The classic Doctor Who series may have already revealed the Timeless Child's fate. Doctor Who showrunner Chris Chibnall promised the show would never be the same after season 12, and he wasn't exaggerating; the season 12 finale was the biggest retcon in the show's decades-long history.

In the finale, the Doctor learned she is not a Time Lord at all; rather, she is the Timeless Child, a mysterious being who potentially predates the universe itself. Discovered by a Gallifreyan explorer, this child became the base genetic code for the entire Time Lord race when the Gallifreyans discovered her power of regeneration. The Timeless Child remained a part of Time Lord civilization for untold millennia, going through an unknown number of regenerations. In the end, though, her memories were forcibly erased by the Time Lords, and she was regenerated back to an infant again. It's a shocking twist, arguably foreshadowed by some episodes of classic Doctor Who but contradicting many aspects of the show since its 2005 relaunch.

Related: Ruth Is The NEXT Doctor After Jodie Whittaker (With Strong Evidence)

Curiously enough, it's possible the Peter Davison story "Arc of Infinity" already foreshadowed the Timeless Child's true fate. In that story, the ancient Time Lord named Omega attempted to escape from the antimatter universe in which he had been imprisoned; he had an agent on Gallifrey steal the Doctor's biodata, and he used this to bond with him and attempt to bring himself back to conventional reality. A number of scenes were set on Gallifrey, and they saw the High Council continually reference mysterious events in Gallifrey's past.

Doctor Who Arc of Infinity

The Time Lords believed the extradimensional intruder would cause the greatest explosion since the Big Bang, as matter and antimatter collided. According to the Time Lords, there was precedent for this kind of situation, and they'd been forced to go to extreme lengths to prevent an unseen catastrophe. Although capital punishment is outlawed on Gallifrey, they had decided this was the only way to save all of creation. A Time Lord had been executed, destroyed, for the sake of the universe.

The Timeless Child retcon means the Doctor - or a pre-Doctor incarnation - will have been present on Gallifrey during these events. Given that's the case, it's reasonable to assume the Doctor has always been something of a trouble magnet, and that he was involved in all of this. In fact, it could well be this is a garbled account of the Timeless Child's ultimate fate; that some cosmic presence pursued the Timeless Child to Gallifrey, and the Time Lords faked his execution. The truth has been forgotten in the mists of time; after all, the Timeless Child wasn't just a shock to the Doctor, but to his fellow classmate the Master. If this is the case, the interesting question is just what cosmic force pursued the Timeless Child - and whether or not it's still out there.

More: Frozen 2'S Elsa Twist Has The Same Problem As Doctor Who's Timeless Child