Or possibly Jane, the Unmarried Mother.
Yet mysteriously, when Clara entered the Doctor’s past in The Name of the Doctor, she supposedly met all of the Doctor’s previous lives…but none of the ones before Hartnell.
I think we’ll eventually learn about when The Doctor changed from being “The Timeless Child” to being “The Doctor.” I’m assuming the Time Lords did something to her to make her like all the other Time Lords and wipe out/block her old lives. We do know that they had to give Eleven more regenerations.
Except they didn’t, since the Timeless Child can regenerate endlessly. The Doctor thought he needed more regenerations, and given how secretive the Timeless Child was, the Time Lords probably thought he needed more regenerations.
I liked the newest version of the Master, but not the overarching plot.
But what I’m saying is that the Time Lords may have done something to The Doctor to restrict his regenerations to be just like all the others.
Update: apparently the Timeless Child is going over about as well with the Whovian fan base as the new Star Wars trilogy or Highlander 2. Repudiated Canon-level dissatisfaction.
Judging from that thumbnail, this isn’t “the Whovian fanbase” so much as it is “the same lot of loudmouth chuds who instantly loathe any production with a female protagonist that doesn’t give then an erection”.
If you haven’t watched the YouTube, I suggest you do. It is funny as heck and doesn’t focus so much on Jodie Whittaker as it scathingly indicts director Chris Chibnall’s decision to do the whole Timeless Children retcon.
The thumbnail is pretty damning to be honest.
While I’m not crazy about the specifics of the “Timeless Child” storyline, this is not the first time it’s been suggested that the Doctor may have had incarnations prior to Hartnell. During Tom Baker’s time, producer Philip Hinchcliffe deliberately dropped some hints that there were Doctors before Hartnell. Most blatantly in the story The Brain of Morbius (which RealityChuck mentioned above), where we see images of the Doctor’s previous incarnations–and after Hartnell, we see several more, unfamiliar, faces.
The fanwank has always been that those other faces were previous incarnations of Morbius (who was also a Time Lord). But that’s not really the way the scene plays.
See also the Cartmel Master Plan, which laid various hints in the 7th Doctor episodes that the Doctor was not an ordinary Time Lord, but instead had had adventures well before the Hartnell era Cartmel Masterplan | Tardis | Fandom
Those are good points. However. As a counterpoint, and I’m going on memory, the writers at the time, including Ben Aaronovich (who writes the book series Rivers of London, which I love) said they kept trying to do that but JNT kept saying no. What this means is that the writers would get a few interesting lines in here and there (I’m thinking Remembrance of the Daleks when the Doctor does say that they had good plans for the daleks, Ace looks at him confused and asks, and he says, “okay, them.” Basically walking it back.) but most of it was edited out. JNT kept stopping things like that.
I could be wrong but that’s how I remember it.
Thanks for the conversation!
Right story, but he was talking about the Hand of Omega (the stellar manipulator that Omega used to create supernovae to power the Time Lords’ initial temporal experiments). “And didn’t we have trouble with the prototype…”
“‘We’?” asks Ace.
“‘They’,” the Doctor corrects.
Supposedly there was a triumvirate: Rassilon, Omega and “the Other” whose name is lost to history. Hints were supposedly dropped of some connection between the Other and the Doctor. YMMV.
Ack, correct. Thanks for the correct, @CaptMurdock!
Yep, that’s when Ben A was writing for the show and wanted to make the Doctor the Other and kept trying to sneak those in but JNT wouldn’t let them.
I think Mad Norwegian Press did publish fan fic, basically, dealing with paradox and maybe the Other? I don’t have those books anymore to check.
Continuity was never Doctor Who’s strong point, especially in the Classic series.
Have the militant Who fanbase ever commented on the opening scene of Destiny of the Daleks, when Time Lady Romana regenerated five freaking times just because she was tired of her Mary Tamm incarnation?
Sure. It had the same explanation as the Doctor saying he was half human.
I don’t think those were multiple regenerations, just one that hadn’t “set” yet.
Having read a lot of classic Who behind the scenes and other books, not to mention the RPGs, things get jumbled in the ol’ brain. I say that because I remember reading that most Time Lords have more control over their regeneration and the Doctor was an anomaly on that. Case in point, the Master. He generally looked similar in appearance.
Not saying it’s canon just that I read it somewhere and it stuck with me.
You know, if they are ignoring that the Doctor is half human, then hopefully the can ignore all of the extra lives.
Judging by what happens in the newest season, that is what The Doctor intends to do.
Basically, it’s all true. The doctor lives in a multiverse, like Loki, and Spiderman, and the Arrow. Multiverses are all the rage these days.
Somewhere out there is a 'verse where Peter Cushing is the Doctor, or Richard E Grant, or Joanna Lumley.