By Incoming “Doctor Who” showrunner Russell T. Davies has confirmed that the controversial and divisive ‘Timeless Child’ story arc, which appeared in the recent iteration of “Doctor Who” under former showrunner Chris Chibnall, will remain canon under his watch.
Davies’ return is seen as something of a righting of the ship after the Chibnall era made some controversial choices including wiping out the Time Lords and a whole new story about The Doctor’s origins and the character’s much larger impact on Time Lord society.
In the storyline, which ran during Jodie Whittaker’s tenure as the Thirteenth Doctor and mostly came to light in the twelfth season finale, it was revealed the Doctor was actually from another universe and found as a child capable of infinite regenerations.
A rogue scientist used the child’s biology to experiment and was able to pass on the gift of regeneration (though not unlimited) to the indigenous Gallifrey species the Shobogans which soon established Time Lord society.
Ahead of the new 60th anniversary specials starting later this month, Davies spoke with SFX Magazine (via Screen Rant) and was asked if this new era will tackle the controversial reveal. He says there’s really only one bit of “Doctor Who” lore that’s mostly ignored by himself and other showrunners – one that occurred a long time ago now:
“Oh quite beholden [to canon], actually. I am very well-behaved in that sense… I feel completely free to make up my own stuff. But I think it’s very interesting that the only piece of Doctor Who lore that’s never been held aloft and run with is Paul McGann having a human mother.
None of us can deal with that. None of us cope with it, and its never been mentioned since. I find that really fascinating. That’s not a hint that I’m going to engage with it at all. It’s amazing, isn’t it? Everything else gets kind of absorbed.
Let’s stare that question right in the eye. I’m not going to unwrite my good friend Chris Chibnall’s work on ‘The Timeless Children’. I’m not going to deny what he wrote. I’m going with it. It’s absolutely fine. It’s canon, it happened. It was transmitted. You cannot unwrite things, that would be absolutely rude to a great colleague and a lovely friend.”
Prior to the Chibnall era, the Doctor’s origins were never really defined or focused on aside from Sylvester McCoy’s run which deliberately made his past a bit more mysterious and dark as part of the ‘Cartmel Masterplan’. However, that was abandoned when the original show was axed with the origin relegated to the spin-off novel “Lungbarrow”.
The post Timeless Child Remains Canon In “Doctor Who” appeared first on Dark Horizons.
