History Recap / DoctorWhoS38E10TheTimelessChildren

Written by Creator/ChrisChibnall. This episode first aired March 1, 2020.

JustForFun/{{The one w|ith}}here the fandom collectively owes Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainOfMorbius an apology]] and [[NothingIsTheSameAnymore canon is changed drastically]]. Also the one where all the Time Lords are unceremoniously killed off-screen. '''''Again.'''''

-->The Doctor will return in "Revolution of the Daleks".

JustForFun/{{The one w|ith}}here the fandom collectively owes Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainOfMorbius an apology]] and [[NothingIsTheSameAnymore canon is changed drastically]].

'''{{T|ropeCodifier}}he''' ''Series/DoctorWho'' WhamEpisode.

* BadassBoast: One that crosses with a ReasonYouSuckSpeech.
-->'''The Doctor:''' "You think that makes me lesser? It makes me more. I contain multitudes more than I ever thought, or knew. You want me to be scared of it because you’re scared of everything."

-->'''Yaz:''' "We're not letting you go! You're not doing this!"

* BackForTheFinale: Ruth, or the Doctor's memory of her at least, shows up in the Matrix to give the Doctor a pep talk.

-->'''The Doctor:''' You think that makes me lesser? It makes me more. I contain multitudes more than I ever thought, or knew. You want me to be scared of it because you’re scared of everything.
* BaitAndSwitchGunshot: The Cybermen threaten to execute Ethan unless Ryan surrenders to them. As Ryan goes to surrender, he hears gunshots, but finds the Cybermen were shot by Yaz and Graham, standing behind them and disguised in Cyber-armour.
* BatmanGambit: The Master tries this, trying to manipulate the Doctor into choosing to kill him and all that remains of the Time Lords, as well as herself. In the end, she can't or won't do it, but she does allow Ko Sharmus to step in and do the job for her.

* {{Cliffhanger}}: The companions, Ravio, Ethan and Yedlarmi arrive back on Earth safe and sound, but the fam doesn't know if they'll ever see the Doctor again. The Doctor, meanwhile, recovers her own TARDIS but is almost immediately arrested by a "cold case" squad of Judoon and teleported to an asteroid prison.
* 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 Twelve in "[[Recap/DoctorWhoS35E12HellBent Hell Bent]]".

** The "Division" is almost certainly another name for the Celestial Intervention Authority, who first appeared in [[Recap/DoctorWhoS14E3TheDeadlyAssassin The Deadly Assassin]] and have had countless further appearances in EU works.
** 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".

** After he kills the Lone Cyberman, the Master openly admits disappointment that the Death Particle in his chest didn't activate and kill everything organic on the planet, himself included.
** Thirteen admits she's exhausted, and is totally okay performing a HeroicSacrifice. Ultimately, however, she can't bring herself to take the Master's life, even knowing what he'll do.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: When the cameras go offline, Ashad thinks the humans are hiding in the storage vaults, but fails to realise they are actually [[DressingAsTheEnemy hiding within the Cybermen inside]]. He probably would have worked it out eventually, but he's distracted by the news that they are landing on Gallifrey.

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The Master mock protests "At least buy me dinner!" after the Cyberium enters his body.
* DownerEnding: The Doctor's race (or at least, those she thought were her race) are still dead, all other organic life on the ruins of her home planet's been wiped out, the madman responsible [[JokerImmunity has almost certainly got away again]], the Doctor's been thrown into prison, and her companions are left on Earth not knowing whether she survived.

* EliteMooks: By combining the Cybermen's conversion technology with Gallifreyan corpses, the Master creates a new kind of Cyberman that can harness regeneration energy, allowing them to regenerate endlessly from fatal damage. He turns out a dozen or so before the Cyber Carrier is destroyed.
* EmperorScientist: After discovering the genes that gave the Timeless Child the ability to regenerate and splicing them into herself, Tecteun shared the secret with a few of her closest friends and used it to elevate them to the ruling elite of their species, creating the first Time Lords.

* EvilIsPetty: The Master reveals that, among his many, ''many'' other crimes, he apparently used to [[PokeThePoodle throw rocks at robots]] for fun.

** When the Doctor intends to make a HeroicSacrifice to stop the Master and his new Cybermen, she says she has to because she started this by giving Ashad the Cyberium. This is followed by a shot of Ko Sharmus, who is later revealed to be responsible for sending the Cyberium back in time (and thus feels greater responsibility for how bad things have gotten).

* ForcedToWatch: The Master insists he won't kill the Doctor, because he wants her to see the destruction he will bring with his new race of [=CyberLords=]. Alternatively, he's perfectly fine with getting her to detonate the death particle and kill them both, as it would make her no better than him.

** The whole idea of making Cyber Time Lords. First, the Master contacts a group of Cybermen to come with their cyber carrier, despite a few hours ago ''they'' didn't even know about the carrier or the Barrier, and it just so happens they are already on their way! Next, he invites the Lone Cyberman to Gallifrey and expects that he won't shoot him on the spot, send an emissary, search him, bring backup troops, plan for a trap, or even query the Cyberium to see if the Master can be trusted. Once the Master manages to get in a one-on-one conversation with the Lone Cyberman without any other Cybermen around, he gets him to tell where both the Death Particle and Cyberium are and it just so happens they are within easy access. At an instant, the Master shrinks him down without having a clue if the Death Particle will detonate, or if the Cyberium would escape in time instead of being shrunken too. And wouldn't you know it, the Cyberium is compatible with the Master and he can control it, meaning he can now make Cyber Time Lords!
** The final plan to defeat the Doctor. Place the shrunken Lone Cyberman on the ground of one of hundreds of floors of cyber carrier and hope it doesn't get jostled around on the ship. Expect the Doctor to somehow escape from your prison, return to the carrier, and notice the Lone Cyberman on the ground. Expect the Doctor will decide to use the Death Particle and have to hand-deliver it because there won't be any explosives left with remote timers or anything that could be rigged up. Taunt the Doctor to use it and expect that she won't. And presumably, have [[JokerImmunity a plan to get away]] just in case she or a random human show up and do decide to detonate it.

* HighCollarOfDoom: Justified with the Master's Cyber-Time Lords!
* HijackedByGanon: The Master is initially happy to let Ashad and his Cybermen have Gallifrey while he deals with the Doctor, but after being DisappointedByTheMotive he kills Ashad and takes control of the Cybermen for his own ends.

* JokerImmunity: They're already setting up the Master to survive, as we can hear him calling out, "All of you, through here, now!" just before the explosion. Whether any of his [=CyberLords=] made it with him, or he alone escaped, we won't know until a future episode.

* LampshadeHanging: Almost as if Chibnall expects the fandom to be divided, Ruth's Doctor appears to the distraught Thirteen and says to her that this doesn't change who she is. ''She is still the Doctor, no matter what her past says.''

* 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. By extension, the Master claims that the Doctor is also this to the regenerating Cybermen he created, under the notion that it was the Timeless Child as the source of regeneration that enabled their creation.
* MythologyGag: The filtered history of the Timeless Child as Brendan in Ireland touches on two old gags from the franchise: Brendan is a representation of the Child, and is ginger, but no depicted incarnations of the Child or the Doctor have ever been ginger, which multiple incarnations have complained about. Ireland is a representation of Gallifrey, calling back to the many times in the show's history where it would be mentioned and someone would ask if it was in Ireland.

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

* 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.

* PerceptionFilter: Brendan turns out to be a tampered memory obscuring the Timeless Child and the Division.
* PleaseDontLeaveMe: In a fit of emotion, after realizing 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.
-->'''Yaz:''' We're not letting you go! You're not doing this!
* ThePowerOfFriendship: Deconstructed, as the Master/Doctor's friendship, especially with Missy/Twelve and when they were kids, is what's part of his rage.
* PreMortemOneLiner: Subverted. When Ashad brags that the Cyberium will never leave him as long as he lives, the Master simply kills him by shrinking him. When he picks Ashad's body up, though, the Master laments that he should have said "Somebody should cut you down to size!" before pulling the trigger.

* SayingTooMuch: While the Master is grilling Ashad about the Cyberium, desperate to see it for himself, the Cyberman makes the mistake of pointing out that it will not leave him while he lives... so the Master immediately shrinks him.

** The Master orders one of the Cybermen he produced to shoot and kill another, just so he can demonstrate its ability to regenerate.
* SequelHook:
** The Doctor manages to survive the whole episode, despite the high tensions and twists along the way... until a bunch of Judoon teleport her from the TARDIS and send her to their jail for a life sentence. One BigWhat from the Doctor later, and we cut to credits.
** The WillReturnCaption teases "Revolution of the Daleks".
** Also, her companions survived but don't know where she is as they are returned to Earth — but they have ''their own TARDIS'' now...
** TheReveal introduces a lot of hooks for future stories to pick up on for the Doctor: She could encounter Ruth again or other forgotten incarnations, could learn more about her actual origins, could restore Gallifrey, could find out that previous companions — in particular, Captain Jack Harkness, River Song, and Clara Oswald — were/are affected by these other lives, etc.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Tecteun does not say one word in the episode but she was the first Gallifreyan to leave the planet, the one who discovered the Timeless Child and her experiments provided the whole basis for Time Lord society.

* TakeMyHand: Subverted; it's the Master offering his hand to the Doctor, and he makes it clear that his companions will die if he refuses.

** The Master and his Cybermen make no attempt to intervene while the Doctor and Ko Sharmus are arguing about whether the latter should detonate the bomb. In fact, the only reason why our heroes manage to prevail is because the Master decided to stand in the background for a minute and do nothing to stop Ko Sharmus from ruining his plans until it was too late.
** Justified earlier when the Master says he can talk to Ashad while simultaneously talking to the Doctor in the Matrix.

** Ashad tells the Master that the Cyberium will only leave him if he's dead, so the Master shrinks him.

* TomatoInTheMirror: The Doctor is not a Gallifreyan native, but was a refugee known as "The Timeless Child" who was adopted by an explorer called Tecteun and brought to the planet. Tecteun discovered she had the ability to regenerate and spliced it into other Gallifreyans, allowing them to become the Time Lords, and the Doctor is implied to have vast swathes of past lives that have been blocked from her memory.

* TooPowerfulToLive: The Cybermen the Master creates from Time Lord corpses have the ability to regenerate from death endlessly, making them effectively unstoppable. It shouldn't be much of a surprise that they don't make it to the end credits before being wiped out of existence.

* VillainsNeverLie: The Doctor believes every word of the Master's account of her backstory, even though for large parts of it she's only got his word and Matrix records that he's previously had the opportunity to tamper with. This is in fact lampshaded by the Master.
** Although, as the Master points out this revelation means the Doctor is in fact special - in fact, the very template of the Time Lord race. And someone like the Master doesn't admit the superiority of anyone else lightly.
* WeCanRuleTogether: The Master invites the Cyberium to merge with him instead. It doesn't take long to accept the offer.
* WhamEpisode: The Timeless Child is actually the Doctor, who's not technically Gallifreyan but from some unknown other place, and it's from ''her'' that every other Time Lord that has ever existed gets the ability to regenerate. She's indicated to have lived countless lives that have been wiped from her memory before becoming the First Doctor that we know.

JustForFun/{{The one w|ith}}here the fandom collectively owes Creator/PhilipHinchcliffe [[Recap/DoctorWhoS13E5TheBrainOfMorbius an apology]] and [[WhamEpisode canon is changed drastically]].