Before I begin, yes, I will be bashing Doctor Who in this article. And yes, this article will be filled with a shitload of SPOILERS.
So 11th Doctor, written by show-runner Steven Moffat. Gone is the happy-go-lucky David Tenant and in is the brooding psychotic god of the universe Matt Smith.
The main episodes of note are "The Pandorica Opens", "A good man goes to war", "The wedding of River Song", and "Asylum of the Daleks".
Pandorica Opens finally bring the Doctor and Amy Pond to the reason behind all of the random tears in the universe that we had been seeing since the first episode. It turns out that The universe was destroyed by the Tardis blowing up. (They never actually explain why this causes the entire universe to detonate, but apparently it does. Only Earth is spared, and the Doctor uses his prison to fuse to the Tardis, finish detonating, and then re-build the universe from his memories. The Doctor makes statements that Amy Pond's memories are the source of the new universe that is created.
But let's face some facts here.
1. Amy is a semi-normal human
2. Amy is actually from a parallel dimension where her family was eaten up by the cracks in the universe.
3. Amy has no knowledge of most of the universe. Sure she's been on some adventures with the Doctor, but her knowledge of the universe is far from complete.
Which leaves us to assume that the Doctor provided the memories that re-created the universe. He just told Amy to remember so that he could mess with her mind at her wedding. Either that or he tried to write himself out of the universe and realized that he can't be the creator of the universe if he doesn't actually exist.
So the universe is back, and it's exactly as he remembers it. Which means by definition it should only contain things that he knows about. Specifically it is now impossible for him to be surprised, because he already knows everything that exists.
So the Doctor destroyed the old universe and created a new one in his own image.
Fast forward to "A good man goes to war". The entire universe has decided that yet again they are sick of the Doctor's shit, so they kidnap Amy Pond so that her human/timelord hybrid daughter can be brainwashed into killing the Doctor. The Doctor of course rescues Amy with the help of Rory Williams and the rest of his friends. At the end River Song reveals that she is Rory and Amy's daughter.
Which, given that the Doctor created the universe and everyone in it, means that he always knew she was their daughter, even though in the episode he gets all angsty about it.
Fast forward again to "The wedding of River Song" and River has decided despite the fact that she's been programmed to kill the Doctor, she doesn't want to. She'd much rather fuck his brains out. So she changes history so that she doesn't kill him. Which stops time and condenses the entire universe and all of history onto Earth. The Doctor forces her to go through with it after he explains that he is faking his own death.
The universe reverts back to normal and life goes on.
Then we get to "Asylum of the Daleks". The doctor meets a awesome hacker trapped in the body of a Dalek. She rescues the group by erasing the Doctor's existence from the memory of all Daleks.
Following this, the Doctor has the brillant idea to erase all evidence of himself from the universe so that no-one will know who he is.
And here is where we get a massive paradox.
The doctor created the universe because of the Pandorica which was a trap designed for him because everyone in the universe was pissed at him.
The exploding Tardis also happened because of that event.
If nobody ever knew that the Doctor existed, then they would have no reason to create a trap for him. Which would mean that the old universe was never destroyed and re-built, The cracks in the universe never existed, which means that the Doctor would never have met Amy (because she was only interested in him because she was living in a big-ass house that was un-making her relatives from existence.)
If he never met Amy, her and Rory would never have given birth to River Song the Timelord hybrid. If River wasn't a hybrid, she wouldn't have grown up around Rory and Amy and made them realize how they felt about eachother, thus negating her own existence.
And of course, if he was hidden from the universe then they wouldn't be waging war against him, which wouldn't cause him to go back and erase himself from history.
Case in point, if he was erased from the knowledge of all Daleks in all of time, then they wouldn't have kidnapped him to go to the asylum where he meets Oswin the super-hacker who erased him from Dalek memory.
So we are left with a massive paradox. And the most obvious rule about time travel. I.E. DON'T FUCKING LET ANYONE KNOW THAT YOU ARE A TIME TRAVELER!!!
The other Doctors seemed to not have a problem with that. They hid their time-raping nature from the universe. Like, you know, a sane person.
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http://www.bitemybook.com/2013/04/doctor-who-show-defense.html
ReplyDeleteResponding as I read. I'm glad that my post has spawned so much interest. A surprising amount of interest actually.
ReplyDeleteAnd to start with the obvious responses, yes I am aware that the main character is named "The Doctor" not "Doctor Who".
-I never watched the original series, as such I didn't feel I had the right to add it to the debate. So all of my commentary was about Doctor's 9, 10 & 11.
-Good catch on "The Big Bang" as I did forget to cite the second part of that 2-part episode.
-Good point about the Pandorica/Tardis. I wrote this very late at night entirely from memory. I rarely if ever cite sources on this blog, as it is an opinion blog. But yes, that does negate the "Did the Doctor create the universe/ Did Amy create the universe" problem. It also negates the River Song problem in "A good man goes to war".
-This still leaves a paradox with the Pandorica, as even though the Doctor (mostly) erased himself from history, that event still happened. It isn't like the recent episode where everything was ret-conned. So the Pandorica was created to trap the Doctor by his enemies and trapping him destroyed the universe. But releasing him and combining it with the exploding Tardis re-made the universe. But the Doctor erased himself from history, so his enemies would never had a reason to create the Pandorica.
Continuing to respond as I read:
-"Entire universe" yes, an obvious exaggeration. To be literal I mean the specific enemies of The Doctor who fight against him in that episode. It was never clearly explained who exactly was upset with him, just a number of scenes with various armies gathering to fight the Doctor. And of course the scene where Rory delivers a message while spaceships are exploding in the background. So yes, not Literally the entire universe, but clearly a number of power-players.
-Yes, yes, you proved your point, I was speaking figuratively, not literally. Please move on to your next point.
-Ok, now you are saying there is no Paradox. Let me show another one: If The Doctor erased himself from history, then why did the various bad guys kidnap Amy Pond so that she could give birth to River Song who would then be trained to kill the Doctor? If he erased himself from history then there would be no reason for people to do all that, thus prompting himself to erase himself from history. There you go, a paradox.
-Ok, yes you quoted the Doctor saying that Logic doesn't apply in this fictional universe. That doesn't prove my lack of logic, that proves Moffat's lack of writing ability. The man specifically won't follow his own Canon rules because he has decided that there shouldn't be such a thing as "Canon" in the Doctor Who universe. Most TV shows keep a "Canon Bible" which is all of the rules and history for their show so that they can keep continuity as much as possible. Moffat is such a lazy writer that he simply refuses to keep track of what he wrote.
-And last point about the earlier versions being better about hiding what they do. If you watch the earlier episodes (of the rebooted series starting at Doctor 9 Mr. "I Demand all things be in very specific terms"), The Doctor is constantly lying to everyone about who he is, in most episodes he keeps the Tardis hidden or out of the way, because it's the Mac Guffin of the series. If he were to lose the Tardis the show wouldn't be Doctor Who, it'd be Alf. A random weirdo alien stuck on Earth. I was watching the Tennant episode this week, can't recall the title but it was the one with the Ood and "The circle must be broken". Throughout the whole episode the Doctor never tells a soul about his time traveling, he just lets them believe whatever they want about him, including the idea that he might be a terrorist. That was the status quo for the Doctor during Russel T. Davies' time as Showrunner. The companions knew about all of the time travel stuff, but everyone else was left in the dark. Because if you are a sane time traveler, you don't go telling people that you are a time traveler.
ReplyDeleteIn a recent episode Clara was confronted with pictures of her and the Doctor taken at various times in history. Somehow the children that she was taking care of found them online. (Which is already some bad writing right there. We're supposed to believe that these random kids were just browsing their text books or the internet and they happened to stumble across multiple pictures of Clara and The Doctor? Granted ((Spoilers!!)) Clara did have hundreds of lifetimes, so finding tons of pictures of her actually makes sense. But it should have been her in the background of various pictures of the different Doctors, not just 11.)
Now if the Doctor was a sane person with the ability to travel through time, he wouldn't be posing for pictures everywhere. Because why would you leave evidence like that for future generations to find? He knows about the internet. He knows how much people obsess when they find a picture of a dude in the 1800's who looks like Nicholas Cage. So if he were sane, he'd avoid all pictures, paintings, etc. But as we see in "The impossible astronaut" story arc, he is posing for paintings and pictures all the time. Which is yet another thing he would have needed to go back and destroy if he were erasing himself from history.
So interesting post. You certainly got me with the Pandorica bit. It's what I get for writing it all from memory. But the rest of the nonsense still stands. It's still riddled with plot holes and bad writing. And yes, excessive paradox.
You said:
ReplyDelete"...that proves Moffat's lack of writing ability. The man specifically won't follow his own Canon rules because he has decided that there shouldn't be such a thing as "Canon" in the Doctor Who universe."
In a show about time traveling that is 50 years old do you honestly believe it is possible to have a canon? And that is just talking about one show. We are not even throwing in Torchwood, The Sarah Jane Adventures or K-9 and company that only aired one episode. If you dig a little further you have the autoplays and books, along with the stuff they have done for the internet. Where do define the canon? All this material contradicts itself in some form.
I haven't even mention the two Doctor Who movies from the 1960s. Are they canon? In them the Doctor really is named Dr. Who and he is a human. The relationship with his companions are different, Barbara is his granddaughter and a middle aged school teacher. But both movies use the script from two of the Dalek episodes. So are these canon or not.
Speaking of movies, what about the 1996 tv movie, is it canon? It would seem to be considering when the show came back Christopher Eccelston was playing the 9th Doctor and not 8th. Also when they have shown images of the past Doctors Paul McGann is always featured. If this is canon, does that mean the Doctor is half-human? That is what the Doctor tells Grace in the movie.
This goes against what we have been led to believe about the Time Lords though. The Doctor is considered to be a renegade Time Lord for a reason, and that is because the Time Lords do not interfere in the affairs of others. So how could the Doctor be half-human if the his people don't get involved. Not to mention this fact this is never mentioned by any of the other 10 incarnations.
But let us say he is half-human, that would mean you couldn't consider any of the books canon, in Lungbarrow it lays out how Time Lords reproduce and it is not through sexual intercourse. The Time Lords use these devices called Looms where they basically recycle their genetic material. Lungbarrow also wraps up what was known as the "Cartmel Masterplan" which had been abandoned when the show was canceled in 1989. But how can we throw out the books as canon when the episodes Human Nature/Family of Blood were adapted from the novel of the same name.
ReplyDeleteThose are just two example of what a hassle keeping to canon would be like for this show. I didn't even mention the whole thing about the Doctor and his hearts.
This is I found about canon on wikipedia. "There exists a wide range of often conflicting ideas about what is or is not a part of the Whoniverse, as key production staff have explicitly stated that there is no Doctor Who canon. The producer for the television series from 2005 to 2009, Russell T Davies, has claimed that he's "just the writer...I've got no more authority over the text than you!",[27] saying "(Canon) is a word which has never been used in the production office, not once, not ever"[28] He also said that considering the Doctor Who audio plays as being uncanonical is both "boring and idiotic".[29]
Davies' successor, Steven Moffat declared at a convention in 2008 that, "It is impossible for a show about a dimension-hopping time traveller to have a canon."[30] One of the term's early adopters, Jean-Marc Lofficier, wrote that defining the Whoniverse was "like taking photographs of shadows. Not only is it a matter of point of view, but shadows also change. So the best advice to be given to those readers who brook little disagreement with their own views of how the fictional Whoniverse should be arranged, is: read no further, go write your own book."[6][page needed] With a series that contradicts itself as much as Doctor Who does in all its many formats, attempts to define a rigid idea of what is Doctor Who canon with lists of what does and does not count are by some considered to be a bit silly and pointless.[31]"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_canon
About the picture thing, are forgetting the first episode of the new series,"Rose." Rose goes online to find info on the Doctor, there she finds a website run by a man named Clive. When she goes to visit Clive he tells about hoe the Doctor popping up through history and shows her two photos and a drawing of the Doctor at the Kennedy assassination, the Titanic and just before Krakatoa erupted.
ReplyDeleteThen we go to the second season episode "Love And Monsters" were we meet the group L.I.N.D.A. A small group of individuals who had all sort of info on the Doctor, along with images of him and his TARDIS.
You mentioned that 9 and 10 lied about who he was and kept the TARDIS hidden. I would just like to say that at least twice, in "The Runaway Bride" and "The Voyage of the Damned", the Doctor lets it be known who he was. He even takes the TARDIS on a joy ride down a crowded motorway.
ReplyDeleteBut even if none of that happened, each Doctor has there own personalities. There is nothing keeping him from revealing who he is to others. That is just a choice he chose to make.
During the "Water On Mars" episode we see a changing in the Doctor's attitude. He decides to go against the rules that the Time Lords had established for how to deal with events in time.
As for the whole paradox thing, I think I addressed this in my first response. Even if I didn't I don't think it is that big of a deal. Time travel in itself would lead to paradoxes so it would be bad writing if the show never did include them. Plus Moffat was not the only one to write about paradoxes in the show. Russell T. Davies created a paradox in "The Sound of Drums" when the Toclafane came back and started to kill 1/10th of the human population.
You want to talk about bad writing, what about in the second part of "The End Of Time" when the Time Lords bring Gallifrey into Earth's orbit. If Gallifrey, a much larger planet, was that close to the Earth it would have caused the Earth to start tearing itself apart. Gallifrey's gravity would cause the Earth to shatter.
Ok, you clearly want to convert me to your opinion of the show. It's not going to happen. I made my initial argument, you issued a counter claim, I provided my rebuttal. Anything further is mental masturbation. I'm going to leave your response comments up, because I feel they are simply you providing your opinion. But I won't be continuing this debate, as clearly neither side intends to yield to the other.
ReplyDeleteConverting you to my side was never my intention. I just like talking about the show. I'm glad you got your own opinion, everybody should. I just approach it from an angle of somebody who has happened to be a long time fan. I have enjoyed the back and forth and would like to extend an offer of friendship to you, if that is something you are interested in.
ReplyDeleteGlad to hear it. I've had run-ins with some excessively obsessive fans before, so I wanted to negate any further escalation before it reached flame-war levels. Fortunately those previously mentioned excessive fans have generally not been of the Doctor Who fandom. The way I view it, as long as you are willing to admit the flaws in the fandom and hopefully even enjoy a good chuckle at their expense, all is well. The scary fans are the ones who believe that everything is perfect and the authors or writers are gods among men. (Pointed looks at the MLP fandom.)
DeleteThe original post here is actually based on a number of debates I've had with people in-person regarding the show with people who like me have become frustrated with the direction the show is going.
But everyone is entitled to their own opinions.
That being said, I'd glad to hear that you are not upset by our debate (It's the internet, so it's often hard to tell the difference between impassioned speech and anger) and I gladly welcome your friendship. You can never have too many friends.
I have disappointed with this season. I can't help but wonder if it is just a long range story that will all make sense when we get to the end, or if it's that the focus has been more on the anniversary episode than season seven. Both half of this season have been lackluster and I written about it. I thought the farewell to the Ponds was handled badly and the run up to it was poorly executed. I thought "The God Complex" made a much better ending for Amy and Rory.
ReplyDeleteIf you ever get the chance, do please check out my blogs, Bitemybook.com and Willseyeview.wordpress.com.
Agreed. "The God Complex" is where the Ponds' story should have ended. Also agreed about the lackluster episodes this season. I hope that they will turn it around and make it awesome, but as time goes by it just becomes less and less interesting. My girlfriend is the one who got me into Doctor Who, and she gave up on it entirely by the Weeping Angels in New York episode.
Deletechristopher eccleston. bring him back. i wont watch until
ReplyDeleteHe was a good Doctor. I wish he had stayed a bit longer.
DeleteAgreed, Christopher Eccleston was good... he's still my favorite Doctor... but Dave Tennant takes either the closest second ever, or is perhaps tied with him for other aspects of his personality.
DeleteI couldn't agree more. I'm a late comer to Doctor Who, and catching up to present on all the old episodes, and honestly, I'm sort of in a Doctor Who shell-shock. Dave Tennant was brilliant, and I also really liked the one before him (the one that was just around for season 1 with the kind of buzzed haircut)... as far as Matt Smith... I don't want to be TOO harsh on him, because he's trying, but the whole show now seems like a giant disconnect.
ReplyDeleteI'll apologize ahead of time, since I'm still catching up, I skipped a lot of the main blog as to not spoil anything... but even on the surface, after having watched Season 5, Episode 2... it seems like it became "Disney-fied", aimed more at children (which is fine, even Alice in Wonderland is awesome and kid-friendly I guess), but there's something else. I want to research "what happened", but it almost feels like somebody else bought out the rights, but not all of them. So much they had to reinvent the introduction, the Tardis layout, even the sonic screwdriver. What's even more odd, and I had to triple check this to make sure... they have an episode of Dave Tennant zapping into Matt Smith, and all the references say that Matt Smith's Doctor Who picks up right after Dave Tennants... but the film-style, the storylines, the production... they all seems like a over-pushed reboot that would be done a few years later... maybe it's they're trying too hard to carve something new, but it feels so disjointed, it practically leaves the viewer with whiplash.
Even more sad, the perfect litmus paper comparison I found myself doing with the older Doctor Whos (pre-Season-5)... I was able to say, "wow, a lot of these have box office quality and could be stand alone movies". But now, I try to compare the Season 5 episodes in reverse... "could they be released as stand alone movies without the Doctor Who label on them and still succeed"... and the movie sadly seems like a deafening NO. If not for the Doctor Who label, if they were released as stand-alone movies... they're probably be more like the forgotten discs hardly ever rented in the bottom of the RedBox machine. :(
Whichs makes it even that much more gut-wrenching, when they spent so much time really building "The Doctor" under Dave Tennant, right up the tear-jerking transformation when he uttered the words, "I don't want to go". :((
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DeleteI'm also getting the feeling/impression that we'll no longer see the cheeky UK the way we used to... nor Rose, Mickey, Martha, Captain Jack, Rose's mom, Donna, Donna's grandfather, or any of the others... perhaps that's why Dave Tennant made his heart-touching final goodbyes to all of them? :(
DeleteAnd also (maybe back on what I said about having to recreate due to lack of intellectual property rights?)... what's with the new Doctor Who logo? It's "okay"... but does have a ring of just a bit of tacky to it. :P~
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