Ncuti Gatwa’s ‘Doctor Who’ Is Still in Need of One Crucial Element
Ncuti Gatwa’s first Doctor Who season was definitely a hit. It had everything a Whovian could hope to see —life, death, heroics, and a strong bond between Doctor and companion. The finale was a bit confusing and silly maybe, but hey, you can’t have everything. So where do we go from here?
Well, there’s one thing I badly want, and that’s a resolution of some of the storylines from Jodie Whittaker’s era. If you were a hater of that era, maybe you wanted those storylines dropped, but I’m not sure if the show can go forward until it’s reconciled at least a little with the Timeless Child—the original, unknown, foundling child form of the Doctor.
The revelation that the Doctor was not from Gallifrey after all was an absolute game-changer for the show, and not in a good way. I’ve never met a fan who liked the Timeless Child arc, and considering how big and sprawling Doctor Who fandom is, that’s really saying something. Russell T. Davies ran with the bare bones of the Timeless Child idea a little and decided to lean into the fact that the Doctor was adopted (never mind by somebody awful), and this is what helps him bond with the also adopted Ruby. Probably the best way of dealing with it in the short term, but what about the long term?
My hope is that somewhere down the line, Davies picks up the Timeless Child plotline and either retcons it—you can easily retcon just about anything in Doctor Who—or runs with it as far as it can possibly go, having the Doctor try to investigate his past and where exactly he came from. If we never get real answers as to how the Doctor actually came into being, that’s fine, I just want the show to really absorb the unexpected new addition to the lore. For example, I’d love an episode where the Doctor confronts his feelings about Tecteun, the woman who raised and experimented on him, and her death. However, this would mean also acknowledging the events of “Flux,” another controversial storyline that’s been more or less forgotten about in the second Davies era.
What happened with the Flux?
The Flux from Jodie Whittaker’s era destroyed a lot of planets, and we never hear about it again in Ncuti Gatwa’s era. It did get a brief mention in the David Tennant specials when the Toymaker taunts the Doctor about it.
Considering that was such a huge thing, it’s a little frustrating it was dropped so quickly. The Toymaker indicates the Doctor has a lot of feelings about what happened, but the Fifteenth Doctor has no time to show those feelings. Of course, it’s in the Doctor’s nature to never reveal the true depths of his pain, but the trouble is, now the whole Flux arc has been rendered largely pointless. It caused so much destruction that it should have had ramifications in the show for years to come, and it just doesn’t.
Bring back Yaz and the fam!
One easy way of bringing up the forgotten aspects of Whittaker’s run would be to have one (or more!) of the Thirteenth Doctor’s companions make an appearance. Personally, I would love to see Yaz back, especially considering she had feelings for Thirteen. I think Russell T. Davies could get an incredible story out of that. Ryan, Graham, and Dan are likewise all still out there and even in contact with other former Doctor Who companions. How about a family reunion to bring the dropped Thirteen storylines back into the spotlight?
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