"The Timeless Children" is the tenth and final episode of the twelfth series of the British science fiction television programme Doctor Who, first broadcast on BBC One on 1 March 2020.
The episode stars Jodie Whittaker as the Thirteenth Doctor, alongside Bradley Walsh, Tosin Cole, and Mandip Gill as her companions, Graham O'Brien, Ryan Sinclair and Yasmin Khan, respectively.
The Doctor's memories were subsequently erased, prior to the childhood she remembers; only snippets remain, masked as the story of the Irish Garda Brendan.
With the Doctor trapped in the Matrix, the Master lures Ashad to Gallifrey and shrinks him with his tissue compression eliminator, taking the Cyberium.
With its knowledge and the bodies of the Time Lords he had killed on his arrival to Gallifrey, the Master creates a race of regenerating Cybermen, aiming to use them to take over the universe.
The Doctor regroups with her companions, and discovers Ashad's miniaturized body contains a "Death Particle" capable of destroying all organic life on a planet.
The Doctor and her friends blow up the Cyber-carrier, destroying Ashad's army in the process and foiling his plot to rebuild the Cyber-Empire.
She is unable to trigger it when goaded by the Master, but Ko Sharmus appears and takes it, as penance for failing to suitably hide the Cyberium.
The consensus on the website reads, "Its relentless plotting and exposition teeter on overwhelming, but a bold daringness to reinvent Whovian lore coupled with Jodie Whittaker's dynamic performance make 'The Timeless Children' a successful season finale.
"[16] In a review for The Daily Telegraph, Michael Hogan praised the expanded roles of Graham, Ryan and Yaz, but felt the revelation was as confusing for the Doctor as it was for audiences, writing it was "the sort of "timey-wimey, wibbly-wobbly" narrative tricksiness" that former showrunner Steven Moffat had been criticised for.
[17] Conversely, Patrick Mulkern of Radio Times said, while he could accept there being more incarnations before the First Doctor, he felt their origin story did "not make for involving television".
She also commented negatively on the "exposition-heavy pep talk" from the Fugitive Doctor, and said the episode's conclusion "doesn’t feel earned on either a character level or a plot one", criticizing the last-minute reveal that Ko Sharmus was part of the group that sent the Cyberium back in time and said the episode "undercuts the big heroic moment where the Doctor decides not to lower herself to the Master’s level of violence by having her happily accept that same amount of carnage so long as Ko Sharmus is the one pulling the trigger.
We wholeheartedly support the creative freedom of the writers and we feel that creating an origin story is a staple of science fiction writing.