This episode is certainly polarizing, almost entirely because of its big reveal. While disappointment and even anger are understandable responses to this canonical retooling, focusing on the Doctor's reconfigured backstory tends to overlook this two-parter's countless other flaws. So here's a handy list of just a few!
Ugh, right? Ugh. What a disaster of a season. What an insult to so many creative teams who came before.
- As usual, the companions are given precious little to do. After rewatching some classic Doctor Who, I understand better that Chibnall was really an old-school fan of longer, drawn-out serials with cliffhanger endings. He just doesn't comprehend that we don't need this sort of padding in episodic, modern Doctor Who. Every time the companions are on screen, they're running through the same three cycles: Don't give up hope! -- I've got a harebrained plan that just might work! -- It worked!
- The DOCTOR is given precious little to do. She shows up to confront the Cybermen, immediately fails and gets someone killed, is abducted, and barely says anything for two hours. The Master has at least twenty times as much dialog in "The Timeless Children" as the Doctor has in the entire series. Which is good, actually, since the Master is the only spark of life in this episode; he's having a blast.
- Let's examine how the Doctor "wins." She makes a halfhearted speech about sacrificing herself for her friends, in a moment that is supposed to be emotional but that falls flat. It comes off like she's begging someone else to say, "No, I'll do it for you!" or at least "Well, you're the only one who knows how to activate this deus ex machina, so go to it!" Instead, everyone mopes and she wanders off. She then confronts the Master but can't bring herself to do what she said she was going to do which was, as I understand it, to blow up a bunch of dead Time Lords. And then Ko Sharmus comes out in full view of at least twenty Cybermen, proclaims that he's going to destroy them as penance (?), tells the Doctor to leave, and grandstands as she runs off, deciding to let him kill himself in order to do the very same thing she said she was going to do but then decided not to do for reasons we don't know. At any point during Ko Sharmus's intervention, a Cyberman could have easily shot him in the face, as Cybermen are apt to do.
- Aside from scrapping huge portions of the Doctor's mythology, "The Timeless Children" also confirms that the Master wasn't lying when he boasted about destroying Gallifrey. Hey, great! Remember how good we all felt when Ten, Eleven, and the War Doctor combined their wisdom, optimism, and good-heartedness to save the planet from the Time War? Turns out it was all wasted effort. Funny thing is, Thirteen doesn't really seem all that upset about it.
Ugh, right? Ugh. What a disaster of a season. What an insult to so many creative teams who came before.