So, nuWho.

[avevale_intelligencer]

Um.

If there is sequential and linear physiological time, then there is time. If there is time, then the earth moves, the sun appears to rise and set, and it is not always 5:02 on the 22nd of whenever. If there is no sequential and linear physiological time, then the story we have just watched could never have started, let alone gone on.

If time itself requires that the Doctor die, then it (being an impersonal force of nature) is not going to be fooled by a robot. If time itself does not require that the Doctor die, then all that melodrama and there's-no-other-waying was unnecessary. And if an impersonal force of nature can be fooled by a robot, then nothing makes any sense at all. It's the Father's Day nonsense all over again.

So, two crashing, jarring, mind-mangling absurdities right at the heart of this culminatory episode and therefore at the heart of the entire season.

Apart from that, I've seen a good deal of waffle about post-modernism and such, but all I saw here was the usual panto-style "let's bring everyone back on stage for the big finale" that Davies started and Moffat has turned into a formula. The only thing that's missing is the marching-in-place singalong, Which is all very fine and large, but Doctor Who used to tell stories. And yes, sometimes they were nonsensical, but never, not ever, never did they show as much contempt for the audience's intelligence as this lot.

And sadly, the audience isn't noticing.

Comments

[teddywolf.livejournal.com]

I suspect the trouble was that the event at Lake Silencio required that the Doctor get hit by those beams and then be burnt; it was a fixed point in time with fixed events. However, only the observers there at the time make the event a fixed point - meaning, that if you have another way to make events unfold that way, you can still *do* it, just without the logical conclusion because you use a much trickier conclusion instead.

The time disruption was caused by the impossible astronaut not following the script and not hitting the Doctor with those beams - thus not making him fall in the dust.

I think there is another reason why they decided to address this fixed point issue. During the Donna Noble run there was the fixed point of Pompeii; during the lone Doctor/end of Tennant run there was the Mars expedition getting wiped out which was supposed to be a fixed point but which he altered. In short, they are at least saying that even the Doctor is not quite sure what makes a point fixed, but even he has to abide by a true fixed point - just not always in the logical conclusion way.

I should mention that there's a piece of anime called Steins;Gate which addresses mutability and immutability of time. The series end bears some relation to the Doctor's solution - making something conform to a witnessed account but be absolutely nothing like what was seen.