Was Amy's "present" always the future?

[RoJoHen]

I suppose, after last week's episode, this could have been an attempt by the Doctor to be a part of the Ponds' lives, rather than the other way around. Instead of grabbing Amy and Rory and taking them to the ass end of the universe for an adventure, he joined them for a quiet afternoon in Central Park.

 

[Plain Simple]

I suppose, after last week's episode, this could have been an attempt by the Doctor to be a part of the Ponds' lives, rather than the other way around. Instead of grabbing Amy and Rory and taking them to the ass end of the universe for an adventure, he joined them for a quiet afternoon in Central Park.

That's how I understood it. But why go four years back in time for that? Ah well, Doctors will be Doctors, I suppose.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

Very well worked out timeline.

But what are the chances that the next time the Doctor meets the Brigadier'sdaughter, it will be earlier than 2014 ?

And will every adventure in 3 years on Earth show small black cubes littered around?

 

[Alidar Jarok]

BTW, the reason Angels Take Manhattan takes place in 2012 probably has to do with the fact that the skyline in 2016 will look obviously different than it does now because the construction of the new World Trade Center will be done. It's better to play it on the safe side and say that it's 2012.

That's not a plot-related reason, of course, but it still makes sense as the reason.

 

[Australis]

Okay, I'm cool with that, just seemed to this furriner it bore an amazing resemblance to pre-2001 WTC.

 

[Stevil2001]

They have to visit New York in 2012 because it's before America was destroyed by Barack Obama's second term.

 

[Australis]

Mmm, yeah, sure.

 

[The Wormhole]

BTW, the reason Angels Take Manhattan takes place in 2012 probably has to do with the fact that the skyline in 2016 will look obviously different than it does now because the construction of the new World Trade Center will be done. It's better to play it on the safe side and say that it's 2012.

That's not a plot-related reason, of course, but it still makes sense as the reason.

A likely and logical explanation. This wouldn't really be an issue if the Ponds were still the Doctor's regular companions. Then we could just assume they were last at Silver Devastation some couple thousand years in the future, and then the Doctor's next trip was New York 2012. Maybe he meant to show up a few years later and simply mixed up?

However, the surprise he shows over Amy wearing glasses kind of implies they aren't regular companions and that he just picked them up for a trip. So assuming the Ponds are from 2016 or 17, the Doctor shows up and takes them to New York four or five years earlier. Which doesn't really seem all that exciting a trip through time. It's like what the Ninth Doctor said in Father's Day. "The past is another country. 1987 is just a mile away."

 

[Starkers]

^ "If the past is another country then 1987 is the Isle of Wight"

 

[The Mirrorball Man]

It's like what the Ninth Doctor said in Father's Day. "The past is another country. 1987 is just a mile away."

But sometimes your favorite restaurant happens to be just a mile away.

 

[Photoman15]

The timeline someone posted assumes that when the Doctor dropped them off at Christmas (and they stopped being "regular" travelers) was in 2011, but he may have brought them back sometime after their wedding.

 

[Plain Simple]

BTW, the reason Angels Take Manhattan takes place in 2012 probably has to do with the fact that the skyline in 2016 will look obviously different than it does now because the construction of the new World Trade Center will be done. It's better to play it on the safe side and say that it's 2012.

That's not a plot-related reason, of course, but it still makes sense as the reason.

Sounds reasonable.

 

[Worf2DS9]

Here's a thought, very first shot from 'Angels':

I may need an American eye to confirm, is that the Twin Towers?

If so, that's pre 2001.

Nah, you can see the new World Trade Center being built. It's the bluer-looking building.

So what's the silver squiggly thing at the end of the bridge on the right?

 

[RoJoHen]

It appears to be some kind of TV logo.

 

[3chordboy]

Okay, I'm cool with that, just seemed to this furriner it bore an amazing resemblance to pre-2001 WTC.

the one on the right hand side is this little gem

 

[Sci]

I suppose, after last week's episode, this could have been an attempt by the Doctor to be a part of the Ponds' lives, rather than the other way around. Instead of grabbing Amy and Rory and taking them to the ass end of the universe for an adventure, he joined them for a quiet afternoon in Central Park.

That's how I understood it. But why go four years back in time for that?

It was the only day they could get tickets for The Book of Mormon.

 

[Sci]

My personal Ponds timeline, based on my own guesses:

1989: Amelia Pond and Rory Williams are born ("The Eleventh Hour;" "The Big Bang;" "Let's Kill Hitler")

1996: The Doctor encounters Amelia Pond and Prisoner Zero for the first time; this meeting is later erased from the timeline, though both retain their memories of the event ("The Eleventh Hour;" "The Big Bang")

1996 onwards: Amy Pond recalls the Raggedy Doctor, despite their encounter having been erased from history; her best friend Mels becomes similarly fixated ("Let's Kill Hitler")

2008: The Doctor returns to Leadworth, defeats Prisoner Zero and the Atraxi, and encounters Amy Pond and Rory Williams; this event is later re-written out of history, though all three parties retain their memories of the event ("The Eleventh Hour;" "The Big Bang")

2010: Marriage of Amy Pond and Rory Williams; the Doctor takes Amy with him, and then Rory; the events of Series Five are erased from the timeline by Big Bang 2.0, though the Doctor's restoration to history at the Pond wedding ensures that Williams, Pond, and the Doctor retain their memories of these events ("The Eleventh Hour;" "Flesh and Stone;" "The Vampires of Venice;" "The Pandorica Opens;" "The Big Bang")

2011: Amy Pond and Rory Williams travel to Utah and witness the "death" of the Doctor; Amy's friend Mels is revealed to have been the third regeneration of Melody Pond, the future River Song; the Doctor gives them a house ("The Impossible Astronaut;" "Let's Kill Hitler;" "The God Complex;" "The Wedding of River Song")

25 December 2012: The Doctor returns to the Ponds for the first time after faking his death ("The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe")

2012 - 2020: The Doctor and the Ponds intermittently travel with the Doctor (Pond Life)

2020: Rory Williams is 31 years old; Rory and Amy are tired of these motherfucking dinosaurs on this motherfucking spaceship ("Dinosaurs on a Spaceship")

2020-2021: Earth invaded by cubes; Amy and Rory leave with the Doctor again ("The Power of Three")

2012: Amy and Rory, having traveled from the year 2021, are displaced to 1938 by the Weeping Angels ("The Angels Take Manhattan")

 

[Sindatur]

My personal Ponds timeline, based on my own guesses:

1989: Amelia Pond and Rory Williams are born ("The Eleventh Hour;" "The Big Bang;" "Let's Kill Hitler")

1996: The Doctor encounters Amelia Pond and Prisoner Zero for the first time; this meeting is later erased from the timeline, though both retain their memories of the event ("The Eleventh Hour;" "The Big Bang")

1996 onwards: Amy Pond recalls the Raggedy Doctor, despite their encounter having been erased from history; her best friend Mels becomes similarly fixated ("Let's Kill Hitler")

2008: The Doctor returns to Leadworth, defeats Prisoner Zero and the Atraxi, and encounters Amy Pond and Rory Williams; this event is later re-written out of history, though all three parties retain their memories of the event ("The Eleventh Hour;" "The Big Bang")

2010: Marriage of Amy Pond and Rory Williams; the Doctor takes Amy with him, and then Rory; the events of Series Five are erased from the timeline by Big Bang 2.0, though the Doctor's restoration to history at the Pond wedding ensures that Williams, Pond, and the Doctor retain their memories of these events ("The Eleventh Hour;" "Flesh and Stone;" "The Vampires of Venice;" "The Pandorica Opens;" "The Big Bang")

2011: Amy Pond and Rory Williams travel to Utah and witness the "death" of the Doctor; Amy's friend Mels is revealed to have been the third regeneration of Melody Pond, the future River Song; the Doctor gives them a house ("The Impossible Astronaut;" "Let's Kill Hitler;" "The God Complex;" "The Wedding of River Song")

25 December 2012: The Doctor returns to the Ponds for the first time after faking his death ("The Doctor, the Widow, and the Wardrobe")

2012 - 2020: The Doctor and the Ponds intermittently travel with the Doctor (Pond Life)

2020: Rory Williams is 31 years old; Rory and Amy are tired of these motherfucking dinosaurs on this motherfucking spaceship ("Dinosaurs on a Spaceship")

2020-2021: Earth invaded by cubes; Amy and Rory leave with the Doctor again ("The Power of Three")

2012: Amy and Rory, having traveled from the year 2021, are displaced to 1938 by the Weeping Angels ("The Angels Take Manhattan")

I agree with much of that, but, I think 2012 - 2020 is far too much Time. The Pond-Williams' have aged 10 years traveling with the Doctor, but, they'll leave a party for 6 weeks, and then pop back into the party, and go on several adventures, then get dropped off back on the day they left. A couple years for the first couple seasons, seems reasonable, and seems to fit, but, the 8 years of aging this season, I think is mostly not passing time for their friends.

2 years s1 and S2
1 1/2 Years for The Cubes

Of the 6 1/2 years remaining, I wouldn't think more than 2/3 of it has passed for their friends

 

[Photoman15]

None of Season 5 was written out of existence. The Big Bang restored practically everything. The Doctor called in favors from people from season 5 and 6 to help in AGMGTW, including Churchill, QE 10, etc...

 

[Sci]

I agree with much of that, but, I think 2012 - 2020 is far too much Time.

The problem is that Rory says he's 31 in "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship." We know from "Let's Kill Hitler" that he's Amy's age or younger, and we know that Amy was born in 1989 since she was 7 in 1996.

Granted, this is subjective, but I don't see how Rory could accurately calculate his subjective age including time spent traveling through history with the Doctor. So I took that to mean that he's 31 relative to the Gregorian calender followed by his family. Add to that "The Power of Three"'s scene where Amy says she and Rory have been adventuring with the Doctor off and on for ten years, and that leads me to interpret Amy and Rory as being from the early 2020s in Series Seven.

None of Season 5 was written out of existence. The Big Bang restored practically everything.

But it also wrote the Cracks out of history; the Cracks never happened. So that shunts the timeline in which Amy grew up without any parents -- in which she met the Doctor when he encountered Prisoner Zero -- into an alternate timeline. Amy remembers both timelines (as established in the Night and the Doctor mini-episodes) simultaneously, in the same way that Rory remembers both the timeline in which he was an Auton for 2,000 years and the timeline in which he first met the Doctor at his wedding simultaneously.

The Doctor called in favors from people from season 5 and 6 to help in AGMGTW, including Churchill,

He had a prior relationship with Churchill, so that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

However, we also know from Series Five that memories and consequences can continue to exist without causes -- Rory still being in a photograph and Amy's engagement ring persisting even after Rory was erased from history, for instance.

QE 10, etc...

I recall no reference to Queen Elizabeth X in "A Good Man Goes to War."