Quest 069
[Multidimensional History Final]
Multidimensional History Final
Rosella Davenport
27 March 2009
2. What is Bad Wolf? What is the Bad Wolf Phenomena? What are the larger implications of Bad Wolf, and Siege of the Gamestation?
“Bad Wolf” is the name given to the omnipotent entity that Rose Tyler became after looking into the heart of the TARDIS and being filled with vortex energy from therein. (1) It is also the phrase that the Bad Wolf entity chose to use as a message to herself, scattering the phrase throughout space and time where she would be sure to encounter it as Rose Tyler, prior to becoming the Bad Wolf. This message served as a guide that enabled Tyler to become the Bad Wolf; however, if Tyler had not become the Bad Wolf, she could not have sent the message to herself that would enable her to become it. This form of temporal paradox is known as the Bad Wolf Phenomena-Tyler could not have become the Bad Wolf entity without reading the message, but the message could not have been sent unless Tyler was already the Bad Wolf.
The Siege of the Gamestation is considered to be the final battle of the Time War (2), and Bad Wolf was the major player therein; therefore, the creation of Bad Wolf resulted in a number of critical changes in history. Not only did the Bad Wolf entity manipulate the timestream to bring about its own creation, as discussed above, but it also caused significant changes to the other players in the Siege of the Gamestation. The Bad Wolf entity singlehandedly defeated the Daleks and their fleet by turning them into dust, thereby saving the Earth from destruction by the Dalek fleet. (3) Furthermore, the Bad Wolf entity was also responsible for resurrecting Captain Jack Harkness (who had died heroically fighting the Daleks, and who was a personal friend of Rose Tyler) and inadvertently causing him to become a “fixed point in time”. (4) Finally, the Bad Wolf entity was inadvertently responsible for causing the regeneration of the Doctor; as the Doctor refused to allow Tyler (the vessel for the Bad Wolf entity) to be destroyed by the extreme powers of the vortex energy that made up Bad Wolf, he absorbed the energy into himself, which caused him to “die” and therefore forced a regeneration cycle within him.
Hence, the single incident of Bad Wolf had many ramifications both for the timeline of history, the battle of the Gamestation, and the future that followed thereafter.
References:
(1): "Bad Wolf"
(2): "Battle of the Game Station"
(3): "The Bad Wolf entity"
(4): "The Abandonment of Jack Harkness"
3. Within a single world, there is the potential for alternate time-lines. Discuss how the two (or more) time-lines within a given world were developed, long terms effects of this split, important differentiating qualities/events between the differing time-lines, and any other notable features.
Multiple timelines usually emerge as a result of time travel, and the experiences of Marty McFly are certainly no exception. As evidenced by the attached diagram (apologies for sloppiness, on account of it being hand-drawn), McFly’s adventures through time resulted in a total of seven alternate timelines, branching off from the initial one. (1) For the purposes of this essay and space constraints, I will discuss only three.
In the initial timeline, hereafter referred to as the Origin, McFly leads a reasonably average, if somewhat downtrodden, existence. His father, George, is regularly intimidated by his immediate superior, Biff Tannen, who has been treating him this way since high school. His mother, Lorraine, is an alcoholic and a chronic smoker, his older brother is an underachiever who works at Burger King and is forced to take the bus to work, and his older sister has stalled out and seems to have no ambition or plans for the future. (2-5)
However, everything changes when McFly is forced to use Dr. Emmett Brown’s time machine to escape death at the hands of enraged Libyan terrorists; in fleeing, he inadvertently accelerates the time machine to eighty-eight miles per hour, activating the flux capacitor and sending himself thirty years back in time, to 1955.
Upon arriving in 1955, McFly’s presence immediately begins to cause changes to the timeline; this results in the creation of an alternate timeline, hereafter referred to as Alternate One. In attempting to gain his bearings, McFly makes a series of mistakes that change the course of history; he inadvertently prevents his mother and father (both teenagers themselves) from meeting, which in turn begins to cause distortion in the timestream. This distortion is reflected by a family photograph which McFly carries with him; the longer his parents remain apart, the more of the photograph disappears, showing that in the future which McFly has accidentally brought about, himself and his two siblings do not, in fact, exist.
McFly then sets off on an adventure to reunite his parents, thus saving his family. However, the damage has already been done; his very presence in 1955 has now prevented the exact events of the Origin timeline from coming to pass, because even if he manages to reunite his parents, the history of their first meeting has been altered by McFly’s interference. At this point in time, if McFly fails in his endeavor to reunite his parents, he will cease to exist, thus erasing himself from the timestream in a variation of the “grandfather paradox”. (6)
However, with the help of the 1955 incarnation of Dr. Emmett Brown, McFly successfully manages to reunite his parents-and, in fact, does so in a way that changes their lives for the better. In this newly created timeline, hereafter referred to as Alternate Two, George McFly gains the courage to stand up for himself and triumphs over Biff Tannen. This newfound courage has a ripple effect on the rest of the timestream, and also affects how George and Lorraine parent their children. Upon returning to the Alternate Two version of 1985, McFly discovers that his father is now a successful science fiction novelist, his mother is considerably healthier and happier (and minus her previous addictions), his brother has an office job and is able to support himself financially rather than living at home, and his sister has a job and several healthy social relationships. (2-5) In this sense, McFly’s intervention changes his own history for the better.
Furthermore, though for the sake of space many of the details were omitted from this essay, McFly’s intervention and inadvertent creation of Alternate Two saved the life of Dr. Emmett Brown, who was murdered in the events of the Origin timeline; thanks to a note delivered to the 1955 Brown prior to McFly’s departure for the Alternate Two future, Brown knew to protect himself from the Libyans via a bulletproof vest, and thus survived the incident.
Though this is only a brief part of McFly’s alterations to the timestream-since, as mentioned, there are a total of seven distortions and herein only two have been discussed-these adventures still serve as a good example of the effects and consequences that even minor alterations in the timestream can have, and the alternate timelines that can stem from those alterations.
References:
(1): "Diagram of Marty McFly's Adventures in Time"
(2): "George McFly: A Biography"
(3): "Lorraine Baines-McFly: A Biography"
(4): "Dave McFly: A Biography"
(5): "Linda McFly: A Biography"
(6): "Marty McFly: A Biography"
[/Final]
There! I'm glad that's over with. Now there's nothing left to do but relax, unwind, and figure out what shoes and jewelry will go best with my dress. What a relief!
[OOC: Fondest apologies to the Doctor Who crew for any potential fourth-walling contained herein; rest assured, as far as Rosella is concerned, these are just names in a book, so she won't draw any connections between the stuff she's written about and any real people, nor will she remember any of this post-curse.]
Multidimensional History Final
Rosella Davenport
27 March 2009
2. What is Bad Wolf? What is the Bad Wolf Phenomena? What are the larger implications of Bad Wolf, and Siege of the Gamestation?
“Bad Wolf” is the name given to the omnipotent entity that Rose Tyler became after looking into the heart of the TARDIS and being filled with vortex energy from therein. (1) It is also the phrase that the Bad Wolf entity chose to use as a message to herself, scattering the phrase throughout space and time where she would be sure to encounter it as Rose Tyler, prior to becoming the Bad Wolf. This message served as a guide that enabled Tyler to become the Bad Wolf; however, if Tyler had not become the Bad Wolf, she could not have sent the message to herself that would enable her to become it. This form of temporal paradox is known as the Bad Wolf Phenomena-Tyler could not have become the Bad Wolf entity without reading the message, but the message could not have been sent unless Tyler was already the Bad Wolf.
The Siege of the Gamestation is considered to be the final battle of the Time War (2), and Bad Wolf was the major player therein; therefore, the creation of Bad Wolf resulted in a number of critical changes in history. Not only did the Bad Wolf entity manipulate the timestream to bring about its own creation, as discussed above, but it also caused significant changes to the other players in the Siege of the Gamestation. The Bad Wolf entity singlehandedly defeated the Daleks and their fleet by turning them into dust, thereby saving the Earth from destruction by the Dalek fleet. (3) Furthermore, the Bad Wolf entity was also responsible for resurrecting Captain Jack Harkness (who had died heroically fighting the Daleks, and who was a personal friend of Rose Tyler) and inadvertently causing him to become a “fixed point in time”. (4) Finally, the Bad Wolf entity was inadvertently responsible for causing the regeneration of the Doctor; as the Doctor refused to allow Tyler (the vessel for the Bad Wolf entity) to be destroyed by the extreme powers of the vortex energy that made up Bad Wolf, he absorbed the energy into himself, which caused him to “die” and therefore forced a regeneration cycle within him.
Hence, the single incident of Bad Wolf had many ramifications both for the timeline of history, the battle of the Gamestation, and the future that followed thereafter.
References:
(1): "Bad Wolf"
(2): "Battle of the Game Station"
(3): "The Bad Wolf entity"
(4): "The Abandonment of Jack Harkness"
3. Within a single world, there is the potential for alternate time-lines. Discuss how the two (or more) time-lines within a given world were developed, long terms effects of this split, important differentiating qualities/events between the differing time-lines, and any other notable features.
Multiple timelines usually emerge as a result of time travel, and the experiences of Marty McFly are certainly no exception. As evidenced by the attached diagram (apologies for sloppiness, on account of it being hand-drawn), McFly’s adventures through time resulted in a total of seven alternate timelines, branching off from the initial one. (1) For the purposes of this essay and space constraints, I will discuss only three.
In the initial timeline, hereafter referred to as the Origin, McFly leads a reasonably average, if somewhat downtrodden, existence. His father, George, is regularly intimidated by his immediate superior, Biff Tannen, who has been treating him this way since high school. His mother, Lorraine, is an alcoholic and a chronic smoker, his older brother is an underachiever who works at Burger King and is forced to take the bus to work, and his older sister has stalled out and seems to have no ambition or plans for the future. (2-5)
However, everything changes when McFly is forced to use Dr. Emmett Brown’s time machine to escape death at the hands of enraged Libyan terrorists; in fleeing, he inadvertently accelerates the time machine to eighty-eight miles per hour, activating the flux capacitor and sending himself thirty years back in time, to 1955.
Upon arriving in 1955, McFly’s presence immediately begins to cause changes to the timeline; this results in the creation of an alternate timeline, hereafter referred to as Alternate One. In attempting to gain his bearings, McFly makes a series of mistakes that change the course of history; he inadvertently prevents his mother and father (both teenagers themselves) from meeting, which in turn begins to cause distortion in the timestream. This distortion is reflected by a family photograph which McFly carries with him; the longer his parents remain apart, the more of the photograph disappears, showing that in the future which McFly has accidentally brought about, himself and his two siblings do not, in fact, exist.
McFly then sets off on an adventure to reunite his parents, thus saving his family. However, the damage has already been done; his very presence in 1955 has now prevented the exact events of the Origin timeline from coming to pass, because even if he manages to reunite his parents, the history of their first meeting has been altered by McFly’s interference. At this point in time, if McFly fails in his endeavor to reunite his parents, he will cease to exist, thus erasing himself from the timestream in a variation of the “grandfather paradox”. (6)
However, with the help of the 1955 incarnation of Dr. Emmett Brown, McFly successfully manages to reunite his parents-and, in fact, does so in a way that changes their lives for the better. In this newly created timeline, hereafter referred to as Alternate Two, George McFly gains the courage to stand up for himself and triumphs over Biff Tannen. This newfound courage has a ripple effect on the rest of the timestream, and also affects how George and Lorraine parent their children. Upon returning to the Alternate Two version of 1985, McFly discovers that his father is now a successful science fiction novelist, his mother is considerably healthier and happier (and minus her previous addictions), his brother has an office job and is able to support himself financially rather than living at home, and his sister has a job and several healthy social relationships. (2-5) In this sense, McFly’s intervention changes his own history for the better.
Furthermore, though for the sake of space many of the details were omitted from this essay, McFly’s intervention and inadvertent creation of Alternate Two saved the life of Dr. Emmett Brown, who was murdered in the events of the Origin timeline; thanks to a note delivered to the 1955 Brown prior to McFly’s departure for the Alternate Two future, Brown knew to protect himself from the Libyans via a bulletproof vest, and thus survived the incident.
Though this is only a brief part of McFly’s alterations to the timestream-since, as mentioned, there are a total of seven distortions and herein only two have been discussed-these adventures still serve as a good example of the effects and consequences that even minor alterations in the timestream can have, and the alternate timelines that can stem from those alterations.
References:
(1): "Diagram of Marty McFly's Adventures in Time"
(2): "George McFly: A Biography"
(3): "Lorraine Baines-McFly: A Biography"
(4): "Dave McFly: A Biography"
(5): "Linda McFly: A Biography"
(6): "Marty McFly: A Biography"
[/Final]
There! I'm glad that's over with. Now there's nothing left to do but relax, unwind, and figure out what shoes and jewelry will go best with my dress. What a relief!
[OOC: Fondest apologies to the Doctor Who crew for any potential fourth-walling contained herein; rest assured, as far as Rosella is concerned, these are just names in a book, so she won't draw any connections between the stuff she's written about and any real people, nor will she remember any of this post-curse.]