Who's afraid of the big bad wolf?
I realize that this might qualify as a Handwave Thing, but I'm really trying to get a grip on all the time traveling stuff in Doctor Who. Or,
Because, here's the thing: everything goes to hell in a handbasket when Rose saves her Dad in "Father's Day," because "someone's alive that's not supposed to be" and paradoxes and some such like that. The implication being, of course, that that timeline is wrong. Which it is! sort of, because then Rose grows up with a father and maybe her mother is more (or less) annoying and omg maybe Rose gets a job that doesn't involve mannequins of doom and moves far away and never meets the Doctor and never time travels and never gets sent back from the Game Station but goes back anyway by looking into the TARDIS and saves the Doctor and makes "Bad Wolf" go everywhere. Okay. So does that mean that it was Fate that killed Rose's dad? Does that mean that THE ONLY POSSIBLE THING that could have happened was for him to die, so all that other stuff could happen?
Because, see, those creepy bugs don't come around to eat 2005 when Rose suddenly disappears from the timeline and shows up in the year Five Billion. Which seems to imply that there's nothing screwy about that course of events? That Rose is MEANT to have a dead dad and a crappy job, so she can pick up and leave.
But, also... if she leaves 2005, that means that she's never going have kids who have kids who have kids who have kids that might actually be really important? Isn't that possible? Doesn't THAT now defunct possibility fuck with the timeline? If the simple act of keeping Rose's dad alive caused an entire universe to potentially get eaten, surely removing her altogether should have the same effect... right?
(Unless you argue that Rose is Special. And that part of making "Bad Wolf" everywhere also created her destiny where her dad dies and she has a crappy job and she meets the Doctor. Which, you know, that might not actually be crazy and an easy way out of this argument.)
It SEEMS like there's an argument for a One True Timeline in the show, because the Doctor is able to alter history enough that he seems to prevent the human race from ever developing. The key phrase being alter, since he seems to have SEEN the Great And Bountiful Human Empire and knows where it SHOULD be. I keep wanting to think that we're working on the multiverse theory of time travel, that every possibility exists in its own universe and it's just a matter of picking which "course" you want to follow, but not once does the Doctor ever seem to say, "No Empire? Oops, wrong time-vein. COURSE CORRECTION."
And it's not always clear how some of these aliens make their way to Earth-- time travel or normal space? If it's the former, then sure, make things better before those aliens fuck it up. But if it's the later? I said this to familyarchives: if, in the course of traveling back through time, the Doctor discovers that Plato was actually a brain-sucking alien who traveled to Earth via ordinary space travelling ways, crashed on Earth, and then set himself up as a philosopher in Greece so he could suck other people's brains and have stew, you obviously don't want to change that because Plato was a huge influence on Western society! And since Plato didn't take over anyone's body, if Plato didn't exist before the alien crashed, then he seems to be Meant To Be. And he's okay to stay. How can the Doctor tell when the alien is Alien or when he's just An Unknown Extraterrestial Influence? Is it because he's a Doctor and can just sense?
But the Doctor can still go to a timeline thinking it's going to be one thing, but it's different because of the things that he did in the past! SOMEHOW, THIS DOESN'T MAKE SENSE TO ME.
HELP.
ETA: AND ROSE CAN CHANGE HER TIMELINE, TOO! When she stays with her dad when he dies (and never mind that he totally dies in a different spot and the driver doesn't run away, which really, should THAT fuck with the timeline, too?!), her mom remembers that! Rose points it out to her when she goes "home" in the finale and her mom concurs and it's proven that The Timeline Has Changed Somewhat.
Which begs the question... which timeline does Rose go home to, exactly? Because Mickey seems happy to see her, after having avoided her completely when she went looking for him at the end of "Boom Town." Is she in the one where she was accidentally missing for a year rather than half a day? Or does the Doctor's emergency program send her back to just a little bit after "Rose." Because, omg, IT COULD BE EITHER.
I swear, I did mean to sit down and write fic. Really!
MI BRAIN IZ ETTED OMG.
Because, here's the thing: everything goes to hell in a handbasket when Rose saves her Dad in "Father's Day," because "someone's alive that's not supposed to be" and paradoxes and some such like that. The implication being, of course, that that timeline is wrong. Which it is! sort of, because then Rose grows up with a father and maybe her mother is more (or less) annoying and omg maybe Rose gets a job that doesn't involve mannequins of doom and moves far away and never meets the Doctor and never time travels and never gets sent back from the Game Station but goes back anyway by looking into the TARDIS and saves the Doctor and makes "Bad Wolf" go everywhere. Okay. So does that mean that it was Fate that killed Rose's dad? Does that mean that THE ONLY POSSIBLE THING that could have happened was for him to die, so all that other stuff could happen?
Because, see, those creepy bugs don't come around to eat 2005 when Rose suddenly disappears from the timeline and shows up in the year Five Billion. Which seems to imply that there's nothing screwy about that course of events? That Rose is MEANT to have a dead dad and a crappy job, so she can pick up and leave.
But, also... if she leaves 2005, that means that she's never going have kids who have kids who have kids who have kids that might actually be really important? Isn't that possible? Doesn't THAT now defunct possibility fuck with the timeline? If the simple act of keeping Rose's dad alive caused an entire universe to potentially get eaten, surely removing her altogether should have the same effect... right?
(Unless you argue that Rose is Special. And that part of making "Bad Wolf" everywhere also created her destiny where her dad dies and she has a crappy job and she meets the Doctor. Which, you know, that might not actually be crazy and an easy way out of this argument.)
It SEEMS like there's an argument for a One True Timeline in the show, because the Doctor is able to alter history enough that he seems to prevent the human race from ever developing. The key phrase being alter, since he seems to have SEEN the Great And Bountiful Human Empire and knows where it SHOULD be. I keep wanting to think that we're working on the multiverse theory of time travel, that every possibility exists in its own universe and it's just a matter of picking which "course" you want to follow, but not once does the Doctor ever seem to say, "No Empire? Oops, wrong time-vein. COURSE CORRECTION."
And it's not always clear how some of these aliens make their way to Earth-- time travel or normal space? If it's the former, then sure, make things better before those aliens fuck it up. But if it's the later? I said this to familyarchives: if, in the course of traveling back through time, the Doctor discovers that Plato was actually a brain-sucking alien who traveled to Earth via ordinary space travelling ways, crashed on Earth, and then set himself up as a philosopher in Greece so he could suck other people's brains and have stew, you obviously don't want to change that because Plato was a huge influence on Western society! And since Plato didn't take over anyone's body, if Plato didn't exist before the alien crashed, then he seems to be Meant To Be. And he's okay to stay. How can the Doctor tell when the alien is Alien or when he's just An Unknown Extraterrestial Influence? Is it because he's a Doctor and can just sense?
But the Doctor can still go to a timeline thinking it's going to be one thing, but it's different because of the things that he did in the past! SOMEHOW, THIS DOESN'T MAKE SENSE TO ME.
HELP.
ETA: AND ROSE CAN CHANGE HER TIMELINE, TOO! When she stays with her dad when he dies (and never mind that he totally dies in a different spot and the driver doesn't run away, which really, should THAT fuck with the timeline, too?!), her mom remembers that! Rose points it out to her when she goes "home" in the finale and her mom concurs and it's proven that The Timeline Has Changed Somewhat.
Which begs the question... which timeline does Rose go home to, exactly? Because Mickey seems happy to see her, after having avoided her completely when she went looking for him at the end of "Boom Town." Is she in the one where she was accidentally missing for a year rather than half a day? Or does the Doctor's emergency program send her back to just a little bit after "Rose." Because, omg, IT COULD BE EITHER.
I swear, I did mean to sit down and write fic. Really!
MI BRAIN IZ ETTED OMG.