After a long and controversial journey, Doctor Who’s Timeless Child retcon is heading for a joke payoff. Doctor Who: Flux is the 13th season of the long-running science fiction series. It marks a new approach for the series, diverging from the show's usual format to tell one continuous story spread across six episodes. Flux will be the final full season produced under showrunner Chris Chibnall, who will step down after a run of specials in 2022.
Chibnall’s time as showrunner has been filled with controversial revisions to Doctor Who’s canon, with the Timeless Child retcon as the most divisive example. While Doctor Who’s extended universe had already proposed a complicated origin story for The Doctor, the television series generally depicted The Doctor as simply, “a madman in a box.” With The Timeless Child, Chibnall chose to remix elements of the extended lore with a variety of new additions, drastically altering The Doctor’s background.
Though this decision ultimately alienated many viewers, there is evidence that the entire thread was actually in service of a joke. With the happenings of Flux having moved to a planet named Time, it’s possible the term “Timeless Child” has actually been a simple bit of wordplay all along, with the series heading for a punchline where The Doctor’s missing homeworld leaves her as a “Time-less Child.” While it may sound unbelievable, the double meaning lines up with the known facts. It also fits in with the kinds of decisions Chibnall has made as showrunner thus far.
The phrase Timeless Child has been scattered throughout Chibnall’s run going all the way back to season 11, episode 2, “The Ghost Monument.” In it, a Remnant probes The Doctor's mind saying, “We see deeper, though, further back. The Timeless Child.” In season 12, episode 10, “The Timeless Children,” The Master provides a supposed explanation, telling The Doctor, “The child is you. You are the timeless child.” But the actual meaning of the phrase is never discussed. It’s possible that “Timeless” simply refers to The Doctor’s regenerative abilities, but with the revelation of a planet named Time that is tied into The Doctor’s backstory, Time could be the world she lost as a child.
The planet is called Time for a reason, and the title of season 13, episode 3, "Once, Upon Time" shows that Chibnall is aware of the potential for a Time-related pun. It’s a play on the classic fairytale phrase, “Once upon a time,” and it shows that Chibnall isn’t above a bit of wordplay. It's not the first time that Chibnall has shown a 'punny' sense of humor. Chibnall's final episode written for Steven Moffat, season 7 episode 4, "The Power of Three", ends with Amy describing the events as the year "the Earth got cubed." The entire episode is wrapped up with a gag.
With the Timeless Child retcon as a whole, Chibnall has already demonstrated a willingness to go to great lengths for minute explanations. “The Timeless Children” even goes out of its way to clear up a bit of continuity from season 13, serial 5, “The Brain of Morbius,” from the classic Doctor Who series. That means this massive retcon was, in part, done to explain a minor inconsistency from 1976. It’s just that kind of decision-making that might lead to the Timeless Child retcon ending not with a bang, but a pun.