Doctor Who: The Timeless Child Doesn't Work (And Here's Why)

let's not beat around the bush the timeless child is the single worst idea in Doctor Who history you might find this hyperbolic you might disagree and that's fine honestly but that is genuinely how I feel about what happened in the finale to series 12 and really it's got nothing to do with canon or more or the notion of rules my problem with the timeless child concept is centered entirely around character let me explain why quick recap so in the most recent series of Doctor Who we were repeatedly told that everything you knew was going to change again and we all knew that it had something to do with the mysterious timeless child in fugitive over the Judoon box standard human being Rufus turned out to be an incarnation of the doctor who our current doctor Jody whiticus 13 couldn't remember as it turned out the roof doctor couldn't remember 13 either leading us to question who came first whether or not Ruth was who she said she was and how it would be explained the master had also been knocking about in series 12 and he had a big secret to drop on 13 because everything to change something allegedly so massive so anger inducing for the renegade Time Lords that he burned Gallifrey to the ground Wow what could he have possibly learned well it turns out the timeless childhoods are being found below an extra dimensional portal Barcia bogan Explorer Tech tyonne Tech town took this child back to Gallifrey discovered she possessed the power of regeneration the first time it was ever witnessed in Gallifrey and history and then proceeded to perform cruel experiments on said child in an attempt to crack the secret of this super power after forcing the child to regenerate several times over tech tyonne cracked it she then bequeathed this power to the rest of Gallifrey and it ended up being the trick shot that propels them into being the incredibly powerful beings they're known as in Doctor Who law so not only is the child the entire reason for Gallifrey is prosperous if blood soaks history she is also the only true source of the ability known as regeneration this timeless child is a God and child is you yep it turns out the doctor herself was the timeless child all along she doesn't just possess the ability to regenerate she essentially is regeneration and it turns out our parents weren't just filthy drunk traders who sold her off for drinking money they chose to be nobodies wait wrong franchise retcon never mind right off the bat this just screws over a hideous amount of pre-established storylines and conflicts that have previously dominated the doctors life River Song gave up all her remaining regeneration to save the 11th doctor a decision that meant she herself could not regenerate to save her own life when the time came turns out the doctor who totally channeled the equivalent amount of energy since they possess it infinitely the time of the doctor sees the 11th doctor forces contend with the fact that he is now on out of regenerations and can only die this is where I end up [Music] this face this version of me until the Time Lords gave him an undisclosed amount of new regeneration at the denouement of the story you know those same time lords that allegedly knew all about the timeless child and the fact that she's ground zero free generation meaning there is no danger of the doctor dying in the story at all I could go on and all that stuff is annoying it's really annoying it's inconsistent it does make any sense sure but it's not like Doctor Who's continuity isn't a gigantic proverb and made up as lots of little rubber bands banding about burning rubber you said that sentence got away from you it got away from me yeah well I'm trying to say is the doctor who is wife of inconsistencies sometimes you have to go with the flow I'm her human I'm a mother so that's not why this shocking twist reveal that is so monumentally stupid no about six years ago everyone was annoyed that the moon turned out to be an egg and they tore their hair out and lauded it as one of the worst ideas in the show's history but for me this pales in comparison to the timeless child sure the moon being an egg might be nonsensical or frustrating nor even downright silly but it doesn't change the fundamental nature of the show that the doctor is just a traveler a lonely wandering alien who helps to heal the universe whenever something is wrong and they happen to be around to stop it when people need help never refuse they became a legend through the person they were not from where they came from this is the central key component of who and what this character is God knows it's not because it's easy it's not even because it works because it hardly ever does I do what I do because it's right but the series 12 finale posits that everything you know is a lie whoo because in fact the doctor was special right from the word go they have become special through their good deeds they were actually this incredible extraordinary being that fell out of the sky and was captured by the would-be Time Lords her origins unknown it rests on that age-old idea the storytelling isn't enough it's not enough to have characters challenged to have obstacles thrown at them that provide interesting conflicts they need to have truths through to them they need to find out their larger-than-life origins to reinsert themselves back into their narratives as the chosen ones the ones who were always special born to be special and Destin's to be on this path that would have surely happens even if they didn't do a damn thing about it the idea that the doctor is the timeless child is frustrating because it changes everything but also nothing at the same time it changes nothing about her opinions on the Timelords the ones behind it the doctor has always disagreed with the values and pompous pretense begat by the Time Lords and has decried their methods as unethical and wrong in the past in the episode we find out the Caliph rains tortured and controlled the doctor so now the doctor still has cause to disagree with the values of Time Lords and find their methods unethical she already thought that what interesting new dimension does this bring to the narrative how does knowingness change the doctors values what does it provide other than a cheap empty gasp from the audience I've seen defenders of the timeless child so that doesn't take anything away from the character of the doctor it only adds to her but I disagree completely the doctor has been altered from someone who chooses to be special through their actions into being special by birthright by their very existence they are the hero of this story there seems to be an obsession with taking protagonists in stories and revealing the country to what you knew they were always destined to be special they were always greater than they were always larger than life in Sam Raimi's spider-man movies Peter Parker just so happens to be bitten by a radioactive spider there's nothing special about him per se the spider didn't choose him and even after he gained some mastery over his powers there's still nothing special about him she's his partner you are a freak he uses it to try and buy a car to impress a girl he likes is only when he chooses to do good things with his gifts that he becomes special he lives his life to a standard that is heroic that is commendable and is what he does rather than where he came from that makes him this paragon of righteousness it is that that makes us love him as a character Who am I I'm spider-man then take marc webb spider-man movies peter is randomly bitten by the spider yes but it turns out his father was responsible for the spider DNA bulk the Oscorp and specifically used his blood to make it work the human DNA that I implanted in the spiders was my own meaning only Peter could have become spider-man so from birth he was destined to be special no matter what he did the timeless child concept does the exact same [ __ ] the doctor is like any other Time Lord until one day they decided enough was enough they didn't agree with Gallifrey aristocracy and they wanted to venture forth into the stars find themselves so they stole a TARDIS and ran away what made the doctor special their adventures all the times they took the right path helped people when they were kind and truthful and selfless that's all you need to make the doctor the incredible enduring character that they are you don't need to change everything we think we know again and turn them into this mysterious being that came for a portal from another dimension you don't need to make them brown zero free generation you don't need to make them infinitely older than what we thought or have infinitely more faces than what we thought it doesn't pose any interesting story questions it doesn't change what we knew about the doctor as a person all it does is change her circumstances and takes away her free will it takes away her choices as William Hartnell's first doctor this sucks and what message does it provides to audiences particularly young people who grew up inspired by characters like the doctor or spider-man sorry kids you might come from very little and look to someone heroic in the stories you love and you might think I could be like them if I'm brave enough and do right by those around me and work hard but you were wrong you were dead wrong sorry you need to be born special well you need this to be unique from the very start extraordinary in every measure there should have been a plan for you orchestrated by others so that you could be pulled along your journey it's not for you to take control of and make for yourself that's a great big bunch of bull snot Who I am underneath what I do that defines me I've seen a lot of people argue this finale successfully ties together a few loose ends from the series specifically the previous incarnations of the doctor seen in the brain of Morbius but really this feels like chip nose half-assed attempts to resurrect the oft outed caramel master plan a story arc for the doctor envisioned by script editor Andrew Cartmel which was intended to develop across the seventh doctor's tenure but was ultimately cut short after the show was canceled the idea was originally intended to reveal that the doctor was in fact a reincarnation of the other a Gallifrey and demigod who was present at the founding of Gallifrey alongside Rassilon and omega whilst there are some obvious differences between this and a timeless child the bare bones of its the doctor being more than just your average Time Lords remain the same the issue here is that the caramel master plan was ultimately envisioned as a means to add more mystery to the character of the doctor but in many ways it strips them of that mystery the same problem is present here I don't understand why you would want to go back to this during a time when the show was canceled on a side note I find it interesting that a man who once went as far as to go on television to complain about Doctor Who in the 1980s has decided that what the show really needed to do was return to the direction it was going to in the 1980s and look I'm all for adding a bit of mystery to the doctor but it needs to feed into something it needs to provide material for the narrative to chew on compare this huge Canon altering edition to another huge canon altering edition in new whose run the time war when Russell T Davies brought the show back in 2005 the big key change that marks new who in stark contrast to its predecessor show is of course this very concept above all else when we met the doctor again he was suddenly the last of his kind a survivor of a great war that saw the Time Lords and the Daleks wiped out by his own hand it meant that he now carried with him significant baggage PTSD when am I gonna come do races [Music] an Arivaca bleed different outlook on life in the universe I'm not just a timeline I'm the last of the Timelords what our TV did was breathe new life into the show by positing that new exciting story changes had occurred in the time in which we hadn't seen the doctor he didn't take the doctors origins a mess of them to make the character more interesting he through conflict at the character to make them more interesting we're the only two left he understood the story is about the now what's happening to these characters in the present moment that drives our story it's not about filling in blanks from the past that frankly don't need filling in the timeless child concept instead goes for a cheap shock in lieu of opening up the storytelling possibilities the doctor reassures herself and us that she still the doctor after finding out she was the timeless child just in case you thought this show at any gumption it drops it's shocking revelations only if the lead character tells us that everything is going to remain the same and sure what cos doctor might say she's still the same person but really she is now a literal God rather than being a legendary mythic figure across time and space because she saved lives and continues to do so and inspire others she's a legendary mythic figure because she has the unique power of regeneration a power that only naturally occurs in her and belongs to her truly no one else why does regeneration need to be specifically the doctors power what dimension does it bring to the concept of regeneration itself what's even more frustrating is those elements of this idea but I like that I really really like if we remove the fact that the doctor is the timeless child from the equation of course namely I love the idea that the Time Lords found a helpless creature in the cosmos a creature that they discovered could not die and rather than caring for it and showing it love and compassion they imprisoned it and tortured it until they stole its power we learn that the Timelords have absolutely zero right to use this power including the characters we know like the doctor in the master he adds a colonial tinge to the already upper-class snooty characterization of the Time Lords and does it not pose an interesting question for the doctor she's regenerated time and time again she's had the privilege of extending her life long beyond its natural limits today she's discovered that this power wasn't in fact her birthright as every time Lord thought it was before her it wasn't biologically theirs nor did their best scientists create it and bestow it upon their race they stole it they used pain to extract it and copy it so now with that information in minds if the time came to regenerate again would she should she is she not endorsing the diabolical schemes of her Gallifreyan ancestors by continuing to regenerate to regenerate now with that sinister knowledge means something markedly different truly everything she knew is a lie and it creates questions in the narrative are we guilty of the decisions our parents make by continuing to enjoy the spoils given to us that were born out of Bloods are we just as bad as the ones that came before us by going along with the system are we just as responsible for its ills and then maybe she decides the only way to make this okay is to find the timeless child and put it all rights console them do their best to fix them help them you know what the doctor is always done whatever it is that the doctor could do to repair the pain her race has caused this creature and maybe just maybe the timeless child might see all the good in the universe the doctor is responsible for and tell them that they're happy for them to continue to have their power and here's another permutation on this idea that I like a little less because it once again alters the doctors origins but at least it would challenge her as a character why she discovered that heartless doctor was the scientist who extracted regeneration from the timeless child well if it was actually the doctor herself who tortured this being into giving her what she and the rest of her race wanted what if she was directly responsible for this terrible thing and that she either chose to forget this information or buried it deep due to the trauma witnessing it all and of bearing that shame she didn't steal a TARDIS and run away because she was bored of Gallifrey she ran away because she was ashamed of what she had done all season the companions have been learning that doctor isn't this clear-cut figure of mole good all the time she can be arrogant deadly and manipulative so wouldn't it take the doctor companion relationship to an interesting place in series thirteen if they had found that out wouldn't it set the stage for an incredible redemptive arc for the doctor well if she learned this horrible truth that she had been the one who had tortured this child and decided she needs to find the timeless child and save them she chose to take the name the doctor all those years ago and she chose to help the universe for all this time but now she's realizing that it isn't necessarily good enough that she needs to pay the price for hurting that one soul for whom she destroyed all that time ago the concept could be interesting but it needs to challenge the doctor having her just find out that she's the center of this story the center of the Timelords universe isn't interesting it's the opposite maybe what I've just suggested isn't quite right either but you get my point right the reveal needed to set up the narrative going forward not backwards it needed to test the doctor and her companions all she learns is that she was a victim to Eris the craps she already hated more special men she already was after all of her actions that have defined her in the past anyway also just to quickly switch gears ever so slightly and talk about the master again there was something interesting in the master discovering something that appalled him something so disgusting that even by his abhorrent moral code it was too much wouldn't it have been more interesting to have him dig into the archives see what was done to the timeless child and feel empathy wouldn't have been a true switch up for the show for the master to give the doctor this information for the doctor to condemn her race and for the master to say I agree with you simultaneously I don't think he bat an eye at regenerating so both characters could have conjured an interesting debate on the subject if the aforementioned doctor stances that regeneration is wrong because they don't deserve to have it because they stole it shouldn't the Masters self sir mantra dictate me he thinks it's all absolutely fine and that in spite of how it came to be is now rightfully their power there was part about all of this is that for the most part you know I quite liked series 12 it was by no means a perfect season of Doctor Who I found myself surprised at his relative quality it was a step in the right direction after Whitaker's first to stay all series it felt like Chiba on the team had tried to directly rectify that season's problems a darkness had been restored to the character of the doctor it played with interesting one-off concepts there was an overarching story at play we got legitimate villains instead of Tim shoring up and putting ball but if you've been listening to a podcast before that podcast you know that despite our goodwill Chris and I knew the finale would make or break this series of Doctor Who my warriors is that if everything that it sets up ghostie would I watch again probably not because I'm watching it with a view of well that never came to anything well that was disappointing I agree I think the series as a whole I think it's a good talk about series as a whole because this is pushing the whole arc forward has been way better than I could have anticipated but some of the reveals which have been this episode could easily go to port unfortunately we got the latter I'm just a bit fed up with this one of the show now in all honesty everything Chibnall does feels reactionary he might claim he doesn't read reviews after we all complained that series 11 was empty and devoid of real risks he flips the switch the other way and stuff series 12 full of surprises everything you knew would change again and again and again but for what I wouldn't be surprised if series 13 doesn't mention the tarnished child at all if we don't see the master and his cyber masters at all and really after two series of the chip no era shouldn't I have some sense of where it's going shouldn't I have a reason to kill ish [Music] thank you for watching another full-fat video don't forget to click that subscribe button if you'd like to see more of our deep dives into reality TV also huge fangs to all of our patrons especially dr. GK Jax merrick and Mike Nandu got all amazing until next time

Channel: Full Fat Videos

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Keywords: The Timeless Child, Doctor Who Timeless Child, the timeless child, doctor who timeless child, The Timeless Children, Doctor Who, Doctor Who Video Essay, Chris Chibnall, Series 12, Doctor Who Series 12, Video Essay, Video, Essay, doctor who series 12 reaction, 13th Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, The Master, sacha dhawan master, doctor who time lords, doctor who gallifrey, Ruth Doctor, the worst, i hate, chibnall bad, writing, Chibnall, Doctor Who Chibnall, Series 12 Review, canon

Id: ZnFIhjXFzNk

Length: 20min 46sec (1246 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 11 2020