Doctor Who’s Timeless Child Retcon Rewrites the 20th Anniversary Special – Screen Rant

Doctor Who's Timeless Child retcon has subtly rewritten the 20th anniversary special, "The Five Doctors," adding a new layer of irony to the plot.

Doctor Who's Timeless Child retcon actually rewrites the 20th anniversary special. CurrentDoctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall promised season 12 would change everything, and he wasn't understating the case. The season 12 finale revealed the Doctor is not a Time Lord at all, but rather is the "Timeless Child," a being who may well predate the universe itself.

The retcon works surprisingly well with elements of classicDoctor Who, particularly some Tom Baker stories and the plans of script editor Andrew Cartmel in the 1980s. Yet, it causes a number of major continuity problems when it comes the modern relaunch, clashing with stories from the Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi era. As a result, the fanbase is rather divided about whether the Timeless Child is a good idea or not; it's probably best toreserve judgment and see what Chibnall builds on this foundation.

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The Timeless Child retcon also subtly rewritesDoctor Who's 20th anniversary story, "The Five Doctors." This was a multi-Doctor adventure unitingRichard Hurndall's version of the First Doctor, Patrick Troughton's Second Doctor, Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor, and Peter Davison's Fifth Doctor; production sleight of hand also allowed the show to incorporate Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor. The concept was a simple one: the Doctors, some of their key allies, and their oldest enemies had all been scooped out of time in order to participate in the so-called "Game of Rassilon." The man behind at all was Borusa, the Doctor's old teacher and Lord President of Gallifrey, who sought the prize of "perpetual bodily regeneration", i.e. immortality. In the end, it turned out this was all a trap set by Rassilon to identify any Time Lord psychopathic enough to believe they deserved eternal life.

"The Five Doctors" is widely regarded as one of the bestDoctor Who stories of all time; although the script is stepped in fan-service, it all serves a purpose, and the overarching narrative works perfectly. Curiously, though, the Timeless Child retcon adds another dimension to it. According toDoctor Who season 12, the Timeless Child has an unlimited number of regenerations, and it became the base genetic code for the entire Time Lord race. These proto-Time Lords - presumably including Rassilon - believed immortality was too dangerous, and they artificially imposed a cap on the number of regenerations a Time Lord could go through.

Viewed through the lens of the Timeless Child retcon, the entire Game of Rassilon is a deliberate trick on Rassilon's part. He believed future Time Lords could still seek immortality; they could potentially unlock this either by studying the Timeless Child or editing their own genes. The legend of the Game of Rassilon would distract any Time Lord who sought eternal life, leading them away from the Timeless Child, and thus into Rassilon's trap.

Here, of course, is the irony: when Borusa decided to claim the prize of immortality, he chose the Doctor as his pawn. He had unwittingly singled out the Timeless Child himself, the one being who possessed the secret of unlimited regenerations. Had he but looked at the Doctor, rather than at the Game of Rassilon, then Borusa may well have achieved his goal.

More:Classic Doctor Who May Have Revealed The Timeless Child's Fate

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Tom Bacon is one of Screen Rant's staff writers, and he's frankly amused that his childhood is back - and this time it's cool. Tom's focus tends to be on the various superhero franchises, as well as Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Star Trek; he's also an avid comic book reader. Over the years, Tom has built a strong relationship with aspects of the various fan communities, and is a Moderator on some of Facebook's largest MCU and X-Men groups. Previously, he's written entertainment news and articles for Movie Pilot.A graduate of Edge Hill University in the United Kingdom, Tom is still strongly connected with his alma mater; in fact, in his spare time he's a voluntary chaplain there. He's heavily involved with his local church, and anyone who checks him out on Twitter will quickly learn that he's interested in British politics as well.