20 TV Storylines We Can't Believe Are Real
10. The Doctor Was Never A Time Lord - Doctor Who
Time and time again, Doctor Who has reinvented itself to stay fresh. Although rewriting or subverting established lore can be thrilling, there's always a risk that new ideas will alienate purists. And few retcons prove this notion better than The Timeless Children.
Even though the Doctor has been classified as a Time Lord from Gallifrey since the 1960s, this episode flips the script. Suddenly, the Doctor is revised into a Timeless Child, whose regenerative powers were harvested to create the Time Lords. It reframes the Doctor as a chosen one rather than a rogue, making the character feel less relatable.
Then there's the delivery. Instead of unfolding naturally, the twist arrives via a massive exposition dump.
Not only does this epiphany bulldoze decades of mythology, but it leaves a trail of plotholes and contradictions across earlier episodes. Sure, Doctor Who has had weaker outings (Love and Monsters springs to mind), but those episodes were disposable filler, untied to the bigger picture.
The Timeless Children, on the other hand, achieved the impossible by killing a whopping 60 years of continuity in 60 minutes.