The Script Doctor: Fixing Series 12, Episode 10 (Finale)
Guest feature by the Script Doctor.
The Timeless Children
There are several routes you can go here: Either save the Timeless Child arc for next season and focus on the Lone Cyberman, or meld the two together like this episode did and hope for the best.
Saving the arc for next season allows the Cybermen to be the star attraction for another episode. Doing things this way removes the Master from the plot which is a loss that should be weighed up against what you gain in the Lone Cyberman, who is originally taken down very anti-climatically by the Master after an impressive previous two episode showing.
In this episode you can have the new Cybermen legion attempt to demonstrate their new power to the universe and have the Doctor and company stop them. The planet killing bomb could be redirected to killing one of the last struggling human settlements. Have the Doctor and company make protecting the planet, which is full of refugees in this version of Series 12 the main plot.
Killing Graham here would be a great narrative choice as his arc this season has been about him confronting his fears about dying. Having him make a heroic sacrifice would allow Graham to go out in style and add a speck of tragedy to his story.
If you insist on the Timeless Children arc being dealt, there are a number of solutions that can cure this episode of problems and more importantly make both sides of the fan base happy. It’s all about cherry-picking which parts of the big reveal to use and how. For instance, do not make the Doctor the Timeless Child.
Seriously take a look back; Chibnall managed to change Doctor Who mythology so that it angers half the fan base, but he does it in such a way that the change makes no difference anyway.
“The Doctor is an alien who grew up on Gallifrey” vs “The Doctor is an alien from another dimension who grew up on Gallifrey”.
Or maybe: “The Doctor finally ran away from Gallifrey because she got bored with their rules” vs “The Doctor is the progenitor of the Time Lords, had her memory wiped and finally ran away from Gallifrey because she got bored with their rules”.
Nothing is gained.
But by making the Timeless Child some random alien girl from another universe, you can add to the mythos of the show because stealing regeneration powers and then lying about it is something the Time Lords would do. You then go further by destroying the Timeless Child in the legend by fusing her with the time vortex somehow because the regeneration process stolen proved unstable or something after several incarnations and needed to be perfected, thereby not stepping on the explanation for regeneration that Steven Moffat gave in A Good Man Goes to War. Again, it’s one line of dialogue to quell the anger of millions of fans, myself included.
But then how did the Master learn of the Timeless Child?
He investigated the matter after the Kasaavin told him.
How do they know about the Timeless Child?
The child is originally from their universe, from a species much like the Time Lords. They recognized the ability in the Master when they first met and revealed the information to him.
Is it necessary to destroy Gallifrey?
No, but if you are really interested in highlighting the Master’s anger at how the Time Lords have lied about their heritage, it is a good way of portraying it.
Is it necessary to exposit all this information for over half an hour to the Doctor?
No. In fact, the entire info dump should play out via action instead of having the Master just read the Doctor’s revised wiki page back to her.
How do we do this?
Instead of transporting the Doctor to Gallifrey, trapping her in place and making her listen to a giant info dump, transport her to the Kasaavin universe, where she and the Master meet someone calling themselves the Doctor; specifically an incarnation further along than Ruth and yet again unknown to the Doctor.
What does this establish?
Firstly, it doesn’t interfere with the numbering of the Doctor. It ignores The Brain of Morbius, but at least doesn’t step on The Three Doctors where the Time Lords refer to the First Doctor as ‘the earliest Doctor’, it also doesn’t step on Mawdryn Undead, The Five Doctors, The Time of the Doctor or any number of stories in which the regeneration limit and the Doctor’s past is discussed.
It doesn’t add more secret incarnations we’ll never learn about. It establishes that some universes have a Doctor of their own; a kind of parallel reality where everything is the same but slightly different. You can establish that Ruth is the Thirteenth incarnation in this universe. You can establish that there are Time Lords in this universe as well, but more twisted versions than the ones from the main universe. Let’s call them the Destiny Lords. Have them be behind the Division trying to capture Ruth.
Speaking of which, the big mystery of the Ruth Doctor is also solved. She is an alternative Doctor, but by introducing her in Fugitive the Judoon using this method, the show leaves open the possibility that Jo Martin can become a future incarnation of the Doctor in the main universe à la Peter Capaldi (12th Doctor) or Colin Baker (6th Doctor) after Jodie moves on. This would also be the first time in Doctor Who history where a future Doctor is introduced (kind of) in a prominent role well before their predecessor is scheduled to regenerate.
Not only this, but this plot sets up multiple potential story threads for the next season: What is the Ruth Doctor doing in the main universe? How did she get here? Is she aware of where she is? Is she in exile? Is she trapped? Who trapped her? Why? Is the persons/organization responsible for her entrapment a threat to the main universe?
You can go one step further and have the Doctor and the Master in the Kasaavin universe accidentally draw the attention of the Destiny Lords. They become aware that one of their own has somehow been used to grant their regeneration powers to the Time Lords and see this as a justification to take revenge. This story line makes the Master, and by association the Doctor, responsible if the Destiny Lords decide to cross universes and wage war with the Time Lords in Series 13.
So where do the Cybermen fit in?
That’s just it…they don’t.
This is why The Timeless Children episode feels disjointed. It tries to do two season finales in one episode. The Lone Cyberman is inconsequential to the Timeless Child arc, while the arc has nothing to do with the Cybermen reconstituting themselves. In fact, the Master even has to get rid of the Lone Cyberman in order for him to weld the two story arcs together. And what is gained from this: A fusion of Time Lord and Cyberman who simply stand around and don’t do anything but demonstrate why they are special. Wouldn’t you rather have an episode of Cybermen killing and converting humans instead?
It’s much easier to make a Cybermen two-parter that stands on its own and either save the Timeless Child arc for a later season or place it as a two-part season finale following this story. There is enough potential given the above and it means the Cybermen do not need to take a backseat to the Master. This also means we get 11-12 episodes in Series 12 instead of just 10. At the climax of the episode, after the Lone Cyberman has and his army has been defeated, you just have the Master show up to close off the season.
So let’s recap, why is Series 12 so polarizing, and how did we fix it?
Too many companions: We fixed this by not including all of them in every episode. Some episodes feature all of the companions, while others none. Again something that isn’t normally done on Doctor Who. There are episodes which focused heavily on the Doctor and at least one episode which put her out of focus completely.
Too many supporting characters: Like the above, we cut down on characters who aren’t vital to the story, sometimes at the expense of good plot threads like the Jake/Adam relationship. This issue might lie in Chris Chibnall’s inability to write with small casts in general. Looking back at previous episodes such as Dinosaurs on a Spaceship, The Power of Three and 42 all featured excessively large character rosters.
No character development for the Doctor: Series 12 did give us more information on the Doctor, but most of this is just her backstory which she’d forgotten about and then got over after a couple of minutes. What we did was build an arc. After discovering another unknown Doctor in episode 4, she spends episode 5 and 6 coming to grips with this revelation. She also opens up more about herself in a way that feels explored and organic.
No character development for the companions: Not only did we give Graham another arc, but we freed up a lot of screen time in which to do something with Yaz and Ryan. Not to mention that both also get to be explored early after Spyfall, Part 2 when there is no Doctor around, as well as in Can You Hear Me.
Reduced episode count: We may have increased the episode count from ten to twelve episodes. You see the problem with shorter seasons is that weaker episodes like Orphan 55 and Praxeus tend to stand out more easily. If an eight episode series has two boring/filler episodes, it means you’ve just wasted 25% of your screen time. On the other hand, longer seasons mean it’s harder to come up with more plot related narratives. But remember Chris Chibnall: You get paid to come up with creativity so make it work! And if you still struggle, go watch Burn Notice or The Blacklist, or even Agents of Shield (Season 4-5) to see how it’s done correctly.
We have managed to at least make sure the filler episodes feel more purposeful. Orphan 55’s replacement would probably be filler, but connected to the events of the previous episode. It would also be a character study making it not completely pointless. Nicola Tesla’s Night of Terror partly deals with the Doctor’s mental state after learning of the Ruth Doctor in the previous episode and learning to call on her friends for help. Praxeus is filler for the most part, but allows Yaz and Graham to feature more prominently.
Backseat Cybermen: In our new Series 12 the Cybermen get to shine for at least three episodes which make for an improvement over the Monk trilogy in Series 10.
Destruction of Canon: Not only do we not upset half the fan base, but we solve the Ruth Doctor issue, establish several story threads for next season and add to the Doctor Who mythos in a way that allows Chibnall to be part of its legacy without alienating some fans. We also do not step on the work of several previous Doctor Who show runners who have also tried to add their own to continuity.
Little connective tissue: We have the return of Rani from the Sarah Jane Adventures as well as Jack Harkness in prominent starring roles, the latter gets to feature twice for double the John Barrowman fun. Not only that but the Kasaavins turn out to be the villains who divulged the Timeless Child information to the Master. The Timeless Child originated in their universe which means regeneration originated in that universe. The Ruth Doctor and the Division is also from this universe. The show also opens up the possibility that the Destiny Lords or some other threat from their universe is going to cross over for a confrontation in Series 13.
…And that is how I would’ve fixed Series 12. Do you agree with the alterations made? Which valid, constructive changes would you have made instead?
