Doctor Who season 12 revealed the Doctor is actually the Timeless Child - but the Master could potentially be one as well. Nobody can fault current Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall on his ambition; Doctor Who season 12 rewrote the show's lore, revealing the Doctor is not a Time Lord as well. Rather, she is in fact the Timeless Child, a being who potentially predates the universe itself, and who became the base genetic code for the entire Time Lord race.
It's a shocking twist, and it's left the fanbase divided. Some are willing to wait and see what happens next, while others aren't quite so generous. In truth, it's probably too soon to properly evaluate the Timeless Child retcon, because it's clearly only the beginning of the story Chibnall intends to tell. The Doctor's origin story has been rewritten, and the show is sure to explore her true background in further detail going forward. It's likely future seasons will attempt to explain continuity problems, and it's surely only a matter of time before viewers get to meet the Doctor's true race of origin.
Surprisingly little attention has been paid to one aspect of Doctor Who lore, however. Has the Master been ruined forever as the Doctor's greatest nemesis - or is there a way to restore him?
The Master Is No Longer The Doctor's Opposite
When the Master made his first appearance in 1971, memorably played by the late Roger Delgado, he was envisioned as the Doctor's equal and opposite. The idea was to create a sort of Moriarty figure for the Doctor's Sherlock Holmes; a being who could travel time and space, whose intelligence rivaled the Doctor, and who shared all the Doctor's gifts and abilities. The dynamic between the Doctor and the Master immediately captivated audiences, and over the next two years, he was woven into almost every single Doctor Who story, with Delgado's Master and Jon Pertwee's Third Doctor locking horns time and again. That sadly came to an end when Delgado was killed in a tragic car crash in 1973.
The BBC wisely chose not to use the Master for several years, only bringing him back in 1976's "The Deadly Assassin." That gap seems to have only increased the Master's legend, and viewers still considered him the Doctor's greatest nemesis. Fast-forward to the 2005 Doctor Who relaunch, and Russell T. Davies couldn't resist using the Master as the principal villain in Doctor Who season 3. In the modern era, he's been played by a succession of top-quality actors; Derek Jacobi, John Simm, Michelle Gomez, and currently Sacha Dhawan.
But here's the catch; the Timeless Child retcon has changed the Master forever, diminishing his significance. He is no longer the Doctor's equal; rather, he is just another Time Lord, grossly limited in comparison to the Doctor, all his powers and abilities actually originating in the Doctor herself. As Dhawan noted in an interview with Doctor Who Magazine, the Master is now being forced to accept a brutal truth; "No matter how much the Master tries, the Doctor will, in a way, always be superior to him." Little wonder this drove the Master to feats of madness even he had not considered before. But is there any way to restore that classic Master-Doctor dynamic now, or are they forever changed, with the Master officially relegated to just another bad guy?
The Master Could Be A Timeless Child Too
There is one striking possibility; that the Master could be a Timeless Child as well. According to Doctor Who season 12, the ancient Gallifreyan explorer Tecteun discovered the Timeless Child at the foot of a mysterious Boundary to some other universe or plane of existence. While it's true those visions suggested there was only one Timeless Child, one question went both unasked and, consequently, unanswered; the Matrix stores the accumulated memories of the Time Lords, so just whose eyes were the Doctor and the Master looking through? It could be that they were unknowingly witnessing events as seen by a second Timeless Child who was found at the foot of the Boundary - and that Timeless Child could be the Master.
Assuming Tecteun adopted two children, not one, then there are other gaps in the story where the Master could be inserted seamlessly. According to the Master, the Timeless Child first regenerated when she was knocked off a cliff while playing with another child. The scene was an intriguing one, stylistically reminiscent of the classic Doctor Who story "Logopolis," in which the Master forced Tom Baker's Fourth Doctor to regenerate. This particular similarity is all the more striking when you remember Chris Chibnall is a dedicated fan of the original Doctor Who series. So it's possible the Timeless Child's first regeneration was actually precipitated by the Master.
If this is the case, then the Doctor and the Master presumably lived side by side for a billion years of Time Lord history. They would presumably both have been experimented upon by Tecteun as she attempted to unlock the secret of regeneration, and then they would both have been inducted into Time Lord society. Notice that, in one scene showing a pre-Hartnell Doctor recruited by the Time Lords to work for a secretive group called the Division, the Doctor is not alone; it's possible an incarnation of the Master was stood at his side. The Division appears to be a precursor of the Celestial Intervention Agency, a clandestine organization that secretly interfered in galactic affairs in order to support the Time Lords' interests. Significantly, the CIA considered both the Doctor and the Master to be useful assets. The parallels remain quite remarkable, meaning it really isn't too difficult to restore the Master to his proper status as the Moriarty to the Doctor's Sherlock Holmes.
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Sacha Dhawan's performance as the Master was one of the highlights of Doctor Who season 12, and it would be a shame to see his incarnation of the character become less important to Doctor Who lore than previous portrayals. Fortunately, at this stage, the Timeless Child retcon is still relatively undefined, and consequently, anything can happen. In this case, a refinement of the Timeless Child retcon could once again transform the Master into Doctor Who's greatest villain.