Erasing past continuity

[EJA]

Hey, the Cyberking was great. The story was only half good, but so far all the Cybermen stories I've seen had their problems.

I really liked The Next Doctor. Definitely my favourite out of the specials, which is one of the reasons I wouldn't like it to be negated.

 

[Starkers]

Why don't we just wait until the end of the series and I'm sure all questions--for better or worse-- will be answered...

I mean people do understand that Steven Moffat isn't going to come round all their houses and steal/erase their DVDs right?

 

[I am not Spock]

^ Yeah, relax guys. JJ Abrams hasn't come round and confiscated all my Trek DVDs, either. It's all still there, folks.

 

[HappyDayRiot]

^ I'm happy for them to come round and erase Fear Her and The Idiot's Lantern if they want. I'd be happier without those.

But it's the ducks I'm most concerned about.

 

[Timelord79 (he/him)]

The thing is though, doesn't Journey's End imply that Dalek Caan played a big part in manipulating things up to that point, including the Doctor meeting Donna? So if Dalek Caan was erased by the Crack....how could any of it have happened? We saw in Turn Left how if the Doctor never met Donna, he would've died stopping the Racnoss. This is why I'm so opposed to the idea: It undoes far too much and throws everything into total confusion. Maybe things will get put right by the end of this season, but I'm not going to get my hopes up too much.

It works for the same reason that the Enterprise and Crew were not erased when the Borg altered the past in First Contact. The Doctor is protected by his version of a temporal vortex. Benefits of a Timelord I guess. No matter what gets erased, his personal history stays intact.
What exactly happens when the Docotor himself and or the TARDIS fall through the crack we don't know, but will probably see in the finale.

 

[The]

I think what it proves is that for some posters whining is the default position, no matter what we're discussing!

 

[captcalhoun]

if JJ tries nicking my Trek VHS and DVDs he'll get a smack in the teeth.

 

[RevdKathy]

^ I'm happy for them to come round and erase Fear Her and The Idiot's Lantern if they want. I'd be happier without those.

But it's the ducks I'm most concerned about.

I fear the ducks were following the bees. What is it with the bees, anyway?

 

[Jax]

Just re-watching the 11th hour and something just made me think even more the current universe could be fake somehow because when The Doctor asks young Amy her name and she replies Amelie Pond and he says it like a name in a fairytale.

It could just be a line but it does sound like a cryptic hint Moffat would chuck in, I guess only time will tell. Also the apple young Amy hands him, the smile on it looks so much like the crack we keep seeing.

 

[David cgc]

Just re-watching the 11th hour and something just made me think even more the current universe could be fake somehow because when The Doctor asks young Amy her name and she replies Amelie Pond and he says it like a name in a fairytale.

It could just be a line but it does sound like a cryptic hint Moffat would chuck in, I guess only time will tell.

River: I'll see you again quite soon, when the Pandorica opens.
Doctor: River, that's a fairytale.
River: Aren't we all?

 

[Jax]

^
Also I've noticed the term perception filter being used so often this season like Moffat is chucking it in on purpose hinting we aren't seeing the whole truth.

 

[Brent]

^
Also I've noticed the term perception filter being used so often this season like Moffat is chucking it in on purpose hinting we aren't seeing the whole truth.

again with my holodeck theory, or some kind of computer generated world, or something, where they are isn't real.... my theory anyway

 

[captcalhoun]

^ I'm happy for them to come round and erase Fear Her and The Idiot's Lantern if they want. I'd be happier without those.

But it's the ducks I'm most concerned about.

I fear the ducks were following the bees. What is it with the bees, anyway?

that was explained in Stolen Earth. they were flying home.

 

[EJA]

I mean people do understand that Steven Moffat isn't going to come round all their houses and steal/erase their DVDs right?

That's not really the point though. The stories may be recorded on DVD, but are they really worth anything anymore?

 

[DimesDan]

I mean people do understand that Steven Moffat isn't going to come round all their houses and steal/erase their DVDs right?

That's not really the point though. The stories may be recorded on DVD, but are they really worth anything anymore?

Yes they are, but why do you think they wouldn't be?

 

[intrinsical]

im sorry but this is something ive never understood, when were those events wiped from the time line?

In "Victory of the Daleks," Amy had no memory of the Daleks, or of the 26 planets in the sky. In "Flesh and Stone," when the Doctor learned the crack completely erased whatever it touched from the past, he theorized that this, as well as the fact that no one ever remembered the events of "The Next Doctor" (which he commented on in that episode!) were a result of the cracks. He never proved it, though, and even if it did, the cracks could've erased anything to alter those events. A crack could've eaten the Lost Moon of Poosh, and the balance of the Reality Bomb was different so Davros couldn't use Earth as part of the amplifier any more. A crack could've swallowed the hulk of the Cyberking out of the Time Vortex and that's why no one wrote anything down about the giant robot.

It's folly to assume the only possible way Earth's part in "Journey's End" could've unhappened was if Davros and the Daleks didn't exist at all.

So... could that mean that the crack was formed by three inverse tachyon beams fired from three different ships in three different time periods?

Yes, its sort of like TNG's "All Good Things" where there's definitely some form of anti-time effect going on. Instead of reversing temporal effects like old getting young and scars fading away, The Crack erases entities from time.

My personal fanboi suspicion is that the Doctor would accidentally/intentionally cause The Crack by exploding his TARDIS. He then finds a solution at the very last moment, sealing The Crack and reverse The Crack's effect so that all the entities that have been forgotten by time will be restored. That includes the Cyberking, Daleks, Davros, Rory and the TARDIS itself.

Restoring the universe without the TARDIS (since it exploded and caused The Crack) would nicely bookend the series, mirroring him saving the Earth with no TARDIS, no sonic screwdriver in 20 minutes (Who's da man?).

 

[Phily B]

If the cracks had erased the Daleks then surely they wouldn't be around for VotD?

 

[wamdue]

depends on what caused the crack, but its possible some Daleks managed to escape the Time War, in End of Time.

 

[ITL]

^ Daleks escaping the Time War? BUT HOW?!? SURELY NOTHING CAN ESCAPE THE TIME WAR!!?

 

[Irvy]

We've seen a few "odd" things this series that I believe are things set up for the big reveal at the end. For a start, at the end of the first episode, we went back to young Amelia at the end and saw her react to hearing the TARDIS return, and then cut back to older Amy waking up to find the Doctor has returned after 2 years.

Again, when the Doctor left Amy with orders to not open her eyes, we hear his voice getting quieter and then suddenly he appears right beside Amy and tells her to remember something he'd told her. The Doctor who was walking away had no jacket on, yet the one who came back to comfort Amy did.

I think Moffat might be continuing the trend from previous years - we've done this constant speculation on trying to work it all out before the finale and guess the ending, and every year we fail and the finale gives us something different from what we were expecting, and every year we enjoy the entire process. So carry on speculating!