Why I like the Clock Roaches
Or...reavers. Is that what they're technically called? Whatever - Clock Roaches is an absolutely perfect name, so I'm using it.
The Time Lords held a very strict monopoly on Time Travel. Ostensibly, because it's really incredibly dangerous and you shouldn't try it at home (they're what you call "Experts"). Of course, having such a monopoly made their power virtually unassailable, which can't have been an accident either. Whatever their motives, though, with their extinction from the universe, time travel suddenly became a real possibility for all sorts of freelancers. And the thing about massive unregulated Time Travel is it's a really great way to blow a hole in the universe the size of Belgium. And, of course, other things began to flourish, filling the power vacuum left behind by vanished Gallifrey.
The Clock Roaches arise out of the new pressures of a universe full of time travelers but empty of time lords. They are a defense mechanism, of sorts, like temporal white blood cells. When someone damages time itself (as we might expect, now that there's no one to enforce the First - or any other - Law of Time), they converge on the site to cauterize the wound, thereby preventing the whole universe from unraveling. They do this primarily by swooping around and eating the scenery. There's no particular reason they need to have giant wings and claws in order to do this job - it's just kind of awesome. Since the people and landscape and such that they gobble up is ultimately retrievable, my guess is that they are a type of chronovore, rather like Chronos from "the Time Monster."
The neat thing about the Clock Roaches, apart from the above, of course, is that they aren't in and of themselves the problem - they are they symptoms. They're doing an important and necessary (and pretty darned cool) job - you don't want to stop them, you want them to no longer be necessary. Since stopping them is never on the agenda, it's okay for them to be completely unstoppable. They even get the Doctor, so you know they mean business. They're also just a neat idea - the universe being self-correcting, protecting itself.
The main question about the Clock Roaches is why they are only in the one episode ("Father's Day.") Well, before the Time War, the Time Lords were keeping an eye on things so they would have been totally unnecessary. But why don't we ever see them again, even when people do really foolish things like meeting themselves? Well, bear in mind that this is more than just a temporal discharge based on the Bilnovitch Limitation effect - in "Father's Day" they go back in time twice, first weakening and then perforating the spacetime continuum itself. It's that one-two punch that makes the difference, and licenses the arrival of the Clock Roaches in a way that other Blinovitch violations
The Clock Roaches are just a really fun idea. They are also something New in the universe, filling in the gap left behind by the Time Lords themselves. They're a perfect example of the weirdness of the universe that starts to break through when no longer being held in check by the unafflicted. But mostly I just like saying the words "clock roaches."
The Time Lords held a very strict monopoly on Time Travel. Ostensibly, because it's really incredibly dangerous and you shouldn't try it at home (they're what you call "Experts"). Of course, having such a monopoly made their power virtually unassailable, which can't have been an accident either. Whatever their motives, though, with their extinction from the universe, time travel suddenly became a real possibility for all sorts of freelancers. And the thing about massive unregulated Time Travel is it's a really great way to blow a hole in the universe the size of Belgium. And, of course, other things began to flourish, filling the power vacuum left behind by vanished Gallifrey.
The Clock Roaches arise out of the new pressures of a universe full of time travelers but empty of time lords. They are a defense mechanism, of sorts, like temporal white blood cells. When someone damages time itself (as we might expect, now that there's no one to enforce the First - or any other - Law of Time), they converge on the site to cauterize the wound, thereby preventing the whole universe from unraveling. They do this primarily by swooping around and eating the scenery. There's no particular reason they need to have giant wings and claws in order to do this job - it's just kind of awesome. Since the people and landscape and such that they gobble up is ultimately retrievable, my guess is that they are a type of chronovore, rather like Chronos from "the Time Monster."
The neat thing about the Clock Roaches, apart from the above, of course, is that they aren't in and of themselves the problem - they are they symptoms. They're doing an important and necessary (and pretty darned cool) job - you don't want to stop them, you want them to no longer be necessary. Since stopping them is never on the agenda, it's okay for them to be completely unstoppable. They even get the Doctor, so you know they mean business. They're also just a neat idea - the universe being self-correcting, protecting itself.
The main question about the Clock Roaches is why they are only in the one episode ("Father's Day.") Well, before the Time War, the Time Lords were keeping an eye on things so they would have been totally unnecessary. But why don't we ever see them again, even when people do really foolish things like meeting themselves? Well, bear in mind that this is more than just a temporal discharge based on the Bilnovitch Limitation effect - in "Father's Day" they go back in time twice, first weakening and then perforating the spacetime continuum itself. It's that one-two punch that makes the difference, and licenses the arrival of the Clock Roaches in a way that other Blinovitch violations
The Clock Roaches are just a really fun idea. They are also something New in the universe, filling in the gap left behind by the Time Lords themselves. They're a perfect example of the weirdness of the universe that starts to break through when no longer being held in check by the unafflicted. But mostly I just like saying the words "clock roaches."