And yet you, Liz, et al all bitched incessantly about the personal-timestream thing in the Gitface too, which suggests what we've known all along - you Just Can't Let Things Go.
Well, I think there's a difference between offhand references to the timestream in an episode like "The Runaway Bride", and an entire episode that almost goes out of its way to draw attention to how flimsy the "can't re-enter the timestream" justification actually is. But that may just be me. Remind me why the Doctor didn't need to ask Donna what year she'd come from, again? :p
I must just note that while I can kinds sorta see your other points, the idea that the personal timestream rule is in any way a major issue with Who puzzles me. Not only does it support storytelling but it's never felt to me like an inherently stupid time travel principle. Surely there could be any number of sensible time paradox reasons?
Indeed in 'Mawdryn Undead' during the original series there was an idea that if you touched an earlier version of yourself Very Bad Things would happen. I can't remeber what, but I'm sure it was at least as bad as crossing the streams in Ghostbusters. :-)
The timestream rule is a good and sound principle for time travel stories to operate on. I have a minor problem with "The Girl in the Fireplace" in that it appears to break the rule just by existing -- by going through the different time windows, surely the Doctor is entering different points in Renette's timestream? Or if he's not, why can't he use the TARDIS to get to the final attack, rather than breaking the window with a horse? You have to add another level of justification about "common time" to have it all make sense -- which is ok, but as I said, it just foregrounds the fact that the timestream rule is an arbitrary one, there to make the stories make sense rather than for any other reason.
Remind me why the Doctor didn't need to ask Donna what year she'd come from, again?
I noticed that too, and was absolutely certain that it (and the fact that Donna didn't know about the Sycorax invasion and the battle of Canary Wharf) was going to turn out to be a plot point - that the Doctor had arrived at Christmas 2004 or earlier, and that the episode was going to end with him getting a glimpse of Rose before he'd met her.
Hey! I'm not complaining about the hole to the centre of the earth - it's stupid, but I have learnt to let go and stop expecting RTD to produce anything good. I just wish he'd stop using the sonic screwdriver quite so much.
In this episode it actually got to be sonic. That has to count for something.
Thinking therapeutically, maybe the Doctor's next companion should be Sonic the Hedgehog. Then we could gradually reduce his reliance on the screwdriver.
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coalescent) wrote2006-12-25 08:16 pm
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But I also refer the honourable gentleman to my point of last night - plot convenience; shush.
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Indeed in 'Mawdryn Undead' during the original series there was an idea that if you touched an earlier version of yourself Very Bad Things would happen. I can't remeber what, but I'm sure it was at least as bad as crossing the streams in Ghostbusters. :-)
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I noticed that too, and was absolutely certain that it (and the fact that Donna didn't know about the Sycorax invasion and the battle of Canary Wharf) was going to turn out to be a plot point - that the Doctor had arrived at Christmas 2004 or earlier, and that the episode was going to end with him getting a glimpse of Rose before he'd met her.
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Thinking therapeutically, maybe the Doctor's next companion should be Sonic the Hedgehog. Then we could gradually reduce his reliance on the screwdriver.