The Series 12 finale, “The Timeless Children,” caused some controversy for revealing the Doctor to be the Timeless Child, to put it mildly.

Some fans felt that by retroactively changing the Doctor’s origins and revealing incarnations before William Hartnell, it breaks canon and harms his legacy.

In response the BBC complaints department issued the following: “Doctor Who is a beloved long-running series and we understand that some people will feel attached to a particular idea they have of the Doctor, or that they enjoy certain aspects of the programme more than others. Opinions are strong and this is indicative of the imaginative hold that Doctor Who has – that so many people engage with it on so many different levels.

“We wholeheartedly support the creative freedom of the writers and we feel that creating an origin story is a staple of science fiction writing. What was written does not alter the flow of stories from William Hartnell’s brilliant Doctor onwards – it just adds new layers and possibilities to this ongoing saga.

“We have also received many positive reactions to the episode’s cliff-hanger. There are still a lot of questions to be answered, and we hope that you will come back to join us and see what happens, but we appreciate that it’s impossible to please all of our viewers all of the time and your feedback has been raised with the programme’s Executive Producer.”

This is the second time this year the BBC has had to respond to complaints.