Kate Lethbridge-Stewart line and fixed-point theory explain Doctor's spinoff absence

Movieweb suggests a line from Kate Lethbridge-Stewart helps explain why the Doctor does not appear in The War Between the Land and the Sea. The spinoff features no direct appearances from the Doctor, though he is mentioned a handful of times.

In the series finale Kate recalls the Doctor telling her, "He told me once, 'I save the human race, I don't shape the human race. You can get that wrong all on your own.'" That line, the article argues, sounds as though the Doctor will refrain from intervening unless humanity faces extinction or his interference would be necessary to prevent catastrophe, and that he avoids taking away formative experiences the species must undergo. The piece also invokes Doctor Who's concept of fixed points in time and cites 2009's "The Waters of Mars," in which the Tenth Doctor's attempt to stop Adelaide Brooke's death is undone when she takes her own life.

The theory is presented as a way to reconcile other dark, Doctor-less stories such as 2009's Torchwood: Children of Earth, where Gwen Cooper speculates, "Sometimes the Doctor must look at this planet and turn away in shame." The War Between the Land and the Sea is listed with a 2025 release on BBC One, and the suggestion that the conflict might be a fixed point offers one explanation for why the Doctor does not intervene, though the series itself does not show him taking part.

Key Topics

Culture, Doctor Who, Kate Lethbridge-stewart, Jemma Redgrave, Time Lord