A couple of season 1/14/40 timey-wimes sorted out (head canon only) - Leminal Space
cross-posted from: https://leminal.space/post/9913236
[https://leminal.space/post/9913236] > cross-posted from:
https://leminal.space/post/9913175 [https://leminal.space/post/9913175] > > > I
do appreciate that the Lemmy Doctor Who communities are less prone to wild fan
speculation and continuity semantics rabbit holes, I really do. Sometimes,
though, I dip back onto the main subreddits, and boy, do they get into massive
circle jerks over little things that only jar others slightly. > > > > Having
exposed myself to the fandom mind virus, but refusing to join the fray on
Reddit, I’ll just infodump my own head canon explanations to (apparently
controversial) occurrences in the latest season of the show here: > > > > ## Is
the Shalka Doctor now unredacted from continuity? > > In the episode “Rogue”,
holograms of the Doctor’s past selves loop around 15 like an old iTunes cover
gallery. One of them is clearly Richard E Grant, who played the a ninth Doctor
in “Scream of the Shalka”. The animated series was short-lived and written out
of the show’s canon when the 2005 revival show introduced Eccleston as the
“authoritative” ninth Doctor. > > > > IRL explanation: Russell T Davies thought
it would be fun to throw in Grant’s face in the line-up. There’s probably not
more to it. > > > > My in-universe explanation: The eighth Doctor actually
regenerated into the Shalka Doctor, but because the Time War happened and
rewrote timelines several times over, 8’s eventually solidified upon the events
of “Night of the Doctor”, where he instead regenerates into the War Doctor. > >
> > However, time being relative, the Shalka Doctor is still extant if only as a
wisp of an individual timeline, because a) he is a time traveler and therefore a
complex temporal event not easily erased, and b) the Time War left the time
stream in such a disarray that he may exist in a state of flux (no, not that
one), and either continues adventuring as an offshoot of the Doctor’s timeline,
or is suspended in some kind of quantum field just slightly removed from it. > >
> > Pretty handwavy, yes, but all of Who continuity sort of requires you to
gesture wildly like the eleventh Doctor having a thought, just for it to make
some sort of sense. > > > > ## The Doctor “was a dad”, but 15 “hasn’t had
children yet”?! > > In “The legend of Ruby Sunday”, the fifteenth Doctor talks
about his granddaughter Susan, who traveled with the first Doctor in the early
years of the show. He then pivots to saying that he hasn’t had children yet. > >
> > This is despite several if not all NuWho Doctors having referred in some
form to having been a dad — including 15, just a few episodes earlier, in
“Boom”! So which is it? > > > > IRL explanation: As above, Russell T Davies
likes to throw in non sequitur comments and details that mess with people’s
understanding of the show’s lore. On a positivist note, it keeps that lore
dynamic and throws some mysteries out for himself or subsequent writers to glom
onto, like the Morbius Doctors or “half human on my mother’s side” of the past.
If it doesn’t stick, ignore it. > > > > My in-universe explanation: Ignoring the
extended universe here, we don’t know a lot about the Doctor’s life previous to
“An unearthly child”, and nearly none about their family relations. What we do
know is that they are a very prolific time traveler, and as witnessed from 11
and 12’s relationship with River Song, things tend to get complicated, and
invariably nonlinear. > > > > With that in mind, it’s perfectly feasible that 15
or a future incarnation has a child (the birds and bees part, or possibly
looms?) that, for whatever reason, they leave for their previous, Hartnell self
to raise (be a father to). Heck, given the above Shalka Doctor explanation, he
could be the father, and 15 would be off the hook. Exactly what can we assume
about a Time Lord’s sense of self when alternative timelines come into play? > >
> > Along with the Doctor’s realization that they are an “adopted” Timeless
Child, as well as Ruby’s search for her bio-mum in the past season, this
explanation plays nicely into the twin notions of parenthood as giving life to a
child versus raising it. Add to this that the Doctor’s relationship to his
companions (post-Susan) have always been stories of found and/or extended
family. > > > > It all makes sense when you (don’t) think (too hard) about it! >
> > > So there you have it, the Doctor Who Reddit post to end all Doctor Who
Reddit posts, deliberately not posted to Reddit. The important TL;DR is, time is
in flux, several things can be true at the same time, and don’t break your mind
thinking about a TV show. > > > > Anything else that needs explaining?
