Some rambling about the Timeless Child (spoilers)

[daibhidc]

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 We'll ignore all the paratext, like the fact he was officially stated to follow McGann, before that got superseded, or the implication in the EDAs that the robot Master's personality was a download of Bruce!Master from the Eye of Harmony.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.

Comments

[scarfman]

Where are you reading that the Shalka Doctor is justified by the Timeless Child retcon? I never saw anything suggesting that the retcon justified any Doctor but ones that already been supposed to come before Tetchy, like the Mindbender Eight. I saw the Mindbender Eight in the flashbacks Lighthouse gave Rainbows inside the Matrix, but I didn't see Shalka. Was he there and I missed him? Has Chibnall said something about Shalka I missed?

[daibhidc]

Nope, there's been no official statement of the kind. I was talking about fanon, not canon, and reading back I realise I completely failed to say so. I've edited the post accordingly. There was definitely a sentiment on Twitter and the DWM letters page that literally any Doctor could now be canon, including both Richard E. Grants.

[scarfman]

Okay, got it. Didn't mean to panic...

And yeah, I thought of several rationales for setting Doctor Shalka previous to Doctor Lighthouse just while I was pondering the question over the last twenty-four hours between my question and seeing your answer. But you're correct on your point (and would be regardless whether blessed by some supposed authority or not), such things could already have been done.

Now me, I like the Fugitive/Timeless retcon/revelation because it gives me an in-continuity face for the Doctor to, under my cartoons' paradigm, cross over with intellectual properties from before 1963. I realize my priorities may not reflect everyone's preferences or aesthetics.

I've been told Chibnall has been quoted to say he has an arc planned out. Maybe when you've seen it all you'll like it better.