Is ‘Doctor Who’ Continuity Ruined After The Season 12 Finale? Fans React
The season 12 finale of Doctor Who is interesting in many ways. This two part finale starts with “Ascension of the Cybermen” and ends with “The Timeless Children.” Both episodes are action-packed and keep many fans on the edge of their seats. However, the bold moves made in these episodes, particularly “The Timeless Children,” do not sit right with all of the fans.
The Thirteenth Doctor and her companions face exciting adventures in both episodes. Yet the changes that occur as a result of these adventures are somewhat controversial among some fans of the sci-fi show. While others enjoy the changes, some feel that the show has ruined its own continuity.
Explore the possibly continuity-ruining changes from the ‘Doctor Who’ season 12 finale
So what are these changes that have some fans feeling like the show’s continuity has been ruined? It all has to do with the Timeless Child. In the Doctor Who season 12 finale, the Master takes the Doctor through the Matrix to show her the truth about the Time Lords. In the process, the Doctor finds out more about herself and her past.
It turns out that the Doctor is the Timeless Child. A Gallifreyan explorer named Tecteun found her on a deserted planet and after seeing her regenerate, experimented on her. The Doctor is therefore the source of the Time Lord’s regeneration ability. That’s not all, however.
Because of the Doctor being the Timeless Child, the character has had lives prior to the first incarnation of the Doctor that fans know and love, portrayed by William Hartnell. This has some fans feeling that the continuity of the show has been changed far too much. Yet what else do fans have to say about this move? Let’s let the fans speak for themselves.
What critical fans have to say of the latest change from ‘Doctor Who’
One fan on Twitter says that the finale “plays such hob with continuity with such little return.” This fan thinks “somebody should’ve stepped in to stop [showrunner Chris] Chibnall from doing it.” Another fan thinks that season “12 was generally an improvement on [season] 11” while it was “nowhere near as good as the show should be,” it was more enjoyable for this fan. However, “any good work was undone with that continuity destroying final episode.”
Someone else says that the episode “destroyed [the] history of Doctor Who.” Another fan calls the episode “horrendous” and hopes it “gets retconned…[quickly] as there is a huge continuity hole!” According to another fan, “this finale retconned 57 years of the show’s history and has created many, many, many plot holes.” A Twitter user talks about how “the current showrunner and the previous [seem] to not really care about continuity but instead…go for shock value with their twists.”
For this fan, the Timeless Child arc could have been an interesting story, but it “undoes the entire history of the Doctor, as opposed to adding to it.” However, not every fan feels this way. Some enjoy the new story.
What fans who like the change have to say about the ‘Doctor Who’ Season 12 finale
One Twitter user believes that the show’s continuity has always been changeable. In fact, this fan thinks that the “show… has never had strict continuity.” The fundamental concepts of the show have remained the same, in this fan’s opinion, so therefore “nothing has been ruined.” The Doctor is still a time traveler who helps save the universe.
Another fan thinks that the episode “works well within Doctor Who‘s continuity.” Someone else says “the continuity additions didn’t bother [them] one iota.” A different fan is “still unsure if [they] like the episode or not,” however, they believe that the Doctor is still the same character fans know and love. This fan agrees with the first fan that Doctor Who has “always” had “messy continuity.”
