But as we now know she's just pretending not to know him despite having met him loads of times before. *wink* *wink*
I'm not sure what you're really getting at here. She's part of UNIT and it's a well known fact that any dates that are at all to do with UNIT make no sense whatsoever.
To say the dating of the 7.0 episodes was problematic would be a gross understatement. Hell, I'm of the opinion that A Town Called Mercy should have aired after The Power of Three. While it's hardly the first time Doctor Who has had trouble with dates, it is a pretty good example of how sloppy 7.0 was, IMO.
Also, given that one of the rumors that circulated TDOTD for a while had her wear the Fourth Doctor's scarf as a gift from the Doctor himself, it might be oddly appropriate for them to have that kind of a mix-up.
Then how come Kate doesn't appear to age much between 2013 (DOTD) and TPOT (2020)? I'm personally not all that convinced Kate was lying in TPOT; I reckon she genuinely hadn't met Eleven before then. But then we also know that history can be changed. Perhaps in a subsequent adventure, the Doctor went back in time and met Kate earlier in her personal timeline, explaining how she might recognize him in DOTD?
Perhaps the Kate in 2013 in DOTD will be from the future for some reason and then brought back to her proper time at the end...? That might solve it.
That's your explanation right there. In Doctor Who, history is ALWAYS changing. But, the BBC can't afford to reshoot the episodes to reflect the altered timeline...
It's possible that's why nobody now remembers Britain's manned expeditions to Mars and Jupiter in the 70's; they were erased from history in unseen adventures. I believe some people have even speculated it could explain the UNIT Dating Controversy, but I'm not too sure about that. This kind of approach might even help with a number of discontinuities in Star Trek. Just look at stories like DS9 "Past Tense", First Contact, and the Temporal Cold War in ENT.
Everything makes sense when you realize that every time you see UNIT, the story doesn't actually take place on our Earth, but on some kind of weird, time-shifted, Mondas-like parallel reality.
Obviously it isn't our Earth. But given how Moffat apparently touts himself as so super-clever, it would stand to reason that he'd be able to follow his own continuity.
Seriously? Doctor Who has never been a slave to its own continuity. ESPECIALLY dates. If this is the sort of thing that will run a story for you, you shouldn't be watching. Or, really, you are watching for the wrong reasons. Anything that has lasted as long as Doctor Who, has had as many show runners and writers, won't fit together neatly like a puzzle.
I think it could. And besides, Moffat was very emphatic as to the dates of the Ponds' current era adventures. If he contradicts all that now, it just looks like he can't even be bothered paying attention to his own material.
The date of Amy and Rory's wedding was stated to be June 2010 several times on-screen throughout Series 5. The date of the Doctor's alleged "death" in Series 6 was firmly stated several times to be April 2011. Amy and Rory's subsequent travels with the Doctor in Series 6 lasted until Summer of that same year. At the end of The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe, Amy comments that she hasn't seen the Doctor in two years, making it Christmas 2013.
Seems like all of this is based off an episode *description*. Those aren't exactly known for being accurate. So it doesn't mean anything unless they say 2013 on screen.
The way I see it, it's the Doctor's timeline which is linear and everyone else's is undone, rewritten, deleted etc. The changes in timeline are invisible to everyone but could explain things like ghosts and deja-vu. Okay, I just made that last bit up but it's kinda cool...
Meh, despite various references to the Ponds' progressing a year or so after each appearance after they left the Doctor in The God Complex in 2011, The Angels Take Manhattan was still set in 2012 despite the fact it should have been nearly 2020 or so. Yes, it can be easily explained as the Doctor for whatever reason just taking them a few years into the past and there are practical reasons for this given the New York skyline is expected to look very different in a few years when the new World Trade Centre is complete. But at the same time, I don't think Moffat was too concerned with keeping things consistent with those previous references. After all, The Angels Take Manhattan was one of the two highest profile episodes of 7.0 and Moffat probably figured by mentioning the year to be 2012 would draw less questions from the majority "Not We" casual audience who would likely scratch their heads hearing the Doctor and Ponds talk about it being 2020. To say nothing of the problematic dating concerning Closing Time...
But, if time can be rewritten, then it's not a contradiction. It's time being rewritten. AND, maybe he isn't bothered by it. And I would guess the vast majority aren't bothered by it either.