✨ DOCTOR WHO THEORY ✨ Jodie Whittaker is not the 13th Doctor. Jo Martin is the 13th Doctor. The Timeless Child is Whittaker trying to impersonate The Doctor. Follow the thread 🍃
This starts with a little bit of a stretch. Capaldi's regeneration scene always felt a bit off to me. The TARDIS lighting was very different from what we've seen (purple-ish and with more spotlights). Most importantly, after we see Jodie's eyes, the screen fades to white.
What if all of those were more than directing choices? What if they actually meant something? What if there was a time jump we were unaware of after "Twice Upon a Time"?
My theory is: Capaldi regenerated to Martin and she went on to have her own adventures we haven't seen yet. While doing so, she found out about The Timeless Child and its connection to Gallifrey. However, The Timeless Child is not The Doctor.
Enter Martin as the Fugitive of the Judoon: being targeted for being The Child, Martin, the actual 13th Doctor, had to use the Chameleon Arch and hide on Earth. But how doesn't Martin remember anything from the show's history?
Maybe there were more layers to her Chameleon Arch. Maybe she was trying her hardest to hide her identity as The Doctor that she added a safety lock towards her true memories, explaining why she didn't know about the Time War or the sonic screwdriver. Or she was just pretending.
imo, Jo Martin being the 13th Doctor explains a LOT, especially the fact she already has a police box as the TARDIS. But not any police box: the 1st Doctor's police box, which she'd had just reencountered on Twice Upon a Time -- in fact, it's known they are the SAME prop
Maybe revisiting the original 1963 TARDIS made The Doctor nostalgic, which made her go back to a layout similar to it, while keeping the "atmospheric lighting" 12 was so fond of.
Why did Martin's Doctor tell Whittaker to just get out of the TARDIS by the end of Fugitive of the Judoon? Maybe she was protecting herself from the Timeless Child as Whittaker tries to impersonate her.
At this point, we basically have The Doctor (Jo Martin) being targeted as The Timeless Child, while the actual Timeless Child (Jodie Whittaker) is trying to run away from the Judoon pretending to be The Doctor -- explaining why she got imprisoned at the end of S12!
Something that bothers me about The Doctor being The Timeless Child is that it means that she'd be some kind of "chosen one", going against the character's original narrative.
This twist would fix it, since The Timeless Child would still be this powerful being that gave regeneration powers to Time Lords, but was *not* actually The Doctor, just pretending to be her. Now, how did Whittaker get to Capaldi's TARDIS in his clothes?
Let's say The Doctor (Martin) and The Timeless Children (Whittaker) met while conscious of who they actually were.
On an ambush, The Child could've physically swapped places with The Doctor and gone back to (what we think was) right after 12's regeneration -- and this is where the "directing choices" from the regeneration scene fit.
Maybe the TARDIS lightning looks different when Jodie appears because Martin used it for a while and changed it around, before choosing the classic layout. The Child would have teleported herself there after the changes.
It would also make sense why the TARDIS threw Whittaker off. Maybe it knew Whittaker wasn't The Doctor and was protecting itself.
Maybe Whittaker's surprise upon being on the TARDIS was more than post-regeneration amnesia, it was actually The Child being proud of making it to The Doctor's TARDIS.
Before swapping places, The Child could've used something similar to the Cybermen's Data Cylinders from "The Next Doctor" to fully impersonate her and get her memories -- blowing up The Matrix on S12 with those fake memories.
Blowing up, the TARDIS finds the actual Doctor (Martin), left alone by The Child. The Doctor changes the layout after the explosion, finds Lee and starts plotting her disguise for "Fugitive of the Judoon".
The TARDIS we see on "The Ghost Monument" is NOT the Doctor's TARDIS, but The Child's TARDIS. That's why it looks so different from what we've seen before. Same with the layout of the sonic screwdriver, which she tried to build herself.
TL;DR: The Timeless Child is not The Doctor. It stole The Doctor's memories as an attempt to disguise herself and run away from whatever the hell she's being targeted for.
I doubt this theory is perfect, but when I thought of it I HAD to write about it. Let me know what you guys think about it and let's discuss it! I might add more tweets as I think about them. I was just too excited to put this out on a thread lol
Also, sorry for any typos :P
Still about Jo Martin's TARDIS, it's worth noting how similar the structures around the walls are to the coral ones on the 9th/10th Doctor's TARDIS.
