A thrilling new Doctor Who theory suggests the Doctor’s true identity has been revealed at last – as the God of Life. Who is the Doctor? That’s the question of the ages, asked time and again throughout Doctor Who’s 61-year tenure. Sometimes it’s been a joke, and on other occasions it’s been dealt with as a serious question; the Doctor’s real name even became a key question during the Matt Smith era (a question that was never answered).
The Doctor’s origin is now murkier than ever, with the Timeless Child retcon revealed the Doctor is not in fact a Time Lord at all. Rather, the Doctor is a being from outside this universe, whose genetic code was effectively stolen by the Gallifreyans to grant themselves the power of regeneration. But a new theory suggests the truth was secretly revealed at the end of Doctor Who season 14, “Empire of Death.”
The Fifteenth Doctor Hints He’s The God Of Life In Season 14’s Finale
Only a god of life could defeat the god of death
Doctor Who season 14 brought back a villain from the classic series, Sutekh. The classic series had portrayed Sutekh as an alien being of phenomenal power, but now he’s been retconned as an extragalactic entity who is literally the god of death itself. This approach fits well with Russell T. Davies’ new approach, which seems to have embraced the supernatural in a way that’s unusual for the world’s longest-running TV show.
“Empire of Death” saw the Doctor effectively position himself as the god of life, the antithesis to Sutekh’s god of death. “We bring life to the whole flippin’ universe,” Ncuti Gatwa’s Fifteenth Doctor celebrated as he dragged Sutekh through the time-space vortex, bringing death to death. “If you’re death, then I must represent life,” the Doctor told Sutekh as he recognized he had no choice but to go beyond his nature and destroy the god of death. Could the Doctor have been telling the truth?
Doctor Who’s Timeless Child Already Revealed The Doctor Came From Beyond The Universe
Like the gods, the Doctor comes from beyond the universe
Gods like Sutekh and the Maestro originate from another universe. It’s no small feat to cross the barriers between universes, as proved in Doctor Who season 13, when the Doctor’s adopted mother Tecteun revealed just how much power it required to do so. Even gods like Sutekh were only able to do it because of the events of “Wild Blue Yonder,” when the Doctor unwittingly invoked superstition on the very edge of creation, where the boundaries of reality were thin.
It’s entirely possible the Doctor wasn’t exaggerating when he claimed to represent life.
According to the Timeless Child retcon, the Doctor too originates from beyond this universe. Jodie Whitaker discovered that Tecteun had found her a billion years ago, at the foot of a mysterious structure and a tear that had been torn open between the universes. It’s entirely possible the Doctor is from the same universe as Sutekh, and that he wasn’t exaggerating when he claimed to represent life. This could well be his nature; the Doctor could actually be the god of life.
The Doctor Being The God Of Life Would Explain Regeneration
This could finally explain the reason the Doctor can regenerate
This could finally explain the Doctor’s most unique ability; the power of regeneration, which is essentially the conquest of death itself. For many years, viewers believed the Doctor could regenerate because he was a Time Lord, but the Timeless Child retcon turned that upside-down; we now know Time Lords can regenerated because of the Doctor, because Tecteun reverse-engineered aspects of his genetic code. What’s more, unlike the Time Lords, there is no limit to the number of times the Doctor can regenerate. He has a potentially unlimited lifespan – true immortality.
It’s fascinating to note there’s another subtle connection between the Doctor’s regenerations and his defeat of Sutekh. There is a strange link between regeneration and the energies that sweep through the time-space vortex; when the Doctor regenerates, he draws energy from the vortex itself. Is it significant that Sutekh was defeated in the realm from which the Doctor draws limitless life?
Doctor Who Season 14’s Premiere May Contain A Vital Clue
The Doctor possesses another secret superpower
Looking back, there may well be another clue in Doctor Who season 14 that hints the Doctor is indeed the god of life. In “Space Babies,” the Doctor and Ruby briefly travel back to prehistoric earth, where Ruby stands on a butterfly – and accidentally rewrites evolution, turning into a Silurian-like lizard. The Doctor puts things right by breathing on the butterfly, bringing it back to life. Many viewers were startled, taken aback at the idea the Doctor could reverse death – even to such a limited degree.
The Doctor has infinite regeneration energy – meaning he can theoretically turn back death anytime.
There is, however, precedent for the idea. The Matt Smith era saw the Doctor and River Song share regeneration energy on several occasions, with River Song particularly angry when the Doctor “wasted” regeneration energy to heal her broken wrist in “The Angels Take Manhattan.” She was frustrated with the Doctor because she saw regeneration energy as a limited resource, and feared the Doctor’s decision to heal her would cost him a heavy price. The Timeless Child retcon means the Doctor has infinite regeneration energy – meaning he can theoretically turn back death anytime.
Why hasn’t the Doctor ever done anything like this before? Simply because he didn’t know how to do so. Like River Song, for millennia he believed there was a limit to his ability to tap into the power of the time-space vortex and regenerate himself, which meant any attempt to share regeneration energy would curtail his own lifespan – assuming it worked at all. Now, though, the Doctor knows he is the Timeless Child, and he has no reason to fear sharing regeneration energy. Death is no longer a constant when the Doctor is around.
All in all, then, there’s abundant (albeit circumstantial) evidence suggesting the Doctor could potentially be the god of life. If this theory is correct, then the Doctor wasn’t exaggerating at all when he claimed to be the yin to Sutekh’s yang. Rather, he was stating the truth, and we finally know what the hero of Doctor Who really is.