#i'm not sure how but i do know susan still got off gallifrey and she's doing okay

[secondtolastart]

been watching classic and thinking about a roleswap au lately

[shebeafancyflapjack]

I have a question for you as a current viewer of Doctor Who. Do you think that the Timeless Child plot is a good twist, or just a way to continue the show indefinitely? I keep up with Doctor Who but I haven't seen any since Ten, so i'm curious to get opinions from more dedicated viewers.

I’m still processing it, to be honest.

I don’t think it’s terrible. It’s nothing that really knocked my socks off either but I do think it’s…interesting. I was rolling my eyes a bit at first but the more it sat with me it didn’t feel like that big a deal. Like Ruth said, it doesn’t really change who our Doctor is as a character because she only remembers who she is for only a bit longer than the audience has.

There are going to be people complaining how it ruins the ‘mystery’ of who the Doctor is and who the Time Lords are but, to be honest, it’s been almost sixty years - I think you need to shake up the lore a bit and the thrill of any mystery has run dry. Especially with how Moffat and RTD would ‘tease’ these big reveals and almost never deliver almost out of fear of upsetting the status quo. Chibnall clearly gives no fucks and part of me admires him for that, at least. And the mystery of who the Time Lords are hasn’t really been a thing since the War Games aired - every appearance after that painted them as arrogant twits in silly capes which has remained the same. If anything they just become more douchy each time they come back. Part of me is kinda relieved the Doctor isn’t really related to them!

I’ve seen some folks are miffed that it makes the Doctor into a ‘Chosen One’ archetype. I don’t quite see that. We don’t know who her parents are or what race she is from. For all we know, she could be like Rey was in TLJ - just a nobody from her own race that got abandoned. The ability to regenerate was magic for the Shabogans but, for her own people, it might have been totally normal. She was experimented on, horrifically, as well as killed and brought back all so the ones raising her could gain her immortality. I compared it to Mother Gothel stealing and keeping Rapunzel for her hair and I stand by that. And the Time Lords don’t ever seem to be grateful to the Doctor for giving them this gift; she isn’t made into a Queen or a God - they brush it under the rug like a dirty little secret. I actually find this all incredibly dark, tragic and interesting.

And it adds as much mystery as it takes away. How many of the great Time Lords we met in previous eps were aware of who the Doctor was? Was it a secret lost to the Matrix and mixed up with their own mythology? What is the Doctor’s real home planet and race? Why was she abandoned? These are all really fun things for fans to theorise about and play with…However…

I wouldn’t want searching for the answers to those questions to become the new arc of the show. Remember the whole ‘find Gallifrey’ arc that went nowhere? Yeah, not that again please. Just have the Doctor continue going on adventures and being free to explore. If she stumbles across more answers, cool, but nothing really has to change.

My one major niggle is still with Ruth because if they are implying that she is pre-Hartnell then there is no reason her TARDIS should be a police box. One person suggested the Doctor’s memories were altered and it was always like that; nah. It’s Susan who says, in AUC, that she has seen it change shape before and notices it’s stopped working. Also I’m sure we see it in its basic form when Clara directs One to it. So Ruth MUST be post-Hartnell…maybe Season 6b? I dunno. They’re surely going to go more into that next season. And we better see Jack and get our Doctor/Captain hug or so help me!