Doctor Who Series 12: 10 Huge Talking Points After The Timeless Children
2. Can The Matrix Be Trusted?
For all the talk about this episode being a game-changer, Chibnall included a few possible get-out clauses. Is he intending to gauge the mood of the audience before continuing on his preferred path, or is he doing that Moffat thing of teasing us? The trouble with the Master’s ‘everything you think you know is a lie’ is that lies can be covered up with more lies.
What we know so far remains sketchy,and much of the data in the Matrix is interpreted by the Master, who may have jumped to the wrong conclusions. There is a likelihood that further twists may come. Even the biggie – The Doctor as the Timeless Child could be a red herring. Imagine if it turned out that the Master was the child? That would offer some very interesting future storylines.
The Master’s unreliability is the first get-out for Chibnall, but the second is the Matrix itself. The supposed repository of truth, the Matrix has been doctored by the Time Lords on several occasions. The truth about what happened in The Deadly Assassin for example is deliberately covered up. Fake news is the basis for the Master finding out about the Timeless Child, but there are still redacted sections of the Matrix that he and the Doctor have not got to the bottom of, a foggy space where anything could have happened.