Doctor Who Theory: River Song’s Regenerations Explain The Timeless Child

River Song could be the key to Doctor Who‘s Timeless Child retcon. Doctor Who is the longest-running science-fiction TV series in the world, but current showrunner Chris Chibnall has dared to rewrite its lore. In Doctor Who season 12 he revealed that the Doctor is in fact the “Timeless Child,” a being who emerged from some sort of rift (or “boundary”) in time and space and became the base genetic code for the entire Time Lord race.

The revelation has dramatic consequences. It effectively means the Doctor is over a billion years old – older than Time Lord civilization itself – and that she has unlimited regenerations. Never again need the Doctor worry about coming to the end of her regeneration cycle, meaning Doctor Who really can go on forever without ever needing a boost from the Time Lords. The retcon has a massive impact on Doctor Who lore, fitting surprisingly well with the classic series but clashing rather with some plots from the 2005 relaunch. In truth, that makes sense, because Chibnall is an old-school Doctor Who fan who apparently came up with the concept of the Timeless Child back in the ’80s, when he was tuning in to the Colin Baker and Sylvester McCoy adventures on TV.

Continuity has never exactly been Doctor Who‘s strong suit; the show’s history is a mess of contradictions, a surprising choice on the part of the BBC because they prefer not to restrict potential writers by establishing rules of canon. But the Timeless Child reveal is one of the biggest changes in Doctor Who lore since the introduction of the Time Lords in 1969, and as a result viewers are poring over old stories, trying to figure out how it can all work. Surprisingly, the key may well lie in what would otherwise appear to be a major plot hole introduced by the Timeless Child retcon.

The Timeless Child Contradicts River Song’s Origin Story

Played by Alex Kingston, River Song is a popular character who played a major role during Steven Moffat’s run as showrunner. She was ultimately revealed to be the daughter of the Doctor’s companions Amy and Rory, conceived on their wedding night aboard the TARDIS, with the innocent and naïve Doctor never realizing what two humans might be getting up to on aforementioned wedding night. Because River had been conceived in the time vortex, the fetus was flooded with temporal energy, granting her the ability to regenerate. It was a power River Song ultimately gave up for the sake of the Doctor’s life.

But this doesn’t appear to fit particularly well with the Timeless Child retcon. According to Chibnall’s retcon, the ability to regenerate is part of the Doctor’s own genetic code, and Time Lords can regenerate because they have copied that power into their own DNA. It doesn’t seem to involve exposure to the time-space vortex at all, meaning River Song’s origin doesn’t make any sense. Making matters worse, even if the time-space vortex were to somehow grant River Song regenerations, they should have been unlimited in number, because the regeneration limit was imposed by the Time Lords themselves, for reasons as yet unknown. The Timeless Child retcon seems to break River Song’s origin story.

River Song’s Origin Could Reveal The Truth About Regeneration

It is true that there is an apparent contradiction here, but it’s actually not too difficult to resolve it. While the Timeless Child retcon establishes regeneration as a biological process, it does not explain how that process works. It is therefore possible the Timeless Child’s genetic code contains the secret of accessing the time-space vortex on a biological level, flooding the body with temporal energy at the point of death, and therefore triggering regeneration. If that is the case, then when the ancient Gallifreyans learned how to copy the abilities of the Timeless Child into their own DNA, they were creating a biological link between themselves and the time-space vortex. This would explain why they went on to become the Time Lords; Gallifreyan scientists would naturally be curious about just where this energy was coming from, and thus it could have led them to discover the secret of time travel.

River Song was exposed to the time-space vortex as a child, and her body was flooded with temporal energy – thus circumventing the need for a genetic link to the time-space vortex. But her human body would only have been able to contain so much of this power, meaning there was always a limit to how many times River Song could regenerate. Far from contradicting the Timeless Child retcon’s interpretation of regeneration, River Song’s example helps us understand it – and she may even provide a hint as to the Timeless Child’s own origin.

River Song Could Be The Key To Understanding The Timeless Child’s Origin

According to the Master, the Timeless Child was found on a world far from Gallifrey, alone and abandoned, left beneath a rift – what he called a “Boundary” – to some other dimension or universe. He was therefore suggesting the Doctor may well originate from another plane of existence, or else potentially even from a whole new universe. It’s a prospect that has left the fans shaken, some intrigued and others appalled. But it’s important to remember the Master may not have interpreted this correctly.

It’s entirely possible the Timeless Child originates from the time-space vortex itself, which has been described as the dimensional plane where time and space meet. Tecteun, the explorer who discovered the Timeless Child, would have had no idea what she was looking at, and the Matrix representation seen by the Doctor would have been based on her confused memories, meaning the Doctor and the Master may not have been able to recognize it. Doctor Who has long since established that the vortex is inhabited by powerful beings such as the Chronovores, the Eternals, the Guardians of Time, and the Reapers. If the Timeless Child originated from the vortex, it would explain why she had such an affinity for its energies, right down to a genetic level.

The Timeless Child’s race could well avoid interacting with those who exist on other planes of existence, explaining why they haven’t been seen before. And indeed, they may well have retreated in the chaos of the Time War; according to “The Unquiet Dead,” the conflict between the Daleks and the Time Lords had a devastating impact on higher races who live in the vortex. If this is the case, then Doctor Who season 13 could see the Doctor attempt to explore the vortex itself, rather than simply travel through it, seeking out her own race – and turning what has typically been little more than a plot device into a realm viewers get to experience and even understand.

About The Author

Thomas Bacon
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Tom Bacon is one of Screen Rant’s staff writers, as well as a Peer Mentor for new writers and a member of the Care Team, offering support and a listening ear to members of the Comics group. A lifelong fan of major franchises including Star Wars, Doctor Who, and Marvel, Tom is delighted his childhood is back – and this time it’s cool. You can find him on Twitter @TomABacon.

A graduate of Edge Hill University, Tom remains strongly connected with his alma mater as a volunteer chaplain. He’s heavily involved with his local church, and anyone who checks him out on Twitter will swiftly learn he’s into British politics too.

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