Of all of the strikes made with Doctor Who in recent years, few proved as divisive as “The Timeless Kids”—the season 12 finale that noticed Jodie Whittaker’s thirteenth Physician face the Grasp on their homeworld, and uncover the reality behind the Time Lords’ origins. However as a lot as new eras of the present prefer to play with previous tales, incoming showrunner Russell T. Davies doesn’t want to mess with this story specifically.
“Let’s stare that query proper within the eye. I’m not going to unwrite my good friend Chris Chibnall’s work on ‘The Timeless Kids,’” Davies instructed SFX magazine in a brand new interview. “I’m not going to disclaim what he wrote. I’m going with it. It’s completely high-quality.”
“The Timeless Kids” revealed that the Physician was not truly a local of Gallifrey, however a mysterious orphan who discovered themselves despatched by means of a portal to the world, the place they encountered a local scientist named Tecteun. Discovering in a tragic accident that the kid had the flexibility to completely cellularly regenerate their physique when dealing with a mortal harm, Tecteun experimented on the kid till they might uncover a approach to splice the flexibility into their very own physique—creating the rise of the society that will turn into the Time Lords of Gallifrey as we all the time thought we knew them. And naturally, as a result of the Time Lords suck, they wiped these reminiscences from the Youngster and compelled them to re-regenerate to wipe the key from official file… just for that little one to develop into the particular person we all know because the Physician.
On the time, the story was so divisive the BBC truly launched an announcement from its complaints division supporting the inventive alternative. “We wholeheartedly help the inventive freedom of the writers and we really feel that creating an origin story is a staple of science fiction writing. What was written doesn’t alter the circulation of tales from William Hartnell’s good Physician onwards–it simply provides new layers and potentialities to this ongoing saga,” the assertion read in part.
“We now have additionally obtained many constructive reactions to the episode’s cliff-hanger. There are nonetheless a variety of inquiries to be answered, and we hope that you’ll come again to hitch us and see what occurs, however we recognize that it’s unimaginable to please all of our viewers all the time and your suggestions has been raised with this system’s Government Producer.”
After all, for a TV present that’s been round for 60 years now, Physician Who has consistently launched, undone, and redone tons and tons of what may very well be thought-about “canon” for a present that’s about consistently evolving and changing. Davies’ personal determination throughout his first tenure as showrunner to have the Physician orphaned by a devastating Time Conflict that worn out Gallifrey and the Daleks was retconned throughout the occasions of “The Day of the Doctor.” If Davies needed to return to that plotline and do one thing with it—or change sure parts just like the Grasp’s eradication of the Time Lords (once more!)—that wouldn’t be inconsistent with simply what Physician Who has achieved for many years now.
However would he must? The entire level of “The Timeless Kids,” even with this seemingly earth-shattering revelation, was that the Physician didn’t care they’d this entire background to unknown to them—they have been as a substitute freed by the thriller and concept that there was extra about themself to find, and carried on being who they’re within the second. As a substitute of questioning whether or not or not a brand new showrunner will come alongside and nix a previous story, possibly it’d be higher for followers to take an analogous step and simply… not get so wrapped up in what’s and isn’t canonized in amber.
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