'The Timeless Children' Has Opened Up the Opportunity for a Gallifrey Spin-Off

Doctor Who Series 12 was filled with many shocks, surprises and twists, leaving fans with plenty of content and information to pull apart and speculate on as we await the upcoming festive special and new series. If you are yet to watch the twelfth series of the hit BBC series, read at your own risk.

First, the Master made an epic comeback with a new face – Sacha Dhawan – as O’s secret identity was revealed in the cliffhanger of the series premiere “Spyfall: Part 1”. The Master then caused havoc in “Spyfall: Part 2” before making an unexpected comeback in the series finale. Then, a month later, came the biggest episode of Jodie Whittaker’s tenure yet – “Fugitive of the Judoon” – where John Barrowman stormed back onto our screens as Captain Jack Harkness, as well as being introduced to a new “Doctor”, setting up the Timeless Child mystery some more.

As the mystery surrounding the Timeless Child continued throughout the series, it all became clear come the series finale “Ascension of the Cybermen” and “The Timeless Children” where the Master reveals that the Doctor is actually the Timeless Child. Let’s quickly recap that mystery.

The Master explains that the Founding Fathers of Gallifrey built the Time Lord society on a lie surrounding the Timeless Child. This was hidden from all Time Lords in the form of repressed thoughts and memories. The Timeless Child was a child that was discovered on another planet by a traveller, Tecteun. This child had the power to regenerate indefinitely, which Tecteun discovered after the child had a fatal fall off a cliff.

Tecteun studied the child for a number of years and then being able to use the regeneration energy on herself and other Time Lords, however their regenerations were limited to just twelve. From here onwards, the Timeless Child became the genetic template upon which all Time Lords received their regeneration powers, meaning a piece of the Timeless Child is inside of them – something which the Master despises once he found out that child is the Doctor.

With all that being said, it was a lot of information to be crammed into a slightly longer final episode of the series. But what could this mean? Has showrunner, Chris Chibnall, opened up the possibility to launch a new spin-off involving Gallifrey?

Over the years, there have been four major spin-off shows for Doctor Who that are licensed by the BBC: K9 and Company, Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures, and Class. All of these were focussed on specific target audiences, just like any other shows. It’s argued that The Sarah Jane Adventures is the most popular of the four. Each showrunner of Doctor Who since it was revived in 2005 have tackled a spin-off show, leaving just Chibnall to take on that challenge. So, could the Timeless Child and Tecteun story become a pinpoint for Chibnall to explore further?

‘Once upon several times, before the Time Lords, before everything we know, there was an explorer,’ said the Master. Now it’s time to explore that explorer some more. We got the general idea of the story itself and the backstory surrounding Tecteun, but unfortunately, she didn’t get a huge amount of screen time.

The Tecteun story also saw the evolution of Gallifrey and how it was made, including that gorgeous animation. Gallifrey doesn’t make enough appearances in the show, so this is the perfect opportunity for viewers to escape to the planet of the Time Lords and explore it in depth. The spin-off would also get the chance to show the evolution of Rassilon and how that came about. We saw Rassilon in “The Timeless Children” according to the official script.

The spin-off itself would essentially sit as a prequel to Doctor Who itself, explaining in full depth on how regeneration came about and how Gallifrey became such a glorious empire before being brought down by the Daleks in the Great Time War – something that could potentially spark another spin-off or second series to this Tecteun spin-off, and possibly leading into the 50th Anniversary special "The Day of the Doctor" somehow.

The spin-off of Doctor Who tend to have the Doctor show up somewhere down the line, or crossover in some way. David Tennant and Matt Smith both made appearances in The Sarah Jane Adventures, and Peter Capaldi appeared in Class, so this is a perfect opportunity for the Thirteenth Doctor to appear in a spin-off, which plenty of Whittaker fans would love to see.

Of course, this isn’t confirmed and purely speculation. But, the Doctor will return later this year in “Revolution of the Daleks”.