MovieChat Forums > Doctor Who (2006) Discussion > Two ways to retcon the Timeless Child

Two ways to retcon the Timeless Child

posted 4 years ago by [deleted]
5 replies | jump to latest

1. As the Master was the one telling the story via the Matrix, it's very likely that the Master was channelling Chibnall and LYING to the Doctor about her origin by manipulating it, so it would be easy to debunk that in a future episode. The Master has manipulated the Matrix before.

2. The alien being known as the Doctor now was most likely going by his/her real name beforehand and not using the moniker Doctor yet, not until he/she regenerated into William Hartnell and made his momentous decision to flee Gallifreyan society in a Type 40 TARDIS, so only THEN did he give himself the title of Doctor. The "black Doctor" could be before William Hartnell, but refers to "Doctor" so Whittaker's Doctor knows she is technically her.

Any problems with these two?

[–] peter_t_2k3 (957) 4 years ago

I have been saying that number 1 will happen probably at some point e.g. future show runner. It would make sense as you said the master lies and has manipulated the matrix before. It would also explain how conveniently some stuff was removed but not the timeless child stuff.

The only problem is that what would the master get from this. This makes me wonder if someone else could be manipulating both. What it Rassilon was behind it feeling betrayed so wanting to destroy gallifrey as revenge and knowing the master would be jealous of the doctor being this important. Maybe there is a timeless child but it's really the master.

I'm sure I read in the comics or something after hell bent Rassilon teamed up with the cybermen

[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Yeah Rassilon did and also manipulated the Matrix to get the Doctor to destroy the Divergence.

And yep as I said in another thread here the Master has manipulated it before : https://moviechat.org/tt0436992/Doctor-Who/5e5c22d7b10b792cf2417626/Series-12-was-good-until-the-end-contains-major-spoilers?reply=5e60dec4eddd2826504b25cd

Summary

The Trial of a Time Lord was a 14 part TV Series from December 1986 which has the Matrix, Master and Valeyard in it.

01: The Matrix was used to lie not only to the Timelord Council but the Doctor as well by The Master and Valeyard, 02: The Archive was wiped by the Doctor and 03: The repairs to the Matrix were done by the Valeyard. So this whole timeless child thing could be something that the Valeyard and Master put in there and is yet to play out, though the destruction of all at Gallifrey may mean not (though really don't think this is the last of the Master).

So yep Number 1 is very doable as The Matrix has been used before for nefarious means as we've said.

[–] ReelReviews14 (1030) 3 years ago

They don't even need to retcon, they can simply ignore it and say its non-canon. For example, the 1996 TV movie revealed that the Doctor is "half human, on his mother's side" and there was episode with the first Doctor where they clearly state he only has one heart. Neither of those "facts" were referenced beyond those particular stories. And a lot of this stuff is muddy, like if the classic Who UNIT stories took place in the 70s or 80s, and whether the Dalek's original humanoid race were known as Dals or Kaleds.

[–] NotoriousRio (12927) 3 years ago

Just ignore Nu Who, it's crap compared to the orginals.

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

No! You’re not the boss of me. You’re not even my real dad!

😭