The Thirteenth Doctor was shocked by Gallifrey’s destruction in the Timeless Child was unveiled.
It transpires that the Doctor is not an ordinary Time Lord after all. She is the Timeless Child, an ancient being of unknown origins who became the base genetic code for the entire Time Lord race. Hidden deep in the Matrix on Gallifrey, this dark truth remained a secret until the Master stumbled upon the records during another of his schemes.
Whilst this massive retcon has confirmed decades-old theories about regenerations from the classic Doctor Who series, it has also proved to be highly polarizing. Doctor Who may not have the set canon that other pop culture properties have, but many fans still feel that the revelations are at odds with the character and that it has rendered many popular stories (particularly in the modern era) somewhat nonsensical.
Yet the events of the Timeless Child arc may have added new shades to one of the Twelfth Doctor’s most famous stories, where he makes a dramatic return to the planet of the Time Lords. But his actions during this homecoming may have ultimately decided Gallifrey’s grim fate, ultimately leading to Gallifrey's destruction.
How Did The Master Destroy Gallifrey?
Season 12’s massive revelations about the Doctor’s secret heritage are shown to be a source of deep anger and sorrow for her, but this pales in comparison to the Master’s extreme reaction. In "Spyfall: Part Two" the Doctor’s archenemy relates that he went on a furious rampage, obliterating their homeworld of Gallifrey and all those who lived there in revenge for the countless lies the Time Lordsto had told in relation to the Timeless Child.
Despite occurring off-screen in the early stages of season 12, the planet still had a part to play in the story. During the finale entitled "The Timeless Children," the Master ensnares the Doctor in the ruins of the Time Lord Capitol and establishes his new order of Cyber Masters, shortly before the Doctor escapes and Ko Sharmus detonates the death particle, wiping out all organic life on Gallifrey for good.
Aside from his appalling brutality, there are several notable aspects of the Master’s actions. The show doesn't specify how he attacked his homeworld and killed its inhabitants since its structures are badly damaged yet still standing. Similarly, season 12 does not detail exactly when this massacre occurred. Obviously, this is rather hard to determine in a show about time travelers and machines, but we can still make a rather educated guess based on both the Master’s chronology and the Twelfth Doctor’s era during showrunner Chris Chibnall's run.
It is widely assumed that this genocide was unleashed by the Master’s latest incarnation (Sacha Dhawan), who follows on from Missy (Michelle Gomez). Missy was the iteration that faced the Twelfth Doctor in his final adventure before regenerating at the end of season 10. The Master could have traveled back earlier than this time frame to kill the Time Lords, but, crucially, the season 9 episode "Hell Bent" presented them as safe and well. Therefore, unless there has been some as-of-yet unspecified temporal trickery, the Master’s butchering of Gallifrey can only have occurred after the momentous circumstances of "Hell Bent." And that is significant.
Theory: The Twelfth Doctor's Gallifrey Action Left It Vulnerable To The Master
In the season 9 finale, the Twelfth Doctor finally returned to Gallifrey after a very prolonged absence, but it was hardly a warm homecoming. Prior to this, the incumbent Lord President Rassilon and the Gallifreyan High Council had been eager to determine what the Doctor had learned about the Hybrid prophecy. Thus, they trapped the renegade traveler in a confession dial, where he was tortured for over four billion years. The situation was further complicated by their part in the untimely death of the Doctor’s companion, Clara Oswald.
Upon his arrival, the furious Doctor set about making his feelings known, resulting in a climactic showdown in the Dry Lands of Gallifrey, where something unexpected occurred. Recognizing his heroism in the Time War, the Gallifreyan armed forces side with the Doctor, and they depose both the tyrannical Rassilon and the High Council.
These disgraced Time Lords are unceremoniously exiled from their world. However, the Doctor is not interested in defending or governing Gallifrey after the Time War. Indeed, as soon as he assumes command, he sets about reversing Clara’s demise, despite being told that it could fracture time itself. Clara is retrieved from the moment just before her death, but when the General and Time Lords try to stop the Doctor and return Clara to her time stream, the duo absconds in another TARDIS and do not return.
If the Master did strike soon after the events "Hell Bent," he would clearly have found Gallifrey easier to subjugate than he would beforehand. At this point in the show, the Time Lords had nearly been bested in the Time War and brought the planet from a pocket dimension, where the Doctor had hidden them in for their safety. But they were still vulnerable, so they positioned their homeworld billions of years in the future, near to the death of the universe itself, to hide from their numerous enemies. But the Doctor’s actions in "Hell Bent" make their situation even more precarious.
Moreover, with Gallifrey's ruling class now absent in Doctor Who and the General and her troops distracted by not just their new, current President abruptly disappearing, but the foreboding Hybrid prophecy as well, it’s very likely Gallifrey would be ill-prepared to deal with the sudden ferocity of the Master’s assault. Therefore, it is easy to see how the Doctor’s actions might have accidentally left the planet in a substantial – and ultimately fatal – level of disarray.
How The Twelfth Doctor Causing Gallifrey's Destruction Fits With His Story
“The Timeless Children” does not refer to any of "Hell Bent’s developments directly, but it does add a somewhat ironic twist to the Twelfth Doctor’s long-running arc. Certainly, some might see this as further confirmation that the Doctor was the fulfillment of Doctor Who's Hybrid prophecy, a myth of a prophesied being that would stand over the ruins of Gallifrey, unraveling the Web of Time and breaking a billion, billion hearts to heal its own.
Given the status of the Time Lord homeworld – and the Twelfth Doctor’s extreme methods to save Clara – there are certain parallels between the prophecy and the tale of the maverick time traveler. Alternatively, the character Me hypothesized in "Hell Bent" that the prophecy might denote two of two warrior races instead of just one being. Now that the Doctor has been detailed as a member of another species, the prediction might even refer to both the Doctor and the Master (the latter representing the Time Lords). However, it must be noted that the story was largely resolved with Clara and the Twelfth Doctor being the Hybrid, so the prophecy is unlikely to be connected to these aspects of the story.
But arguably, the Timeless Child retcon still does augment the Twelfth Doctor’s arc for the better. That isn't to say he willingly hoped that his homeworld would suffer - he had spent a great deal of time fighting for its survival, particularly in "The Day of the Doctor." Yet the fact that Gallifrey’s ruin is a consequence of the Twelfth Doctor’s drastic measures in Hell Bent does compound his later assertion that he “went too far” in his bid to save his companion. Plus, if the Master is to be believed, and the Doctor is the reluctant cause of the Time Lord’s rise to power over the cosmos through the power of regeneration, it is somewhat fitting that the same renegade would play a part in their fall.
It will be interesting to see whether Chris Chibnall's Timeless Child revelation regarding Twelve was an intentional story decision, or if Doctor Who will even acknowledge that the Twelfth Doctor was instrumental in deciding Gallifrey’s grim fate. However, it seems very likely that Doctor Who will explore these events – along with Rassilon’s whereabouts. This is a pivotal moment in the show’s development, so it seems clear that Doctor Who will be tackling this – and the sizable enigma of the Timeless Child - for some years to come.