Warning: Contains SPOILERS for Doctor Who's 60th anniversary special, "The Giggle."

Summary

• "The Giggle" changes the Timeless Child twist, making it better and more cohesive within Doctor Who canon.
• The Toymaker is revealed to be the one behind the Timeless Child, providing a smart retcon that resolves plot holes.
• The Doctor's original history as a Time Lord from Gallifrey is thankfully restored, but the Timeless Child isn't just ignored or completely removed.

Doctor Who's third 60th anniversary special, "The Giggle," changes the Timeless Child twist from Chris Chibnall and Jodie Whittaker's era, and makes it a lot better. Doctor Who's Timeless Child reveal was one of the biggest and most controversial retcons in the show's history, revealing that the Doctor was not a Time Lord of Gallifrey, but someone from another dimension entirely. In a way, the Timeless Child twist changed everything and nothing. It completely upended almost 60 years of Doctor Who canon, but didn't truly change who the Doctor was at their core, which is something that's clear from David Tennant's return to the role as the Fourteenth Doctor.

Of course, Doctor Who's 60th anniversary made some big changes and lore additions of its own. Most notably, that included "The One Who Waits" as the Doctor's next villain. Alongside all that, though, was a retcon of a retcon, with a new twist to the Timeless Child. Unlike the previous era, however, this is less divisive, and actually makes more sense.

Doctor Who's 60th Anniversary Confirms The Toymaker Was Behind The Timeless Child

As the Doctor and the Toymaker (Neil Patrick Harris) settle down to play a game, the Doctor Who villain reveals his role in meddling with the universe and its history. And, apparently, that extends to the Doctor's own past. The Toymaker says: "I made a jigsaw out of your history. Did you like it?" Combined with references to playing a game with the Master - who was the one to reveal the truth of the Timeless Child to the Doctor - it certainly seemed as though Doctor Who was retconning the Timeless Child. In this new version of events, the Toymaker was the one behind it, all part of his fun and games.

That was then confirmed by showrunner Russell T Davies, via the in-episode commentary available on BBC iPlayer. He says this is part of the "loosening of the rules," going on to reference whether he was half-human as Paul McGann (the Eighth Doctor), and "is he a Timeless Child?" Davies' intention is basically to make everything quite simple: the Doctor is whatever people want him to be. It could all be true, and it can now all exist within the same canon, without one thing overriding the other.

The Toymaker Finally Clears Up Doctor Who's Timeless Child Confusion

Having the classic Doctor Who villain the Toymaker be the one behind the Timeless Child is a smart retcon, and makes the twist fit much more neatly into canon. The Doctor having been the Timeless Child all along was always too big a game-changer, altering the character's history on such a level that it couldn't be properly explained. Doctor Who canon has long been malleable, to put it mildly, but the Timeless Child created so many egregious plot holes and inconsistencies that having the Toymaker be the one to do it clears much of it up in an instant.

It also means the Doctor's original history, of being a Time Lord from Gallifrey, remains canon, which is particularly important for the 60th anniversary, as it feels more in keeping with the spirit and original intent of the entire show. Crucially, however, Davies avoids just completely shutting down the Timeless Child. Because it was such a big twist, then it had to be addressed in some way, but simply saying the Master was lying or some other get-out would've risked feeling a bit cheap, rather than dealing with the problem.

The handling of it here is clever in that it technically builds on what Chibnall did, using the twist and the Master's actions to further the story and make the Toymaker into a greater threat. It also allows for what could be perceived as hints to the Timeless Child in past stories (such as the eight Brain of Morbius Doctors) to still exist as such, only as the work of Harris' villain. Working with the Timeless Child was never going to be easy, but Davies' return to Doctor Who has actually made it interesting and just about fit into canon (as much as anything can).