CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES: THE JOURNEY OF THE TIMELESS CHILD - PART TWO

The Journey of the Timeless Child continues...

I was quite surprised by the positive response the first chapter of this topic received. I thought, for sure, I'd get blasted by people saying: "Why would you even bother to try to chronicle this?! The Timeless Child totally sucks! You're a loser!" Or words to that effect. But most folks that commented on it not only like the Timeless Child but actually liked what I wrote about her.  They legitimately enjoyed that first installment. 

I was shocked! 

Speaking of Part One, by the way: if you haven't checked it out, you may want to give it a read before you look at this one (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2024/03/chronologies-and-timelines-journey-of.html). This particular episode will make little or no sense if you haven't! 

BRANDON 

The Timeless Child has finally been apprehended by Division. Now the organization must figure out what exactly to do with her. The most obvious solution, of course, is to terminate her. But that's not how Division works. Even deplorable creatures like Swarm and Azure are viewed as potential assets that could serve a useful purpose further down the road. If some of the greatest threats to the Universe are being kept alive, there's no reason to kill off someone who was once one of their best agents. 

It's decided that they will use one of their favorite tactics for those who have fallen out of favor with them. They're going to completely change the Timeless Child's identity. Her previous life will be erased and she will become someone else. Unless, of course, the "old her" is needed again. Just in case, her memories are locked away in a fob watch for protection. 

Such a process, however, will prove difficult. As has been stated, the Timeless Child's biology is extremely difficult to tamper with in any way. Division wants to turn her into a normal Gallifreyan - but that won't be easy. 

They come up with a complex solution. In order to change her, she will need to spend some time in a "transitional state". The Timeless Child is a complex being. As are the Gallifreyans. If she can be converted, first, into a simpler species, they can eventually make the full transformation. 

So, for a time, the Timeless Child becomes "Brendan". A mere human growing up in rural Ireland during the early 20th Century. Two other Division agents - more than likely, Time Lords - watch over Brendan as he matures and becomes a police officer. He applies for that occupation because the Timeless Child's desire to seek justice in the Universe cannot be totally erased. Whatever you make her into, she wants to be a power for good. 

To ensure Brendan survives, they leave him with just a bit of regeneration energy. It won't trigger a full transformation into someone different, of course. But it will repair any serious damage that may occur in accidents. It is put to the test only once when Brendan is shot and falls from a cliff. 

Eventually, he lives for enough years that the second stage of the process can take place. Now an elderly human, Brandon is taken by the two Division Agents that have been monitoring him and given a complete memory wipe (something far easier to accomplish when he's still in human form). Once done, he's taken back to Gallifrey where the final transition can occur. After that last stage of processing, the Timeless Child is no longer a strange extra-dimensional being. He's a Gallifreyan. 

It's not certain if he was given a set of false memories and starts his new existence as an adult. Or if he's actually regressed into a fetus and, somehow, placed in someone's womb. Or if, perhaps, Gallifreyans use Looms, after all. His genetic material may have been integrated into one which then produces him as a fully-corporeal being. Whatever the case, the Timeless Child has been wiped from existence. A Gallifreyan now stands in his place. 

STILL SOME TRACES 

While the whole conversion was very complex and thorough, the medical technicians that accomplished it still warned Division that there could be complications. Certain physical or mental traces of the Timeless Child might still remain in this new being that they've created. The previous physiology would still struggle to re-assert itself. 

The most obvious trait that stayed intact was the fact that the Timeless Child only possessed one heart. This new Gallifreyan that she has been changed into also only has a single cardio-vascular organ. When he is old enough to understand, it is explained to him that he has a rare condition. That, should he become a Time Lord, they can actually fix the problem when he regenerates. 

Division keep a fairly close eye on him over the next while. They notice a few other subtler traces from the previous identity emerging. The Gallifreyan seems to still have that innate desire to do "good" wherever he goes. He wants to help out lesser species and openly objects to his peoples' policy of non-intervention. He also shows signs of great cleverness and rapid learning. 

Most significantly, he gives himself the title of "The Doctor". Division did notice that, when they had re-captured her, the Timeless Child had been using that name, too. 

Still, they were told that these things would happen. But that, overall, the conversion would remain stable. So none of this really concerns them much. 

AN UNEXPECTED TRIGGERING 

While a bit of a rabble-rouser, the Doctor is - for the most part - keeping in line. Division becomes less and less concerned about him. Particularly after he becomes a Time Lord. The intense conditioning one must undergo to achieve such a status will strain out even more of the rebellious nature of his previous life. 

The medical technicians that worked on him, however, are a bit concerned that he managed to graduate from the Academy. The ability to regenerate has, once more, been bestowed upon him (ironically, he is the one who created it in the first place!). This could have adverse effects on his sense of recall. Regeneration could cause him to forget his buried past. Or it could do the exact opposite: it could actually bring more memories back.*** 

As they are trying to gather more conclusive data on the whole matter, something totally unexpected happens. After being swept up in a Time Storm all those many years ago, Susan is transported into her personal future and returns to Gallifrey. One day, she just suddenly re-appears in the corridors of the Citadel. 

While very little of the Doctor's first identity remains, there are still faint vestiges. Being so close to each other during the Ancient Times caused the two Gallifreyans to form a very strong psychic bond. Susan is still able to telepathically pick up on those tiny traces. When she first meets him, she uncontrollably blurts out: "Grandfather!". 

From that point onward, however, Susan remains pretty tight-lipped. Certain protocols were established about time travel even back in Gallifrey's earliest days. The biggest one, of course, is to keep your mouth shut when you're no longer in your own proper time zone. Information you could give away in either the future or the past could do irreparable damage to the Time Lines. 

Nonetheless, Susan's made an impression on her grandfather. Several more of his memories re-awaken. He doesn't know how or why, but he's certain this young woman really is his granddaughter. He also has a vague recollection of being responsible for the creation of TARDISes. 

With those memories restored, he now becomes a bit more telepathically-recognizable to certain quasi-sentient beings he once knew. The Silver Nemesis and the Hand of Omega pick up on him and re-establish their psychic links with him. Both are now being kept in the Omega Vault. The Doctor finds his way to them. The Validium begs for freedom. The Doctor feels pity for Gallifrey's former defense system and manages to release it into the Universe - but only under certain terms and conditions. From time-to-time, he may require it to assist him. The Hand of Omega also seems somewhat despondent about its current situation so the Doctor makes similar plans for its escape. But those schemes won't be quite as simple. Unless aided, this artifact can prove to be much more static. Which will make it more difficult to extricate.  

Both of the Old Relics also choose not to reveal any more of the Doctor's past to him. They see how much mental turmoil his few restored memories have already caused him. He does seem to be getting very scattered, these days. They decide not to exacerbate the problem. It may even be that the Hand of Omega can't really tell him anything, anyway. The Artifact doesn't seem to have any sort of proper speech center! 

Division notices how strange the Doctor is acting now that Susan has been restored to him. But before they can do anything about it, the Time Lord allows even more of his previous life to influence him. Once more, he steals a TARDIS. In fact, another telepathic link that he formed in his previous existence has a bearing on his destiny (as does a bit of gentle prodding from Clara). The original TARDIS that he took when he had been the Timeless Child entices him through her door. She has been sitting for quite some time in a Repair Bay. Some work has been done on her. But, since she is now viciously outdated, fixing her completely has not been a huge priority. Figuring no one will miss her much, the Doctor runs off in the old Type Forty. 

As he slips away with his granddaughter, he also manages to grab the Hand of Omega. 

Off they all go into Time and Space!    

***Super-Important Footnote: 

While the Doctor can start regenerating again, it should be emphasized that he is now just a Time Lord. None of the regenerative abilities he once had as the Timeless Child remain. Which means he will regenerate in the same way a Time Lord normally does. He will only be able to do it twelve times and then will die. Unless, of course, the High Council grant him extra lives at the end of his cycle. Something they can do if they so desire.

EARLY DAYS...

For a while, the Doctor and Susan travel through the Universe. The Hand of Omega is kept in a special storage hold within the TARDIS. In that location, the artifact feels less lonely than when it was secured in a secret vault in the Citadel. But the Doctor can see that it wants a better resting place. It needs to be somewhere more peaceful and natural. 

Meanwhile, the Doctor's recollections are still quite scattered. Lots of his memories are overlapping with that of the Timeless Child. Susan still chooses not to reveal anything more to him about his past. Even though she has figured a lot of things out. 

With so much of his previous existence affecting him, he takes on another of the Timeless Child's predilections.  He develops a fondness for Earth. His visits there become quite frequent. So much so, that he even has a favorite period in the planet's history. 

The TARDIS, meanwhile, is getting more and more rundown. The Doctor decides to actually stay in one place for a while and try to effect repairs. He chooses London in the early 60s. Once more, of course, the chameleon circuit will break down and she'll get stuck in Police Box form. 

Since they're staying there for a bit, Susan decides to experience some local culture. She enrolls in school while the Doctor establishes a base of operations in a junkyard. He also finally makes arrangements for the Hand of Omega. He's placed the relic in a casket and was going to have it buried in a graveyard. The Hand seemed happy with the idea. 

But then, of course, Ian and Barbara come along. And everything changes!   

There's a general implication during Season One that the Doctor built the TARDIS, himself. The fact that he's still wrestling a lot with which memories are his and which belong to his earlier life is what's causing this. Sometimes, he recalls that he did actually build TARDISes for a time. Which causes him to take on a sort of tone with his companions that insinuates that he constructed the ship they are travelling in. And, of course, if you were reading Part One of this essay carefully - you see why Susan claims she came up with the acronym for the time vessel during the first episode of An Unearthly Child. 

Sometime near the end of Season Two, the Doctor's conflicting memories really do start to settle down. This probably happens because Susan has finally left. Her very presence was more-than-likely triggering him quite a bit. Meeting the Monk probably also helped with the process. Seeing another Time Lord and remembering that there are various models of TARDISes gets him to stabilize even more. He couldn't have made these things, himself. They've been around forever. He's just not that old! 

By the time he experiences his first regeneration, he's no longer experiencing any memory issues. He remembers himself as being a Time Lord known as the Doctor. Those strange ideas where he vaguely recalls inventing TARDISes are no longer spoken of. They may have even faded completely from his memory. 

He eventually reaches his second regeneration. When that happens, something interesting occurs. Because he is given a forced regeneration that takes place back on Gallifrey, those medical technicians that first created him can finally fix that one little anatomical issue that has been plaguing him during his first two incarnations. 

At long last, the Doctor gets his second heart. 

THE FAMOUS SEQUENCE THAT CAUSED IT ALL!

For quite a few of his incarnations, the Doctor has no further issues with recalling his former existence. Even when he does get into a mind-bending competition with Morbius and sees several past selves prior to Hartnell, he doesn't seem to acknowledge it. Oddly enough, neither does Sarah Jane. You'd think she might have said something to the nature of: "Wow! I never knew you had so many previous faces!" With the Doctor responding with something like: "Neither did I!" But the whole thing just sort of gets swept under the carpet. 

It doesn't help that we will soon have a story like Deadly Assassin come along and reveal that there's a limit on how many times a Time Lord can regenerate. Only to be followed years later by Mawdryn Undead. Where the entire crux of the plot is that the Doctor really is in his fifth body and, therefore, only has so many regenerations left. These sort of facts cause the faces in Brain of Morbius to not make any real sense. 

The easiest fix, of course, is that we were seeing previous incarnations of Morbius rather than the Doctor. But the succession of images don't really support that. We do see the evil Time Lord regressing a bit. But then the battle seems to shift to the Doctor's defeat. One would think that, if those were the faces of Morbius, that we would see his earlier images again and then go to the pictures that the production team took. Instead, it's Pertwee, Troughton, Hartnell and then all those other shots of  various behind-the-scenes people. Which really does make it seem like these were incarnations that existed before the "First" Doctor. Morbius' proclamation of: "How far back do you go, Doctor?" adds even more credence to the idea that these are the Doctor's earlier incarnations and not his.  

There is another complication that the sequence creates. We should have seen "Ruth" somewhere in all those faces. Brandon should have been in there, too. Even though he is just a human. He's still part of the Doctor's past - so he should appear. But neither of their faces are shown. 

We can, sort of, partially fix this problem by theorizing that sometime after the events of Fugitive of the Judoon, "Ruth" goes through several regenerations and takes on all these different forms that we witness in the mind bending battle. These might have even been attempts at "disguises" of some sort that were employed to help evade her captors (perhaps she's learnt the same trick that the Master and the Rani would later use to block telepathic recognition when they are trying to hide their true selves from the Doctor). So these are the last few bodies the Doctor had before she was captured and had her entire identity altered. The machine just never regressed far enough for us to see Ruth. It still doesn't reconcile with the fact that we never see Brendan, of course. But maybe he isn't included because he is a mere human. 

I'm more inclined to believe that, because his past has been so thoroughly buried, the mind-bending machine can only pick up snippets of it. So we only see a certain fragment of his erased life. Which allows my placing of the faces from Brain of Morbius in the Timeless Child's timeline to still work (see Part One for when I think they happened). And it also explains why we don't see certain faces when, maybe, we should have.  

THE NEXT TIME THE DOCTOR GETS SOME MEMORIES BACK

The Gallifreyan medtechs that had worked on the Doctor's transformation had theorized that restoring his ability to regenerate could complicate matters. That the process had the potential to cause characteristics from the Timeless Child to re-assert themselves into certain incarnations. 

This finally happens after the sixth regeneration. Perhaps, because it's been quite some time since these memories have surfaced, it actually takes a while before they really start to set in. For a bit of time, at least, the Seventh Doctor doesn't seem to be recalling events from his previous life.

At first, he seems to be just getting clearer recollections of the last time the Timeless Child had been impacting him. That period where Susan was with him. Much of that time had become blurry for a while. But now things were clear again. 

He'd forgotten, altogether, about the arrangements he'd made with the Validium he'd freed from the Omega Vault. That it owed him some favors, now. During some unseen adventures with Mel at his side, he starts to engage with it again. Eventually, he causes it to accidentally crash to Earth during the 1800s. It assumes the identity of the Silver Nemesis during this time. It also confesses to Lady Peinforte everything about the Doctor's secret past. Perhaps it sees that allying itself with this woman might be the only way for it to finally acquire true freedom. Whatever the case, the Doctor does manage to retrieve the Validium and launch it back into space. Where it will orbit the Earth without ever being detected by human technology. However, its orbit is decaying and it will eventually return to the surface of the planet. Concerned about his patchy memory, the Doctor sets an alarm to remind him of the impending peril.

Seven also recalls his unfinished business with the Hand of Omega. He finally returns to Earth in 1963 to give it a proper burial. Only he's also going to use the Relic to lure the Daleks and Davros into a deadly trap. 

From time-to-time, the Doctor in this incarnation will make the vaguest hints that he knows he is somehow connected to Ancient Gallifrey. How much he truly remembers seems vague, at best. I doubt he knows that he was once the being that brought regeneration to the Time Lords. Or anything all that specific at all. He's just certain that he had some sort of life before his current one that involves the Old Times. His final encounter with Lady Peinforte helps to confirm this as she makes mention of it to him but never goes into the specifics of it all. 

Initiating his seventh regeneration seems to cause the scant memories he has of his involvement with the early days of the Time Lords to fade away again. However, it brings back something else buried in his past. The Doctor can now recall that he had a human life of some sort at one point. He can't quite completely remember his identity as Brendan, so he assumes that he must be half-human. He even knows that his mother came from Earth. His Dad, on the other hand, was the Time Lord. Like the single heart issue way back in the day, the regeneration even causes some of his old human biology to re-emerge for a bit. For instance, his eyes have the retinal structure of a human.  

And, again, all this fades away with the regeneration into the War Doctor. For several more incarnations after that, the Doctor is back to just being a Time Lord with no apparent memories of a life he may have had before that. He does, perhaps, regain knowledge of his human ancestry when he's the Twelfth Doctor. He has a vague discussion with Ashildr about it as they sit at the end of the Universe. 

THIRTEEN, AT LAST 

Shortly after Missy regenerates on the Mondasian colony ship (she knew, the whole time, that the laser blast from her former self was coming and made the necessary preparations), he starts hacking around in the Matrix, again. He makes the most shocking of discoveries as he does. It drives him so mad that he ends up destroying the Time Lords. 

The Doctor receives just a hint of what he's discovered during The Ghost Monument. The killer rag creatures that only attack at night turn out to be extremely powerful telepaths. They pick up the faint traces of the Timeless Child and see that she has no recollection of those experiences. They try to taunt her with that information. 

And then, she starts experiencing encounters with the Fugitive Doctor. They first meet in Gloucester during Fugitive of the Judoon. A second meeting happens a short while later. After the Master has revealed the Doctor's hidden past to her, the two different incarnations run into each other again in the Matrix during The Timeless Children. There's another brief discussion that they have through a mirror in Once, Upon Time. 

While combating the whole Flux Disaster, the Doctor actually amasses quite a bit of information about her life as the Timeless Child. She manages to hunt down her old partner, Karvanista and tries to get information out of him. The Mouri send her back into her own timeline and she experiences a crucial mission she accomplished for Division. Finally she has a major confrontation with Tecteun. Her adopted mother reveals to her that her starting to learn about her hidden past is what prompted the Flux in the first place. Division knows that, because she's become aware of them, the Doctor will do everything in her power to take them down. So they decide to scrap this Universe and move on to the next one.

Most importantly, the Doctor manages to recover the fob watch that Division created to store all the memories of her previous identity. Storm and Azure allow her a brief peak into it, but all she really sees is a big metaphorical construct. She does recover the watch from them, though, after the Embodiment of Time destroys them. 

With the events of the Flux now under control, the Doctor is alone in her console room with the fob watch in hand. Impulsively, she drops it down a chasm and asks the TARDIS to hide it from her. 

Unless, of course, she really wants to find it! 

THE WHOLE SHEBANG! 

... And, there you go! A more-or-less coherent timeline for the Timeless Child. Not only chronicling everything that we know about her life prior to her capture and transformation by Division. But also a discussion on the influences she has had on the Doctor's life after the Division altered her identity. 

A few important things to note: 

1) It really didn't take a whole lot of extra headcannon to figure this Timeline out. If you're willing to take a negligible amount of time to examine everything Chibnall presents about the Timeless Child, you can, easily, come to the same conclusions I did. This is not some over-convoluted incoherent idea that makes no sense. The facts are all there if you're willing to look for them. 

2) There are a lot of inconsistencies that present itself when you really start trying to pick apart the show's Lore. Nothing gets them to make better sense than the theory of the Timeless Child. 

I'm not just talking about the extra faces in Brain of Morbius. Some of the highly-contradictory stuff that gets stated in Season One. The Doctor only having one heart for the first six seasons. The Cartmel Masterplan. The Eighth Doctor being "half-human on his mother's side". All of them actually work just fine if you apply the Timeless Child to them. 

If, ultimately, you still want to take refuge behind the "Chibnall shouldn't have made such radical alterations to the Lore" dispute to justify your hatred of this storyline, then I guess I can't really argue with you. Although, I might still point out that the show has radically messed with its own Lore on several occasions, already. Why does this particular incident upset you?! 

In my mind, at least, the Timeless Child makes perfect sense. I might even argue that this is one of, if not, the best arcs the show has ever created.

How's that for fightin' words? 

Well, it's been a lot of fun to just write regular entries again instead of Season Reviews. I look forward to doing many more....