Where do you personally place the Fugitive Doctor in the timeline?

[katarina-of-troy]

@anon21071189

As said in Once, Upon Time: when the Time Lords/The Division ended the Dark Times by imprisoning Time through the Mouri, Swarm and Azure fought back against this to undo what they did and release Time, starting the Founding Conflict/Battle between Time and Space. In the Siege of Atropos, Swarm brought up to the Fugitive Doctor that they’re still engaged in the Founding Conflict, in a tone that says it’s been happening for a long time, and we’ve already established when the battle started.

This, too. Since I see Atropos as the physical Web of Time, then the Founding Conflict would be Swarm and Azure fighting back against the Anchoring of the Thread, and that flashback would show a sort of re-anchoring after they released Time from the grip of Space (the Web of Time/Temple of Atropos/Planet Time), and the entire Founding Conflict would set everything in the pre-Hartnell period.

[anon21071189]

The Fugitive Doctor being 6B wouldn’t work for the fact that the Flux was created by Division because the Doctor rediscovered their existence since it was wiped from their mind when they became the First Doctor, that shows how serious Division are about the Doctor rediscovering their existence, and so it just wouldn’t make sense for Division to rehire the Second Doctor, deliberately making the Doctor aware of Division again and compromising their own existence. The Second Doctor working for the Time Lords I wouldn’t say means that it makes sense for the Fugitive Doctor to be a hidden incarnation between him and the Third Doctor, because the Doctor working for the Time Lords isn’t something unique that can only happen at one point in time if you get what I mean. It’s just something they have in common, no different to how the Second, Eleventh, and Thirteenth Doctor all wear braces.

[katarina-of-troy]

@sircarolyn

But surely the point of headcanons is that they’re personal, and Chibnall as the head of the show had the unique power to make anything he wanted ‘canon’? like if you’re the head writer, you write stuff and then if fans have opinions that’s why they make headcanons

I mean, it’s heavilly implied in the show she’s supposed to be pre-Hartnell, but hearing Chibnall talk about Doctor Who it’s also clear to me that he know’s every part of the lore is constantly being changed, recontextualised and added onto, so I see this as him not wanting to stand in the way of future showrunners if they decide that the Fugitive Doctor allows them to explore Season 6B or something else on screen.
Basically, I think Chibnall would vote that she’s pre-Hartnell but that doesn’t need to be specified, if he was faced with this exact poll.

[DoctorDisco]

Exactly - I think it’s pretty clear how the narrative in The Timeless Children is trying to place Fugitive (very much pre-Hartnell), but Chris Chibnall was careful enough to stop short of explicit confirmation. Between his behind-the-scenes comments and the various pieces of evidence, counter-evidence and contradictions presented as part of that storyline and since, I think there’s more than enough for people to take Fugitive in any of the directions in the poll, depending on their personal reading and their imagination. I think it’s interesting that roughly a third of respondents picked something other than pre-Hartnell, personally (I really want to know what those people who selected “other” think!).

[anon21071189]

From the allegorical Ireland filter, it was shown that Brendan worked for Garda from late teens until he retired from service when he was an old man, and so that means that the Doctor worked for Division for a very long time. And what do we see the Fugitive Doctor doing in Once, Upon Time? Earning her retirement from Division.