#Tecteun

[theheroheart]

There was a lot of things I loved about that episode, and roughly a billion references to older canon, but I'm always gonna hook onto the weird obscure stuff.

Specifically the shit about the Guardians.

Cause yes, on-screen we've had the White Guardian (order) and the Black Guardian (chaos). Yes they have birds on their heads don't worry about it.

But like he says, THERE IS PLAY. Because there's also sources saying that the Celestial Toymaker is the Crystal Guardian. Dreams and imagination, another dimension of the universe. (It's never great for the universe when any of these guys show up in physical form.) The Toymaker himself claims that he and the other guardians are Great Old Ones from the pre-universe.

(Google "rassilon omega and that other guy" to find the source for this, a deeply comprehensive timeline of the entire whoniverse.)

WHICH IS EXTRA INTERESTING given you then get this line from the Toymaker:

Note that there are no guardians of the spacetime dimensions. The "Guardians of Time" refers to Black/White, and possibly the others.

You may notice the Doctor is also on this list, as the Red Guardian of justice and morality. Which is all I could think about for this:

((PS: This also ties in with the slightly more bonkers theory that the Doctor is themself a Great Old One, specifically Nyarlathotep. There's basis for this in some books, but that's a whole nother thing.))

Given the context we now know from the Timeless Child being reaffirmed, there's just something meaningful about "THE Time Lord" in connection with the Toymaker and the Guardians.

Especially given several accounts say the Great Old Ones were from the previous universe, and were the equivalent of Time Lords in that universe.

Which ties really interestingly into Tecteun's claim that the Doctor was from the next universe, and wanted to go there with them.

So anyway yes the Doctor is a traumatised lil bean just trying their goshdarn best.

And they're also a "face concealing a vastness that will never cease" like the Toymaker.

Cause that's also the show. A vastness that will never cease.

[intuitive-revelations]

A Long Watsonian Discussion on the Death Particle, the Genetic Explosion and the Fate of Surviving Time Lords and Hybrids

Been having some thoughts about the Death Particle retcon RTD seems to have done (though it is still unclear exactly what caused the "genetic explosion", the Death Particle seems to be the likely culprit).

So remember, in The Timeless Children, we were led to believe the Death Particle would wipe out all organic matter on Gallifrey. I don't think it was ever explicitly said, but it was implied that the Master and some of the CyberMasters survived by jumping into the Matrix at the last moment.

Now it's implied that it ended up killing surviving pure Time Lords all over space and time. The Rani survived by having temporarily modified her genome (presumably via Chameleon Arch?). The Doctor's survival, given this new effect, is less clear, but could be justified either via their nature as the Timeless Child and thus arguably not a pure Gallifreyan (if at all, depending on how their link to the Timeless Child works), or if we take another perspective, by being a half-human hybrid. Meanwhile, those with partial Time Lord DNA were instead 'merely' sterilised. We're slightly stuck with the question of how closely someone would have to fit to being a Time Lord (especially if we throw in the genetic differences between those of the first rank and those who don't go through the Academy), but for the sake of this, let's assume everyone under the modern Gallifreyan/Time Lord genetic pool is impacted, since this does seem to be implied by the Rani. Technically, it could be more of a biodata / temporal thing, but being called a genetic explosion implies it's more DNA-based.

At first I thought this might have been a plot hole with regards to Tecteun in Flux, who obviously survived the explosion. But there's a few possible explanations for this:

Having gotten her DNA modified seemingly directly from the Timeless Child, she may not be exactly as standard "Time Lord" as others. If she's "in-sync" with the Doctor and Gallifrey, having lived through all of Gallifreyan history, this would make sense, as it would imply having regenerated way more than twelve times.

On the other hand, if she's not in-sync, then she might also be saved by being from earlier in Gallifrey's timeline, since the Death Particle clearly wasn't retroactive, wiping Gallifrey from all history (unless we do theorise the sterility effect is somehow linked to the original sterility thought to be from the Pythia's curse). This could also justify the Division members guarding Swarm, though it also wasn't confirmed that they were Time Lords, so the question might be moot.

A much easier explanation, however, is that she was saved by already being outside of the universe, since it's clear the Death Particle didn't effect all of reality.

In fact, the universe and timeline criteria can make things quite ambiguous. From what I can tell, it seems likely that any pocket dimensions / alternate universes are safe, though TARDIS interiors do not seem to be distinct enough. Meanwhile, I'm generally assuming most people the Doctor interacts with to be in-sync in terms of their timeline and Gallifrey, even when this becomes comparatively meaningless (with characters who are fully/part Time Lord, but have no connection to Gallifrey themselves).

This does also lead us to the question of the fates of other surviving Time Lords, Gallifreyans, and hybrids:

Donna / the DoctorDonna - may have been protected by her memory suppression. Obviously wouldn't have been killed, not being a full Time Lord, but could technically have been rendered infertile? This doesn't have a noticeable effect, mind you, given her age and having already had Rose by this point.

Rose Noble - technically contained part of the metacrisis. Again this could have been suppressed, or just so minimal as to not have an effect, but it's also possible that she'd be rendered infertile too. (On the other hand, again probably not that noticeable, given she's trans and has been medically transitioning.)

The Master - technically integrated into the Cyberiad, so could be considered a hybrid (plus the Master's no stranger to messing with his DNA), though I doubt this would have effected his genetics. A better answer would be that he was protected by being in the Matrix and thus technically in a pocket universe at the time the Death particle activated, as I said. He may or may not have dodged infertility as a result. If he can be gotten out of the tooth form the Toymaker put him in (assuming he didn't revert already when the Toymaker's influence faded), then he might be Gallifrey's best hope.

Jenny - Jenny's fate is a bit ambiguous. It's still unclear if she's fully Time Lord, given she didn't immediately regenerate following being shot, so she may be part human. But even disregarding that, if the Doctor survived via not being fully Gallifreyan, either via human or Timeless Child DNA, then it makes sense Jenny would too. It is quite likely she will have been effected by infertility, though. (Though given the ongoing arc with Susan I wouldn't be too surprised if she came back and there's some logic to explain why she's not, and she ends up being Susan's parent?)

Susan - again ambiguous. If she is a direct descendant of the Doctor and/or the Other/Timeless Child, then she may inherit the same protection. It is worth noting that her biological son Alex was much more than half-human, suggesting she may well not be a full-blooded Time Lord either. If she's unrelated to the Doctor, but still Gallifreyan / a Time Lord then it's more questionable how she would have survived. There's also the same timeline issue as Tecteun, where we don't know exactly what her true Gallifreyan "present time" is, but at this point I assume we can consider her a present day Time Lord, even if she was actually from the distant past or the future.

(Obviously no-one will take this seriously, but since I've just been writing about them, I will throw out there that if John and Gillian a) are real, and b) are alive, then they fall into similar ambiguity).

Metacrisis-Ten - this one's fairly easy. He obviously survives via being part human. He could have been rendered infertile (though again, EU stories with him suggest he's already had kids with Rose - though who knows if those will still be canon if that was Rose last episode). However, it is very likely he's protected just by being in Pete's World.

River Song (+ other Silence hybrids) - Another dubious hybrid, but quite likely to have been effected by the infertility effect? This doesn't exactly mean much given we know she's never had kids. A far bigger question would be how on Earth her timeline can possibly be synced to Gallifreyan relative time. I'm inclined to say that, relative to the Doctor's / Gallifrey's timeline, she is best considered dead at this point, inside the Library, so any other question of the effect of the Death Particle on her is moot.

Romana - if she's even alive, the last we heard of her she was in a pocket dimension, so if she's still there she will have survived. She likely wouldn't be sterile either. However, we also have multiple possible post-Romana II incarnations from all over the War in Heaven and Time War (Tomb of Valdemar, Romana III, Trey, Time Fracture), so who knows which of those, if any, exist in the current timeline. Time Fracture might be the best evidence for Romana eventually being released, given it's a) an official BBC / New Who attraction, and b) shows them present around the final days of the Time War, but if so, it ironically probably dooms them to death either around that time, or via the Master or the Death Particle.

The Monk - We know quite explicitly the Monk survived the Time War. Unfortunately, this does mean that they are very likely to have been one of the casualties of the Death Particle. I wouldn't rule anything out, and maybe, depending on timeline logic, he could have survived in the time he was Chameleon Arched to survive the Time War, but it's not looking good for him.

Braxiatel - We're less certain if Brax survived the Time War, especially given his most recent appearance in Gallifrey: Time War, though this did leave open the possibility of one version of him having escaped to another timeline. One reading of Big Bang Generation could also be read to imply he survived, but it's more likely that this is pre-Time War / Benny-era Brax who is referenced. If he did survive, he's another possible victim. I personally always liked to headcanon that he was on Gallifrey during Hell Bent, being the one who helped Twelve get reinforcements, but this isn't canonical. Brax's fate is especially open right now - he could be safe in another universe, he could have died in the War, or he could have been killed by the Master or the Death Particle. I actually think he is one possible candidate for "The Boss" of Beep the Meep and the Time Hotel, especially the latter given his history with the collection. He is also exactly the sort who'd want someone to pass on greetings to the Doctor. It would be a wild pull for RTD, but maybe not that crazy given previous finales (plus I did literally just say the words Beep the Meep!).

Rassilon - Here's a significant one. Rassilon we know was almost certainly not on Gallifrey at the time of the Master's destruction, due to being exiled by Twelve. I wouldn't put it past the Master to have hunted him down, but there's no evidence of this. Technically he also at one point became integrated into the Cyberiad, during Supremacy of the Cybermen, but this was erased from history, presumably leaving him out there somewhere at the end of the universe. This does however mean he's another likely victim of the Death Particle.

Omega - Obviously, Omega survived and is implied to not be effected by the genetic explosion. This is almost certainly due to being in the Under-verse, and this seems to be the Rani's assumption at least. It could also be linked to his evolution, or whatever has happened to him in that universe.

Other hybrids? - It is likely there are other hybrids out there, even just by specialised soldiers created during the Time War or War in Heaven. See also folk like the Special Executive. While such survivors are likely to be few, it's likely than many who were still around would likely have been killed being still on Gallifrey, but any in the wider universe would likely have been sterilised, if they weren't sterile already (after all, biologically speaking sterility is common in cross-species hybrids, though this isn't always the case, and especially not in Doctor Who or other sci-fi/fantasy).

But on the bright side...?

If the Death Particle did not do as predicted, and was instead targeted closely on Time Lords throughout space and time, then Gallifrey itself may not be as barren as originally thought. Sure, any surviving Gallifreyans would have been killed, but other life on the planet may have survived. This includes natural flora and fauna that survived the Master's devastation, but could potentially also include things like Houses or other TARDISes. Granted it's implied the Doctor's TARDIS is the only one remaining, but this is unlikely to be the case, given the one Thirteen escaped in during The Timeless Children, as well as the Master's. There's also multiple pieces of TARDIS coral out there, including in Pete's World.

Maybe, if I'm wrong and the scope of the Death Particle didn't stretch to every modern Gallifreyan, then there might even be some surviving Shobogans and Outsiders out there? Again, this is unlikely though, as this would seemingly diminish the Rani's entire motive, even if she was just being classist, given all Gallifreyans start out that way genetically. On the other hand, if they did survive then it's possible they were later cyber-converted.

Speaking of which, I will also add that if organic life did survive on Gallifrey, then this is a big boost to one of my theories while we watched Flux.

Remember that red planet Bel briefly visited while looking for Vinder?

Not only did it have red rocks and grass, but also two suns and an army of Cybermen occupying it. I theorised from a trailer clip that it might be Gallifrey, but was a bit more sceptical while watching once we saw the plant life, even if the Cybermen fit really well.

But now we know the Death Particle didn't do exactly as predicted, it does leave open the possibility that other life on Gallifrey did indeed survive, meaning that theory could be correct!

As with the rest of my discussion, there's still the question of whether this is feasible given Gallifrey's time zone. Last we saw it, it was at the end of the universe, but the Master implied it was back in its pocket universe when he destroyed it (which, if true, kinda harms the logic used above regarding which universes / dimensions were effected), but there's no gurantee that this is still the case. Plus Gallifrey is kinda weird temporally anyway, given the transduction barrier etc., so maybe even if it is technically in the far future, Bel could still have accessed it from her time. Who knows. The theory's definitely still a lot more feasible now than it was when I first watched the episode.

[jodie-whittakers-suspenders]

Doctor who textposts part 5

[supernova049]

Before the finale airs, I want to make a shotout

[ssaalexblake]

Michelle K.

[claraoswalds]

When the Time Lords kept their eye on everything, you could hop between realities, home in time for tea. Then they died, took it all with them. The walls of reality closed, the worlds were sealed. Everything became that bit less kind.

[welshie100]

TYING TOGETHER THE DETAILS OF THE FIRST DOCTOR’S EARLY CHILDHOOD

(I recommend clicking the GIFS if you want to watch them from the start as even off screen they continue)

While Chibnall was the first to explicitly confirm that the Doctor is care experienced (an umbrella term for foster care, adoption, kinship, residential care, special guardianship) he wasn’t the first to introduce that idea.

In the Series 8 episode Listen written by Steven Moffat, the TARDIS went to the early part of the First Doctor’s life, when he was a young boy sleeping in a barn he’d ran to outside of the Capitol, and was visited by two unseen people.

With how the Woman calls the place that the Doctor had run away from a house and refers to the children living there not as the Doctor’s brothers but as the boys, this implies that the Doctor was living in a children’s care home, and those two people who came to him were likely the care workers of the house.

With what this care worker says, it might’ve been a military orphanage he was living in. That could be what all orphanages on Gallifrey are like which wouldn’t be surprising, or that care worker was just forcing his own interest onto the Doctor and the other children.

Either way, the glimpse we saw of the First Doctor’s childhood was paralleling what we saw earlier in the episode of Danny Pink, who lived in a children’s care home as a boy with an interest of the army.

The Doctor having been in a children’s home fits perfectly with what Reinette said after glimpsing the Doctor’s childhood, because feelings of loneliness are common for those who grow up in care homes.

How the First Doctor ended up in the home, I think that could be answered by what the Ninth Doctor said in The Empty Child.

I think after Tecteun mind-wiped and force regenerated the Doctor into a baby boy, she dumped him at the doorstep of the children’s home. And whether Time Lords are natural or machine born, she fabricated a birth record so he believed he had been born like everyone else. To add, I doubt the Doctor is the only Time Lord and Division Operative to have been reset because of no longer aligning with Division.

We know from multiple references that the First Doctor had a family and a family home.

“Well, when I was a little boy, we used to live in a house that was perched halfway up the top of a mountain” - 3rd Doctor, The Time Monster

“I was with my father, it was a warm Gallifreyan night” - 8th Doctor, TV Movie

“Have you got a brother” - Martha
“No, not anymore. Just me” - 10th Doctor, Smith and Jones

“But of course it’s meant to be the Doctor’s mother. That’s certainly what I’ll tell the production team. Euros knows it already. David, too” - RTD in The Writer’s Tale about the Woman in The End of Time

“Sisters. I used to have sisters” - 13th Doctor, Arachnids in the UK

“I had seven, but grannie five, my favourite, used to tell me about the Solitract” - 13th Doctor, It Takes You Away

This means that the Doctor wouldn’t have been in the children’s home for his entire childhood. Some time before he went to the Academy, he was either fostered or adopted by a family who lived in the house perched halfway up a mountain.

Some fans say that the Doctor not being from Gallifrey means that the Woman in The End of Time can’t be the Doctor’s mother. But I think what they mean by that is that she can’t be his birth mother, but there’s no issue with that. Whether the Woman was the Doctor’s adoptive or foster mother, that doesn’t make them less of a mother, a mother is mother no matter what kind, the scene and the intent still has the exact same impact as it had before, a mother helping their child in their time of need. My mother (adoptive) would go to the ends of the Earth for me, and I her. And I think it’s better that she wasn’t his birth mother because it means we haven’t seen one of two people who are the reason for the Doctor’s existence, adding to the mystery of their identity and origins.

And some time after being adopted or fostered, the Doctor goes to the Academy, graduates, has a family of his own as a father and grandfather, then for multiple reasons decides to run away from Gallifrey with his granddaughter Susan and the rest as they say is history.

[olympain]

All those lives.

[dandelionjack]

it really does all go back to ARE YOU MY MUMMY. meme phrase earworm do what you want with it, but through the empty child/the doctor dances, steven moffat created a microcosm of every theme and character motif explored in all of subsequent nuwho, everything the show would become.the original. the prototype. nothing will ever be that two parter nothing will ever measure up to it. defined the show. instant KO

[evviejo]

thirteen's era appreciation: 564/?

[couldnt-think-of-a-funny-name]

next episode should have tecteun reviving from the dead just because she's insulted that the rani doesn't know who she is

[twisted-tardis]

It wouldn’t be the worst if this ends up happening but I feel like the need to connect female villains together makes it seem like writers can’t just let women be villains on there own, they need to have a connecting factor rather than just be a villain in their own right. I’m not sure if I’m articulating this correctly but it just feels weird.

[buildoblivion]

[wykart]

Dark coat

[wheelybard]

The doctor saying they're adopted, and having trouble not mentioning their mum was a bitch.

[mndvx]

DOCTOR WHO: FLUX Chapter Five: Survivors Of The Flux (S13E05) directed by Azhur Saleem | written by Chris Chibnall ››› Jodie Whittaker as The Doctor ››› Barbara Flynn as Tecteun