BOOK OF LISTS - FIVE UNPOPULAR OPINIONS I HAVE ABOUT DOCTOR WHO

Five years. I can't believe I'm still writing this thing! More importantly, I can't believe people are still reading it! I've tried to do something a bit different to celebrate the anniversary every year. Admittedly, I'm running out of ideas! Here's a bit of an opinion piece for this one. It gets you to understand me a bit better. 



Having been involved with any number of fan groups over the years has made me some legitimate friends. Familiarity, as always, breeds just a little bit of contempt. Some of these fans who have genuinely gotten to know me a bit have given me a nickname: The Great Contrarian.

It's a suitable title. There are any number of Popular Fan Opinions that I openly disagree with. I don't just feel this way to be contradictory. I genuinely seem to go to the show for very different reasons than a lot of other people do.

There are, of course, some tastes that a lot of fans have that I do actually share. But there are many more that I just can't get my head around. I don't understand why fandom loves the things they do. Here are five of the bigger issues involving Fan Opinion that I don't particularly agree with (one for each year that my blog has existed!)


1: 70s Who Kinda Sucked   

Strong words, I know. I will confess: I wanted a title that grabbed your attention.

I don't think Doctor Who in the 1970s is completely horrible. But I do think it is the show at one of its lowest points. Whereas many fans consider this to be the Golden Age of the program.

I think the Jon Pertwee stuff is probably the worst. Season Seven is magnificent and I wish they had continued making the sort of stories we got during that period. But the show became horrifically paint-by-numbers after that. Which always strikes me as some pretty weak writing. And those of you that complain of the "preachiness" of Chibnall-era Who need to go back and watch the Pertwee stuff. We get end-of-story sermons (or even middle-of-the-story or beginning-of-the-story sermons) all over the place. I also didn't enjoy the screeching halts stories came to just so Jon Pertwee could tool around for a bit in a new vehicle he was dying to try out!

Yes, things got considerably better with Doctor Four and the Hinchcliffe/Holmes era. But I also think the era is a bit on the overrated side. There were some definite duds that we all seem to try to gloss over. The Android Invasion is one of the worst stories ever (seriously, who wears an eyepatch for three years and never looks under it?!). Aside from Sarah Jane's final scene, Hand of Fear is completely awful, too. But no one seems to want to say this.

Later Tom Baker stuff also seems to go a bit formulaic. The basic formula is that Tom just goes around and takes the piss out of everything he can. Never has the show mocked itself this much. Some of the comedy is legitimately blissful. A lot of it is really bad. Some even offensive (ie: Jewish aliens in Creature from the Pit).

Again, I don't completely despise this decade. But I find it to be pretty weak, overall. I'm a notorious "re-watcher" of the show. DVDs of 70s Who are the ones that go in my player the least.



2. Not  All Classics Are Classics

There are certain stories that fans seem to foam at the mouth over. Some I agree with. Others, I'm just not sure what the fuss is about. A few examples:


Caves of Androzani

Considered by many to be the best story of them all. I can agree with about 75% of that opinion. Those first three episodes are amazing. Particularly the cliffhanger of Part Three. But that final episode goes a bit pear-shaped. Right from the first few seconds where the Doctor finally seems to find retro-thrusters or something of that nature (it's never specified) - the "fix" seems pretty anti-climactic. Then we just move in to yet-another end-of-story slaughterfest that we see far-too-often in Seasons Twenty-One and Twenty-Two. I'm sorry, but you can't resolve a plot by just killing off 95% of its characters. You need to actually find a better way to end a story. And, for this reason, I can't quite love Androzani the way other folks do.


Genesis of the Daleks 

My God, do fans go nuts over this one! It has a great introduction, I'll admit. It's totally cool when the Doctor meets that Time Lord in dark robes and they talk about how evil Daleks are and all that. But, after that, this story develops a lot of problems very quickly. It's biggest being that it doesn't have enough plot to fill the six episodes. So we get lots of captures-and-escapes. There's the absolute worst cliffhanger resolution in the history of the show (Sarah on the scaff-holding). Davros seems to drone on for ever and ever in places that fans seem to see as "great monologues" but I see more as just padding. Having said that,  the Doctor's "Have I the right?" is a great monologue, yes.  But after so many bad writing choices, it comes across as too little, too late. I'm sorry folks. But Genesis works far better in theory than it does in execution.


Talons of Weng-Chiang 

Here's one that I really don't get. Some of the period drama of the tale is quite entertaining. There's a nice homage to the stories of Arthur Conan Doyle. But there's really not much else to this story. For the most part, it's kinda boring. Even the double-act stuff with Jago and Lightfoot seems forced. Again, there's not enough there for six parts. The ending also just seems to peter out. There's a bit of a gunfight and Tom Baker wrestles with an over-sized doll and then it's all over. The yellow-face acting is sooo painful to look at, too. Leela getting wet in a white slip is enjoyable, I suppose. But only to a certain demographic. Otherwise, I actually think this is one of the weaker stories Robert Holmes wrote. I would love to spend a day in the head of a fan who loves this to see what they see. Otherwise, I'm at a loss.




3. Late 80s Who Rocked 

It is very sad that Doctor Who died as the 80s reached their conclusion. But I can't agree with those people who claim the show was "at a creative low point" when it went off the air. In fact, I kinda want to punch fans who say that!

We're all aware of the "duds" of the 80s (Timelash, Time and the Rani etc...). But, as I just pointed out about the Hinchliffe period, every era has misfires. Late 80s Who had any number of strong stories and then quite a few amazing ones, too. The ratio of good-to-bad stories is no different from any other era of the show. If fans removed their rose-colored glasses of nostalgia, they would see this quite clearly.

I particularly hate how low poor 'ole Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy end up in the fan rankings because they were the Doctors stuck in those dying days. Both of them brought a great "edge" to their portrayals by exploring some of the darker aspects of the character. McCoy, in particular, nearly transformed into the monsters he was fighting. Giving the Doctor some teeth and making him both vindictive and manipulative are traits that carried over into New Series Doctors. Which speaks volumes of what Colin and Sly achieved.

What I loved best about late 80s Who was how hard it pushed the boundaries of the show and came up with television that was legitimately ahead of its time. Trial of a Time Lord, for instance, was doing one long story that took an entire season to tell way before anyone else was. It is now commonplace for shows to do this. But late 80s Who did it way back in ... well .... the late 80s! And I actually still don't think TV has caught up with the complexities on display during Season 26. A lot of that content required intelligence and sophistication from an audience that just wasn't ready, at the time, to think that deeply. And I'm not just talking about Ghostlight!

So why do some fans like to crap on those last few seasons so much? Well, they do have the right to complain a bit about Season 24 - there were some troubled spots, there (in its defense, there was a behind-the-scenes nightmare going on while it was being made!). But I think many of the complaints of this period have more to do with the fact that fandom works in cycles. Part of these cycles is to eventually become super-critical with a franchise. Don't get me wrong, in some cases, bad content is being made (I'm lookin' at you Disney Star Wars!). But, other times, I really do believe fandom just can't be satisfied. They have suddenly decided that only they know what's best for what they love. Like the only way things could be good is if they made the content themselves! Even though most of them don't work anywhere near the entertainment industry. 

Which leads me neatly to....


4. Chibnal-Era Who Also Rocked

I am almost tempted to do an entire entry on how baseless a lot of the criticism of these last two seasons has been (and I just might!). Seriously, a lot of fans are complaining without giving much thought to what it is they're complaining about!

Case in Point:  A friend of mine claimed after Praxeus that Chibnall was talking too much about LGBTQ culture. He was referring to the fact that two of the supporting characters in that story were in a same-sex marriage. Admittedly, if you're paying careful attention, you will also notice incidental characters in two other episodes mention they are in relationships with someone of the same gender. Because of this, he feels Chibnall is pushing an agenda too hard.

"You do realize," I responded, "That RTD had a bisexual character who was a companion for a bit and then became a recurring character. And Moff had a lesbian companion for an entire season. Compared to them, Chibnall practically looks like a gay-basher!"

And this is what I keep seeing about this era. You're entitled to your opinion, of course. You're even entitled to express it. But you should also realize that if you're opinion seems stupid - I'm entitled to tell you how dumb you sound! And a lot of what the fans have been complaining about has not been thought out very well before it was expressed.

I actually think Chibnall has done really well with both of his seasons. It made sense to make Series 11 about a lot of small stakes and fairly simple stories. This made the epic quality of Series 12 all the more heightened. And I do legitimately think that Series 12 is one of the best seasons the show has ever made in its entire 38 seasons-and-a-telemovie!

But, again, fandom has moved into the ultra-critical stage. Any recently-produced content is deemed terrible even before it has a chance to be properly watched.Which is sad, of course. Because it probably means the show is going to get laid to rest again.

However, since we're on the topic of unpopular showrunners....



5. JNT Was Probably The Best Showrunner Ever 

Technically, of course, his title was "Producer" back when he was in charge. He is, in many ways, the equivalent of a showrunner by modern-day standards. He didn't write any material like RTD, Moff or Chibnall did - but the Creative Buck still stopped at him. Just like the Head Writers of New Who, he was responsible for every second that we saw onscreen. As were any number of other producers before John Nathan Turner that many fans consider to be better.

In my opinion, however, I do really believe he did the best job of running the show. I'm almost reluctant to put this in print since I know so many will think this ludicrous. But JNT was all about trying to do new and different things with the format. Let's remember that I thought a lot of 70s Who was getting very tired. So John Nathan Turner very much came in like a breath of fresh air for me. He immediately got a better budget for the show. Yes, it still looked very cheap, in places. But it looked less very cheap than it had before!

What I liked best about this producer is how he really got out of the way of the writers and let them do their thing. Yes, that allowed Eric Saward to, perhaps, take too many liberties. But it was still cool how much he did his best not to stifle creativity. Instead, he tried to support it as much as he could by finding money and publicity for the show under rocks that most producers would never look. Because he actually understood that his real job was to do exactly that.  Let the artists be artists while he took care of the finances.

Was JNT perfect? Of course not! He made bad choices. Every producer did. But, even then, I loved how open he was to admitting to his mistakes. Some of the bad things he believes he did I don't even agree with (ie: Colin's coat is awesome - but JNT has admitted in several interviews that it may have been a wrong move). In many ways, I had great respect for the man for being so open about his fallibility. You can't learn from your mistakes if you don't own up to them. 

Of course, what I respect most about John Nathan Turner is how hard he fought for the show as it reached its final seasons. I don't think anyone would have held on as long and hard as he did. Particularly since he wanted to move on to something new but was aware that if he left Who that no one else was probably going to keep it alive. Rather than advance his career, he stayed where he was in an effort to keep breathing life into the series. That's actually quite noble of him.

And yet, he never seems to get the respect he deserves. Do people dislike Hawaiian shirts that much?! 


Well, that turned into a bit of a rant! Sometimes, you just gotta get stuff off your chest. What better time to do it than during an anniversary! 

Officially, the blog celebrates its anniversary on March 15th. Sorry this entry came a bit late. I've been experiencing some technical difficulties with my server. Hopefully, we can squeeze in one more entry before the month is over. And, if this pandemic continues, I'll have plenty of time for blogging during April!!   

Other Anniversary Specials: 

First:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/03/first-anniversary-special-something.html

Second: 
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/03/second-anniversary-special.html

Third: 
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/03/book-of-lists-top-5-one-time-only.html

Fourth:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/03/complete-and-utter-silliness-was.html

UNADULTERATED BOORISH OPINION: A SERIES TWELVE DE-BRIEF

Yes, yes, I know. I said I would get back to finishing my latest appendix to the Dalek timeline. I swore I was done discussing Series Twelve. But, really, Chibnall is giving us such an interesting show, these days. It's hard to not discuss what he's doing. 

If you look back, you'll notice I even did quite a few entries concerning Series Eleven. Something I was never doing before Chibnall took the helm. Those other guys were making some pretty good Who - don't get me wrong. But I really do enjoy what Chibbers (officially, the nickname I've given him) is doing and feel the need to make specific entries that discuss his work directly. 

At the time that I started writing this, it has been less than a day since I watched The Timeless Children for the first time (have already re-watched it, too!). This episode had more to live up to than most season finales. There were some really big questions that needed answering. Other season finales over the years have been known to occasionally fall a bit flat. Sometimes, the Head Writer has just built up so much expectations that it's impossible to produce a final episode of the season that lives up to them. In other instances, they have created mysteries that need solving and then don't give us thorough enough answers. 

Chris Chibnall, in my opinion, did not commit any of those sins as he finished up Series Twelve. The Timeless Children, as far as I am concerned, was magnificent. A very fitting conclusion to everything that he's been setting up this season. The changes he has made to established canon don't bother me in the slightest. This whole season is probably the best one we've gotten in New Who. It might even be the best season of Doctor Who ever. 

Having heaped on all this praise, I want to stress that this entry won't be a review (or much of one, at least). One of the things I liked best about Timeless Children was that it answered just enough questions that had been raised throughout the season. There's still a few mysteries left. Or things that need to be explained just a little bit more clearly. And I'm okay with that. It gives us something to explore in future seasons.  

What I am going to do with this entry is speculate on some of these issues. More than likely, these speculations will be totally wrong. So far, any predictions I've made about the Series Twelve Mysteries have been waaayyy off! I'm guessing that this tradition will continue as I try to anticipate what might lay beyond this current season.  

Do I care that I will probably keep being wrong about everything? Hell no! I am having far too much fun with this to give a damn about the damage it's doing to my credibility!  

PRE-HARTNELL DAYS AND THE QUESTIONS THEY RAISE

I really do love the fact that, in many ways, Series Twelve was just trying to get one little scene in Brain of Morbius to make sense! I'm sure that wasn't Chris Chibnall's only motivation, of course. But it was a beautifully fannish gesture. I'll have to retract what I once said about that particular scene in a FIXING CONTINUITY GLITCHES entry (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/08/fixing-continuity-glitches-quick-fixes.html) - but I don't mind!

I am totally okay with versions of the Doctor existing before Hartnell. I know some fans will be outraged and claim that this is just one more way that Chibnall is specifically killing the show. Such accusations almost seem to imply that this was only ever his idea and no one else's. Which then makes a Chib-basher look just a bit silly. Andrew Cartmel was totally weaving a similar plot into the show during its final seasons. He was just never able to finish the arc before the show was put on extended hiatus. 

As many people who approve of this concept have pointed out: the lore of the show needs to change direction from time-to-time. The fact that Cartmel was attempting this at an earlier time supports this quite nicely (technically, you can say that Philip Segal was trying something similar with The 96 Telemovie by claiming the Doctor was half-human). Chibnall was just giving the show what it needed. These alterations to established canon also give a more plausible reason for why the Doctor is different from all other Time Lords.  Something else that I feel really helps with the whole premise of the show.

However, some important questions do get raised by making this move. The biggest one being: Has the Doctor been immortal all this time? Did he, essentially, have nothing to worry about at the end of Time of the Doctor? Were the extra regenerations granted to him by the Time Lords a sham? 

What we've learnt, so far, of the Timeless Child is that she regenerates over and over without any limitation on those regenerations. Which would indicate that the Doctor did have nothing to worry about at the end of Time of the Doctor. He would have turned into Twelve even if Clara hadn't delivered her touching speech to a glowing crack in the wall. It even gets smaller inconsistencies - like the fact that Eleven could give River some regeneration energy to fix her hand in Angels Take Manhatten - to make sense. One would think that, on his last incarnation, he would have no more regeneration energy to give. But if he's been the Timeless Child all this time, then he would always have some of that energy lying around. 

It also gets how reckless Twelve has been with regeneration energy to make sense too. He gave some to Davros on Skaro and used some just to prank Bill when they were fighting the Monks' invasion of Earth. Perhaps, somewhere in the depths of his memory, he knows it's okay to do this. 

I would like to think, however, that the Doctor has been an actual Time Lord for the last little while and that the powers he/she has had as the Timeless Child were finally taken away just before the William Hartnell Days. Quite naturally, I will explain where this theory comes from.

THE BRENDAN MYSTERY WAS ONLY ANSWERED SO WELL FOR A REASON

One of the questions I see buzzing about the fan groups is: "I am still a bit confused about Brendan" (or words to that effect). I actually think the somewhat scant information we were given about him in The Timeless Children was the result of smart writing. Chibnall had a lot to cover in that final episode and realized the info dump had gotten big enough before delving too deeply into Brendan's full story. He gave us just enough info to understand that Brendan is, somehow, a previous incarnation of the Doctor. And that was all we needed, for now. A more extensive explanation will be given in the future.

We were supplied with several strong visual clues to indicate that there is something different about this particular incarnation. The biggest one being the shot of Brendan falling to his apparent death in Ascension of the Cybermen. That sequence was duplicated with the very first incarnation of the Timeless Child in the next episode. Note how differently things play out with this in the next scene. For the Original Timeless Child, she induces her first regeneration. But Brendan does more of a Captain-Jack-Style recovery. He just suddenly starts breathing again. The variation on how they recover from their death plummets seems quite intentional to me.

To me, it indicates that there is something very different going on with the Brendan incarnation. I believe that Brendan is part of a very complex Chameleon Arch conversion.

If you're trying to turn a Time Lord into something with a simpler biology like, say, a human - that's nothing too complicated. Just put on the silly hat that hangs from the TARDIS ceiling, writhe in pain for a few minutes and then: Boom! You're a human, now.

But to go from something complex like the Timeless Child to something almost equally complicated like a Time Lord is a more protracted process. One that seems to involve getting the Timeless Child to live the life of a human who is resistant to injury but still ages to death. As Brendan reaches the end of his life, the Time Lords can then execute the last part of the Chameleon Arch Conversion. This is what we see happening in "the back office scene" during the final two episodes of the season. This is not just a memory wipe happening. The Timeless Child is also completing the process of getting her biology re-written. She will regenerate into Baby Hartnell and grow up thinking she is now just a Time Lord. Her physiology will, quite naturally, confirm this.

Aside from a few fragmented memories, all traces of her past lives are gone now. She is, to all intents and purposes, a roguish Gallifreyan who pretentiously calls himself the Doctor. He will eventually go to the Academy and just barely manage to graduate. Whereupon he will receive various biological advantages that turn him into a true Time Lord. Ironically enough, he was the one responsible for first creating those biological advantages. He just no longer knows this because the Time Lords changed the nature of who he is and erased his memory in the process.

So, yes, Eleven would have died at the end of Time of the Doctor had he not been bestowed with a new regeneration cycle. Because now he is just a Time Lord. The immortality of the Timeless Child has been taken away from him.


THE RUTH DOCTOR TIE-IN

The big question is: why did the Time Lords choose to do this to the Timeless Child? What crime did she commit to get them this irritated with her?

Again, the answer is given to us if we're willing to look for it. In the season finale, we are shown a flashback sequence where the Timeless Child is being invited to join the Division. I'm guessing the Division will later come to be known as the Celestial Intervention Agency that first gets mentioned in Deadly Assassin. Alternatively, the Division might be a deep covert branch of the CIA. We can't say for sure, but I think it's safe to guess they are the same organization.

The Timeless Child accepts the offer and works for a while in the Division. She is, more than likely, an excellent operative. Sometime during her service, she induces a regeneration that gets her to become the Ruth Doctor.

The Ruth Doctor is given some sort of task by the Division that she can't quite stomach. She decides to quit. Of course, you can't truly quit the Division. You know too much and they would never let you return to a normal life on Gallifrey. So she has to hide. Another agent of the Division has also become disgusted with his work and hides with her. They steal a faulty TARDIS and hide on Earth for a while. Until, eventually, the Division catch up with them. The events of Fugitive of the Judoon transpire.

Naturally enough, the Division will apprehend the Ruth Doctor. She can only run away for so long. When the Division does catch her, they know they have to do something radical to get her to forget all the dirty work she has done for them. A simple memory wipe won't be enough. Or, perhaps they're so mad at her for what she did that they feel she deserves something worse than just being forced to forget this part of her lives. Whatever the case, the very complicated Chameleon Arch Conversion is first induced. The Ruth Doctor is changed into this strange unkillable human known as Brendan. He ekes out his existence as a human which can enable the second stage of the Conversion Process. Brendan is then transformed into the Hartnell Doctor.

It's entirely possible that the Division was so angry with the Ruth Doctor that they didn't even need to make the conversion so complicated. Perhaps they just wanted to punish the Timeless Child by turning her into a human for a bit before finally changing her into a Time Lord. From what we've seen, they certainly seem sadistic enough to do it.


SOME INTERESTING THREADS ARE GETTING TIED

So the real lesson we learn here is: don't piss off the Division! If you're an immortal being, they do have it within their power to take that away from you.

But if we're willing to dig a bit deeper, we can see that Chibnall has actually done some even more brilliant writing than we realize. He hasn't just answered the Question of the Timeless Child and gotten that scene in Brain of Morbius to finally work. He's reconciled, at least, two other continuity issues:

1) Those Matrix predictions regarding the Hybrid have become true. The Master with the Cyberium in his head and his merry band of Cyber-Masters are the combination of two warrior races. They stood within the ruins of Gallifrey. That's, pretty much, what the Prophecy said.

The Matrix strongly implied that the Hybrid was a single creature, of course. But, as they said in Hell Bent, the prophecy is fairly vague. Perhaps. because the Cyber-Masters do almost seem to be more of an extension of the Cyberium-infested Master rather than separate beings onto themselves, we can almost count them as being just one entity manifested in several forms. It's all pretty subjective. But the basic essence of the Prophecy of the Hybrid does play out in The Timeless Children. Which is pretty cool.

However, there is something even cooler:

2)  The idea of how the Doctor is half-human is also finally explained. He has just the vaguest memories of his time as Brendan still floating around. Which means he was, to all intents and purposes, a human for a while. Aspects of Brendan's physiology might even re-manifest themselves from time-to-time. Which is why the Master sees a human retina when examining the image of Doctor Eight. If you really want to dig deep, this may also account for the Doctor having only one heart during his first two incarnations. Another trace of Brendan.

"I'm half human - on my mother's side!" even makes a sort of sense. Brendan's adopted father does seem to be a Time Lord waiting for him to live out his life before torturing him in the back office. Whereas his adopted mother appears to be a human.

This second point, to me, is super-duper-ultra-mega cool. I'm not sure if this was all intentional on Chibber's behalf. But it just might be. Look at all the work he went to just to get Brain of Morbius to make sense. He might have also been working on the half-human issue at the same time. If he was, this makes him a pretty awesome writer.

Chib-bashers should take note of this. You may have severely underestimated this man's greatness.


JUST A FEW MORE QUESTIONS....

Okay, so I have tried to extrapolate and come up with some solutions to the mysteries Series Twelve has not fully solved. I do believe we will get fuller explanations in the days to come. Some of what I've posed here might even line up with what Chibnall will eventually reveal.

There are, however, two more points I wish to ponder:

1) I did absolutely love The Lone Cyberman. He was one of the most awesome villains the show ever created. To me, he was as great as the Cyber Leader in Earthshock. I don't say that too much about any villain.

I loved The Lone Cyberman so much that I was really sad to see he got killed. I was hoping for a return appearance some time down the road. I get why he had to go, though. It sets up the solution to the problem the Master creates with his Cyber-Masters. Is it just me, by the way, or did that final confrontation with the Master and the Doctor feel just a little bit like when the Doctor faced down Stor in Invasion of Time?

Probably just me!

Here's my real point: we may not actually be done with The Lone Cyberman. He is, most definitely destroyed - so he has no future. But his origins are still not entirely clear. Particularly since the "Brendan is Ashad" theory didn't ring true. We did get enough information on him that if he is never touched upon again, I feel satisfied. But might it be possible that we do get a story sometime in the future that looks more thoroughly into his past?

It may just get explored. There seems to be enough teases in those last three episodes of the season to indicate Chibnall is not done with him, yet. It would create some interesting conflict if the Doctor, somehow, finds herself meeting Ashad before his conversion (or, more appropriately, half-conversion). She knows she can do nothing to stop it happening. The future has already been written.

I think there is still more to come, here. Or, more accurately, I'm hoping there is more to come. I really do love that Lone Cyberman and need to see him again! 

2) The Master really does seem to be in a really inescapable situation. Is he finally done for? To this, I say: "The man got burnt to a crisp on Sarn and still lived to fight another day! He's coming back. He's indestructible - the whole Universe knows that!"

More than likely, he made it to another TARDIS lying around at the Citadel. The Doctor and the Dhawan Master will probably clash a few more times before Jodie bows out. I'm even hoping Dhawan keeps going like Ainley did and fights a few other incarnations after her. I think he might already be my new fave Master. He is so damned fun to watch!

The fact that the Master now has the Cyberium in his head does create some complications. Perhaps, after his escape, he starts having second thoughts about this decision. The Cyberium might even be trying to control him so he now wants to extract it. My guess is: our next Master story might bear some resemblance to Survival. Where the central thrust of the story is the Master trying to undo a process that has changed his physiology.

We'll have to wait and see. But I'm pretty sure the Master is far from dead. And I think Sacha Dhawan will be doing, at least, a few more turns in the role.




All right. Seriously, I am done with my Series Twelve speculations. I will get back to my real intentions, now. Some more Dalek stories will get reconciled. 

Oh wait. The Blog's anniversary is just around the corner. I usually do a special entry that day.... 

Damn it!  

UNADULTERATED BOORISH OPINION: A VAGUE GUESS AT BRENDAN

Once more, I feel the urge to speculate on another Series 12 Mystery. I really thought I was done with this sort of stuff and would just enjoy the last few episodes of the season. But I just can't stop! 


You will note that my last few speculative entries about what's been going on in this latest season of Doctor Who have all been POINTS OF DEBATE. This time, however, I'm making this an UNADULTERATED BOORISH OPINION. I'm not going to examine all the theories surrounding the character of Brendan from Ascension of the Cybermen, I'm just going to put forward a vague thesis of my own.


WHAT IS BRENDAN? 

For most of the week, I have not given a lot of thought to the Mystery of Brendan.I had just decided I would wait for the next episode to come along and tell me (as, no doubt, it will. It would be pretty silly to have this whole plot thread going on and not reveal how it relates to the main story). But I have re-watched Ascension of the Cybermen a few times, now. With each viewing, wondering who Brendan is ate away at me more and more. Finally, I got online and read several of the basic theories that are floating around about him. And then, believe it or not, I actually had a dream that I was watching the season finale and Brendan's origins were properly revealed. Some of that dream was quite surreal and made no sense - as dreams often do! But there were one or two ideas in that dream that had some genuine logic to them. I really do think that weird Id of mine might actually be on to something!

So, putting aside some of the bizarre stuff that my dream contained (which included the Master disguising himself in a suit of armor and the Eighth Doctor making a surprise appearance), here is the valid stuff that the backwaters of my mind produced:

There is a race of immortal beings that manifest themselves on various civilizations throughout the Universe. They have come to be known as Timeless Children. While it is impossible for them to die, they do actually live out a basic lifespan of sorts. They will age at the regular rate of the species they are living amongst. But when they, at last, die of old age - they will become a newborn, again, and live out another life. They do this over and over for all eternity.

In their earliest days, the Time Lords sought to extend their lifespan for as long as possible. They were able to slow their aging process down considerably. They could live for several centuries before reaching their end. But this still wasn't enough. They wanted to find even more ways to live longer.

The Time Lords discovered that these Timeless Children were out in the Universe and realized they could harness energy from them when they reached their time of renewal and use it to renew themselves, too. It is this energy that they steal from Timeless Children that enables them to regenerate.

Brendan is one of these Timeless Children. He ended up manifesting himself on Earth and continues to renew himself every seventy years or so. He has Time Lords following him along on a regular basis, leeching energy off of him every time he embarks on a new life cycle.


TIME LORD AGENTS

Ascension of the Cybermen allowed us to witness one life cycle of a Timeless Child. In this cycle, he was known as Brendan. He appeared to be growing up in early 20th Century Ireland. A Timeless Child cannot "die" in any other way except old age. This is why when he is shot and plummets off the side of a cliff, he isn't killed.

Two Time Lords infiltrated Brendan's life so that they could be present during his Time of Renewal and harvest regeneration energy from him. One posed as his adopted father, the other as a local police chief. The "father" pretends to find Brendan as a baby and raises him. We all notice how the police chief and the father don't appear to age much as Brendan becomes an old man. This is because they are Time Lords and their aging process moves much more slowly. When they take Brendan into the ominous back office and strap him into the machine, we are seeing the beginning of a process that will extract some of Brendan's life essence and use it for regeneration. The process will also erase Brendan's memory of the whole incident and he will renew himself shortly thereafter.

It's possible that Brendan would remember all his past lives if the Time Lords weren't exploiting him the way they were. But, because of what's done to him, he believes he is a normal human living out a regular life. It might even be possible that extracting regeneration energy from him causes him to live out a normal human lifespan with regular periods of renewal. He might actually be quite similar to an Eternal. Normally, he is ageless. But he has been altered by what the Time Lords do to him and must work within an ever-renewing life cycle, instead.


SEVERAL VARIABLES

How exactly the Time Lords use the Timeless Children is still a bit unclear to me. They seem to work in pairs when they do pursue one for their regeneration energy. I do believe that they are ashamed of what they do and have their memories erased after their stint with a Timeless Child is over.

Since some things are still very unclear, I will entertain a few different ideas:

Theory 1) It is, perhaps, possible that every Time Lord must spend some time following a Timeless Child. They actually have to get their own regeneration energy from them. The torture process we see at the end of Ascension might be enough to get twelve regenerations for both of those Time Lords. Or, perhaps, they have to do this a few times to get their cycles. It might even be possible that each extraction only gets one regeneration and they have to follow a Timeless Child through twenty-four renewals!

Theory 2) Alternatively, it might just be certain Time Lords that elect or are selected to pursue Timeless Children for a bit. They get a special reward for this term of duty. More than likely, it's an extra regeneration in their cycle. But they spend a few centuries of their lives following a Timeless Child along. They assert themselves into the life of a Timeless Child on a regular basis so that they can be present at their time of renewal. The energy the Time Lord agents extract goes into some sort of central storage system on Gallifrey and is dispensed to Time Lords when needed.

Either of these theories seem quite feasible to me. As I mentioned, the period that is spent with a Timeless Child is then erased from a Time Lord's memory once their term is over. But I do believe that certain Time Lords are in charge of administration and are aware of what is being done to Timeless Children but keep it a secret. They take care of the recruiting and training of Time Lords that do go out into the Universe and harness energy from Timeless Children. They probably do a few tours of duty, themselves - and then go into administration. It is my belief that Gath was one such Time Lord.


A POSSIBLE RUTH TIE-IN

If we adhere to the idea I put forward in Theory 2, it may be possible that the Ruth Doctor (still can't call her Doctor Ruth!) did a tour of duty collecting energy from a Timeless Child. That vision Thirteen keeps having is a vague memory of the Timeless Child she was assigned to.

Being the Doctor, of course, meant that torturing a Timeless Child was far too cruel of a thing for her to do and she was unable to accomplish her mission. The Time Lord working with her ended up feeling a similar level of compassion and they chose to flee from their responsibilities and hide on Earth.

This actually gets quite a bit of Ruth's Mystery to line up. The Time Lords recruit the Judoon to help find Ruth and Lee because the whole operation with Timeless Children is meant to be kept secret from the people of Gallifrey. So someone like Gath can be involved because she has pledged to maintain that secrecy. But it's best to keep other Gallifreyans out of the operation as much as possible.

Ruth will, eventually get re-captured. She might fulfill her duty and perform a stint of Timeless Child energy extraction and then gets her memory erased and is given an extra regeneration (If you'll recall, I claimed that an extra regeneration was the reward for performing such a duty). She turns into a young William Hartnell and lives a whole extra life without any memory of the Ruth incarnation.  This accounts for Thirteen not knowing who she is. And, of course, Ruth doesn't know Thirteen or what a sonic screwdriver is because none of these events have happened to her, yet.

The TARDIS stuff is about the only thing that still gets a bit wonky. I'm guessing Ruth steals a Type Forty to evade her duty as a Timeless Child Torturer and still retains just the slightest residual memory of this act. Which causes her to re-steal the same TARDIS when she was Hartnell (with a bit of guidance from Clara, of course). The TARDIS keeps getting jammed in a Police Box shape whenever it visits Earth in the 20th or 21st Century.


CONFLICTING RUMORS THAT STILL MIGHT LINE UP A BIT

There are, of course, several rumors circulating in regards to what will be revealed in the season finale. Some of these speculations could largely contradict everything I've just said. But they might not conflict that badly.

The biggest rumor is that we will learn that the Doctor is a Timeless Child, herself. If she is - why would she also be acting as a Time Lord who actually went out and tortured other Timeless Children?

If this is the case: we can take some of the theories I expressed in my last entry where I was theorizing (or "blindly guessing" might be a more accurate term!) about the Timeless Child and use them, here. You can look up that entry if you want, of course. Here is the link: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/02/points-of-debate-who-is-timeless-child.html.

It could be possible that there is still a single Timeless Child that makes a supreme sacrifice to keep the lights on for Gallifrey. Perhaps this Timeless Child discovered what was being done to their kind by Time Lords all across Time and Space and came up with some sort of process that would enable Gallifrey to leech off of just one Timeless Child and leave all the others alone.

Perhaps part of this Special Process of Ultimate Sacrifice involves the Timeless Child having to live out a life as a Time Lord, first. That Time Lord that they become is, of course, the Doctor. Who, by The Timeless Children, has definitely lived a full life and can make the Process of Ultimate Sacrifice complete. That shot we see in the Next Time Trailer at the end of Ascension where the Master says: "This is going to hurt!" could be the Doctor finally preparing herself for the completion of the process.

We don't know for sure what might happen after the Ultimate Sacrifice is made. Does the Doctor fade out of existence? Is she allowed to continue being a Time Lord but knows the truth of things, now? Will Gallifrey actually be restored in some way? And, most importantly, what is up with the Doctor and the Master wearing "floods"?!

Seriously, why do they both roll their pant cuffs up so high?! 




With The Timeless Children only a few days away, this will be the last time I write an entry like this for a bit. We'll go back to work on my Dalek Timeline next time I post in here. 

Still I must congratulate Chibnall. He has given us a season of Doctor Who that has really gotten us talking. I may even go so far to say that this might be one of the best seasons the show has ever produced. 

Strong words, I know. No doubt, any Chib-basher that's reading this is fuming over such a statement. But, to be honest, I'm getting quite tired of them. So I'm happy to cause them any grief I can!  



My other entries concerning Series 12 Speculations: 

Who is The Ruth Doctor? 
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/01/points-of-debate-who-is-ruth-doctor.html

Who is the Timeless Child?
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/02/points-of-debate-who-is-timeless-child.html.



Since I'm so pro-Chibnall, here's some other stuff I've written concerning decisions he's made:

A Female Doctor - Part One:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/07/unadulterated-boorish-opinion-female.html

A Female Doctor - Part Two:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/10/unadulterated-boorish-opinion-female.html

A Female Doctor - Part Three:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/12/unadulterated-boorish-opinion-female.html

And something about The Tsuranga Conundrum:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/05/unadulterated-boorish-opinion-was-it-so.html 

That's plenty of Chibnall Love to partake in should you so desire!  

CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES: THE HISTORY OF THE DALEKS CONTINUES SOME MORE - PART ONE

Quite some time ago, I took it upon myself to try to arrange all the Dalek stories in a linear order. It was, in fact, my first attempt at a CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES essay. In hindsight, I should have probably started with a species with a less protracted history - but I do love to bite off more than I can chew!

Still, if you haven't read my version of Dalek History and have some considerable free time on your hands, here's the first entry in the series:  https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/06/chronologies-and-timelines-tymecian.html. Just continue following the entries after that for another four installments!   

Of course, it's been quite some time since that series of entries was written. The show continues to produce new Dalek stories. So, from time to time, I take it upon myself to update things. A few years later, I took my first stab at an additional entry. Here is the link for that one:  https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/11/chronologies-and-time-lines-history-of.html.

More time has passed since that entry and more stories with Daleks in them have been made. Once more, I feel it's time for an update. 




Things will be a little trickier than normal to get the next few Dalek stories to fit in a proper chronological order. Unlike the Classic Series - where the Doctor seems to be all over the place in Dalek History, New Who Dalek stories are, for the most part, pretty linear. Almost every time we've seen the Doctor fight the Daleks in New Who, the latest story seems to be his most recent battle against them. With the exception of some his very first clashes (the Cult of Skaro stuff takes place before his visit to Henry VanStatten's bunker) his New Series encounters with his greatest enemy tend to line up quite neatly.

Since Magician's Apprentice/Witch's Familiar, however, (which is the last time we've updated the chronology) things have started getting pretty wonky. The Doctor has really started going up and down their timescale, of late. There even seems to be a full adventure involving a Dalek from before the Time War. Which is, pretty much, a first time for the New Series (I do hypothesize that when Eleven is captured on Skaro at the beginning of Assylum of the Daleks - he is in a pre-Time War period too - but the whole sequence lasts only a few minutes).

Since we are trying to keep things linear, let's tackle the most recent Dalek story first. This is the tale that seems to take place with a Dalek who never made it into the Time War.


ACTUALLY HAVING TO DO A RE-WRITE OF AN EARLIER ENTRY

At the time of writing this, Resolution is the latest Dalek story that we've seen. There have been a few other Dalek appearances between this Thirteenth Doctor tale and Magician's Apprentice/Witch's Familiar but - as I just said - transmission and chronological order don't line up, this time. Resolution actually goes quite a while back in the Dalek timeline. So much so, that I will actually need to adjust some text I have previously written.

Fortunately, the original text isn't too hard to locate. It's the first few paragraphs of the second entry I did on Dalek History (https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/06/chronologies-and-timelines-part-2-of.html). Just to make things easier, I'll cut and paste those paragraphs here:

"Having been forced off Skaro, the Daleks were roaming through the cosmos in two distinct versions.    The solar-powered Mark Threes probably stayed in space as much as possible but sent the Mark Twos down to various planets to be employed as occupation forces.    It's likely they attacked various worlds in this way.   The Mark Threes would form blockades around an alien planet so that other neighboring worlds could not assist in resisting the invasion.   And then the Mark Twos would go down to the surface of the blockaded planet to subjugate and plunder.  

            

Most likely, the Doctor in his Second Incarnation had several unseen adventures against the Daleks during this period.   Which is why the Second Doctor was easily recognizeable to the Daleks during  Power of the Daleks. From the Doctor’s perspective, he had these clashes against the Daleks sometime after his encounter with them in Evil of the Daleks.   

            

Of course, our space-faring Mark Threes were also into exploring the universe.   All kinds of scout ships were sent out in this era.   Not all of them came back, though.    One of those scoutships crashed on the planet Vulcan.  A planet that was eventually colonized by humans from the planet Earth.   The story of Power of the Daleks takes place.

There seems to be some controversy with the dating of Power of the Daleks..."

Just to lend a bit more context to the quote: I postulate at the end of Part One of the essay that Daleks hidden in the original bunker Davros was working in eventually emerged and brought the Daleks that had been living in the Dalek city back to life. So, basically, the Genesis of the Daleks Daleks came out of hiding and rescued the Daleks from The Daleks. Both factions then get kicked off of Skaro by the Thals. At the beginning of Part Two of this essay, they have started exploring space. Which leads us into Power of the Daleks. 

This is where the correction must be made. Between the events of The Daleks and Power of the Daleks, Resolution takes place. 

THE ACTUAL RE-WRITE

That third paragraph must now be modified to look like this: 

"Of course, our space-faring Mark Threes were also into exploring the Universe. Several different types of scout ships were sent out in this era. Some were piloted by just a regular group of Daleks. These usually only strayed so far from the Main Fleet. One of those scoutships  was sent off on reconnaissance and ended up crashing on the planet Vulcan.

For real Deep Space Exploration, however, a Special Recon Scout Dalek was employed. The Recon Scout worked alone. It was genetically-modified so that the Kaled Mutant was far more resilient and adaptable. The Mutant even had special abilities that regular troopers didn't. If needed, it could leave its shell and control the minds and bodies of other creatures around it. In many ways, a Recon Scout was near-indestructible. Which it needed to be since it was, oftentimes, isolated and working in harsh conditions. 

A Recon Scout Dalek does make its way to Earth sometime around the Ninth (or, possibly,  Tenth) Century. Upon its arrival, Humanity recognizes its threat potential. In fact, three rival armies band together to combat it. They manage to destroy the Recon Scout's outer casing and split the Mutant within into three pieces. Which are then scattered to the three corners of the world to be buried and guarded so that they can never be re-assembled. Unfortunately, things don't quite go according to plan. One of the guardians is shot down by thieves while still in transit to where he had intended to bury his portion of the creature.

The body of that third guardian is eventually discovered by archaeologists sometime around the year 2018. They brush away at the body til they find the pack he was carrying with his portion of the Kaled Mutant in it. On New Year's Day, 2019, they place the Mutant under a UV light. Which is all the stimuli that part of the Kaled needed to revive and summon the other two pieces of itself.  It then takes control of one of the archaeologists and uses her to rebuild its casing and summon the Dalek fleet to invade the Earth.

Fortunately, the Thirteenth Doctor, along with Ryan, Yaz and Graham, intercede in time to stop this.The Recon Scout is definitely destroyed by the end of the adventure as it gets dropped into a supernovae. This is the story of Resolution.

This is, of course, not the only time humans had trouble with Dalek scouts. On the next occasion, however, they were far more fortunate. It was not a Recon Scout Dalek that they dealt with - it was just a group of a standard Daleks in a crashed scoutship that they found on Vulcan when they began to colonize it. They were still quite deadly - as all Daleks are. But they represented a far lesser danger than the Dalek in 2019 did. Power of the Daleks happens here.

There seems to be some controversy with the dating of Power of the Daleks.... " 

From here, the regular wording of this entry can resume.


INDICATIONS OF A POST-TIME WAR DALEK

Having done all this work to claim that Resolution is a pre-Time War Dalek story, I will admit that some of what we see in the adventure does still hint that this is a Dalek from New Who rather than the Classic era. However, most aspects of the plot that indicate this are purely visual. Which means that they're quite easy to dismiss.

The biggest piece of evidence that points toward a post-Time War Dalek  happens when the Recon Scout re-builds his outer shell. Admittedly, it does look a lot like the notorious bronze-liveried design that only seemed to exist after the Time Wars. This is, however, highly subjective. All Dalek casings look quite similar. So the Kaled Mutant was just going with a basic look that happened to most resemble a Time War Dalek.

It may also be possible that when the Recon Scout was scanning the internet he found secret files that showed pics of Time War Daleks from one of their attacks on Earth. Wanting to look like the most recent model, he chose to go with that style.

Some might also point out that the drawings that were done of the battle with the Dalek in the Ninth Century also seem to feature the bronze-liveried version. Again, it's really difficult to tell if this is truly case. It's a hand-drawn picture of a Dalek - it could look like almost any model.




So, aside from a few visuals, this really does appear to be a story that features a Dalek from the Classic Series. From quite early on in their history, in fact. The backstory of Resolution could actually be the first time Daleks and humans meet. Yes, the proper plot of Resolution does take place in 2019: a time when there have already been several New Who Dalek attacks on Earth. But this is still a Dalek from way before the Time Wars. So the story fits in a very different place in the Dalek timeline.

The Recon Scout is attempting to summon the Dalek Fleet at the end of the episode. Had he succeeded, it would also been a fleet from way before the Time Wars. According to my own theories, the Daleks that survived the Time Wars are hanging around in the Fortieth Century and beyond. They might go back in time a bit now and again to attack Twenty-First Century Earth, but that is not their "natural" time zone. Any local fleet that might be reachable during 2019 would have been Pre-Time War - not Post.





Okay, Resolution has found its place in Dalek History. But getting it to fit was a more complicated process than expected. This entry has gone on far longer than it needed to. There are, however, two other stories since our last update that still need to be covered. We will look at where they might fit in this convoluted history in the next entry. 

Want to take a proper look at my Dalek History entries but don't feel like scrolling all the way back up to the top of the page? Here is the first entry again:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/06/chronologies-and-timelines-part-2-of.html
Keep following the posts after that to get the whole thing....

Here is the first addition I had to make: 
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/11/chronologies-and-time-lines-history-of.html

POINTS OF DEBATE: WHO IS THE TIMELESS CHILD?

Once more, I've decided to divert from my intended entries and deal with something that is currently going on in the series. For the last few weeks, we've been speculating to no great end about who the "Ruth Doctor" might be. But now, as the season finale approaches, we're wondering more and more who that Timeless Child is. I thought we should explore some of those theories here. 



Complain all you want about Chibnall, he's getting fans to genuinely talk about what's actually going on in the show more than any Showrunner has in a while. His teasing out of various mysteries and foreshadowing ominous developments has worked beautifully this season. Yes, some steadfast haters will keep saying the show has descended into absolute drivel, but is anyone really paying much attention to them anymore?!

The Timeless Child is really starting to take prominence in its two-season arc. Within a few episodes, it does look like the full mystery of who or what the Timeless Child is will finally be revealed. We probably won't get too many more teases during the weeks it takes us to get to that answer (more than likely, we won't get any at all), so it's pretty safe to properly explore the theories that are out there. 




THE ACTUAL CLUES

Before we really dive into the theories, we should examine the clues that we've been given. Since there haven't been a whole lot, it won't take very long.

The first time the Timeless Child is mentioned is in Ghost Monument. The killer rags (officially known as the Remnants - but, let's be honest, you wouldn't know what I was talking about if I used their real name) are circling around the Doctor near the end of the story, getting ready to throttle her. Somehow, the rag monsters can look into the Doctor's past and are able to see the Timeless Child. The Doctor doesn't know what they're talking about. The rags note that she has hidden the knowledge from herself.

Then we get the Master in Spyfall - Part Two, He confirms that knowledge of the Timeless Child is something the Time Lords have blotted from their memories. He goes on to explain that established Time Lord history is all a lie. He further adds that whatever happened with the Timeless Child was so horrible that it inspired him to destroy the Time Lords when he found out the truth about the whole incident.

The last Big Clue is a visual one. The Doctor finally gets a better look at the Timeless Child during the nightmare Zellin induced in her while he had his finger in her ear. She sees a young dark-skinned child standing before a futuristic-looking building in bright florid robes.


NOT THE DOCTOR

Many seem to be under the impression that the Doctor is, somehow, the Timeless Child. To me, this seems too obvious. But - since this is a POINTS OF DEBATE essay - I will get into those theories, nonetheless. But I will look into ideas about the Timeless Child not being the Doctor first as I do think this is more likely to be the case.

There is a theory running that Can You Hear Me? purposely re-introduced us to the idea that there are immortal god-like beings inhabiting the Doctor Who Universe for a reason. In just a few more episodes, we're going to discover that the Timeless Child - like Zellin and Ralkaya- is of a similar nature. A near-omnipotent entity who can live forever. She can be paralysed, imprisoned and even tormented - but she cannot be killed.

As the Master mentioned, something horrible went down with the Timeless Child. If she is one of these god-like immortals, then I see three viable options:

1) Something bad was done to the Timeless Child to achieve time travel:  Time Lord history speaks of how Rassilon and Omega secured the necessary power sources to make time travel achievable. But could it be that the those exploits were actually a failure? Or that, quite possibly, the engineers just decided to go with a shortcut? They still created propaganda saying that their experiments were a success. But, in truth, they chose a much darker path to reach the mastery of Time.

In our first scenario, they did something horrible to the Timeless Child to gain time travel. Perhaps, that mysterious Eye of Harmony actually has the Timeless Child trapped within it and they are constantly leeching energy off of her to sustain Gallifrey and all its technology. Or something of that nature. Basically, something nasty got done to that poor Timeless Child so that the Time Lords could achieve their greatness. It was deemed a necessary sacrifice.

2) Something bad was done to the Timeless Child to prevent a disaster: Similar to the first theory but not quite the same. Could it be that Rassilon and Omega's time travel experiments raged out of control and were about to destroy Gallifrey? The only way to stop this horrible fate was to, somehow, use the powers of the Timeless Child in some inhumane way that traps her for all eternity?

Equally so, it may not be time travel experiments that create this impending doom. It may have been something else. Or the threat might have been against the whole Universe and not just the Time Lords. Perhaps, the entire Causal Nexus was unraveling and sacrificing the Timeless Child was the only way to mend the problem.

In this scenario, the Time Lords are a little bit more sympathetic. To be cruel to the Timeless Child just so they can get time travel seems really ruthless. To use her to prevent a catastrophe is, at least, a bit more justifiable. Still pretty horrible - but you can almost rationalize the choice.

3) The Timeless Child struck an evil bargain: While a title like "The Timeless Child" makes her sound quite innocent, could it be the exact opposite? Might the Timeless Child be as malevolent as most of the immortal beings we've seen inhabiting the Universe (so far, only the White Guardian seems like a half-decent guy - everyone else is pretty rotten)?

In this scenario, Rassilon and Omega are, once more, struggling away to perfect time travel but can't get it to work. Along comes the Timeless Child who can give them all the temporal mechanics knowledge they need - they just have to make a deal with the Devil. They must do something horrible that will please the Timeless Child. If they do, she will grant them the powers they seek.



One of these three stories seems to be the most likely background we will get on the Timeless Child if she is not the Doctor. As usual, since we are only postulating, it may be possible that Chibnall comes up with something else entirely. The Timeless Child might still be an immortal god-like being of some sort - but she will not suffer any of the fates that I've just described.

Now on to what I feel is a less likely set of theories: 



THE TIMELESS CHILD IS THE DOCTOR

It seems to me that everyone who subscribes to the idea that the Doctor is the Timeless Child is convinced that the Ruth Doctor somehow ties in with this whole situation, too. It could be entirely possible that the Ruth Doctor is a tease for a later season (in the same way that the Timeless Child was first teased a season earlier). That we won't see her at all in the season finale, this year. But she will pop up again next season and have her origins explained. Jodie Whitaker has said she's on for one more season, for sure. Could it be that her replacement has already been cast and that an explanation will be given as to why the Ruth Doctor has no memory of being Thirteen?

At this stage, we have no idea how anything will play out. So, when dealing with "the Doctor is the Timeless Child" concept, I will always try to involve Ruth in the explanation. This seems to me what the fans want to see. So I guess I'll give you what you want! 

There are only two ideas in this instance that I feel are all that workable:

1) Ruth is the Timeless Child: This idea is now really starting to catch on since we've gotten a better look at the Timeless Child and she appears to be black. Many are now convinced that, because they are of the same race, the Timeless Child must be a younger version of the Ruth Doctor. But how does this actually work?

We will still use some of the concepts I already presented. But I will add a twist or two. Once more, Rassilon and Omega are having a tough time with things. Either they can't get time travel to work properly or a disaster is about to happen. Either way, the solution is to genetically-engineer a special Gallifreyan who will then have something terrible done to them to eliminate the problem. They will have to make some sort of horrific sacrifice that will either advance Gallifrey or even completely save it from disaster (or, again, this might be a threat to the whole Universe). 

This special Gallifreyan is, initially, given the title of the Doctor because she will heal Gallifrey's great problem. She is still allowed time to mature into an adult before her sacrifice must be made. Now the Time Lords are somewhat advanced by this stage. They, at least, have TARDISes (they're not that hard to build - the Daleks could make them even before they entered the Time Wars). As the Doctor gets closer and closer to her Day of Sacrifice (where she will lose her title as the Doctor and become the Timeless Child), she gets cold feet. She and another Time Lord she has fallen in love with run away in a TARDIS and hide on Earth. Eventually, she will be re-captured and forced to fulfill her destiny.

But, somehow, the Timeless Child is able to re-manifest herself as a Time Lord in the far-flung future. Once more, he gives himself the title of the Doctor. This time, he is able to live out a proper life as a Time Lord but still has something "special" about him because of who he once was. This would account for why Ruth Doctor and Thirteen don't recognize each other. Perhaps they both stole the exact same TARDIS but in different points in Gallifreyan history. Which may be why the TARDIS likes a Police Box exterior. She was first jammed in that form during the time of the Ruth Doctor. She re-assumed the shape as quick as she could when the Doctor stole her a second time. 

This origin story borrows slightly from an idea Classic Who first tried to do in its last few seasons. During that period, they were trying to establish that there was a sort of Holy Trinity on Ancient Gallifrey: Rassilon, Omega and the Other. Back then, everyone was convinced that the Doctor was the Other. While the answer was never given on television, it was revealed through a novel that the Other was a being who also re-manifested himself in the future as the Doctor. In this case, he did it through the use of a Gallifreyan Loom. The Loom theory is probably not workable in this instance since it has been pretty firmly established that Time Lords do not use Looms to reproduce, after all. But it could be that Chibnall really liked this whole concept and decided to do his own version of it. The Ruth Doctor will find some way to return in the future. It just probably won't be through Looms.

2) Thirteen becomes the Timeless Child: There is big talk that Chibnall is going to do a gigantic re-boot of the show. This theory works into that idea quite nicely.

Once more, Rassilon and Omega are having Big Problems (can't get time travel to fully work - need to avert a catastrophe). The Big Fix is merely that a Gallifreyan must sacrifice themselves in some way. Doesn't need to be anyone special - just someone. Rather than asking for volunteers, the two engineers just create a Gallifreyan in a gene-tank. They have purposely modified the clone to be compliant when the time comes to sacrifice herself.

Somehow, the Thirteenth Doctor makes it back to Ancient Gallifrey in time to see all this happen. That vision she is having of the Timeless Child is a full-on premonition. When the Timeless Child walks into the futuristic-looking building, her sacrifice will begin. Thirteen will be standing there, watching it all take place. The Doctor can't allow this to happen. So, since the process just requires a Gallifreyan to step in, she takes the place of the child.

This causes a bit of a re-set to the timelines. Because this is now a reality with a different Timeless Child than the one that was intended, it causes Doctors Hartnell to Whitaker to be an aborted timeline. We begin, again, with a new version of the Doctor and even a different version of Gallifrey (one that seems more militant). The Ruth Doctor is, essentially, the First Doctor. But in a new timeline. Perhaps, either by accident or intention, the Ruth Doctor crosses over into our reality when she goes to hide from her own people for a bit. Again, this gets quite a few interesting discrepancies to line up. This is why Ruth Doctor is in an older version of the TARDIS console room. The entire story is beginning anew.

Yes, Jodie Whitaker said she would be staying on for a third season. Could she have lied on purpose so we don't see this coming? Will Series 13 be a whole new version of Doctor Who for us to explore with a completely re-booted Doctor?

Anything's possible. Chibs might just be that bold....




And those are all the theories regarding the Timeless Child that seem genuinely feasible to me. They rely mostly on things we have learnt about her rather than diving into super-fannish theories like: "The Ruth Doctor is a secret incarnation from Season 6b" (no offense intended towards people who do believe this - it just doesn't seem that likely to me). As always, I admit that all of these postulations might be entirely wrong. Or, perhaps, half-right. In just a few short weeks, we'll have a clearer idea. 

Can barely wait...   


Want to know my theories on the Ruth Doctor? Here they are: 
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/01/points-of-debate-who-is-ruth-doctor.html

ANALYTICAL: THE DOCTOR'S COMPLETE AND UTTER LACK OF RESPONSIBILITY

Now that we're done speculating on the Ruth Doctor, we can get back to the entries I had originally planned to write. This is one of those topics that's so big that it spans both the Classic and the New Series. 




THE DOCTOR'S FALLIBILITY

The Doctor is a hero. I'd go so far to say that he/she is one of the greatest heroes in modern fiction. The character frequently embodies all the better qualities of human nature: intelligence, compassion and a desire to settle problems in the most peaceful way possible. That's just a few positive traits that immediately come to mind when I consider the Doctor's strengths. There are many more.

Having said that, the Doctor is also extremely fallible. When we look past all the heroism, we see that the Time Lord can actually be really irresponsible. There is a recklessness to the character that has persisted throughout the entire show. The consequences of that recklessness are demonstrated on a regular basis. In this entry, we're going to examine a few of the more common ones.

Let's start with the biggest weakness of them all:




A LOVE OF QUICK FIXES:

With a few notable exceptions (ie: staying on Trenzalore for several centuries in Time of the Doctor), the Doctor doesn't hang around too long after he's put a problem to rest. He tackles the greatest evil that's causing upheaval in a society and then gets the Hell out. Leaving the supporting characters he's met in the story to clean up the smaller details. He can't be bothered with a whole lot of follow-through on the solutions he presents. He's far too impatient and wants to move on. "I do hate goodbyes." he has claimed on many occasions as he slips away quietly from the people he's saved. But that's just a flimsy excuse. His real motivation is that he lacks persistence to see the changes he's initiated through to their ultimate conclusion.

While this doesn't seem like something too irresponsible, we have seen some nasty fall-out from such an attitude. The Doctor makes many visits to contemporary Earth, of course. We can see that the quick fixes he has made on that particular planet during that era have often gone without much of a hitch. It may even be that the frequent adventures he has there gives him the opportunity to make little clean-ups along the way.

Quite often, when the Doctor makes a return visit to other places he's "fixed" - we see that a new problem was created from his solution. The complications from that first visit are not, necessarily, minor either. In fact, they are frequently quite huge.

Peladon is a great example of this. During his first stop, the Doctor helps the planet get admitted into the Galactic Federation. Hepesh, the High Priest of the Royal Court at the time, believes that this will be a bad move for his people. When the Doctor returns fifty years later in Monster of Peladon, the High Priest is proven right. The miners on Peladon are being pretty badly exploited. If the Doctor had hung around and tried to help negotiate Peladon's admittance into the Federation - this might not have been such a big problem. But, instead, he and Jo run off. Admittedly, it might have proven complicated to stick around after the real delegate from Earth arrived. Since the whole adventure was, technically, a mission for the Time Lords - he might have even been getting pushed out of events on purpose now that he had accomplished what was wanted from him.  But there's still a whole lot of people that ended up suffering because he didn't stay.

While the Doctor is often on contemporary Earth, his less frequent visits to the far-flung future of Humanity illustrate this idea even more thoroughly. Stories like Face Of Evil - a sequel to an unseen adventure that he had in his fourth incarnation  - presents a massive mess that the Doctor created by trying to fix the computer of a colony ship. The computer develops schizophrenia and manipulates the destiny of the colonists aboard the space vessel in the most horrific of ways. How long did the descendants of those colonists live in a wild disarray because he didn't bother to see how his repairs on the computer went?!

There are even stronger examples of this in still other Future Earth Stories. When the Doctor visits a human/Monoid colony ship fleeing their doomed homeworld in The Ark, he accidentally re-introduces the common cold to them. When he returns by accident some centuries later, he sees the long-reaching impact the virus had on the social structure between humans and Monoids.

The Doctor is even more horrified to see what his visit to Satellite Five accomplished in The Long Game. Removing the Jagrafess from his seat of power created a complete breakdown of society that he discovers a century later during Bad Wolf. He openly admits that he is the cause of this huge mess.

In all of these instances regarding Earth in its future, there were no Time Lords pushing him around. He could have, easily, stayed just a little bit longer to see what the impact of his changes might be. But, as usual, his wanderlust got the best of him. The people he was meant to be "saving" endured some heavy consequences because of his hastiness.

The Doctor's love of the Quick Fix might be his greatest downfall. There are so many stories that don't have follow-ups to them that might also illustrate the fact that his inability to stay just a bit longer after a problem is eliminated might be creating far greater negative consequences. Who knows, for sure, how many people have been hurt by his "help"...


HIS GENERAL IMPULSIVENESS

What the Doctor does as a story nears its conclusion isn't the only problem Quite frequently, he makes crucial decisions at the beginning or middle of an adventure that create some pretty serious complications, too. If he had put some legitimate thought into some of these decisions we might almost be able to forgive him. But, quite frequently, these choices are made completely on a whim. This is another great flaw to the character. He can be very impulsive, sometimes. This might be okay in every day situations. Suddenly deciding to go for ice cream after a hearty dinner might not cause a whole lot of trouble. But, when lives are at stake, he really should curb that impulsiveness a little bit more.

Oddly enough, some of the "umbrella-themed" seasons during the Classic Series illustrate this point best. How the Doctor behaves at the beginning of The Androids of Tara during the Key to Time saga borders on the outrageous. Here he is, tasked with the saving of all of Time and Space, and he decides to take a day off to do some fishing! Yes, in some ways, the White Guardian forced him into the job. But that's still a pretty damned irresponsible thing to do when the whole Universe is at stake! Could he not have stopped and thought for a moment about this and delayed the fishing trip til after the segments have been recovered?

There's a very succinct moment during Trial of a Time Lord where we see that notorious arrogance that the Sixth Doctor relishes get in the way of a crucial decision. Deep into the Mysterious Planet story, we start seeing evidence of the Matrix being censored. Both the Doctor and the Inquisitor express great alarm over this. The Valeyard tries to fluff it off. The Inquisitor actually suggests that the Doctor lodge a formal protest over this so that the "bleeped"sections of the Matrix can be seen by everyone. Had the Doctor taken the offer, his whole trial would have been brought to a quicker and more successful close. He does appear to think the offer over for a moment. But his air of pensiveness is clearly a facade. He turns the offer down as a means of baiting the Valeyard. So confident is he that he will win his case that he doesn't feel the need to investigate this strange corruption of the evidence any further. It is a crucial decision that he makes simply because he's in a cocky mood.

Other things happen in the umbrella seasons that show us more aspects of the Doctor's fallibility. Trial of a Time Lord, in fact, explores quite deeply the idea that the Doctor's very presence in events can set forward all sorts of disasters that might not have happened had the TARDIS never brought him there. And the Doctor makes, perhaps, the biggest most impulsive decision of his lives at the conclusion of the Key to Time. He has been clearly told by the White Guardian that the Key will be needed to set the Universe right. And yet, as he realizes the Black Guardian is trying to get the artifact from him, he re-scatters all six segments and installs a randomiser into the console so that he can't be followed. He could have just as easily fled the Black Guardian and delivered the Key to the White one, but he decides to take this much more radical option. It all seems very spur-of-the-moment too. It's entirely possible that this rash decision had the most drastic of  consequences (see what I speculate about the ending of the season here: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/06/fixing-continuity-glitches-what-hell_19.html.)

There are other instances in the Classic Series that also show off this penchant for impulsive decisions that lead to something bad (ie: lying about a fluid link so that he can investigate a city full of Daleks or turning the power back on to his lab during Inferno and getting sent to a parallel universe during a crucial moment). But, as I said, the umbrella seasons seem to display this best in Old Who.

As we enter New Who, the Doctor doesn't seem to have learnt his lesson. Important choices continue to get made based purely on the mood he was in at the time. How much easier might it have been for the Doctor to deal with the Daleks during the Series Four finale if he had followed the instructions of the Shadow Proclamation? But he decides, purely on a whim, that he should handle the problem on his own and leaves his back-up behind. Or how about the way he avoids the summons made by the Ood at the end of Waters of Mars for as long as possible? Another situation where the entire Universe is at stake but the Doctor decides he wants to party instead!

Since we're talking about the Ood, let's move on to the Third Greatest Trait of the Doctor's Irresponsibility. His involvement with this race of telepaths exemplifies it clearly.



NOT BOTHERING TO PURSUE CERTAIN INJUSTICES ANY FURTHER BECAUSE HE JUST DOESN'T FEEL LIKE IT

This idea relates to the famous quote that may or may not have been made by Edmund Burke: "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing."

The Doctor loves his Quick Fixes, yes. But, sometimes, after he's finished one, he definitely sees that there are further injustices that need to be investigated. But he doesn't bother because it would get in the way of him having fun and exploring the more pleasant corners of the Universe. This is, perhaps, his greatest measure of irresponsibility: He allows certain evils to continue to flourish purely because he doesn't feel motivated to fight them anymore.

As I just mentioned, his encounters with the Ood are an excellent model of this. When he first meets them in Impossible Planet/Satan Pit, it's clear they are being exploited in some way. The humans using them claim the Ood enjoy being enslaved but it's pretty obvious this is probably a myth. More than likely, a company that is profiting from the sale of Ood slaves is the one propagating this "fake news". One would think the Doctor, a hater of injustice who brings fair play to the Universe, would be investigating something like this more deeply the moment he's finished defeating Satan.

But he doesn't. He arrives, quite by accident, on the Ood Sphere nearly two seasons later and sees how horribly they've been mistreated. It's a bit like the return visits he makes to Peladon or those future Earth colonies. In those instances, however, he sees the far-reaching effects of his actions. This time, he's seeing what his inaction has caused. How many Oods were lobotomized because the Doctor just didn't feel like checking into them more thoroughly?

We see far broader examples of this in the way he handles his greatest enemies. The Daleks and Cybermen are both species who are truly beyond redemption. No matter where you find them, they're up to no good. To allow them to flourish is, in many ways, a crime against the Universe. And yet, just like the Ood, the Doctor tends to only deal with them in the most haphazard of manners. Should he run into them accidentally, he'll fight them. Rarely does he seek them out to consciously defeat them.

To put this in clearer terms: imagine a convicted serial killer escapes prison. All kinds of tests were done on him while he was in jail. He is clearly psychotic and will go on killing if he achieves freedom. Sure enough, the serial killer breaks into a home in the middle of the night and starts torturing and killing various family members living there. A police officer on a routine patrol notices something unusual going on in the home and investigates. He hears cries of help from the family as he approaches the front door and forces entry. He pulls a gun on the serial killer and scares him off. The murderer flees into the woods behind the home.

"Go after him!" his surviving victims plead, "We'll call for emergency services ourselves!"

"Nah. It's okay." the officer answers, "If I run into him again, sometime, I'll deal with him then."

That's, roughly, how the Doctor is acting with Daleks and Cybermen. He just lets them go when he really should be taking a more active stance against them.

The same can be said for the Master. Part of what first gave me the idea for this essay was that moment near the beginning of Fugitive of the Judoon where the Doctor admits that she is actively searching for the Master. I thought to myself: "Why is she only doing this, now? The Master is always up to no good! She should have been seeking him out ages ago rather than letting him rampage through the Universe causing God-knows-what kind of damage to it!" 

Admittedly, it was difficult for him to do much about the Mater during a good chunk of his third incarnation. They clashed several times but the Doctor could do little to pursue him since he was stranded on Earth serving an exile. But he does know that the Master will strike at Earth on a regular basis. And yet, he doesn't set up his "TARDIS sniffer-outer" (as Jo so eloquently put it) until quite some time after their first battle during Terror of the Autons. If we count seasons of the show as representing about a year in the Doctor's life (unless otherwise specified), then he doesn't set up a proper way of detecting the Master's arrival on Earth til about two years later!

When he does, eventually, earn his freedom, he treats the Master the same way he handles Daleks and Cybermen. If he runs into him by chance like he did in, say, Frontier In Space, he'll do something about it. Otherwise, he can't be bothered.

The only time he actually starts taking some responsibility with his arch nemesis is during Series 10. Sure enough, he actually manages to get Missy to seriously consider "going straight". How many centuries did the renegade Time Lord cause untold damage before finally being properly captured and taken into the Doctor's care? How much could have been prevented if the Doctor had decided to do this sooner? 


IS HE ALWAYS SO IRRESPONSIBLE?

There are periods of the Doctor's life where he does seem to take better responsibility. Interestingly enough, the Sixth and Seventh Doctors both seem to grow up quite a bit. Look at what prompts the Doctor to visit Thoros Beta during Mindwarp. A warlord from a nearby planet admits he's receiving advanced technology from the Mentors to assist him in battle. The Doctor takes it upon himself to pursue this and put it to an end.

The Seventh Doctor goes even further as he springs into existence. I just said how irresponsible it was of him to not actively pursue the Daleks and Cybermen through the Universe and try to stop their plans. During stories like Remembrance of the Daleks and Silver Nemesis, he does exactly that. In both of those tales, he purposely sets traps for his greatest foes and comes pretty close to wiping them out completely.

There are still other stories like Happiness Patrol. In this tale, the Seventh Doctor purposely visits the planet Terra Alpha to take down a corrupt regime that is being run by the villainous Helen A. He doesn't stumble onto this troubled society by accident. He is already aware of the tyranny that exists on that world and goes to it with the intention of bringing it to an end. And he manages to pull it all off in one night!


DOES HE NEED TO BE SO RESPONSIBLE?

Am I actually putting too much on the Doctor's shoulders with these claims? Does he need to be so responsible? Shouldn't he just be allowed to travel the Universe and have fun?

He's from one of the most advanced races in the Universe using one of the most sophisticated of vehicles. That has granted him certain privileges. One might even say, it's given him great power. And, as the old slogan goes: "With great power comes great responsibility". So, yes, I do feel he should be a bit more reliable and consistent than he usually is. He's been granted gifts that most of us don't have. He should be using those gifts for a greater good than he does.

A lot of it, I feel, has to do with how all his adventures first began. He stole a TARDIS to explore the Universe. A pretty big act of irresponsibility in itself, really. He could have stayed on Gallifrey and lobbied for it to become more involved in the affairs of the Universe or even joined the CIA. Or similar actions of that nature. But, instead, he robbed from  his own people and just, sort of, accidentally became a hero as he developed a stronger sense of morals and decided he should do something about the people who violate them. Can we expect much consistency from someone who really has led the most haphazard of existences?!


DO I ACTUALLY HATE THE DOCTOR?

I'll admit, I have been saying some pretty negative stuff about this guy. One might almost think I'm just trying to shoot down everything he does. I'm not, of course. But I am trying to play Devil's Advocate a bit and point out that he is, in many ways, a very flawed hero.

The truth of the matter is: I love the Doctor for his flaws. He does many great things and there is much to admire him for. But, because he also makes mistakes, he becomes more accessible. If we want to get really sappy, his fallibility makes me believe that someone as wildly inconsistent as I am might also be capable of doing great good. In many ways, this might be the most important message of the whole show: Regardless of our frailties, we can make a difference. 





And ... there we go: the entry I meant to write before this whole Ruth Doctor business came along. Hope you didn't mind me casting so much aspersions on the Doctor's character!!