugitive" Doctor within the Matrix, whom she had encountered in 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 Shobogans themselves were a sub-group of the Outsiders. (TV: The Invasion of Time, AUDIO: Weapon of Choice, PROSE: The Eight Doctors)
• 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)
• The Master recalls fleeing from Borusa, who first appeared in The Deadly Assassin, when they were young.
• Long before Gallifrey's native species developed time travel, they worked on the development of interstellar travel. (PROSE: The Legacy of Gallifrey)
• The Master double-crosses Ashad and kills him as he had done to a Cyber-Leader on the Death Zone in The Five Doctors.
• The Master names his Time Lord-converted Cybermen under his command the "CyberMasters". Previously, he transformed humanity into what he dubbed the "Master Race" in The End of Time. Before that, he named himself "Cyber-Master" while posing as a converted Cybermen. in Master of Worlds.
  • Incidentally, Karl believed the Cybermen to be "the master race" in Silver Nemesis.
• The Master wishes he had thought of making a pun before using the Tissue Compression Eliminator on Ashad. (AUDIO: The Two Masters)
• The Doctor's memories used to overwhelm the Matrix are of:
  • The Spy Master from Spyfall.
  • Ashad and his Cyberguards from Ascension of the Cybermen.
  • Herself absorbing the Cyberium and Team TARDIS (TV: The Haunting of Villa Diodati)
  • Rakaya (TV: Can You Hear Me?)
  • Gat, the "Fugitive" Doctor and Captain Jack Harkness from Fugitive of the Judoon.
  • Herself running from Praxeus infected birds (TV: Praxeus)
  • Nikola Tesla and the Queen of the Skithra (TV: Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror)
  • A Dreg from Orphan 55.
  • The TARDIS beside the ruined Capitol (TV: Spyfall)
  • A Kasaavin (TV: Spyfall)
  • The reconnaissance scout Dalek from Resolution.
  • The Ux (TV: The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos)
  • The Solitract as Grace O'Brien and Team TARDIS in the fjord (TV: It Takes You Away)
  • A Morax and herself chained down in The Witchfinders.
  • Umbreen and Prem's wedding (TV: Demons of the Punjab)
  • A Kerb!am Man from Kerblam!.
  • The Pting (TV: The Tsuranga Conundrum)
  • Giant spider's webs (TV: Arachnids in the UK)
  • Rosa Parks who she met in Rosa.
  • The TARDIS and remnants on Desolation (TV: The Ghost Monument)
  • Tzim-Sha from The Woman Who Fell to Earth.
  • Herself choosing an outfit from The Woman Who Fell to Earth.
  • Davros from The Stolen Earth.
  • Rose Tyler (TV: The Stolen Earth)
  • The Sycorax leader (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 (TV: Dark Water)
  • 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 (TV: Smith and Jones)
  • Mickey Smith (TV: Boom Town)
  • 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 from Listen, The Magician's Apprentice and Hell Bent,
  • The Eleventh Doctor from The Almost People, The Bells of Saint John, and The Rings of Akhaten.
  • 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, Time and the Rani, The Curse of Fenric)
  • The Sixth Doctor (TV: The Ultimate Foe, Vengeance on Varos)
  • The Fifth Doctor (TV: Time-Flight, Arc of Infinity, The Caves of Androzani)
  • The Fourth Doctor (TV: The Brain of Morbius, Pyramids of Mars)
  • The Third Doctor (TV: Planet of the Spiders, Carnival of Monsters)
  • The Second Doctor (TV: The Moonbase, The War Games, The Tomb of the Cybermen)
  • The First Doctor (TV: The War Machines, An Unearthly Child, The Name of the Doctor)
  • A Sea Devil (TV: The Sea Devils)
  • The Saxon Master (TV: World Enough and Time)
  • A Zygon (TV: Terror of the Zygons)
  • Sil (TV: Vengeance on Varos)
  • Missy (TV: Empress of Mars)
  • Sharaz Jek (TV: The Caves of Androzani)
  • An Auton (TV: Terror of the Autons)
  • The War Master (TV: Utopia)
  • A Voc (TV: The Robots of Death)
  • The Bruce Master (TV: Doctor Who)
  • Sutekh (TV: Pyramids of Mars)
  • An Ogron (TV: Day of the Daleks)
  • The Tremas Master (TV: Logopolis)
  • The Ancient One (TV: The Curse of Fenric)
  • The Decayed Master (TV: The Deadly Assassin)
  • The Master (TV: The Sea Devils)
  • Scaroth (TV: City of Death)
  • Various incarnations of the Timeless Child (TV: Spyfall, Can You Hear Me?)
  • Seven of the faces seen during the mindbending battle against Morbius in The Brain of Morbius.
  • Brendan from Ascension of the Cybermen.
  • The "Fugitive" Doctor (TV: Fugitive of the Judoon)
• The Doctor seeks to uphold the rule "No humans on Gallifrey", echoing her reason for leaving behind Sarah Jane Smith in The Hand of Fear.
• The Doctor mentions Percy Shelley when she takes responsibility for the Cyberium. (TV: The Haunting of Villa Diodati)
• The Doctor returns her companions home in a TARDIS while she prepares to sacrifice herself to destroy some of her oldest enemies. Similarly, the Ninth Doctor sent Rose Tyler home in the TARDIS as he confronted the Dalek Emperor and his human-converted Daleks in The Parting of the Ways.
• The Doctor is prepared to sacrifice herself using a weapon that cannot be remotely detonated, only for Ko Sharmus to take her place. Previously, the Tenth Doctor planned to sacrifice himself to destroy the Tenth Sontaran Battle Fleet with an atmospheric converter, but Luke Rattigan used a Sontaran teleporter to switch places with him in The Poison Sky. Before this in The Unquiet Dead, the Ninth Doctor offered to light the match which would stop the Gelth for the sake of Gwyneth, who silently refused. Earlier still, Orcini, despite the Sixth Doctor's protests, chose to hand detonate a bomb to destroy Davros' Daleks in Revelation of the Daleks.
• Ko Sharmus was part of the resistance unit who sent the Cyberium through time and space, as prevously mentioned in Fugitive of the Judoon, and The Haunting of Villa Diodati.
• The Doctor once again steals a TARDIS in order to run away from Gallifrey much like The Beginning, The Name of the Doctor, and 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, as seen in The Runaway Bride, Time Crash, and Voyage of the Damned.
• The Doctor talks to herself at length. (PROSE: Things She Thought While Falling, TV: Orphan 55, Can You Hear Me?)
• The Cybermen use transmats. as they had in Revenge of the Cybermen, The Pandorica Opens, and Nightmare in Silver.
• The Master is once again instrumental in creating a new race of Cybermen, much like Dark Water/ Death in Heaven and World Enough and Time.
• The Cybermen again show their ability to convert the bodies of the deceased, as previously demonstrated in Dark Water/ Death in Heaven.
• The Eighth Doctor previously uncovered another secret hushed up by the Founders of Gallifrey: the role Rassilon had played in the true origin of the Ravenous, as discovered in Day of the Master. The Doctor hypothesised that Rassilon had invented the myth of their creation precisely to hide his involvement in the events on Kolstan.
• The Doctor states that she has fought the Matrix before and denied its reality. The Fourth Doctor previously entered the Matrix to locate the Master after the Time Lord President was assassinated, and was forced to fight against the Matrix, which was manipulated by Chancellor Goth in The Deadly Assassin. The Sixth Doctor had also entered the Matrix after following the Valeyard and had to deal with the Matrix and its reality in The Ultimate Foe.
• The Master has twice before secretly infiltrated and manipulated the Matrix for his ends in both The Deadly Assassin and The Ultimate Foe.
• Lady Peinforte once threatened to reveal the Doctor's secrets concerning his role on Gallifrey during the Dark Time in Silver Nemesis. She believed this secret would prove the Seventh Doctor's downfall.

Home video releases

DVD and Blu-ray releases

• This story was released as part of the Complete Twelfth Series boxset on DVD and Blu-ray in region 1/A on 9 June 2020, in region 2/B on 4 May 2020 and in region 4/B on 3 June 2020.

Digital releases

• In the United Kingdom, this story is available on BBC iPlayer.

External links

• Official The Timeless Children page on the Doctor Who website