The Doctor Who season 12 finale, "The Timeless Children," featured a stunning mind blast scene in which the Doctor accessed her memories - and here's everything viewers (half) saw on the screen. Doctor Who's season 12 finale saw the Master trap the Doctor inside the Matrix, a virtual reality that serves as the repository of all Time Lord knowledge.
This was more than just a prison, of course; the Master used it to stage an assault upon the Doctor's very identity, revealing the Time Lords had lied about her history all along. The Master had managed to track down records of ancient Gallifrey, before the birth of the Time Lords, and he had learned the Doctor is in fact the Timeless Child. She is far more than just a Time Lord, but rather is a cosmic being who originated from some unknown realm - another dimension, or another universe.
The Master thought this revelation would destroy the Doctor's self-identity, and as a result he left her stranded in the Matrix, convinced he'd defeated her. He had badly underestimated his opponent as always, though, and instead the Doctor broke out of the Matrix by projecting her memories into it, effectively breaking it. That scene was a superb one, accompanied by the classic Doctor Who theme tune, and it included countless shots from the show's history. Here's a guide to everything briefly seen on-screen.
Memories of Doctor Who Seasons 11 and 12
It makes sense the first memories seen are those from seasons 11 and 12; the Doctor would naturally access her most recent memories first, especially given regeneration scrambles the neurons, so these would be far more accessible than memories related to other incarnations. These include:
- The Master, from "Spyfall, Part 1"
- The Lone Cyberman
- A number of shots from "The Haunting of Villa Diodati," including the Doctor with the Cyberium
- Gat, the Time Lord operative killed in "Fugitive of the Judoon"
- Jack Harkness, ironically using a shot from "Fugitive of the Judoon," in which the Doctor wasn't physically present
- Nikola Tesla from "Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror"
- A destroyed Gallifrey
- The Doctor confronting the Dalek in "Resolution"
- Becka, a woman in "The Witchfinders" who was possessed by an alien entity called the Morax
- The Doctor attempting to negotiate peace and forgiveness in "Demons of the Punjab"
- Tzim-Sha, the recurring villain of Doctor Who season 11
- Various season 11 and 12 monsters, including the Drags from "Orphan 55," the Skithra from "Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror," and the robots from "Kerblam!"
- Various shots of the Doctor and her friends, including in the Solitract reality from "It Takes You Away"
- A number of shots from "The Woman Who Fell To Earth," including the Doctor on a train
A Stunning Montage of Doctor Who Memories
The Doctor moves on, presenting memories from the last few regenerations, all taken from the Davies and Moffat eras. These are presented in a far more disordered manner, in keeping with the fact every Doctor struggles to access the memories of past incarnations. The construction is reminiscent of Peter Davison's regeneration in "The Caves of Adronzani," and many faces are seen for just a moment. They include:
- Prominent enemies, such as Davros, creator of the Daleks; the Sycorax, from "The Christmas Invasion"; the Abzorbaloff from "Love & Monsters"; the robots from "The Girl in the Fireplace"; Sontarans from "The Poison Sky"; the Weeping Angels; and the Racnoss Emperor from "The Runaway Bride."
- The cat nurses from "New Earth"
- Former companions, including Clara Oswald, Amy Pond, and Rose Tyler.
- Donna Noble's grandfather Wilf, who played such a prominent role in David Tennant's regeneration story.
- River Song.
Glimpses of all Previous Known Doctors
The mind blast scene then presents shots of all previous known incarnations of the Doctor, in reverse order of regeneration; it's difficult to place precise scenes, because most of them are fairly generic, involving a Doctor standing looking confident. One of the most interesting exceptions to this is a shot of David Tennant's Doctor crying in "The End of Time - Part Two," as he faced his inevitable demise. There's an odd sense in which the montage is vaguely therapeutic, in that it presents John Hurt's War Doctor in sequence, confirming the Doctor has come to terms with her actions during the Time War.
Memories of Classic Doctor Who
Those images serve as a bridge to memories from classic Doctor Who. This reproduces the same construction from before, and the brief flashes cleverly conceal the differences in image quality and production budget. The most touching image, which lingers for longer than most, is of Roger Delgado's Master. Delgado was the first actor to play the part, and "The Timeless Children" actually aired on what would have been his birthday. Some images are far too blurred and indistinct to identify, but they include:
- Classic Doctor Who monsters such as the Sea Devils ("The Sea Devils"), the Zygons ("Terror of the Zygons"), Sil of the Mentors ("Vengeance on Varos"), the Autons ("Terror of the Autons"), lethal androids from "The Robots of Death," Sutekh ("The Pyramids of Mars"), the Axons ("The Claws of Axos"),
- Prominent villains including Sharaz Jek ("The Caves of Androzani") and the Rani ("Time and the Rani").
- It's curious that, this time round, showrunner Chris Chibnall deliberately chooses not to show any of the Doctor's many companions. It's possible he was trying not to play favorites.
The Timeless Child - And Beyond
In a fascinating twist, the Doctor now appears to access memories of the Timeless Child. This is surprising, because these memories were supposed to still be repressed; it's possible the Master's Matrix presentation has begun the process of unlocking the truths the Time Lords had buried deep within the Doctor's mind. The Doctor presents memories of the Timeless Child, and of the various incarnations sacrificed to Gallifreyan experimentation as her adopted mother Tecteun created the Time Lords from the Timeless Child's genetic material.
Past Doctors From The Brain of Morbius
The mind blast scene then moves to some important shots from "The Brain of Morbius," a Tom Baker story that sets the precedent for there being pre-Hartnell incarnations of the Doctor. In that story, the Doctor engaged a renegade Time Lord named Morbius in a psychic duel, and a number of faces flashed up on a computer screen, representing the Doctor's memories. "How far, Doctor? How long have you lived? Back, back to your beginning," Morbius taunted. The images continued back after William Hartnell, displaying eight more faces, apparently in period dress, before the machine exploded.
Producer Philip Hinchcliffe told the Radio Times he definitely intended to suggest there had been other versions of the Doctor before Hartnell. "I just reasoned that it was entirely possible that William Hartnell may not have been the first Doctor Who," he explained. "So yes, as far as [writer] Bob [Holmes] and I were concerned, the other faces were meant to be past Doctors… it is true to say that I attempted to imply that William Hartnell was not the first Doctor." Chibnall has made a smart decision by including this scene, because it reminds viewers of a neglected piece of Doctor Who lore supporting his Timeless Child retcon.
Chibnall follows this up with a brief shot of Brendan, who represented the Doctor's repressed memories, perhaps hinting this was actually another incarnation. There's then a shot of the mysterious forgotten Doctor introduced in "Fugitive of the Judoon," who's generally theorized to be another past Doctor, probably pre-Hartnell because she didn't recognize the sonic screwdriver. This Doctor is placed in a prominent position, presumably Chibnall's way of signifying her importance to his run going forward. With that, the Matrix fails, and the Doctor escapes - having given long-term viewers a delightful trip down memory lane.