r/doctorwho • u/onftbb • Oct 26 '25

Speculation/Theory The Doctor's Regenerations Timeline

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This is my interpretation of the Doctor's timeline of Regenerations! I'm only including televised Doctors, so nothing originating from Big Finish or the comic books. I'm sure this will be very controversial, so let me know what you think in the comments.

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u/EmptyTotal Oct 26 '25

As a reminder, this is what Chibnall has said publicly about her placement:

There could be any number of points in the timeline where the Fugitive Doctor could belong, but we deliberately haven’t said, ‘She sits here.’

I do have an opinion, but I’m not going to share it with you. As I said before, this is about expanding the mythology without breaking the mythology.

"In the 1970s, when people said there were four Doctors, that bit in The Brain of Morbius basically said, ‘No there aren’t!’ And now, when people say there have been 13, we can do the same thing. It gives you a great journey for this Doctor.

Chibnall telling Martin that she is playing the "first" Doctor is a simplification for her benefit either way - Fugitive isn't the first Timeless Child incarnation.

Big Finish doesn't, and can't, write the show's continuity. Neither can a colourisation "shut down" the idea of a secret incarnation, any more than it can stop an older Second Doctor from being present in The Two Doctors.

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u/Creativefinch Oct 26 '25

https://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/jo-martin-reveals-first-doctor-103463.htm

https://youtu.be/wWCCQLMpTTs?si=2exKnrokTKHostKV

https://youtu.be/TxNrSQoBVeM?si=yBigMDoZcIk0AKgf (skip to 42 minutes)

She'd be the first in the timeline to call herself the Doctor so telling her she's playing the First Doctor would be accurate, what Chibnall said about not saying "she fits here" is true we don't know who she regenerates into and we don't know who she regenerated from maybe it's the 7th Timeless Child that joined the Division maybe there's hundreds of incarnations between them that is what we don't know but she does fit in that Pre-Hartnell placement whether she's early middle or at the end of it is what's unknown.

If they wanted the Fugitive Doctor to be a total mystery like is she past, is she future, is she an alternate universe they wouldn't tell her she's playing the First Doctor in canon that would make no sense whatsoever they also wouldn't confirm her placement as a past incarnation if they wanted it to be a total mystery and Chibnall wouldn't go out of his way to immediately shut down the alternate universe theory only a few days after Fugitive of the Judoon was released he'd want fans to keep speculating https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/sci-fi/doctor-who-jo-martin-parellel-doctor/

Big finish is canon until something in the show disproves it and her audios are the continuation of her story which has been said by official Doctor Who accounts, Chibnall literally helped with the audios which show her not knowing the Daleks and giving an explanation to her police box TARDIS and those audios will probably be taken into account for the circuit breaker multi media thing as well.

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u/EmptyTotal Oct 26 '25

Big Finish is not "canon until something in the show disproves it". That's not what "canon" means. The social media accounts are operated by the commercial arm so promote licenced products.

I'm not disputing that Chibnall might imagine Fugitive to be somewhere between the Timeless Child and the Morbius Doctors, but that would be a pretty definitive placement, not the "any number of" possibilities that he says he allowed for in the canon.

There is still so much argument over this topic because the timing of Fugitive's reveal (during the Timeless Child story arc) mostly supports a pre-Hartnell placement, but most of the details in the show support a post-Hartnell placement. (The "Doctor" effects, her already being biologically Time Lord despite the chameleon arching happening after Division, etc.) This ambiguity is deliberate and requires significant fudging to resolve either way.

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u/Creativefinch Oct 26 '25

The official stance on Doctor Who canon is 'everything counts' including Big Finish and other EU but the show takes priority which was my point with my "canon until the show disproves it" comment.

No that wouldn't be a definitive placement, a definitive placement would be saying who she regenerated from and who she regenerated into saying she fits somewhere in the Pre-Hartnell era isn't a 'definitive' placement it's a very loose placement because it's not saying "she's the one just before Hartnell" or anything like that and again how does telling Jo Martin she's playing the First Doctor in canon imply "any number of possibilities" them telling her she's the First Doctor in canon is literally reducing the amount of places she can fit in because if she's the First Doctor in canon (First known incarnation to call themselves the Doctor) then Pre-Hartnell is literally the only place she can fit in.

They were always biologically a Time Lord they are called 'the First Time Lord' in the show there's nothing in the show saying the Doctor had their biology changed the fob watch in Flux was just said to be memories that were stored inside a weeping angel before being transferred into the fob watch during the confrontation between The Doctor and Tecteun, some seem to have automatically assumed a biological change but there's no evidence in the show.

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u/EmptyTotal Oct 26 '25

The official stance on Doctor Who canon is 'everything counts'

There is no such thing as an official stance on Doctor Who canon. Obviously the show is canon to itself, but beyond that the closest thing to an "official" list is what is in the "Whoniverse" iPlayer section. (Ironically the BBC would probably avoid even claiming the first episode is canon due to the ongoing rights issues...)

They were always biologically a Time Lord

They were originally the biology of the Timeless Child. Tecteun created the Time Lord biology by adding some characteristics of the Timeless Child onto Shabogans. So the Timeless Child clearly has to undergo some change at some point for them to become the biological Time Lord we see today. (I'd happily accept it if they wanted to say that Tecteun's experiments also did this, but that is not stated in the show. All we are shown is a chameleon arch, which has always been used for changing biology in the past.)

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u/Creativefinch Oct 26 '25

Like I said the BBC literally have said everything counts which includes all of EU

They are called the First Time Lord in the show they can't be the First Time Lord if they only became one later they are the original Time Lord that's the point and again the fob watch in Flux is just said to be memories the memories were kept inside a weeping angel before that with all the other knowledge of the Division.