Wow, so full. I'm working on getting to the special tonight, but we'll see about that. In the meantime, know that I had a fantastic feast today and hope that I can get into my gym tomorrow. This below is the second part of the last part of the finalé of last season. It's a bit longish, but grumbling menacingly about temporal paradoxes has, apparently, not kept me out of high moods...
[it's high because of the Pez, ice cream, and chocolate Santas with the caramel inside]
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The sound of time running backward reminds me of the "tickticktick" of the Doctor remembering intricate details in the first episode of this series. Interesting, given how important memories are in this episode.
"No, wait that was last week when we went to Space Florida" ...lol
You know, without the Doctor existing, the Human race might never have discovered
the secret of fire. Or the Earth would have been destroyed in a raging
inferno caused by deep drilling. Or
Kublai Khan would have been assassinated, diverting the course of history. Or
DN6 would have caused a global ecological disaster in the 1960s. Or
Nero would have renovated Rome instead of letting it burn, dramatically altering the future. Or a
monk in the year 1066 would have stopped the viking invasion of Britain with his atomic bazookas. Or the same monk would not have given
Leonardo da Vinci pointers on powered flight. For that matter, he would not have made it possible for
Stonehenge to be created, so there would likely have been non-Pandorica-related deviations there. Or the Greeks would not have figured out a way to take over
Troy, diverting history. Or
WOTAN's war machines would have taken over the Earth in 1966. Or the Cybermen would have disintegrated the Earth in the '80s to save
their own planet. Or
Professor Zaroff would have drained the Earth's oceans into its molten core, causing the planet to explode. Or all of Humanity would have been
hateplagued (well, more than usual) by
the Daleks in the 1960s. Or humankind might have been destroyed by
parasitic, mind-controlling seaweed in the 1960s (probably not, because its weakness would likely have been worked out). Or the Cybermen would have
conquered the Earth in the 1970s. Or the
Nestene Consciousness would have conquered the Earth in the 1970s. Or the Silurians would have
taken back the Earth in the 1970s. Or the Martians would have destroyed the Earth because the Humans refused to
release their ambassadors in the 1970s. Or the Master would have destroyed Humanity with his
army of plastic men in the 1970s. Or
the Dæmons would have cancelled the Earth "experiment" in the 1970s. Or the Daleks would have
conquered the Earth in the 1970s. Or
the universe would have been destroyed by
Omega. Or
BOSS would have taken over the Earth in the 1970s. Or 1970s London would have been reverted to a pre-tech level by the
reintroduction of dinosaurs to that period. Or giant mutant spiders would have taken over the universe in the 1970s. Or Professor Kettlewell's
robot would have caused a nuclear apocalypse in the 1970s. Or the
Loch Ness monster would merely have been the beginning of the Zygons' plans against Humanity. Or
Sutehk would have
destroyed all life in the universe in 1911. Or the
Kraal would have destroyed Earth's population with a deadly virus around 1980. Or the
Krynoids would have destroyed all animal life on Earth in the 1980s. Or the moon would have been consumed by the
Mandragora Helix back in the 15th Century, wreaking havok for hundreds of years on the Earth. Or
Eldrad would have enslaved the Earth in the 1970s. Or the Rutans would have
taken over the Earth in 1900 to give them an upper hand in their battle against the Sontarans. Or
the universe would collapse if
Logopolis got disrupted in 1981 (maybe, as the disruption is party a result of the Doctor's existence). Or
Scaroth would have undone his creation of life on Earth half a billion years ago. Or
Monarch would have repopulated earth entirely with androids in February 1981. Or all indigenous life on Earrth would have been wiped out by a
Terileptil modified plague in 1666. I'm sure that
Commander Maxil would have done something terrible at some point. Or The
Kamelion would have, under the control of the Master, prevented creation of the Magna Carta, the very foundation of Modern British rule. Or the world might have falled victim to the
Malus in 1984. Or the Cybermen would have crashed
Halley's Comet into the Earth in the 1980s. Or the Industrial Revolution would have been
accelerated by the Master, making the modern-day vastly different. Or
Servalan Chessene may have acquired a time machine to give her race dominance over the universe, which includes Earth. Or a statue made of
validium -- living metal -- may have been used to destroy the Earth in 1638. Or
the Destroyer would have devoured the world in 1997. Or Haemovores would have
created their own terrible pollution-ravaged future Earth in 1942. Or the Nestene Consciousness would have
taken over the Earth in 2005. Or the
Gelth might have taken Earth in 1869. Or the
Slitheen would have turned the Earth into a huge nuclear reactor pile in 2005. Or all of humanity would have started
wearing permanent gas masks in 1941. Or the
Sycorax would have conquered the Earth (not because the Doctor wasn't there to stop them, but because Torchwood -- and its mega defense laser -- was never brought into being in reaction to the Doctor). Or
Queen Victoria and other prominent members of 1800s British society, would have been devoured by a werewolf. Or the
Krillitanes would have attained control of all of time and space in 2007, likely making the Earth less than an ideally happy place in the process. Or
Madame de Pompadour would have vanished in her youth, though I don't know if that'd make such a big difference. Or
the Wire would have used its incredibly unentertaining power of deadly television signal manipulation to do something boring but possibly dangerous to the Earth. I don't even want to talk about the
Abzorbaloff. Anyway, the
parallel universe Cybermen would have crossed over and conquered the Earth (good job, Pete). Or the
Racnoss's babies would have eaten all Humankind. Or the
Carrionites could have altered reality in the 16th century enough to make the modern era unrecognizable. Or the
Empire State Building would have given the Daleks the energy needed to assimilate the Human race back in 1930. Or many thousands of people from 2007 would have been transported decades into the past by the
Weeping Angels before humanity figures out the advantage that pick-axes have over stone. Or the
nuclear storm drive on the spaceborne Titanic would have incinerated the Earth in 2008. Or all the tens of millions of weight conscious people in the world would have exploded into
blobs of cuteness in 2008. Or
Pompeii would have not exploded, leading Pyroviles to seriously mess up the place. Or the Sontarans would have made Earth's atmosphere
poisonous in 2009. Or the Daleks would have
destroyed the Universe with a reality bomb in 2009. Or the
CyberKing would have taken over the Earth in 1851. Or
the Time Lords would have destroyed all of time and space. Or the
Viperox would have invaded the Earth in 1958. Or the Daleks would have
invaded in 1941. Or the
Krafayis would have been free to cause many, many more deaths in France in 1890, perhaps upsetting modern history.
...my point is that Amy Pond should never have existed in the universe where they Doctor never was. In fact, without his presence, there should still be no universe existing. She certainly should not have been able to get married.
Wait. Anyway, so in this new universe, the Doctor never existed. Amy brings him back by remembering him, but he never existed before she brought him back, so wouldn't it be the case that
even after she brought him back none of his previous televised (and otherwise) adventures actually happened? I'm a bit iffy on that part. Because if the previous adventures
did happen, then the problem with the cracks should actually still be there. The TARDIS should actually still be in danger of exploding. Again. I mean, if all this wasn't the case, Rory should plink out of existence. Because he died, remember?
BIGGER PROBLEM: So, I know you're thinking
"jeez, dude, just accept that time has magical, plot-convenient properties and that history more or less snaps back to the same general sequence whenever it can". As much as I like to defy that, I can truly enjoy a programme that does this if it's entertaining. And under Moffat's direction, it is ("Inferno" had a probably similar problem but was also incredibly well written). However, think on this: They're now saying that if the Doctor never existed, then Humanity would still be more or less in the same situation now than it would be if he had existed. Think about that. It means that nothing the Doctor has
ever done has made the slightest bit of difference to the continued survival of the Earth (and possibly to the universe in general). He's pretty much a totally useless character now, as every episode and book and video game would have otherwise ended with the other characters
solving the problem on their own instead of having some random spaceman swooping in and doing what they would have done anyway. So the Doctor's primary purpose is to upstage people who can help themselves. Good job, jerk!
I really enjoyed most of this two-parter tremendously, despite the tiny amount of nitpicking above. I look forward to tonight's Christmas Carol.
