History Recap / DoctorWhoS38E10TheTimelessChildren

The one where the fandom collectively owes Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe an apology and canon is changed drastically.

The one where the fandom collectively [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainOfMorbius owes Philip Hinchcliffe an apology]] and canon is changed drastically.

The one where the fandom collectively [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainOfMorbius owes Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe an apology]] and canon is changed drastically.

The one where the fandom collectively [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainOfMorbius owes Philip Hinchcliffe an apology]] and canon is changed drastically.

* The Doctor states that she had fought the Matrix before and denied its reality. The Fourth Doctor previously entered the Matrix to locate the Master after the Time Lord President was assassinated, and was forced to fight against the Matrix, which was manipulated by Chancellor Goth, in "The Deadly Assassin". The Sixth Doctor had also entered the Matrix after following the Valeyard and had to deal with the Matrix and its reality, in "The Ultimate Foe".

** The Master echoes the Lord President's words from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]": "For Gallifrey! For the Time Lords! For the end of the Universe itself!"

** The Master echoes the Lord President's words from "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS30E17E18TheEndOfTime The End of Time]]": "For Gallifrey! For victory! For the end of the Universe itself!"

** The Master attempts to goad the Doctor into detonating a genocidal super-weapon by telling her "Become me". A very similar conversation took place between the Dalek Emperor and the Ninth Doctor in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays "The Parting of the Ways"]].
** The episode closes with a "cold case" division of the Judoon arresting the Doctor, calling back to [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E5FugitiveOfTheJudoon "Fugitive of the Judoon"]].
** When the Doctor is overloading the Matrix with her memories, after her memories go beyond the First Doctor we see the faces last seen in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainOfMorbius "The Brain of Morbius"]], officially establishing them as prior incarnations of the Timeless Child before their memories were erased.

** The Master mentions having [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin assassinated chancellors before]].
** The Master gives an adapted version of Rassilon's cliffhanger line from [[Recap/DoctorWhoNSS4E17E18TheEndOfTime "The End of Time, Part 1"]].

** Yet again, the Doctor is pushed by a villain to the brink of mass murder, and balks at the last second.
** This is not the [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E11DarkWater first]] [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven time]] the Master created an army of Cybermen using the corpses of the dead. Like in the prior episodes, the Cybermen he makes possess abilities that have never been seen before in prior members of the species.
** A Doctor who has been having an identity crisis all season (12 over being a good man or not, 13 having to come to terms with her dark side), manages to heal a little with a [[Recap/DoctorWhoS34E12DeathInHeaven finale]] including a Master more messed up than they are.

* ContinuityCavalcade: The montage includes shots of Missy, Saxon's reveal in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS36E11WorldEnoughAndTime "World Enough and Time"]], every Doctor including Ten crying over the Master and 12 in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent "Hell Bent"]].

* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: It turns out that the Doctor is, and always has been, the Timeless Child, meaning that all of the Time Lords that ever were are technically created from her. That's because she is ''also'' an immortal being from another universe — possibly the only one of her kind — with a countless number of previous lives whom she's been mind-wiped of, rather than being a simple Time Lord who defected from her people. Gallifrey is now a completely lifeless world as well, and since no one has any idea where she originally came from, she has no "home" at all (unless one counts Earth or maybe the TARDIS) and no peers aside from the Master — at least for the time being.

* ThePowerOfFriendship: Deconstructed, as the Master/Doctor's friendship, especially with Missy/12 and when they were kids, is what's part of his rage.

* NothingIsTheSameAnymore: It turns out that the Doctor is, and always has been, the Timeless Child, meaning that all of the Time Lords that ever were are technically created from her. That's because she is ''also'' an immortal being from another universe — possibly the only one of her kind — with a countless number of previous lives whom she's been mind-wiped of, rather than being a simple Time Lord who defected from her people. Gallifrey is now a completely lifeless world as well, and since no one has any idea where she originally came from, she has no "home" at all (unless one counts Earth) and no peers aside from the Master — at least for the time being.

* PleaseDontLeaveMe: In a fit of emotion, after realising the Doctor will be going to her death by going back to face the Master and the Cybermen and detonating the Death Particle, Yaz grabs her by the arm and attempts to pull her back into the TARDIS.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Apparently there are now ''two'' [=TARDISes=] abandoned out there in the universe, not counting the Doctor's own. One is on Earth posing as a suburban house that wasn't there yesterday — something one would expect might cause comment, perception filter or none — and the other is being a ''tree'' in the ruined future where the Doctor last parked her TARDIS. The episode ends before we find out what's to be done about them, though Thirteen does comment that there are worse places to spend eternity when leaving the tree, implying her plan is to do what Nine told Rose to do with his TARDIS back in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays "The Parting of the Ways"]] and to just leave those [=TARDISes=] for the rest of time, unnoticed and abandoned.

* MonsterProgenitor: The Doctor is revealed to be this, by virtue of the fact that as the Timeless Child, their capability to infinitely regenerate is the source of regeneration for all Time Lords.

** The shot of the Timeless Child "dying" by falling off a cliff, being discovered by Tecteun and then regenerating is similar to one of the scenes of Brendan the police officer from [[Recap/DoctorWhoS38E9AscensionOfTheCybermen the previous episode]].

* AbusiveParents: Tecteun became one to the Timeless Child after she saw the first regeneration. The poor kid seems to spend several lifetimes in a lab being experimented on. Made even worse is that it's not outright stated whether the Child lived through each regeneration fully or if Tecteun deliberately invoked them to regenerate each time, but considering each incarnation we see [[FridgeHorror is still in the form of a child]]...

* AbusiveParents: Tecteun became one to the Timeless Child after she saw the first regeneration. The poor kid seems to spend several lifetimes in a lab being experimented on.

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: The Master creates Cyber-''Time Lords'' with the bodies of the deceased on Gallifrey, in an attempt to combine the relative invulnerability and rutlmess efficiency of Cybermen with the Time Lord ability to regenerate.

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: The Master creates Cyber- ''Time Lords'' with the bodies of the deceased on Gallifrey, in an attempt to combine the relative invulnerability and rutlmess efficiency of Cybermen with the Time Lord ability to regenerate.

* NinjaPirateZombieRobot: The Master creates Cyber- '''TimeLords'' with the bodies of the deceased on Gallifrey, in an attempt to combine the relative invulnerability and rutlmess efficiency of Cybermen with the Time Lord ability to regenerate.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Apparently there are now ''two'' [=TARDISes=] abandoned out there in the universe, not counting the Doctor's own. One is on Earth posing as a suburban house that wasn't there yesterday — something one would expect might cause comment, perception filter or none — and the other is being a ''tree''. The episode ends before we find out what's to be done about them, though Thirteen does comment that there are worse places to spend eternity when leaving the tree, implying her plan is to do what Nine told Rose to do with his TARDIS back in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays "The Parting of the Ways"]] and to just leave those [=TARDISes=] for the rest of time, unnoticed and abandoned.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Apparently there are now ''two'' [=TARDISes=] abandoned out there in the universe, not counting the Doctor's own. One is on Earth posing as a suburban house that wasn't there yesterday — something one would expect might cause comment, perception filter or none — and the other is being a ''tree''. The episode ends before we find out what's to be done about them, though Thirteen does comment that there are worse places to spend eternity when leaving the tree, implying her plan is to do what Nine told Rose to do with his TARDIS back in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays "The Parting of the Ways"]] and to just leave those TARDISes for the rest of time, unnoticed and abandoned.

* OnceMoreWithClarity: The flashbacks to Brendan, particularly the shot of the clock engraved with a thank-you note from the Division, identify him as an incarnation of the Timeless Child.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Apparently there are now ''two'' [=TARDISes=] abandoned out there in the universe, not counting the Doctor's own. One is on Earth posing as a suburban house that wasn't there yesterday — something one would expect might cause comment, perception filter or none — and the other is being a ''tree''. The episode ends before we find out what's to be done about them, though Thirteen does comment that there are worse places to spend eternity when leaving the tree, implying her plan is to do what Nine told Rose to do with his TARDIS back in ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS27E13ThePartingOfTheWays The Parting of the Ways]]'' and to just leave those TARDISes for the rest of time, unnoticed and abandoned.