daibhidc | Some rambling about the Timeless Child (spoilers) (Reply)

Nearly five months later and I'm still not sure how I feel about the revelations in "The Timeless Children". However one thing I'm absolutely baffled by is the [ETA: fan theory] idea that all non-canon Doctors can now be explained as one of the forgotten incarnations. I am a huge supporter of "It's all canon" in general, but I don't see how "Timeless Children" makes it any easier.

Let's look at Shalka!Doctor, for example. We'll ignore all the paratext, like the fact he was officially stated to follow McGann, before that got superseded, or the implication in the EDAs that the robot Master's personality was a download of Bruce!Master from the Eye of Harmony. What does the story itself say?

Well, for one thing, there's a a robot Master. Regardless of how that happened, it must be after the Doctor met the Master. Oops! The Doctor met the Master at the Academy, and the Master knew nothing of the Timeless Child incarnations until recently. So that doesn't work.

Secondly, there's UNIT. Now, to be fair, the word "UNIT" never actually appears. But the Doctor is on speaking terms with UN Command, and isn't surprised when Major Kennet knows him by reputation. This is a Doctor who remembers UNIT.

And, obviously, the Doctor shows no sign of either working for the Division or being on the run from them. This is the major stumbling block, IMO -- the Timeless Child concept opens up space for a huge number of previous incarnations, but also establishes a status quo for such incarnations that doesn't apply to any actual non-canon Doctor.

Now don't get me wrong; with a good headwind and some handwaving, you could explain all that away. But you always could.