Not quite a new type of essay, but a new series that I'll be featuring in my UNADULTERATED BOORISH OPINION style of essays.
This will be similar to the "Unsung Classics" that I, sometimes, like to write about but it will have its own slant. While an Unsung Classic is a great story that should have gotten more props than it deserves, "Was It Really So Bad?!" is about stories with legitimate problems to them that I feel have been blown out of proportion. They're not quite Guilty Pleasures (we've written about those in a BOOK OF LISTS series. Here's the first of the five - just keep clicking to the next entry if you want to keep going: http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/05/book-of-lists-top-five-guilty-pleasures.html). Guilty Pleasures are legitimately bad but I still like them, somehow. A "Was It Really So Bad?" story may have misfired on a few fronts but I still wouldn't call it a legitimate "clunker". It's still actually quite decent most of the time. But, because of a few rough patches, Fandom has decided that it absolutely sucks. My point in this particular type of essay is to try to build a bit of a case in the tale's defense.
If you think the story I'm defending stinks then I probably won't change your opinion. But I'll still enjoy the cathartic value of stating what I think about the whole thing and how much it irritates me that fans crap on something that was actually half-decent.
WARRIORS OF THE DEEP - WAS IT AS DEEPLY CRAPPY AS THEY CLAIM?
It's the mid-80s. We've all just settled down from a really fun anniversary celebration that wasn't big on plot but still hit all the right notes with nostalgia. Season 21 comes along a short while later and we're all anxious to see what it holds. "Hooray!" We rejoice, "The Silurians and Sea Devils are coming back!"
What ends up hitting our screens, however, doesn't make us rejoice so much. There are a few glaring problems with Warriors of the Deep that let Fandom down so much that they turned on the whole thing rather quickly. So much so, that it tends to make it on to a lot of peoples' Worst of Lists.
This can happen when an old monster is brought back and the story is a bit lacking in places. Even in the New Series, we've seen this occur. Sontaran Strategem/Poison Sky, for instance, was a passable tale. But, because it had Sontarans attached to it, our disappointment becomes magnified. An okay story becomes more heavily reviled because it failed to re-introduce an old foe effectively.
I suggest that Poor 'Ole Warriors of the Deep got hit that way, too. If we can look past a few things and get over that it's not the best story featuring Silurians and/or Sea Devils (though, it's not the worst, either) then we actually find that there's still a fair amount of decent things about it.
THE GOOD STUFF
There's an interesting behind-the-scenes story that many fans feel contributes quite strongly to the detriment of Warriors of the Deep. Johnny Byrne, the author of the story, specified in the script that Seabase 4 should be very dark and gloomy and appear very worn down. It was meant to symbolize how the Cold War, itself, had gone on way more than it should and was causing everything to decay. The production team, for whatever reason, chose to go another way with it. Which is, ultimately, how things go in the Biz. What you write on the page doesn't always make it to the screen. Johnny Byrne, however, ended up having so many problems with this that he never contributed again.
But, as much as Byrne's specifications might have helped contribute to the atmosphere of the adventure, I don't think that going against his wishes did any actual real damage (though some fans would like to think otherwise). The truth of the matter is, the sets to Warriors of the Deep look great. Aside from a wobble here and there during action sequences and some very obvious 80s digital images on display screens, they hold up quite well. Everything looks pretty slick, really. So we shouldn't complain too hard that Byrne's vision wasn't accomplished. Cause what we did get was still quite impressive. So let's brush aside that Popular Fan Objection here and now. Sea Base 4 might not have looked the way it was intended to be - but it still looked pretty good. Some might even say awesome.
Another great strength to this story is pacing. Earthshock set this interesting precedent in the Peter Davison Era. If a famous monster from the past was coming back, then the whole plot needed to feel like things were moving very quickly. There was a stronger emphasis on action and there might even, perhaps, be a bit of grittiness to the whole thing. Warriors of the Deep accomplishes this quite well. It doesn't quite "hit the ground running" like Earthshock or Resurrection of the Daleks did. We do get some establishing scenes that move a little more lazily. But that sense of pace does start kicking in fairly early in the game. Once the TARDIS confronts the defense satellite, a very nice sense of urgency ensues. The scenes are stacked against each other quite effectively for Parts 1 and 2 as things propel at a very good speed. That idea of the TARDIS crew always being in peril is well-established in the first half of the story. We really are whisked along quite nicely in the adventure. But things feel more tense than normal. Which, again, is the way things seem to work when Doctor Five is dealing with a returning monster. Honestly, those first 2 parts of Warriors of the Deep are pretty damned solid.
Some folks get upset that the Silurians have shells, now. That it's a blatant attempt to cash in on the Ninja Turtle Fever that was going on at the time. I'm not sure how valid of an issue that is. The costumes for both species actually look quite good. There's a bit of a problem with the heads here and there - a Silurian mask was not put on properly at one point. And the heads of the Sea Devils are actually hats that hang off the artistes poorly, sometimes. But these sort of problems happen quite often in Classic Who. I find it hard to get too caught up in it. But I do think that the updates that were done to both creatures were very strong.
THE NOT-SO-GOOD STUFF
For me, Part Three is where some real problems start to arise. The cliffhanger to Part One was great. That was actually a really good fight sequence. But Part Two's ending signposts a big issue on the horizon. The sequence of events is well-written. We are genuinely concerned for the Doctor and Tegan as they get trapped on the wrong side of the bulkhead. But the execution of that scene falls very flat. And much of the direction in Part Three continues suffering.
The real problem here, of course, is the Myrka. Even by Classic Who standards, the visual is just too embarrassing to handle. Again, as a concept, it works well. It's nice to see a very different kind of monster trying to be created. But what we actually get is laughable. It's just difficult to handle a pantomime horse with any degree of seriousness. It doesn't help that several cringe-worthy visuals happen around the thing, too. Our first sight of it through airlock doors that are blatantly not made of metal is pretty ludicrous. As is the "fight" that Ingrid Pitt is meant to have with it before she perishes. It's all pretty awful. This is a legitimate Fan Objection that I can't really dismiss. The Myrka really does ruin things for a bit.
What Fandom doesn't seem to notice is that the writing is also only doing so well in this episode. Warriors of the Deep, I feel, would have worked so much better if they had started doing those three-parters in the McCoy era right here. Byrne is really trying to sustain the episode when there isn't quite enough plot. There's some structural issues, too. The most blatant being just how long it takes for Commander Vorshak to get from the bulkhead to the Bridge. Watch it for yourself. Everyone else displaces themselves quite quickly after the Myrka and the Sea Devils break through. Vorshak just seems to stroll along during all the peril. Did he stop for a bowel movement or something?
There's another really silly writing choice that gets made that I feel needs to be highlighted. When Nilson is uncovered as the traitor - no one thinks to disarm him. Wouldn't that be the first thing one would do in a military operation when someone is suspected of treason?! Instead, Nilson makes his escape and leads us to a very weak cliffhanger.
Really, for my money, Part Three is where things go off the rails for a bit. Most complaints that are leveled against it cannot be disputed. This is where Warriors of the Deep becomes legitimately bad.
Does it stay bad, though?
I don't think so....
BACK ON TRACK
It's almost like Part Four brushes the third part's dust off of itself and gets back on its feet. Quite mercifully, both Nilson and the Myrka are dead. The issues they created die with them and we can get back to the real plot.
The pace really starts to pick up again. Some quick captures and escapes happen to pad things out a bit but not too much. As is often the case with Doctor Five Returning Monster Stories, there is a nice moment where the Doctor abandons his gentle disposition and "lets rip" for a few minutes with unadulterated outrage. This time, though, his target is humanity, itself. He is truly disgusted by Preston's desire to wipe out the enemy with hexachromite (which, admittedly, could have been introduced more subtly in Part One!). It's quite the speech that sits almost as strongly as the verbal attack against the Cyber Leader in Earthshock. I'm very impressed by it.
The tension that ensues once the hexachromite is released into the ventilation system is extremely well-performed. Those last few minutes of Tegan and Turlough running around trying to save the Silurians while the Doctor attempts to stop the missile run really are frantic. Our three leads sell the moment very well and we're even holding our breath a bit.
Again, we can make a bit of an Earthshock comparison, here. This final scene is extra effective because it actually works against itself a bit. There are two well-placed contradictory elements going on. Which makes the peril of the moment all-the-more effective. In Earthshock, they're trying to save Adric. But, at the same time, they can't. If they do, established history could be corrupted. In Warriors of the Deep, they want to preserve what remains of the Silurian Triad - but also can't. Because, no doubt, Icthar will try some other way to wipe out humanity if he survives. This is actually some pretty solid writing. It tears us in two different directions and makes the climax of the story that bit more exciting.
The ending of Warriors of the Deep does take a pretty big risk. Some feel it didn't work. I, however, am of the "This is a Super-Cool Ending" Camp. But then, I also liked the broken math badge in Earthshock. So maybe I'm just a sucker for when the show tries to stray from its regular "well, we saved the day lets go back to the TARDIS" formula. Because the Doctor looking over the devastation and pronouncing: "There should have been another way." is absolutely spectacular. It really rams home what the whole story is trying to say about War. The Cold War, in particular. That, basically, we need to find a better way.
A bit corny, perhaps? Probably. But, sometimes, corny is nice...
ONE LAST FAN OBJECTION TO DISMISS....
Okay, I've made my case. Aside from some bad stuff in Part Three, I think this story does half-decently. A lot of the Popular Fan Objections have, by my definition, been cut down to size (you may think otherwise, of course - and you're perfectly welcome to your opinion!).
But there is one last complaint to deal with. It doesn't refer so much to the specific story, itself. But rather, how the story affects the larger scale of continuity.
We seem to be under the impression that the Doctor, in this point in his timeline, has met the Silurians and Sea Devils on three occasions. Those incidents were all shown onscreen in Doctor Who and the Silurians, The Sea Devils and Warriors of the Deep. Some confusion ensues, however, when references are made in Warriors of the Deep to Silurians and Sea Devils that don't seen to make sense. The Doctor claims to have knowledge of Myrkas, Triads and has even met Icthtar. But we never saw any of this happen in those two previous tales. Fans are angered that Warriors seems to have gotten its continuity wrong.
The answer is simple, really. I go into this in far greater detail in my the CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES that I do about Silurian History (I'll post links at the bottom of the essay), but Warriors of the Deep is referencing untelevised encounter(s) that the Doctor has had with the Silurians. It's entirely possible, in fact, that the Silurians and Sea Devils that we see in this story have absolutely no knowledge of the onscreen adventures the Doctor had with them. In the same way that the Silurians we've been seeing in New Who don't seem to know about the groups of Homo Reptilia he's met in the Classic Series. These are creatures that have been living in hibernation chambers scattered throughout the planet. It's likely that there's not a whole lot of communication going on between them. So the Doctor's encounters with them can be very isolated.
THE FINAL ANALYSIS
Now we have, officially, dealt with all the problems and strengths of Warriors of the Deep. I'd like to think that my analysis has shown there are far more positive points to the tale than negative. Not sure if you see that, yourself. But, as I said earlier, if I didn't change your mind on the matter - the cathartic process of it all was still nice!
Nonetheless, I hope I've helped you to re-evaluate things a bit.
That's all for now for this new series. Hope you've enjoyed it. From time to time, we will look at other stories that I feel have always gotten more flack than they deserve (you can bet that both Twin Dilemma and Time and the Rani will show up here, someday). I look forward to ranting further on such matters....
Want a bit more elaboration on those unseen Silurian/Sea Devil stories? Here are links to my Comprehensive Homo Reptilia History:
Part 1:
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/09/chronologies-and-timelines-probable.html
Part 2:
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/10/chronologies-and-timelines-silurian.html
Monday, 3 September 2018
Tuesday, 21 August 2018
POINTS OF DEBATE: WAS MISSY TRULY CONVERTED?
I can't help but notice that I'm running out of material for two of my five styles of essays. There aren't too many Continuity Glitches left for me to fix nor are there a lot of Chronologies and Timelines that I still need to work out.
It's time to come up with a few new styles.
I did start doing Unadulterated Boorish Opinions this year but I don't want to indulge too deeply in this one (as I've said many times before, fan blogs that are just opinion pieces are a dime a dozen) so I need to dream up another new type of essay. After some thought, I invented POINTS OF DEBATE.
This new category vaguely resembles FIXING CONTINUITY GLITCHES but works quite differently. When I'm repairing those continuity glitches, I'm trying to correct the mistakes made by various production teams over the years. POINTS OF DEBATE will look at issues that production teams have left intentionally ambiguous. We'll examine various arguments surrounding these issues and try to present a logical conclusion of some sort.
Will the conclusions I reach truly be the right ones? I'd like to think so! But, truthfully, if your opinion completely contradicts mine - it's just as valid.
Always hurts when I say that.
DID MISSY TRULY BECOME "GOOD" AT THE END OF SERIES 10?
While I do wish, sometimes, that New Who wouldn't concentrate so hard on season-long arcs, I did greatly enjoy what they did in Series 10. Building up the "what's inside the box?" mystery during the first half of the season was great fun. But then the mystery evolved into something far more complex and interesting during the latter half. For a brief time, it looked like the Doctor's greatest enemy was going to turn into something far more benevolent. She might even become a positive force in the Universe.
But did she? Was any of this desire that she expressed to be a better person sincere in the slightest? The entire process she goes through is presented in a way that leaves us wondering. There are several signs that seem to indicate she does "convert" briefly by the end of the season. But there are other ideas to consider that could lead us to believe that all of this was a bit of a facade. Something to get the Doctor to believe that his worst adversary was becoming his best friend again. When, in truth, she was still rotten to the core. Let's examine both sides of the argument and see which one holds stronger.
NEGATIVE POINTS
Probably the thing that most strongly supports the idea that Missy was putting on an act the whole time is the fact that she only makes this decision when she's about to be killed. She sees that her situation is inescapable. It's either get killed or take advantage of her rival's idealistic views. Missy knows the Doctor believes there is good in everyone. Her back's against the wall so she might as well try to exploit his romantic nature and see if that will get her out of the fix that she's in.
While the Doctor does save her from her execution, he doesn't set her free. She's still imprisoned in the Vault where she must work out her redemption. Missy does claim, at one point, that she could break out of her prison if she really wanted to - but it's entirely possible that this is all just a bluff. That the Vault really is escape-proof but saying she could get out if she really wanted will help to make it look like she really is trying to change. If this is truly the case, then it shows just how clever she is. Boasting of an ability to break out of something you can't really leave to convince your sentimental jailer that you are improving is a good strategy.
We see Missy fighting the process on several occasions. Most of these moments take place in Lie of the Land and are subject to varied interpretations. Since we are focusing on the negative side of things, let's look at them through those lenses first. Missy asking for rewards for her help is, quite simply, her revealing her true nature. She's still selfish and will only do things that will bring her gain. Her "I'm engaging in the process" claim is to be ignored. This is the real Missy we're seeing.
When she later berates the Doctor for his more arrogant form of morality in the same episode, she is attempting to divert him from the idea that she is still bad. She's trying to say that she'll find her own sense of good and that he should let her. But what's really going on is quite different. The Doctor's ideas on morality are the true sense of good. To try to wander outside of his values is to participate in various levels of corruption or even evil. But, if she can get him to believe that his truth is not absolute, then maybe he'll let her go when she's not exhibiting all the right traits that he wants to see. Essentially, she's trying to get the Doctor to doubt himself a bit and so that he might set her free even if she isn't behaving quite the way he wants her to.
There are a few occurrences that happen next that really work against Missy's facade. She starts actually crying over the people she's killed. The Doctor actually vocalizes that these could be just "crocodile tears" and Missy responds with a sort of "if only it were so..." statement. More than likely, the Doctor is entirely right and Missy is just trying to double-bluff him.
Missy helping Nardole get back to Mars is a harder one to dispute. My guess would be that Missy recognizes that there's more to Nardole than meets the eye. That he may appear goofy and harmless on the surface but he can be a force to be reckoned with when he needs to be. She could try to steal the TARDIS away at this point but Nardole might actually be able to put up a fight. Better to just play along for a bit longer til she gets a better opportunity.
For the next little while, Missy is allowed some freedom - but with heavy restrictions. Naturally enough, she's going to behave fairly nicely, here. There's going to be no attempts to display any of her true nature because she is so close to convincing the Doctor that she's made the changes he wants to see. The truth is, of course, that she's nowhere near to converting.
When, at last, she's joined by her previous incarnation - the real Missy comes out. The Doctor is heavily beaten and restrained. She does knock out her earlier self at one point - but this is because she needs to get some of the Doctor's trust back. He is, after all, an expert at beating Cybermen and an army of them is coming for her. Look how, moments later, she's urging Nardole to leave the Doctor behind now that they've found a means of escape.
Both incarnations "play nice" for a bit after that. Until they've figured out a way to escape. Once more, Missy doesn't seem to care about helping the Doctor to save the colonists on the solar farm. She and her last incarnation have the dematerialisation circuit for their TARDIS and can go.
But for a final twist, it really does seem like Missy was putting up a front the whole time and had no intention of changing. There's plenty of evidence to support this. However, that last choice she makes just before she's shot by himself would lead us to believe she really has converted. But I have a theory that backs up the idea that Missy never changed. I'll go into it after I present the case for Missy's Defense.
SEEING THINGS FROM A POSITIVE VIEWPOINT
Thank you, Pessimist Rob Tymec, for refusing to believe that people can change. Let's try to re-examine these points with a more optimistic spin.
Yes, Missy had to have a near-death experience before trying to change her heart(s) - but isn't that what gets really rotten people to adopt a new attitude?! Something traumatic or even life-threatening causes them to re-evaluate their existence. Isn't it possible that this happened to Missy as she knelt on the execution platform?
Maybe she was trying to just tell the Doctor what he wanted to hear when she was about to get killed, but it seemed there was some sincerity in her pleading too. This is best evidenced by the time she spent in the Vault. She wasn't bluffing when she said she could break out of her cell if she really wanted to (has there ever been a prison that can truly hold her?). She was staying in there because she was tired of living her lives the way she had been and she wanted to turn over a new leaf (one that she wouldn't use to make a gun!). She had been in that Vault for something like 50 years. Surely, after all that time, she could've found a means of egress. Unless she really did want to change. Keeping herself restrained in a place where she could do no harm would be a good way to work on herself. And, for someone as evil as her, such a process could take several decades.
As I said earlier, those moments in Lie of the Land are subject to a lot of interpretation. We've taken the negative slant, now let's try to color things differently.
Missy, quite simply, is being honest in both incidents. Yes, she's asking for rewards for her benevolence- but she is engaging in the process. She's trying to change. She's just not at the point of being good for the sheer sake of it so she still wants something back for her kindness.
Pointing out that there are various types of morality is, in fact, very realistic. Developing actual values can take on many different hues. She's very much right in her voice-over speech.. The Doctor shouldn't be so convinced that his brand of goodness is the only true one. She must find her own path, her own version of The Right Way. And that's what she's genuinely trying to do.
Rescuing the Doctor and Bill from Mars is some pretty strong evidence that she has changed. Nardole might put up a good fight, but an evil Missy would still try to betray them with such an opportunity placed in front of her. Unless, of course, she was trying to be nicer to everyone.
Yes, security precautions are being taken with her during such stories as Eaters of Light and World Enough and Time - but they were hardly necessary. Those tears Missy are shedding are real. Guilt truly is sinking in and she wants to stop being so destructive.
As with all people trying to make a better way for themselves, there are relapses. When her previous incarnation joins her, Missy starts feeling conflicted. Part of her still yearns to be good. Another part wants to join in the revelry of her past. She admits as much during the brief moment where she's knocked himself out (I do wish I'd quit switching around personal pronouns!).
If we need any final proof that Missy has turned good, we see it in her last moments. With an escape path clearly established before her - she chooses, instead, to initiate the regeneration that will create her and then return to the Doctor's side to aid him in his moment of need. Had it not been for the vengeful madness of the incarnation before her, she would have accomplished just that. She would have done the right thing.
Sadly, she is cut down just as she is about to become good. But the intention, at least, was there....
YET ONE MORE IMPORTANT POINT
To all intents and purposes, the solution to this debate seems quite straightforward. Some of you may even be wondering why I'm considering this ambiguous. It's pretty clear-cut. In the end, Missy decides to be good. Possibly at the expense of her own life.
But here is where my own personal goofy fan theory clouds the issue.
I've been discussing Missy's means of escape from her latest peril in The Doctor Falls in some other entries. Here's the one that deals with it the most directly (scroll to the last subsection entitled: One Last Bit of Speculation. Although, if you want to read the whole entry I won't stop you!): http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/07/chronlogies-and-timeline-history-of.html.
The basic gist of what I'm saying in that particular post is that Missy's claims to not remembering what happened when she met her previous incarnation because the timelines are too tangled was a lie. That she had to pretend that she didn't remember because the Master would have been more thorough in his dispatch if she didn't. Because she remembered everything, she knew she would be shot. So she put on some sort of protective gear that absorbed enough of the blast to not kill her but would still cause her to regenerate (yes, I recognize that summarizing what I said in that entry here might make you less motivated to read the link but I really can't continue with my point if you don't know this information).
So here's my real point: Missy knew her ultimate fate would be death by the hand of her last incarnation (by my reckoning, at least). Since she was aware of her final destiny, did she feign her redemption even to her own self? She had dipped into her future. She knew she would be shot by her previous incarnation. He did it and she remembered it all happening. As a Time Lord, she knows cycles such as these must be completed (she is, in fact, more responsible of a Time Lord than the Doctor. He managed to re-write his timeline on Trenzalore during Time of the Doctor even though he'd visited his own grave during Name of the Doctor). So she suffered the attack knowing that she had to. She'd seen it all happen before.
Death by your own hand is a horrible future to have waiting for you, yes. But Missy knew it would also free her from the Vault. That if she just faked her whole conversion process it would, ultimately, lead her to the Mondasian colony ship where the Doctor would become too busy with saving the solar farmers and allow her to slip away. Yes, she still had to go through the pain of being shot by her own laser screwdriver but knowledge of this fate meant she could take the necessary precautions and survive the attack. At the end of it all, she would have her freedom. So maybe she was faking her conversion the whole time. All so she could face this horrid fate but also escape the Vault and terrorize the Universe again.
Alternatively, she may still have chosen to become good. She knew that this decision would outrage her earlier self and precipitate the violent actions that he would take to stop her. Nonetheless, she would be ready for it and protect herself. After surviving the attack, she could go on to do good things in the Universe.
If you look at this way, you can see there are still quite a few grey areas.
THE FINAL SOLUTION:
Ultimately, we may only get our answer to this debate when we see the Master/Missy next. She will probably be in a new incarnation. Possibly, a man again. Time Lords might gender swap a bit but they tend to favor one sex over the other, for the most part. There are some rumors that Michelle Gomez might want to take on the role one more time but, more than likely, it will be a new incarnation (or we get Michelle for a few minutes in the episode and then she regenerates into someone new). If that new Master/Missy seems to be rotten to the core again, then there's a good chance that the whole arc of Series 10 was just one big sham. Missy never truly changed her stripes.
Or did she? Could it be that she was trying to improve for a bit but then went back to her old ways? It's always possible. Especially if it is a new incarnation. Regeneration does tend to trigger personality changes. So perhaps Missy was trying to be good at the end of her life. But then the regeneration changed her back into the monster she once was.
The World may never know the truth....
Hope you enjoyed this new topic. If you have opinions of your own on the matter, feel free to express them in the Comments. By no means is this Point of Debate over. Argue away if you so desire!!!
It's time to come up with a few new styles.
I did start doing Unadulterated Boorish Opinions this year but I don't want to indulge too deeply in this one (as I've said many times before, fan blogs that are just opinion pieces are a dime a dozen) so I need to dream up another new type of essay. After some thought, I invented POINTS OF DEBATE.
This new category vaguely resembles FIXING CONTINUITY GLITCHES but works quite differently. When I'm repairing those continuity glitches, I'm trying to correct the mistakes made by various production teams over the years. POINTS OF DEBATE will look at issues that production teams have left intentionally ambiguous. We'll examine various arguments surrounding these issues and try to present a logical conclusion of some sort.
Will the conclusions I reach truly be the right ones? I'd like to think so! But, truthfully, if your opinion completely contradicts mine - it's just as valid.
Always hurts when I say that.
DID MISSY TRULY BECOME "GOOD" AT THE END OF SERIES 10?
While I do wish, sometimes, that New Who wouldn't concentrate so hard on season-long arcs, I did greatly enjoy what they did in Series 10. Building up the "what's inside the box?" mystery during the first half of the season was great fun. But then the mystery evolved into something far more complex and interesting during the latter half. For a brief time, it looked like the Doctor's greatest enemy was going to turn into something far more benevolent. She might even become a positive force in the Universe.
But did she? Was any of this desire that she expressed to be a better person sincere in the slightest? The entire process she goes through is presented in a way that leaves us wondering. There are several signs that seem to indicate she does "convert" briefly by the end of the season. But there are other ideas to consider that could lead us to believe that all of this was a bit of a facade. Something to get the Doctor to believe that his worst adversary was becoming his best friend again. When, in truth, she was still rotten to the core. Let's examine both sides of the argument and see which one holds stronger.
NEGATIVE POINTS
Probably the thing that most strongly supports the idea that Missy was putting on an act the whole time is the fact that she only makes this decision when she's about to be killed. She sees that her situation is inescapable. It's either get killed or take advantage of her rival's idealistic views. Missy knows the Doctor believes there is good in everyone. Her back's against the wall so she might as well try to exploit his romantic nature and see if that will get her out of the fix that she's in.
While the Doctor does save her from her execution, he doesn't set her free. She's still imprisoned in the Vault where she must work out her redemption. Missy does claim, at one point, that she could break out of her prison if she really wanted to - but it's entirely possible that this is all just a bluff. That the Vault really is escape-proof but saying she could get out if she really wanted will help to make it look like she really is trying to change. If this is truly the case, then it shows just how clever she is. Boasting of an ability to break out of something you can't really leave to convince your sentimental jailer that you are improving is a good strategy.
We see Missy fighting the process on several occasions. Most of these moments take place in Lie of the Land and are subject to varied interpretations. Since we are focusing on the negative side of things, let's look at them through those lenses first. Missy asking for rewards for her help is, quite simply, her revealing her true nature. She's still selfish and will only do things that will bring her gain. Her "I'm engaging in the process" claim is to be ignored. This is the real Missy we're seeing.
When she later berates the Doctor for his more arrogant form of morality in the same episode, she is attempting to divert him from the idea that she is still bad. She's trying to say that she'll find her own sense of good and that he should let her. But what's really going on is quite different. The Doctor's ideas on morality are the true sense of good. To try to wander outside of his values is to participate in various levels of corruption or even evil. But, if she can get him to believe that his truth is not absolute, then maybe he'll let her go when she's not exhibiting all the right traits that he wants to see. Essentially, she's trying to get the Doctor to doubt himself a bit and so that he might set her free even if she isn't behaving quite the way he wants her to.
There are a few occurrences that happen next that really work against Missy's facade. She starts actually crying over the people she's killed. The Doctor actually vocalizes that these could be just "crocodile tears" and Missy responds with a sort of "if only it were so..." statement. More than likely, the Doctor is entirely right and Missy is just trying to double-bluff him.
Missy helping Nardole get back to Mars is a harder one to dispute. My guess would be that Missy recognizes that there's more to Nardole than meets the eye. That he may appear goofy and harmless on the surface but he can be a force to be reckoned with when he needs to be. She could try to steal the TARDIS away at this point but Nardole might actually be able to put up a fight. Better to just play along for a bit longer til she gets a better opportunity.
For the next little while, Missy is allowed some freedom - but with heavy restrictions. Naturally enough, she's going to behave fairly nicely, here. There's going to be no attempts to display any of her true nature because she is so close to convincing the Doctor that she's made the changes he wants to see. The truth is, of course, that she's nowhere near to converting.
When, at last, she's joined by her previous incarnation - the real Missy comes out. The Doctor is heavily beaten and restrained. She does knock out her earlier self at one point - but this is because she needs to get some of the Doctor's trust back. He is, after all, an expert at beating Cybermen and an army of them is coming for her. Look how, moments later, she's urging Nardole to leave the Doctor behind now that they've found a means of escape.
Both incarnations "play nice" for a bit after that. Until they've figured out a way to escape. Once more, Missy doesn't seem to care about helping the Doctor to save the colonists on the solar farm. She and her last incarnation have the dematerialisation circuit for their TARDIS and can go.
But for a final twist, it really does seem like Missy was putting up a front the whole time and had no intention of changing. There's plenty of evidence to support this. However, that last choice she makes just before she's shot by himself would lead us to believe she really has converted. But I have a theory that backs up the idea that Missy never changed. I'll go into it after I present the case for Missy's Defense.
SEEING THINGS FROM A POSITIVE VIEWPOINT
Thank you, Pessimist Rob Tymec, for refusing to believe that people can change. Let's try to re-examine these points with a more optimistic spin.
Yes, Missy had to have a near-death experience before trying to change her heart(s) - but isn't that what gets really rotten people to adopt a new attitude?! Something traumatic or even life-threatening causes them to re-evaluate their existence. Isn't it possible that this happened to Missy as she knelt on the execution platform?
Maybe she was trying to just tell the Doctor what he wanted to hear when she was about to get killed, but it seemed there was some sincerity in her pleading too. This is best evidenced by the time she spent in the Vault. She wasn't bluffing when she said she could break out of her cell if she really wanted to (has there ever been a prison that can truly hold her?). She was staying in there because she was tired of living her lives the way she had been and she wanted to turn over a new leaf (one that she wouldn't use to make a gun!). She had been in that Vault for something like 50 years. Surely, after all that time, she could've found a means of egress. Unless she really did want to change. Keeping herself restrained in a place where she could do no harm would be a good way to work on herself. And, for someone as evil as her, such a process could take several decades.
As I said earlier, those moments in Lie of the Land are subject to a lot of interpretation. We've taken the negative slant, now let's try to color things differently.
Missy, quite simply, is being honest in both incidents. Yes, she's asking for rewards for her benevolence- but she is engaging in the process. She's trying to change. She's just not at the point of being good for the sheer sake of it so she still wants something back for her kindness.
Pointing out that there are various types of morality is, in fact, very realistic. Developing actual values can take on many different hues. She's very much right in her voice-over speech.. The Doctor shouldn't be so convinced that his brand of goodness is the only true one. She must find her own path, her own version of The Right Way. And that's what she's genuinely trying to do.
Rescuing the Doctor and Bill from Mars is some pretty strong evidence that she has changed. Nardole might put up a good fight, but an evil Missy would still try to betray them with such an opportunity placed in front of her. Unless, of course, she was trying to be nicer to everyone.
Yes, security precautions are being taken with her during such stories as Eaters of Light and World Enough and Time - but they were hardly necessary. Those tears Missy are shedding are real. Guilt truly is sinking in and she wants to stop being so destructive.
As with all people trying to make a better way for themselves, there are relapses. When her previous incarnation joins her, Missy starts feeling conflicted. Part of her still yearns to be good. Another part wants to join in the revelry of her past. She admits as much during the brief moment where she's knocked himself out (I do wish I'd quit switching around personal pronouns!).
If we need any final proof that Missy has turned good, we see it in her last moments. With an escape path clearly established before her - she chooses, instead, to initiate the regeneration that will create her and then return to the Doctor's side to aid him in his moment of need. Had it not been for the vengeful madness of the incarnation before her, she would have accomplished just that. She would have done the right thing.
Sadly, she is cut down just as she is about to become good. But the intention, at least, was there....
YET ONE MORE IMPORTANT POINT
To all intents and purposes, the solution to this debate seems quite straightforward. Some of you may even be wondering why I'm considering this ambiguous. It's pretty clear-cut. In the end, Missy decides to be good. Possibly at the expense of her own life.
But here is where my own personal goofy fan theory clouds the issue.
I've been discussing Missy's means of escape from her latest peril in The Doctor Falls in some other entries. Here's the one that deals with it the most directly (scroll to the last subsection entitled: One Last Bit of Speculation. Although, if you want to read the whole entry I won't stop you!): http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/07/chronlogies-and-timeline-history-of.html.
The basic gist of what I'm saying in that particular post is that Missy's claims to not remembering what happened when she met her previous incarnation because the timelines are too tangled was a lie. That she had to pretend that she didn't remember because the Master would have been more thorough in his dispatch if she didn't. Because she remembered everything, she knew she would be shot. So she put on some sort of protective gear that absorbed enough of the blast to not kill her but would still cause her to regenerate (yes, I recognize that summarizing what I said in that entry here might make you less motivated to read the link but I really can't continue with my point if you don't know this information).
So here's my real point: Missy knew her ultimate fate would be death by the hand of her last incarnation (by my reckoning, at least). Since she was aware of her final destiny, did she feign her redemption even to her own self? She had dipped into her future. She knew she would be shot by her previous incarnation. He did it and she remembered it all happening. As a Time Lord, she knows cycles such as these must be completed (she is, in fact, more responsible of a Time Lord than the Doctor. He managed to re-write his timeline on Trenzalore during Time of the Doctor even though he'd visited his own grave during Name of the Doctor). So she suffered the attack knowing that she had to. She'd seen it all happen before.
Death by your own hand is a horrible future to have waiting for you, yes. But Missy knew it would also free her from the Vault. That if she just faked her whole conversion process it would, ultimately, lead her to the Mondasian colony ship where the Doctor would become too busy with saving the solar farmers and allow her to slip away. Yes, she still had to go through the pain of being shot by her own laser screwdriver but knowledge of this fate meant she could take the necessary precautions and survive the attack. At the end of it all, she would have her freedom. So maybe she was faking her conversion the whole time. All so she could face this horrid fate but also escape the Vault and terrorize the Universe again.
Alternatively, she may still have chosen to become good. She knew that this decision would outrage her earlier self and precipitate the violent actions that he would take to stop her. Nonetheless, she would be ready for it and protect herself. After surviving the attack, she could go on to do good things in the Universe.
If you look at this way, you can see there are still quite a few grey areas.
THE FINAL SOLUTION:
Ultimately, we may only get our answer to this debate when we see the Master/Missy next. She will probably be in a new incarnation. Possibly, a man again. Time Lords might gender swap a bit but they tend to favor one sex over the other, for the most part. There are some rumors that Michelle Gomez might want to take on the role one more time but, more than likely, it will be a new incarnation (or we get Michelle for a few minutes in the episode and then she regenerates into someone new). If that new Master/Missy seems to be rotten to the core again, then there's a good chance that the whole arc of Series 10 was just one big sham. Missy never truly changed her stripes.
Or did she? Could it be that she was trying to improve for a bit but then went back to her old ways? It's always possible. Especially if it is a new incarnation. Regeneration does tend to trigger personality changes. So perhaps Missy was trying to be good at the end of her life. But then the regeneration changed her back into the monster she once was.
The World may never know the truth....
Hope you enjoyed this new topic. If you have opinions of your own on the matter, feel free to express them in the Comments. By no means is this Point of Debate over. Argue away if you so desire!!!
Wednesday, 18 July 2018
FIXING CONTINUITY GLITCHES: QUICK FIXES 7.3 - TIME LORD STUFF, PART 3
Okay, here we go: just a few more QUICK FIXES that I'd like to do regarding the Time Lords. I think, once I tackle this, there really will be nothing left. Unless, of course, some new episodes come out that flatly contradict things that were said about Time Lords in previous episodes. Is it wrong that I'm hoping something like this happens so that I can have more stuff to write about?!
THE TEMPORAL MESS THAT IS MEL
My main reason for the third installment. Might as well get right to it:
I'll try to summarize the problem as quickly as possible: Trial of a Time Lord took place on a space station that was meant to be outside of Time, itself. Cases were presented on a screen that projected images from the Matrix. These circumstances enabled people involved in the trial to see into the past, present and future. During his defense, the Doctor accesses an adventure that takes place in his future. We learn that he will meet a woman named Melanie Bush who will travel with him for a time. They will, eventually, respond to a distress beacon from a ship called The Hyperion Three and have an adventure on it that will introduce them to a new species of killer plants called Vervoids. They will have to completely wipe out the species using vionesium. It's very sad as the Vervoids wither away...
Here's where things start to get really messy: Some time after her adventure in Terror of the Vervoids, the Master takes Mel out of time and drops her at the space station to help defend the Doctor. Things go a bit crazy when we find out the Valeyard is the Doctor and there's a big fight in the Matrix. At the end of the story, Mel just decides to depart with the Doctor in the TARDIS and they begin their adventures anew.
Let's stop and think about that for a second. Mel is from the Doctor's future. She goes into his past to help him and then leaves in the TARDIS with him. Even though, from the Doctor's perspective, they haven't actually met, yet. How exactly does that work?!
POPULAR MEL THEORIES
There are several solutions that fans have come up with:
1) The Memory Cheats: The end of Trial of a Time Lord becomes the point where Mel and the Doctor start travelling together. The Doctor, however, erases both of their memories regarding their adventure on Hyperion Three. This way, the events of Terror of the Vervoids can take place the way they were meant to.
2) Abort! Abort! Abort!: The Doctor and Mel leave the Time Lord space station and set up a whole new timeline for themselves. Terror of the Vervoids and all the other events that led up to it never happen. This theory is backed up by the fact that, in Time and the Rani, the Doctor is still in the outfit he was wearing during The Ultimate Foe. So it's entirely possible that the Rani diverted the TARDIS to Lakertya only moments after the Doctor complained three times about carrot juice (Mel had time to change her clothes but he didn't).
3) "Time will tell. It always does": Either things re-set themselves naturally after the Doctor and Mel leave the space station or the Doctor goes to the trouble of re-setting them, himself.
3-a) The Space station was outside of time, so it's entirely possible that just leaving it and returning to your proper place in the continuum causes Mel to be transported back to where she should be and the Doctor to lose his memory of the sneak preview he got of Terror of the Vervoids until after it happens.
3-b) Or the Doctor takes care of the problem, himself. He's gotten rather good at steering the TARDIS so he gets Mel back to her proper place in his timeline and then erases his own memory of the Terror of the Vervoids preview.
THE TYMECIAN THEORY - DISMISSALS
Before divulging which theory I subscribe to, I'll dismiss the ones I don't like:
1) This one is too big of a temporal mess. There still should be a proper meeting point where the Doctor picks Mel up from 20th Century Earth. It doesn't quite make sense if the end of Ultimate Foe becomes their starting point. Yes, we can just say "wibbly wobbly, timey wimey" but I'd rather we didn't. Not, so much, because I dislike the term (I do, however, take issue with "humany wumany" - that was just bad dialogue!). Moreso, because I would prefer a better explanation than that.
2) I would hate to think that everything that happens after the Sixth Doctor leaves his trial is now an aborted timeline. In fact, the Popular Fan Theory is that he traveled for a good 50 years after Ultimate Foe and then regenerated into Seven. No, he wasn't in his Terror of the Vervoids outfit at the point of regeneration. But it's entirely possible that he switched outfits back and forth throughout his adventures. He might have even had more vests and cravats that we never saw (or, perhaps, even an all-blue outfit).
3-b) Yes, he could probably pilot the TARDIS to the proper point in his timeline and drop Mel off, there (more than likely, he might miss a few times or not quite be perfectly accurate when he finally does get her there). But I have to wonder if the Doctor would purposely re-edit his own memory under these circumstances. The fact that he could save lives and protect an entire species with all his foreknowledge might be too great of a temptation. If it was left up to him to fix this conundrum, I think he would still try to re-write history. Particularly by this point in his life(ves). Doctor One might rant on about not re-writing history ("not one line"!), but 'Ole Sixie would be a bit more confident, at this stage, about what he can and can't mess with. And I think he would try to mess with how things play out on Hyperion Three.
THE TRUE TYMECIAN THEORY
Which means, of course, that Theory 3-a) is our lucky winner! To me, it just makes the best sense.
The Target novelization of The Ultimate Foe does this cute little thing in its epilogue where Mel climbs back into one of those coffin thingies and it takes her back to where she's meant to be in the future. It's a nice idea but I think the process happens in an even more natural way. As the Doctor leaves the space station, Mel fades out of existence and he just forgets about her. It's just the way these things work in this sort of situation. Time fixes itself.
It helps that we see the Doctor having memory issues when he first arrives at his trial. This indicates that, in general, being taken in and out of time can have that effect on a Time Lord. More than likely, he had a hard time remembering much about his trial for the first little while after he left it. Most of his recollections were restored after a bit but there was a huge gap regarding how he defended himself. The Doctor probably accepted that, for whatever reason, he was meant not to recall these events. He probably even vaguely knows that the defense case was something that took place in his future so he should just let things happen the way they're meant to.
He eventually meets Mel on 20th Century Earth and she joins him in the TARDIS. Again, he might have some stray memories of Mel floating around in his head and knows she's meant to travel with him. He doesn't mention this to her, of course. It's never a good idea to give humans too much foreknowledge. The Doctor and Mel have many adventures together. Mel decides she's going to get the Doctor to lose some of that extra weight he's put on.
At last, they get that fateful distress beacon from Hyperion Three and the murder mystery/attempted hi-jacking/act of genocide ensues. Moments after they re-board the TARDIS, the Doctor recalls the full events of his trial. He was probably still singing On With the Motely as they came flooding back (hopefully, it gets him to stop!).
Him getting his memory back in such a way works in a similar manner to the way he learns that he saved Gallifrey in Day of the Doctor. Yes, the War Doctor was around when the decision was made not to use the Moment - but the timelines were also very tangled by having so many incarnations together, at once. So he won't remember these events until Ten and Eleven have also experienced them. Mel coming back from the future and the both of them being taken in and out of time is also a pretty big tangle of timelines. So, just like Eleven after Day of the Doctor, the Sixth Doctor's memory won't fully kick in til everything and everyone are truly current.
Even after he remembers everything, the Doctor mentions none of this to Mel. He knows she's going to join the trial shortly. But, when he sees her at the trial, she looks surprised to be there. This indicates that she was given no foreknowledge of her involvement in the proceedings. So he can't let her know what's to come.
More than likely, Mel gets scooped up the next time the TARDIS lands after Vervoids. She and the Doctor begin a new adventure and, somehow, get separated (it has been known to happen). The Master is waiting for them when they arrive. Perhaps he diverted the Doctor's TARDIS like he did in Mark of the Rani or he was able to read the Doctor's mind like he did in Logopolis or it might be some new tactic, altogether. Whatever the case, he intercepts Mel when she's alone. He probably uses a bit of hypnosis to get her to climb into the coffin thingy (there's a probably a more sci-fiesque term that I could come up with for this but I prefer "coffin thingy") and sends her to the space station.
From this point, The Ultimate Foe ensues. At the end, Mel leaves with the Doctor and immediately disappears after they depart. Only to re-appear back in the adventure she was having with the Doctor just after Terror of the Vervoids. The Master has left the scene rather than stay around to cause more problems. He's reluctant to mess around too much with this sort of cause-and-effect. Technically, he broke the Laws of Gallifreyan Mean Time to retrieve Mel. He went forward in the Doctor's timeline rather than staying adjacent to it. So he doesn't want to leave more of a temporal footprint than he should.
When Mel re-joins the Doctor, she has quite the story to tell him. But the Doctor is smiling knowingly as she tells it. His memories were fully restored even before the Master snatched her away. He knew she would be safe leaving her in his greatest enemy's hands because he saw her arrive safely on the space station. He was also pretty certain she would return to the future safely. His arch-nemesis wouldn't be hanging about when she came back because of the Time Law he was breaking.
It's my guess that the Doctor and Mel have many more adventures together. Until, one day, the Rani uses a navigational distorter to draw the TARDIS down to Lakertya. The Doctor is on his exercise bike at the time and has a nasty spill.
With great sadness (and a silly wig), the greatest Doctor of them all passes far sooner than he was meant to.
(Did I really just call him "the greatest Doctor of them all"?! Read more about my Sixth Doctor love here: http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/12/book-of-lists-doctors-from-worst-to_31.html)
You know what? Mel's Temporal Mess took far longer to delve into than expected. Looks like I'll stop here and do a fourth entry in the series before the month is out. There are just a few little details in New Who regarding Time Lords that I'd like to tackle.
Stay tuned....
Since this is all about Trial of a Time Lord. Here's some stuff I wrote about concerning the Valyeyard:
Who is the Valeyard?
Part 1:
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/09/fixing-continuity-glitches-who-is.html
Part 2:
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/09/fixing-continuity-glitches-who-is_28.html
THE TEMPORAL MESS THAT IS MEL
My main reason for the third installment. Might as well get right to it:
I'll try to summarize the problem as quickly as possible: Trial of a Time Lord took place on a space station that was meant to be outside of Time, itself. Cases were presented on a screen that projected images from the Matrix. These circumstances enabled people involved in the trial to see into the past, present and future. During his defense, the Doctor accesses an adventure that takes place in his future. We learn that he will meet a woman named Melanie Bush who will travel with him for a time. They will, eventually, respond to a distress beacon from a ship called The Hyperion Three and have an adventure on it that will introduce them to a new species of killer plants called Vervoids. They will have to completely wipe out the species using vionesium. It's very sad as the Vervoids wither away...
Here's where things start to get really messy: Some time after her adventure in Terror of the Vervoids, the Master takes Mel out of time and drops her at the space station to help defend the Doctor. Things go a bit crazy when we find out the Valeyard is the Doctor and there's a big fight in the Matrix. At the end of the story, Mel just decides to depart with the Doctor in the TARDIS and they begin their adventures anew.
Let's stop and think about that for a second. Mel is from the Doctor's future. She goes into his past to help him and then leaves in the TARDIS with him. Even though, from the Doctor's perspective, they haven't actually met, yet. How exactly does that work?!
POPULAR MEL THEORIES
There are several solutions that fans have come up with:
1) The Memory Cheats: The end of Trial of a Time Lord becomes the point where Mel and the Doctor start travelling together. The Doctor, however, erases both of their memories regarding their adventure on Hyperion Three. This way, the events of Terror of the Vervoids can take place the way they were meant to.
2) Abort! Abort! Abort!: The Doctor and Mel leave the Time Lord space station and set up a whole new timeline for themselves. Terror of the Vervoids and all the other events that led up to it never happen. This theory is backed up by the fact that, in Time and the Rani, the Doctor is still in the outfit he was wearing during The Ultimate Foe. So it's entirely possible that the Rani diverted the TARDIS to Lakertya only moments after the Doctor complained three times about carrot juice (Mel had time to change her clothes but he didn't).
3) "Time will tell. It always does": Either things re-set themselves naturally after the Doctor and Mel leave the space station or the Doctor goes to the trouble of re-setting them, himself.
3-a) The Space station was outside of time, so it's entirely possible that just leaving it and returning to your proper place in the continuum causes Mel to be transported back to where she should be and the Doctor to lose his memory of the sneak preview he got of Terror of the Vervoids until after it happens.
3-b) Or the Doctor takes care of the problem, himself. He's gotten rather good at steering the TARDIS so he gets Mel back to her proper place in his timeline and then erases his own memory of the Terror of the Vervoids preview.
THE TYMECIAN THEORY - DISMISSALS
Before divulging which theory I subscribe to, I'll dismiss the ones I don't like:
1) This one is too big of a temporal mess. There still should be a proper meeting point where the Doctor picks Mel up from 20th Century Earth. It doesn't quite make sense if the end of Ultimate Foe becomes their starting point. Yes, we can just say "wibbly wobbly, timey wimey" but I'd rather we didn't. Not, so much, because I dislike the term (I do, however, take issue with "humany wumany" - that was just bad dialogue!). Moreso, because I would prefer a better explanation than that.
2) I would hate to think that everything that happens after the Sixth Doctor leaves his trial is now an aborted timeline. In fact, the Popular Fan Theory is that he traveled for a good 50 years after Ultimate Foe and then regenerated into Seven. No, he wasn't in his Terror of the Vervoids outfit at the point of regeneration. But it's entirely possible that he switched outfits back and forth throughout his adventures. He might have even had more vests and cravats that we never saw (or, perhaps, even an all-blue outfit).
3-b) Yes, he could probably pilot the TARDIS to the proper point in his timeline and drop Mel off, there (more than likely, he might miss a few times or not quite be perfectly accurate when he finally does get her there). But I have to wonder if the Doctor would purposely re-edit his own memory under these circumstances. The fact that he could save lives and protect an entire species with all his foreknowledge might be too great of a temptation. If it was left up to him to fix this conundrum, I think he would still try to re-write history. Particularly by this point in his life(ves). Doctor One might rant on about not re-writing history ("not one line"!), but 'Ole Sixie would be a bit more confident, at this stage, about what he can and can't mess with. And I think he would try to mess with how things play out on Hyperion Three.
THE TRUE TYMECIAN THEORY
Which means, of course, that Theory 3-a) is our lucky winner! To me, it just makes the best sense.
The Target novelization of The Ultimate Foe does this cute little thing in its epilogue where Mel climbs back into one of those coffin thingies and it takes her back to where she's meant to be in the future. It's a nice idea but I think the process happens in an even more natural way. As the Doctor leaves the space station, Mel fades out of existence and he just forgets about her. It's just the way these things work in this sort of situation. Time fixes itself.
It helps that we see the Doctor having memory issues when he first arrives at his trial. This indicates that, in general, being taken in and out of time can have that effect on a Time Lord. More than likely, he had a hard time remembering much about his trial for the first little while after he left it. Most of his recollections were restored after a bit but there was a huge gap regarding how he defended himself. The Doctor probably accepted that, for whatever reason, he was meant not to recall these events. He probably even vaguely knows that the defense case was something that took place in his future so he should just let things happen the way they're meant to.
He eventually meets Mel on 20th Century Earth and she joins him in the TARDIS. Again, he might have some stray memories of Mel floating around in his head and knows she's meant to travel with him. He doesn't mention this to her, of course. It's never a good idea to give humans too much foreknowledge. The Doctor and Mel have many adventures together. Mel decides she's going to get the Doctor to lose some of that extra weight he's put on.
At last, they get that fateful distress beacon from Hyperion Three and the murder mystery/attempted hi-jacking/act of genocide ensues. Moments after they re-board the TARDIS, the Doctor recalls the full events of his trial. He was probably still singing On With the Motely as they came flooding back (hopefully, it gets him to stop!).
Him getting his memory back in such a way works in a similar manner to the way he learns that he saved Gallifrey in Day of the Doctor. Yes, the War Doctor was around when the decision was made not to use the Moment - but the timelines were also very tangled by having so many incarnations together, at once. So he won't remember these events until Ten and Eleven have also experienced them. Mel coming back from the future and the both of them being taken in and out of time is also a pretty big tangle of timelines. So, just like Eleven after Day of the Doctor, the Sixth Doctor's memory won't fully kick in til everything and everyone are truly current.
Even after he remembers everything, the Doctor mentions none of this to Mel. He knows she's going to join the trial shortly. But, when he sees her at the trial, she looks surprised to be there. This indicates that she was given no foreknowledge of her involvement in the proceedings. So he can't let her know what's to come.
More than likely, Mel gets scooped up the next time the TARDIS lands after Vervoids. She and the Doctor begin a new adventure and, somehow, get separated (it has been known to happen). The Master is waiting for them when they arrive. Perhaps he diverted the Doctor's TARDIS like he did in Mark of the Rani or he was able to read the Doctor's mind like he did in Logopolis or it might be some new tactic, altogether. Whatever the case, he intercepts Mel when she's alone. He probably uses a bit of hypnosis to get her to climb into the coffin thingy (there's a probably a more sci-fiesque term that I could come up with for this but I prefer "coffin thingy") and sends her to the space station.
From this point, The Ultimate Foe ensues. At the end, Mel leaves with the Doctor and immediately disappears after they depart. Only to re-appear back in the adventure she was having with the Doctor just after Terror of the Vervoids. The Master has left the scene rather than stay around to cause more problems. He's reluctant to mess around too much with this sort of cause-and-effect. Technically, he broke the Laws of Gallifreyan Mean Time to retrieve Mel. He went forward in the Doctor's timeline rather than staying adjacent to it. So he doesn't want to leave more of a temporal footprint than he should.
When Mel re-joins the Doctor, she has quite the story to tell him. But the Doctor is smiling knowingly as she tells it. His memories were fully restored even before the Master snatched her away. He knew she would be safe leaving her in his greatest enemy's hands because he saw her arrive safely on the space station. He was also pretty certain she would return to the future safely. His arch-nemesis wouldn't be hanging about when she came back because of the Time Law he was breaking.
It's my guess that the Doctor and Mel have many more adventures together. Until, one day, the Rani uses a navigational distorter to draw the TARDIS down to Lakertya. The Doctor is on his exercise bike at the time and has a nasty spill.
With great sadness (and a silly wig), the greatest Doctor of them all passes far sooner than he was meant to.
(Did I really just call him "the greatest Doctor of them all"?! Read more about my Sixth Doctor love here: http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/12/book-of-lists-doctors-from-worst-to_31.html)
You know what? Mel's Temporal Mess took far longer to delve into than expected. Looks like I'll stop here and do a fourth entry in the series before the month is out. There are just a few little details in New Who regarding Time Lords that I'd like to tackle.
Stay tuned....
Since this is all about Trial of a Time Lord. Here's some stuff I wrote about concerning the Valyeyard:
Who is the Valeyard?
Part 1:
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/09/fixing-continuity-glitches-who-is.html
Part 2:
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/09/fixing-continuity-glitches-who-is_28.html
Sunday, 15 July 2018
FIXING CONTINUITY GLITCHES: QUICK FIXES 7.2 - TIME LORD STUFF - PART 2
Looks like July will be the month we spend looking at continuity problems with Time Lords. We're going to try to handle things in some sort of chronological order by tackling the issues as they happened within the context of the show (or, at least, within the context of the Doctor's timeline - we already did a slight "cheat" with Clara's appearance on Gallifrey during Name of the Doctor). This time, it will be inconsistencies involving Time Lords that occurred during the 70s and early 80s.
FROM GODS TO BUMBLING STATESMEN
This was actually a pretty big issue for fans back when it, initially, happened. No one has really addressed it properly (from what I've seen, at least) but many people griped about it when it first transpired.
In The War Games, the Time Lords seem ridiculously powerful. With their mere will, they were throwing up forcefields all over the place. They also gave people tortuous migraines when they refused to speak by just staring at them intently. They could even wish people out of existence! Essentially, they appeared to be gods.
As the show goes on, this image continued to ring true. Admittedly, characters such as the Master, the War Chief, the Monk and the Doctor, himself, seem much more mortal. We, sort of, presume that when a Time Lord goes renegade they lose many of their powers. But Time Lords still living on Gallifrey are quite omnipotent. One of them materializes out of nowhere without the assistance of a TARDIS in Terror of the Autons. He's even able to defy gravity. A small council of Time Lords decide to re-activate the Doctor's TARDIS to stop the Master from seizing the Doomsday Weapon. It almost seems like their very decision to render the time vessel operational is all that's required of them. In The Three Doctors, the Time Lords are more vulnerable. But this is only because Omega is draining all their energy from them. Even in their weakened state, they're still able to do quite a bit of time bending . When we see a Time Lord again in Genesis of the Daleks, he fades in and out of existence like a wizard. All of these incidents seem to indicate that a Time Lord that does not step out from their society seems to have access to amazing powers and abilities.
And then, The Deadly Assassin reaches our screens (a happy thing for me - it's my favorite story, ever http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/01/book-of-lists-top-ten-who-stories-1.html). This is where the controversy seems to start. Certain fans got very upset about how the Time Lords suddenly seemed to act very differently from how we saw them before. The scene that seems to incense them the most is the old Time Lord at the Doctor's trial who seems to suffer from hearing loss and a bad leg. A being able to erase people out of existence with a mere thought can still suffer from such common physical ailments? It doesn't make sense!
By the end of Deadly Assassin, our perception of the Time Lords has been radically altered. But it's one that, very much, persists for the rest of the Classic and New Series. The Time Lords are more like intergalactic elder statesmen. They still try to act like they wield tremendous power but they're more like well-decorated bureaucrats. Impressive-looking with their high-necked collars and regal attitude - but not really capable of much in a tight situation. We see instances where some can prove a bit useful (both Borusa and the Castellan do a few neat tricks in The Invasion of Time). But, for the most part, the Time Lords seem almost frivolous, now.
The Big Question is: how did this happen? How did they go from god-like beings to near-useless politicians?
I propose that they were always like this. It just the way they were presented. Some of their briefer scenes that I mentioned earlier can be easily explained away. The emissaries in Terror of the Autons and Genesis of the Daleks did their vanishing tricks with a time scoop or something of that nature. The three councilmen in Colony In Space issue an order to an on-duty technician to re-activate the Doctor's TARDIS through some sort of remote process. It just occurs after the scene is over and we've cut elsewhere. Much of what is done in The Tree Doctors, of course, doesn't seem magical or god-like. The time manipulation is done through purely technical means by a Gallifreyan working at a console.
The War Games can be a bit trickier. But I think I've worked it out. The Time Lords were anxious that they would be allowing a savage, war-like species onto their planet in order to put them on trial. They set up a sort of reception center for them and created a special defense system that was keyed in to the specific brain patterns of the three Time Lords that made up the tribunal. Within the reception area, these Time Lords could trigger any number of strategically-placed forcefields or even certain weapons with mere mental commands. Sure, they could have positioned various guards in the area or had control panels to activate the features of the defense system but they wanted maximum safety as they dealt with the War Lords. You can't get more efficient than force fields and weaponry that responds to the very will of its users.
It turns out, of course, that the Time Lords made a good call. The War Lords did make an attempt to free their leader and, thanks to the special abilities granted to the Tribunal, no one was harmed. Once the trial was truly over, however, the defense system built into the reception area was shut back down. The tribunal (one of whom, we're pretty sure, was Chancellor Goth) went back to just being normal Time Lords. They were no longer capable of imprisoning people in force fields, or giving them migraines or d-matting them by mere concentration of will. It was a series of special powers granted to them due to the exceptional circumstances.
Our extra feeble witness at the trial in Deadly Assassin can also be explained. He was probably near the end of a regeneration and was trying to hold on to his current incarnation for as long as possible. When a Time Lord does this, his body will start developing minor problems such as hearing loss or a bad leg. He can seek normal medical help but it won't do him much good. These problems will continue to persist or even worsen if they don't trigger a regeneration soon. Time of the Doctor re-enforces the idea. As the Eleventh Doctor gets nearer to his regeneration - he becomes more dependent on the use of a cane.
RADICAL CHANGES IN FASHION AND DECOR
This is a similar issue to the one we just discussed but merits a sub-section of its own. From a purely aesthetic standpoint, the Time Lords have gone through some fairly radical changes that seem a bit inconsistent, too.
Most notable is the interior architecture of the Panopticon. When we first see Time Lords on Gallifrey, there's a definite 60s/70s sensibility going on. Lots of bright molded plastic makes up the bulk of their furnishings (obviously, this is not meant to just be plastic but some advanced "plastic-like" material). Admittedly though, their rooms also seem quite sparse and somewhat gloomy. Lots of black curtains hanging in the background (that are probably not meant to truly be curtains but advanced "curtain-like" substance). Deadly Assassin, once again, re-writes things a bit. A greater emphasis is placed on the gloominess. Sets are almost difficult to see cause they're so poorly-lit. This look continues with Invasion of Time. Bluish-green support columns seem to become quite the rage during this period, too.
But then we get to Arc of Infinity. It almost seems like we're not on the same planet anymore. Everything is so well-lit that shadows don't seem to exist. Sets are viciously ornate and over-elaborate. Time Lords seem to have gotten into art deco. This bold new style continues with The Five Doctors a short while, later. They turn the lights down slightly and give a bit of atmosphere to the space station in Trial of a Time Lord but it's still very different from the architecture we'd been seeing in earlier days.
The simplest answer to this harsh change during the 80s stories would be that the Time Lords like to redecorate once and again. Especially when you start considering the Doctor's personal timeline and the "age gaps" that we don't actually see on the show (for more information go to this entry: http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/03/fixing-continuity-glitches-doctors-age.html). Quite a few centuries may have gone by between Invasion of Time and Arc of Infinity, Giving the Time Lords plenty of time to change things up.
The problem, however, is that the Time Lords are known from their sense of stagnancy. Nothing ever seems to change on Gallifrey. This is part of what drove the Doctor away in the first place.. He was bored because everything stays the same. He needed a change of scenery. So it becomes hard to believe that such radical alterations to architecture could happen for a species so steeped in tradition.
I actually like to think that there's a sort symbiotic connection between the Lord President and the Panopticon. That the decor is a reflection of what is going on in the career of the leader of the Time Lords. If we take some of the dialogue from Deadly Assassin and extrapolate a bit, it makes a sort of sense. Sets for The War Games and The Three Doctors are a bit on the gloomy side because the current Lord President would have been in the twilight of his career, at the time. The growing darkness is symbolic of the impending end of his term. Sets are at their darkest during Assassin because the Lord President's term is over. Things still remain relatively gloomy in Invasion because a new proper Lord President hadn't been found, yet. The Doctor filling the office for so short a time did not enable the decor to start shifting in a new direction. Yes, specific craftsmen were set with the task of creating his office. But the overall structure of the building would've adapted to the mood the Lord President creates had the Doctor maintained his political position a bit longer.
When Borusa decides to just stand in for the Doctor, change can truly start to set in. We're now at the beginning of a Lord President's term: things become hopeful, again. To reflect that hope, everything becomes bright and shiny. The art deco motif would have even been reflective of Borusa's personality. He's a man of complexity so things become ornate with lots of extra frilly bits.
For some reason, this makes better sense to me. I'd prefer to think that the Time Lords are so advanced that their actual architecture has a sort of sentience to it that reflects what is going on in the politics of the creatures that inhabit it. It just seems like a way cooler explanation than: "Oh my God! Everything looks so drab! It's time to re-decorate!'. I just don't see the Time Lords having that sort of attitude towards the environment they live in. The buildings would need to re-set themselves from time-to-time because the Time Lords would never get around to doing it of their own volition. They might make minor alterations to a single room here and again. Particularly if it was someone else's office that they have now taken over. But I can't see them trying to make bigger changes than that. So the architecture changes itself.
A similar problem presents itself with fashion. From War Games to Genesis of the Daleks, it's fairly simple robes that use a black and white pattern (or, in the case of the Time Lord on Skaro - all black). But in Deadly Assassin, we get these more elaborate and colorful robes with their high-necked collars. In every appearance after this story, this becomes the official outfit of the Time Lords.
A piece of dialogue said by Runcible in Assassin makes this a fairly easy fix. He does point out that the Time Lords are in full ceremonial garb. So the clothing of the Time Lords that we've been seeing before this was something a bit less formal. I'm guessing that this might also have something to do with the Lord President. The one that retires and gets assassinated was into Casual Fridays and allowed the Time Lords to enjoy much more leisure wear most of the time. Again, this might have something to do with him being so near to the end of his career. He's more lenient because he's on his way out. But the Lord Presidents that come in after him stand on a greater sense of occasion and require their subjects to always be in full ceremonial costume. Had Borusa or whoever follows him that gets deposed in Trial of a Time Lord gotten more time in office, we might have seen them become more lax in dress code. But newer Lord Presidents tend to make the populace dress up better.
CONSISTENCY IN NEW WHO
Surprisingly enough, Time Lord fashion and architecture in New Who strongly resemble how they looked when we last saw them in the Classic Series. There's a bit less 80s sensibilities going on, but the same basic patterns remain. We're seeing a lot of art deco and colorful robes and high collars are also prominent.
The only thing that has changed all that radically are the military uniforms. This makes sense, though. Soldiers would need a totally different set of gear from what they wore prior to the Time Wars. Those uniforms were far more ceremonial. Now they would need something practical for combat.
Sets do appear a bit darker and gloomier. We see a fair amount of black curtains again. If we're going with my whole "sentient decor" theory then the heavy shadows might be symbolizing the somber qualities of the Time Wars. Whereas the ornate furnishings are a reflection of Rassilon's tastes. Like many other Lord Presidents, he likes things complicated.
So that's a few more continuity issues addressed. I think we'll get a third installment in this series as we keep moving through July. If nothing else, I'd like to look at the temporal mess that happened with Mel at the end of Trial of a Time Lord. But I'm sure I'll find a few other things to pick apart if I look hard enough....
Some more stuff I've written about Time Lords:
History of Gallifrey -
Part 1
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/10/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of.html
Part 2:
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/11/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of.html
Part 3:
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/02/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of.html
FROM GODS TO BUMBLING STATESMEN
This was actually a pretty big issue for fans back when it, initially, happened. No one has really addressed it properly (from what I've seen, at least) but many people griped about it when it first transpired.
In The War Games, the Time Lords seem ridiculously powerful. With their mere will, they were throwing up forcefields all over the place. They also gave people tortuous migraines when they refused to speak by just staring at them intently. They could even wish people out of existence! Essentially, they appeared to be gods.
As the show goes on, this image continued to ring true. Admittedly, characters such as the Master, the War Chief, the Monk and the Doctor, himself, seem much more mortal. We, sort of, presume that when a Time Lord goes renegade they lose many of their powers. But Time Lords still living on Gallifrey are quite omnipotent. One of them materializes out of nowhere without the assistance of a TARDIS in Terror of the Autons. He's even able to defy gravity. A small council of Time Lords decide to re-activate the Doctor's TARDIS to stop the Master from seizing the Doomsday Weapon. It almost seems like their very decision to render the time vessel operational is all that's required of them. In The Three Doctors, the Time Lords are more vulnerable. But this is only because Omega is draining all their energy from them. Even in their weakened state, they're still able to do quite a bit of time bending . When we see a Time Lord again in Genesis of the Daleks, he fades in and out of existence like a wizard. All of these incidents seem to indicate that a Time Lord that does not step out from their society seems to have access to amazing powers and abilities.
And then, The Deadly Assassin reaches our screens (a happy thing for me - it's my favorite story, ever http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/01/book-of-lists-top-ten-who-stories-1.html). This is where the controversy seems to start. Certain fans got very upset about how the Time Lords suddenly seemed to act very differently from how we saw them before. The scene that seems to incense them the most is the old Time Lord at the Doctor's trial who seems to suffer from hearing loss and a bad leg. A being able to erase people out of existence with a mere thought can still suffer from such common physical ailments? It doesn't make sense!
By the end of Deadly Assassin, our perception of the Time Lords has been radically altered. But it's one that, very much, persists for the rest of the Classic and New Series. The Time Lords are more like intergalactic elder statesmen. They still try to act like they wield tremendous power but they're more like well-decorated bureaucrats. Impressive-looking with their high-necked collars and regal attitude - but not really capable of much in a tight situation. We see instances where some can prove a bit useful (both Borusa and the Castellan do a few neat tricks in The Invasion of Time). But, for the most part, the Time Lords seem almost frivolous, now.
The Big Question is: how did this happen? How did they go from god-like beings to near-useless politicians?
I propose that they were always like this. It just the way they were presented. Some of their briefer scenes that I mentioned earlier can be easily explained away. The emissaries in Terror of the Autons and Genesis of the Daleks did their vanishing tricks with a time scoop or something of that nature. The three councilmen in Colony In Space issue an order to an on-duty technician to re-activate the Doctor's TARDIS through some sort of remote process. It just occurs after the scene is over and we've cut elsewhere. Much of what is done in The Tree Doctors, of course, doesn't seem magical or god-like. The time manipulation is done through purely technical means by a Gallifreyan working at a console.
The War Games can be a bit trickier. But I think I've worked it out. The Time Lords were anxious that they would be allowing a savage, war-like species onto their planet in order to put them on trial. They set up a sort of reception center for them and created a special defense system that was keyed in to the specific brain patterns of the three Time Lords that made up the tribunal. Within the reception area, these Time Lords could trigger any number of strategically-placed forcefields or even certain weapons with mere mental commands. Sure, they could have positioned various guards in the area or had control panels to activate the features of the defense system but they wanted maximum safety as they dealt with the War Lords. You can't get more efficient than force fields and weaponry that responds to the very will of its users.
It turns out, of course, that the Time Lords made a good call. The War Lords did make an attempt to free their leader and, thanks to the special abilities granted to the Tribunal, no one was harmed. Once the trial was truly over, however, the defense system built into the reception area was shut back down. The tribunal (one of whom, we're pretty sure, was Chancellor Goth) went back to just being normal Time Lords. They were no longer capable of imprisoning people in force fields, or giving them migraines or d-matting them by mere concentration of will. It was a series of special powers granted to them due to the exceptional circumstances.
Our extra feeble witness at the trial in Deadly Assassin can also be explained. He was probably near the end of a regeneration and was trying to hold on to his current incarnation for as long as possible. When a Time Lord does this, his body will start developing minor problems such as hearing loss or a bad leg. He can seek normal medical help but it won't do him much good. These problems will continue to persist or even worsen if they don't trigger a regeneration soon. Time of the Doctor re-enforces the idea. As the Eleventh Doctor gets nearer to his regeneration - he becomes more dependent on the use of a cane.
RADICAL CHANGES IN FASHION AND DECOR
This is a similar issue to the one we just discussed but merits a sub-section of its own. From a purely aesthetic standpoint, the Time Lords have gone through some fairly radical changes that seem a bit inconsistent, too.
Most notable is the interior architecture of the Panopticon. When we first see Time Lords on Gallifrey, there's a definite 60s/70s sensibility going on. Lots of bright molded plastic makes up the bulk of their furnishings (obviously, this is not meant to just be plastic but some advanced "plastic-like" material). Admittedly though, their rooms also seem quite sparse and somewhat gloomy. Lots of black curtains hanging in the background (that are probably not meant to truly be curtains but advanced "curtain-like" substance). Deadly Assassin, once again, re-writes things a bit. A greater emphasis is placed on the gloominess. Sets are almost difficult to see cause they're so poorly-lit. This look continues with Invasion of Time. Bluish-green support columns seem to become quite the rage during this period, too.
But then we get to Arc of Infinity. It almost seems like we're not on the same planet anymore. Everything is so well-lit that shadows don't seem to exist. Sets are viciously ornate and over-elaborate. Time Lords seem to have gotten into art deco. This bold new style continues with The Five Doctors a short while, later. They turn the lights down slightly and give a bit of atmosphere to the space station in Trial of a Time Lord but it's still very different from the architecture we'd been seeing in earlier days.
The simplest answer to this harsh change during the 80s stories would be that the Time Lords like to redecorate once and again. Especially when you start considering the Doctor's personal timeline and the "age gaps" that we don't actually see on the show (for more information go to this entry: http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/03/fixing-continuity-glitches-doctors-age.html). Quite a few centuries may have gone by between Invasion of Time and Arc of Infinity, Giving the Time Lords plenty of time to change things up.
The problem, however, is that the Time Lords are known from their sense of stagnancy. Nothing ever seems to change on Gallifrey. This is part of what drove the Doctor away in the first place.. He was bored because everything stays the same. He needed a change of scenery. So it becomes hard to believe that such radical alterations to architecture could happen for a species so steeped in tradition.
I actually like to think that there's a sort symbiotic connection between the Lord President and the Panopticon. That the decor is a reflection of what is going on in the career of the leader of the Time Lords. If we take some of the dialogue from Deadly Assassin and extrapolate a bit, it makes a sort of sense. Sets for The War Games and The Three Doctors are a bit on the gloomy side because the current Lord President would have been in the twilight of his career, at the time. The growing darkness is symbolic of the impending end of his term. Sets are at their darkest during Assassin because the Lord President's term is over. Things still remain relatively gloomy in Invasion because a new proper Lord President hadn't been found, yet. The Doctor filling the office for so short a time did not enable the decor to start shifting in a new direction. Yes, specific craftsmen were set with the task of creating his office. But the overall structure of the building would've adapted to the mood the Lord President creates had the Doctor maintained his political position a bit longer.
When Borusa decides to just stand in for the Doctor, change can truly start to set in. We're now at the beginning of a Lord President's term: things become hopeful, again. To reflect that hope, everything becomes bright and shiny. The art deco motif would have even been reflective of Borusa's personality. He's a man of complexity so things become ornate with lots of extra frilly bits.
For some reason, this makes better sense to me. I'd prefer to think that the Time Lords are so advanced that their actual architecture has a sort of sentience to it that reflects what is going on in the politics of the creatures that inhabit it. It just seems like a way cooler explanation than: "Oh my God! Everything looks so drab! It's time to re-decorate!'. I just don't see the Time Lords having that sort of attitude towards the environment they live in. The buildings would need to re-set themselves from time-to-time because the Time Lords would never get around to doing it of their own volition. They might make minor alterations to a single room here and again. Particularly if it was someone else's office that they have now taken over. But I can't see them trying to make bigger changes than that. So the architecture changes itself.
A similar problem presents itself with fashion. From War Games to Genesis of the Daleks, it's fairly simple robes that use a black and white pattern (or, in the case of the Time Lord on Skaro - all black). But in Deadly Assassin, we get these more elaborate and colorful robes with their high-necked collars. In every appearance after this story, this becomes the official outfit of the Time Lords.
A piece of dialogue said by Runcible in Assassin makes this a fairly easy fix. He does point out that the Time Lords are in full ceremonial garb. So the clothing of the Time Lords that we've been seeing before this was something a bit less formal. I'm guessing that this might also have something to do with the Lord President. The one that retires and gets assassinated was into Casual Fridays and allowed the Time Lords to enjoy much more leisure wear most of the time. Again, this might have something to do with him being so near to the end of his career. He's more lenient because he's on his way out. But the Lord Presidents that come in after him stand on a greater sense of occasion and require their subjects to always be in full ceremonial costume. Had Borusa or whoever follows him that gets deposed in Trial of a Time Lord gotten more time in office, we might have seen them become more lax in dress code. But newer Lord Presidents tend to make the populace dress up better.
CONSISTENCY IN NEW WHO
Surprisingly enough, Time Lord fashion and architecture in New Who strongly resemble how they looked when we last saw them in the Classic Series. There's a bit less 80s sensibilities going on, but the same basic patterns remain. We're seeing a lot of art deco and colorful robes and high collars are also prominent.
The only thing that has changed all that radically are the military uniforms. This makes sense, though. Soldiers would need a totally different set of gear from what they wore prior to the Time Wars. Those uniforms were far more ceremonial. Now they would need something practical for combat.
Sets do appear a bit darker and gloomier. We see a fair amount of black curtains again. If we're going with my whole "sentient decor" theory then the heavy shadows might be symbolizing the somber qualities of the Time Wars. Whereas the ornate furnishings are a reflection of Rassilon's tastes. Like many other Lord Presidents, he likes things complicated.
So that's a few more continuity issues addressed. I think we'll get a third installment in this series as we keep moving through July. If nothing else, I'd like to look at the temporal mess that happened with Mel at the end of Trial of a Time Lord. But I'm sure I'll find a few other things to pick apart if I look hard enough....
Some more stuff I've written about Time Lords:
History of Gallifrey -
Part 1
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/10/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of.html
Part 2:
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/11/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of.html
Part 3:
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/02/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of.html
Sunday, 8 July 2018
FIXING CONTINUITY GLITCHES: QUICK FIXES 7.1 - TIME LORD STUFF - PART 1
I was sensing an imbalance in the Universe and realized it had been some time since I had done a FIXING CONTINUITY GLITCHES essay. I realize it was because I had tackled the bulk of the major continuity problems that we've seen in the show (except UNIT dating - I'm still scared of that one!). Fortunately, there's always QUICK FIXES. I'll be busy with minor continuity problems til the end of time!
I just did a complimentary QUICK FIX for my History of the Weeping Angels essay. But it didn't feel like enough. The imbalance still seems present. So here's another one.
This latest installment has another theme to it. This time we're looking at some of the stuff that's gone on with Time Lords (or, more specifically, the Doctor's relationship with them) over the years that doesn't seem to make total sense. Hopefully, you'll enjoy the explanations I offer. If not, feel free to post your own theories in the comments.
PART 1: EARLY DAYS....
One of the things that has fascinated me most about Doctor Who is the fact that it takes a good six years before we truly start learning any real concrete facts about his origins. I can't think of any other show that would be willing to keep its main character that mysterious for that long. It's really quite impressive.
One would think that, with all the time they had to dream up his background, that they would present something pretty solid when the reveal was finally made. This doesn't appear to be the case, however. From a few vague pieces of dialogue in Unearthly Child to that fateful trial at the end of the Second Doctor's Era, a few inconsistencies present themselves.
We'll try to fix them.
WHY DOESN'T THE DOCTOR REMEMBER CLARA FROM GALLIFREY?
This one is a bit of a cheat. It doesn't truly to take place within those first six seasons but, rather, occurs a good 50 years later. As a treat to fans, Moff decides to show the moment where the First Doctor is escaping his homeworld to go off on his adventures in Time and Space. He, very nearly, picks the "wrong" TARDIS. One of Clara's "splinters" directs him to the appropriate one. The one with the faulty navigation system and chamelion circuit that will eventually break down and freeze the ship in the shape of a Police Box. It's quite the scene.
The problem that this wonderful moment creates is that it does mean he's met Clara, now. When he, at last, encounters her in The Snowmen shouldn't this trigger a memory of some sort? Especially since this is a very pivotal situation in his life. We're more likely to remember people during such significant periods where we make huge decisions. So why doesn't he recognize her?
At the very least, 800 years has elapsed in the Doctor's timeline since he fled Gallifrey and met the Clara Splinter on 18th Century Earth (possibly more if you factor in the theory that he's lying about his age - check out this entry for further clarification: http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/03/fixing-continuity-glitches-doctors-age_9.html). While a Time Lord memory can hold way more than a human mind can, that's still just a bit too much time for anyone. Particularly since it was a very brief encounter. Sure, it was at a crucial time in his life, but it was still a very quick appearance while he was busy running off with Susan. She only left so much of an impression during such a hasty scenario.
It helps that Clara does seem to stay out of the Doctor's life until Asylum of the Daleks. She is always watching him through his various incarnations, but he never sees her. So there's a very strong chance that he will have forgotten her after all that time and it will feel like he's meeting her for the very first time when he sees her in The Snowmen.
EXILE OR THIEF?
Right in the first few minutes of the very first episode, a somewhat whopping inconsistency presents itself. We don't realize it til many years later, of course. But it's still there...
Deciding the Doctor shouldn't be completely and utterly mysterious, the production team involved with making An Unearthly Child give the Doctor the barest bones of an origin story. The Doctor explains to the schoolteachers who have just boarded his ship that he and Susan are exiles, cut off from their own people. But, someday, they will return...
A beautiful little speech that gives us just enough of an idea of where the Doctor came from that we're willing to wait six years til we get a fuller explanation. But when those six years pass and the Doctor, at last, explains the full extent of his past to Jamie and Zoe during his trial on Gallifrey - there's some serious confusion.
The Doctor provides his origins in a way that has been considered proper canon ever since. He stole a TARDIS and went off into the Universe to get involved with the lives of less advanced beings - a huge violation of Time Lord Law. This origin story is so concrete that it affects the Doctor in a serious way for the next three seasons. He is actually exiled to 20th Century Earth for disobeying his peoples' most important rule.
There is a world of difference between someone who has been kicked off his homeworld and someone who snuck off of it to become a criminal. So what's with this huge discrepancy? Is he an exile or is he a thief?
The answer, I feel, is one we've been hearing quite a bit lately: "The Doctor lies". Our grandfatherly First Incarnation does not wish to share the truth with Ian and Barbara. It could be as simple as the fact that he's embarrassed to be a thief and doesn't want to admit to it. Or it could be something far more complex. Perhaps he's not sure if the Time Lords are actually chasing him so he doesn't want his real past to circulate. Just in case his people catch up with Susan's teachers and question them. He does know there are other renegades out there so if Ian and Barbara offer up an incorrect origin story under interrogation then this may confuse his pursuers and make them think they're after the wrong person. Whatever the reason, the Doctor just decides he doesn't want to share real facts with these strangers. Whereas, in The War Games, he's built up a fair amount of trust with his two companions and decides to unveil his true past.
HOW DID THE MONK GET HIS DIMENSIONS BACK TO NORMAL?
A lot of people tend to under-rate the value The Time Meddler contributes to established continuity. Up until this story, we assume the Doctor is the only person in the universe with a TARDIS. It's even vaguely hinted at that he may have built the ship, himself. But when he clashes against the Monk, the horizons of the show expand. Turns out there's a whole civilization that uses TARDISes that we will learn more about in future stories. That's a pretty big step for the series and no one seems to really take stock of the fact that it's this particular adventure that first develops this idea.
Okay, that last paragraph doesn't really relate to what I'm going to talk about - it just needed to be stated (in defense of Fandom, they may miss the importance of The Time Meddler because they were distracted by the horrendously slow-moving plot). What I do want to address is the way the Monk does an 80s Master Trick long before we ever get to the 80s!
At the end of the tale, the Doctor removes the dimensional stablizer in the Monk's TARDIS. Causing its console room to shrink to a point where it is now impossible for anyone to enter it. And yet, when we see the Monk next time in The Dalek Masterplan, he is piloting a fully-functioning TARDIS again. He appears to give no proper account of how he repaired the ship. He might as well have just proclaimed: "I'm indestructable! The whole Universe knows that!"
So, let's come up with an explanation of our own:
We did see that the Monk has removed some modern technology from his TARDIS and was using it in the monastery. I suggest that there were other items floating around that we didn't see that were more than just record players and bazookas. There were just enough bits and bobs lying about that he could craft something similar to the "2-dis" that the Doctor makes in Flatline. He applies the device to his console room. It creates a zone of dimensional stability that makes it possible for him to enter his TARDIS and effect the necessary repairs. He's back in business and can clash with the Doctor again on Tigus and Ancient Egypt. Whereupon the Doctor does more serious damage to his TARDIS.
Does the new damage ever get fixed? Who knows?! And since we haven't seen the Monk since - I feel no need to try to render a solution!
I know that business with the Monk only relates so well to the main theme of this entry but I've just always wanted to address this particular continuity glitch and this seemed the best place for it!
As you can see, this is only Part 1 of this particular series. We'll be looking at more Time Lord stuff shortly...
Want to see some other continuity glitches I've dealt with concerning Time Lords? Check these entries out:
What's Going On With Gallifrey These Days - Part 1
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/07/fixing-continuity-glitches-whats-going.html
What's Going On With Gallifrey These Days - Part 2
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/07/fixing-continuity-glitches-whats-going_24.html
I just did a complimentary QUICK FIX for my History of the Weeping Angels essay. But it didn't feel like enough. The imbalance still seems present. So here's another one.
This latest installment has another theme to it. This time we're looking at some of the stuff that's gone on with Time Lords (or, more specifically, the Doctor's relationship with them) over the years that doesn't seem to make total sense. Hopefully, you'll enjoy the explanations I offer. If not, feel free to post your own theories in the comments.
PART 1: EARLY DAYS....
One of the things that has fascinated me most about Doctor Who is the fact that it takes a good six years before we truly start learning any real concrete facts about his origins. I can't think of any other show that would be willing to keep its main character that mysterious for that long. It's really quite impressive.
One would think that, with all the time they had to dream up his background, that they would present something pretty solid when the reveal was finally made. This doesn't appear to be the case, however. From a few vague pieces of dialogue in Unearthly Child to that fateful trial at the end of the Second Doctor's Era, a few inconsistencies present themselves.
We'll try to fix them.
WHY DOESN'T THE DOCTOR REMEMBER CLARA FROM GALLIFREY?
This one is a bit of a cheat. It doesn't truly to take place within those first six seasons but, rather, occurs a good 50 years later. As a treat to fans, Moff decides to show the moment where the First Doctor is escaping his homeworld to go off on his adventures in Time and Space. He, very nearly, picks the "wrong" TARDIS. One of Clara's "splinters" directs him to the appropriate one. The one with the faulty navigation system and chamelion circuit that will eventually break down and freeze the ship in the shape of a Police Box. It's quite the scene.
The problem that this wonderful moment creates is that it does mean he's met Clara, now. When he, at last, encounters her in The Snowmen shouldn't this trigger a memory of some sort? Especially since this is a very pivotal situation in his life. We're more likely to remember people during such significant periods where we make huge decisions. So why doesn't he recognize her?
At the very least, 800 years has elapsed in the Doctor's timeline since he fled Gallifrey and met the Clara Splinter on 18th Century Earth (possibly more if you factor in the theory that he's lying about his age - check out this entry for further clarification: http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/03/fixing-continuity-glitches-doctors-age_9.html). While a Time Lord memory can hold way more than a human mind can, that's still just a bit too much time for anyone. Particularly since it was a very brief encounter. Sure, it was at a crucial time in his life, but it was still a very quick appearance while he was busy running off with Susan. She only left so much of an impression during such a hasty scenario.
It helps that Clara does seem to stay out of the Doctor's life until Asylum of the Daleks. She is always watching him through his various incarnations, but he never sees her. So there's a very strong chance that he will have forgotten her after all that time and it will feel like he's meeting her for the very first time when he sees her in The Snowmen.
EXILE OR THIEF?
Right in the first few minutes of the very first episode, a somewhat whopping inconsistency presents itself. We don't realize it til many years later, of course. But it's still there...
Deciding the Doctor shouldn't be completely and utterly mysterious, the production team involved with making An Unearthly Child give the Doctor the barest bones of an origin story. The Doctor explains to the schoolteachers who have just boarded his ship that he and Susan are exiles, cut off from their own people. But, someday, they will return...
A beautiful little speech that gives us just enough of an idea of where the Doctor came from that we're willing to wait six years til we get a fuller explanation. But when those six years pass and the Doctor, at last, explains the full extent of his past to Jamie and Zoe during his trial on Gallifrey - there's some serious confusion.
The Doctor provides his origins in a way that has been considered proper canon ever since. He stole a TARDIS and went off into the Universe to get involved with the lives of less advanced beings - a huge violation of Time Lord Law. This origin story is so concrete that it affects the Doctor in a serious way for the next three seasons. He is actually exiled to 20th Century Earth for disobeying his peoples' most important rule.
There is a world of difference between someone who has been kicked off his homeworld and someone who snuck off of it to become a criminal. So what's with this huge discrepancy? Is he an exile or is he a thief?
The answer, I feel, is one we've been hearing quite a bit lately: "The Doctor lies". Our grandfatherly First Incarnation does not wish to share the truth with Ian and Barbara. It could be as simple as the fact that he's embarrassed to be a thief and doesn't want to admit to it. Or it could be something far more complex. Perhaps he's not sure if the Time Lords are actually chasing him so he doesn't want his real past to circulate. Just in case his people catch up with Susan's teachers and question them. He does know there are other renegades out there so if Ian and Barbara offer up an incorrect origin story under interrogation then this may confuse his pursuers and make them think they're after the wrong person. Whatever the reason, the Doctor just decides he doesn't want to share real facts with these strangers. Whereas, in The War Games, he's built up a fair amount of trust with his two companions and decides to unveil his true past.
HOW DID THE MONK GET HIS DIMENSIONS BACK TO NORMAL?
A lot of people tend to under-rate the value The Time Meddler contributes to established continuity. Up until this story, we assume the Doctor is the only person in the universe with a TARDIS. It's even vaguely hinted at that he may have built the ship, himself. But when he clashes against the Monk, the horizons of the show expand. Turns out there's a whole civilization that uses TARDISes that we will learn more about in future stories. That's a pretty big step for the series and no one seems to really take stock of the fact that it's this particular adventure that first develops this idea.
Okay, that last paragraph doesn't really relate to what I'm going to talk about - it just needed to be stated (in defense of Fandom, they may miss the importance of The Time Meddler because they were distracted by the horrendously slow-moving plot). What I do want to address is the way the Monk does an 80s Master Trick long before we ever get to the 80s!
At the end of the tale, the Doctor removes the dimensional stablizer in the Monk's TARDIS. Causing its console room to shrink to a point where it is now impossible for anyone to enter it. And yet, when we see the Monk next time in The Dalek Masterplan, he is piloting a fully-functioning TARDIS again. He appears to give no proper account of how he repaired the ship. He might as well have just proclaimed: "I'm indestructable! The whole Universe knows that!"
So, let's come up with an explanation of our own:
We did see that the Monk has removed some modern technology from his TARDIS and was using it in the monastery. I suggest that there were other items floating around that we didn't see that were more than just record players and bazookas. There were just enough bits and bobs lying about that he could craft something similar to the "2-dis" that the Doctor makes in Flatline. He applies the device to his console room. It creates a zone of dimensional stability that makes it possible for him to enter his TARDIS and effect the necessary repairs. He's back in business and can clash with the Doctor again on Tigus and Ancient Egypt. Whereupon the Doctor does more serious damage to his TARDIS.
Does the new damage ever get fixed? Who knows?! And since we haven't seen the Monk since - I feel no need to try to render a solution!
I know that business with the Monk only relates so well to the main theme of this entry but I've just always wanted to address this particular continuity glitch and this seemed the best place for it!
As you can see, this is only Part 1 of this particular series. We'll be looking at more Time Lord stuff shortly...
Want to see some other continuity glitches I've dealt with concerning Time Lords? Check these entries out:
What's Going On With Gallifrey These Days - Part 1
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/07/fixing-continuity-glitches-whats-going.html
What's Going On With Gallifrey These Days - Part 2
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/07/fixing-continuity-glitches-whats-going_24.html
Saturday, 23 June 2018
FIXING CONTINUITY GLITCHES - QUICK FIXES 6: WEEPING ANGELS STUFF
Since we just finished up with a Probable History of Weeping Angels (http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/06/chronologies-and-timelines-brief.html), I figured we should stay in this thematic vein and look at a few problems that have occurred in the stories I just arranged in chronological order. Let's see if we can sort a few things out:
HOW DOES AMY GET PAST THE ANGELS IN FLESH AND STONE IF HER EYES ARE CLOSED?
As we reach the latter part of Flesh and Stone, Amy finds herself in a serious predicament. The energy of the Crack in Time that was found aboard the Byzantium is expanding. She must run from it or it will engulf her and she'll be erased from time. Unfortunately, because of something the Angels did to her, she cannot open her eyes. The Doctor manages to jury-rig a homing device for her and she stumbles through the Byzantium's Infrastructure Forest trying to get back to the Doctor and River.
It's a moment of great tension that then goes a bit weird. To heighten the suspense, Amy runs into a group of Weeping Angels. They think that she's looking at her even though her eyes are closed and they become quantum locked. She must get past them without letting them know her eyes are closed.
Since when do Angels work this way? Shouldn't they be able to tell that Amy's eyes are closed?
"They're scared." is the cryptic explanation that the Doctor offers. Really?! That's all you can tell us?! There's got to be more to it than that.
And I'm going to try to come up with something:
And I'm going to try to come up with something:
Weeping Angels, more than likely, have a very different perception threshold than we do. They probably still see on a regular visual spectrum but they can also see time energy in some way. After all, they do feast on it so they would need a way to detect it. More than likely, they sense it telepathically. But it might also register visually for them, too.
So, with all kinds of extra time energy surging out of the Crack, it's confusing their senses. They can't actually see properly. Panic and fear are dominating their instincts as they try to make their way to safety. So the Doctor claiming they're scared is accurate.
Partially blind, they still sense Amy in their midst as they come upon her. They can't truly tell if she's looking at them because they can't see well so they make a hasty assumption. They just decide she's staring at them and go into quantum lock mode. As Amy starts behaving in a way that seems to insinuate that she isn't looking at them, they start to disengage their protective stance. Again, they still can't see all that well because the Crack in Time is messing with their senses. So they don't disengage from stone mode completely. They're hesitant.
Partially blind, they still sense Amy in their midst as they come upon her. They can't truly tell if she's looking at them because they can't see well so they make a hasty assumption. They just decide she's staring at them and go into quantum lock mode. As Amy starts behaving in a way that seems to insinuate that she isn't looking at them, they start to disengage their protective stance. Again, they still can't see all that well because the Crack in Time is messing with their senses. So they don't disengage from stone mode completely. They're hesitant.
Hesitant enough that River can get the teleporter working and pull Amy out in the nick of time.
HOW CAN THE STATUE OF LIBERTY TRAIPSE THROUGH MANHATTAN WITHOUT BEING SEEN?
This is one that even Moff doesn't bother to offer an answer for. In The Angels Take Manhattan, we discover that the Statue of Liberty, herself, is a Weeping Angel of sorts. She visits Winter Quay on a fairly regular basis to help trap newcomers in vicious time loops to build up potential energy in their battery farm.
The Big Question, of course, is: how does a statue of that size travel from Liberty Island to Winter Quay without being seen? Surely, someone would notice Lady Liberty moving along through the streets of Manhattan. Something that big can't be missed! And if someone is seeing the Statue of Liberty then she should become quantum locked. She should never get anywhere near to her destination because people would be noticing her all the time and keeping her locked.
The answer, I think, lies in the ability certain Angels have with building up power. I think one of the principal reasons we see the one Weeping Angel displaying hitherto unseen abilities (coming through the video screen to attack Amy, causing Amy to turn into an Angel by making eye contact) in The Time of Angels is because she built up a lot of energy to accomplish the feats that she did. She's only able to snap necks for a bit afterwards cause she used up so much power to accomplish those tricks.
So the more energy an Angel stores up, the more abilities she can develop. I'm guessing a huge Angel like the Statue of Liberty has saved up all kinds of power. This is probably why she has grown to such enormous size. Which means, of course, that she has extra skills that regular Angels don't have.
One of those skills might be a temporary cloaking ability of some sort. I'm more inclined to believe that she can exhibit huge bursts of speed (even regular Angels move quite fast) for limited periods of time that can enable her to move past people without being noticed. We still hear the occasional loud footstep but we don't actually perceive her. Only when she wants to legitimately attack someone does she need to slow down and/or de-cloak. At that point, the regular rules apply. If someone sees her, she quantum locks. But when she's not in attack mode, Lady Liberty can move unseen for short periods of time.
Even when she's actually on Liberty Island, she needs only a nano-second of not being noticed to slip into stealth mode and head out to Winter Quay. Once at the Battery Farm, she stops and can be seen by anyone looking in her direction. Again, if she can just get a split second of being unnoticed, she can return to Liberty Island.
It would have been nice if we had gotten such an explanation right in the episode. But, alas, sometimes we fans must just work this out for ourselves.
WHY CAN'T THE DOCTOR JUST GO MEET AMY AND RORY IN OMAHA?
Many fans felt the tragic ending of Angels Take Manhattan wasn't really so tragic. They were sure that they had found a simple solution for the Doctor to be able to see Amy and Rory again. He just needed to arrange to meet them at some place outside of New York. Then all the time distortion and suchlike that was making Manhattan so impenetrable during the 1930s wouldn't be in the way, anymore.
I suggest that this problem isn't something geographical. But, more specifically, temporal. Rory and Amy created a huge paradox within the temporal mess the Angels had made of Manhattan Island in the 30s. They had only just managed to escape it by returning to the TARDIS in 2012. If they got sent back to that period then the paradox they had made during their last visit would cause a sort of time field around them that would make it impossible for the TARDIS to penetrate. Or even someone as time sensitive as the Doctor to approach. He would just be repelled by the time field. Or might become deathly ill from it. Or something like that.
So, no matter where Amy and Rory go, this time field follows them and makes them unapproachable for time travelers. It's almost like a time lock of some sort that stays with them til the end of their lives. That's why the Doctor can never see them again.
Hope my explanations are satisfactory. I know some of the mis-steps Angels Take Manhattan made irritate fans to this day. Maybe this will help make sense of things....
A few other Quick Fixes:
Five:
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/10/fixing-continuity-glitches-quick-fixes-5.html
Four:
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/05/fixing-continuity-glitches-quick-fixes.html
Two:
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/02/fixing-continuity-glitches-quick-fixes-2.html
I did specify "a few" so I won't bother listing all of them. If you want to read them all, they're out there. Have a look around....
HOW CAN THE STATUE OF LIBERTY TRAIPSE THROUGH MANHATTAN WITHOUT BEING SEEN?
This is one that even Moff doesn't bother to offer an answer for. In The Angels Take Manhattan, we discover that the Statue of Liberty, herself, is a Weeping Angel of sorts. She visits Winter Quay on a fairly regular basis to help trap newcomers in vicious time loops to build up potential energy in their battery farm.
The Big Question, of course, is: how does a statue of that size travel from Liberty Island to Winter Quay without being seen? Surely, someone would notice Lady Liberty moving along through the streets of Manhattan. Something that big can't be missed! And if someone is seeing the Statue of Liberty then she should become quantum locked. She should never get anywhere near to her destination because people would be noticing her all the time and keeping her locked.
The answer, I think, lies in the ability certain Angels have with building up power. I think one of the principal reasons we see the one Weeping Angel displaying hitherto unseen abilities (coming through the video screen to attack Amy, causing Amy to turn into an Angel by making eye contact) in The Time of Angels is because she built up a lot of energy to accomplish the feats that she did. She's only able to snap necks for a bit afterwards cause she used up so much power to accomplish those tricks.
So the more energy an Angel stores up, the more abilities she can develop. I'm guessing a huge Angel like the Statue of Liberty has saved up all kinds of power. This is probably why she has grown to such enormous size. Which means, of course, that she has extra skills that regular Angels don't have.
One of those skills might be a temporary cloaking ability of some sort. I'm more inclined to believe that she can exhibit huge bursts of speed (even regular Angels move quite fast) for limited periods of time that can enable her to move past people without being noticed. We still hear the occasional loud footstep but we don't actually perceive her. Only when she wants to legitimately attack someone does she need to slow down and/or de-cloak. At that point, the regular rules apply. If someone sees her, she quantum locks. But when she's not in attack mode, Lady Liberty can move unseen for short periods of time.
Even when she's actually on Liberty Island, she needs only a nano-second of not being noticed to slip into stealth mode and head out to Winter Quay. Once at the Battery Farm, she stops and can be seen by anyone looking in her direction. Again, if she can just get a split second of being unnoticed, she can return to Liberty Island.
It would have been nice if we had gotten such an explanation right in the episode. But, alas, sometimes we fans must just work this out for ourselves.
WHY CAN'T THE DOCTOR JUST GO MEET AMY AND RORY IN OMAHA?
Many fans felt the tragic ending of Angels Take Manhattan wasn't really so tragic. They were sure that they had found a simple solution for the Doctor to be able to see Amy and Rory again. He just needed to arrange to meet them at some place outside of New York. Then all the time distortion and suchlike that was making Manhattan so impenetrable during the 1930s wouldn't be in the way, anymore.
I suggest that this problem isn't something geographical. But, more specifically, temporal. Rory and Amy created a huge paradox within the temporal mess the Angels had made of Manhattan Island in the 30s. They had only just managed to escape it by returning to the TARDIS in 2012. If they got sent back to that period then the paradox they had made during their last visit would cause a sort of time field around them that would make it impossible for the TARDIS to penetrate. Or even someone as time sensitive as the Doctor to approach. He would just be repelled by the time field. Or might become deathly ill from it. Or something like that.
So, no matter where Amy and Rory go, this time field follows them and makes them unapproachable for time travelers. It's almost like a time lock of some sort that stays with them til the end of their lives. That's why the Doctor can never see them again.
Hope my explanations are satisfactory. I know some of the mis-steps Angels Take Manhattan made irritate fans to this day. Maybe this will help make sense of things....
A few other Quick Fixes:
Five:
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/10/fixing-continuity-glitches-quick-fixes-5.html
Four:
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/05/fixing-continuity-glitches-quick-fixes.html
Two:
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/02/fixing-continuity-glitches-quick-fixes-2.html
I did specify "a few" so I won't bother listing all of them. If you want to read them all, they're out there. Have a look around....
Saturday, 16 June 2018
CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES: A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE WEEPING ANGELS
It is with heavy heart that I must announce that the CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES-style posts won't be around for much longer. I've covered the timelines of almost all the great recurring baddies. Unless the show creates an ongoing monster/villain/wife for the Doctor that she meets several times in a non-chronological order, we don't have much left to look at.
We do still have the Weeping Angels, though. I'm actually a bit excited to be examining them. They're the only monster in the New Series that seem as popular as classic monsters like Daleks and Cybermen. They have definitely merited the repeat appearances they've been given. Thankfully, those appearances have not been in proper order. So now I get to fix that!
ORIGINS
It's difficult to say how the Weeping Angels began. We know so little about them. So far, Blink has given us the most explanation about how they work and where they came from. But even that doesn't tell us much. It's believed they're very ancient. That they first began sometime when the Universe was very young. That's as much as we know.
The End of Time - Part 2 offers us a huge tease that explains vaguely how they may have started. Rassilon claims that a big vote was taken about breaching the Time Lock they were trapped in during the Time Wars and initiating The Final Sanction. Everyone in the High Council agreed with the plans except two members. "As a monument to their shame," Rassilon pronounces, "they shall become the Weeping Angels of Old." (or words to that effect, I'm terrible with quotes.). The two Time Lords who voted against the decision are seen standing with Rassilon in the traditional Weeping Angels pose.
Is this where it all starts? Did two Time Lords get changed into Weeping Angels and were sent back in time to somewhere near the Dawn of the Universe? Did they, after that, somehow find some way to procreate so that other Angels could stalk the cosmos? It does support a remark the Doctor makes in Blink that the Angels were originally good so there is a bit of cross-referencing to back this idea up.
The Master stopping Rassilon's plans in End of Time and the Doctor, ultimately, saving Gallifrey in Day of the Doctor may mean judgement was never passed on these two Time Lords. It's difficult to tell. Rassilon is a pretty harsh guy who likes to turn people to stone. So, even with all these events getting in the way, he may have made sure his decision was followed through. Since it's implied that one of the Time Lords was the Doctor's mother - this may be one more thing that motivates the Doctor to kick Rassilon off of Gallifrey.
Whatever the case, little is still known of where the Weeping Angels truly came from. It could've started with these two Time Lords. It could've been something entirely different.
I'm more inclined to believe that it was just some ancient race whose experiments with quantum locking went horribly wrong. That the two punished Time Lords never got properly punished. Or, if they did, they simply joined a race of Angels that were already roaming about causing trouble. But all of this is highly subjective. So if you want to think that it all started with those two Time Lords I can't really argue against you.
THE ANGELS VISIT EARTH
Once we move past the vague reference in End of Time, we don't see much of the Angels until the 20th Century. No doubt, from the Dawn of Time to The Angels Take Manhattan, they invaded a whole bunch of worlds and terrorized various cultures. But we see none of this on the show.
Chronologically speaking, the true first adventure involving the Weeping Angels would be Angels Take Manhattan. A substantial number of Angels have established themselves on Earth during the 1930s and are setting up their first "battery farm" in New York City. They are luring humans into the Winter Quay Building on Manhattan Island and subjecting them to a sort of vicious Time Loop that enables them to feed off their potential energy. As the energy builds, the Angels become stronger and stronger.
This would be, I presume, how they take over any civilization. The Angels establish an initial power base, then expand their feeding ground. Until, eventually, the entire population of a planet is set up in such a manner. Battery farms exist everywhere and the Angels can subsist indefinitely.
Fortunately, Rory and Amy put a stop to this process in 1938. They introduce a huge paradox into the battery farm which spoils the time energy the Angels are feeding off of and kills most of them.
SPECIAL NOTE: This is the first time we see Baby Angels (we'll only see them very briefly one other time in Hell Bent). We should probably speculate about them for a bit:
It's entirely possible that Baby Angels are a clue regarding the reproductive cycle of the species. The Weeping Angels were gathering a lot of potential energy from their battery farm in Winter Quay. Could it be possible that they were using some of it to propagate themselves? I doubt that Weeping Angels copulate in the way that organic creatures do, but they might use raw energy to create smaller versions of themselves that can slowly grow in size as they're fed more and more.
Having said that, Baby Angels could just as easily be a different strain of Weeping Angels. Creatures of the abstract that have just chosen to take on a smaller form. As usual, we have little or no information to go on, here.
THE AFTERMATH OF MANHATTEN
Rory and Amy's actions in 1938 certainly put a kibosh in the invasion plans of Earth, but it did not completely wipe out the Angels as the Doctor predicted. Some of them survived and continued to cause problems.
Before we get into those problems, we need to briefly divert our attention to the planet Tivoli. At some point around this time, the Angels must have attempted to invade there, too (how could they resist? Everyone else loves to take the place over). I would doubt it was the same group that tried to invade Earth. They took too heavy a blow. My guess is that there are several groups of Angels out in the cosmos.
The attack probably took place place sometime in the late 20th or early 21st Century. Recently enough that Gibbis remembers it vividly and it has left some deep psychological scars. More than likely, the Angels scared Gibbis so much because they didn't dominate in the way that most oppressors did on Tivoli. The Angels were probably kicked off by another group of invaders that wanted the planet. This seems to be the usual pattern of things.
In 2007, a group of four Angels that survived Amy and Rory's Paradox had banded together and were inhabiting the abandoned Wester Drumlins House. They were living as scavengers. Occasionally sending curious explorers of the house into the past and feeding off their potential energy. By a pure stroke of luck, they do this to the Doctor and Martha Jones. They discover, of course, that the Doctor has a TARDIS and they want to use it for their own nefarious purposes. Thanks to the timely intervention of Sally Sparrow, all four Angels are now permanently quantum locked as they stare at each other in the basement of the house. These are, of course, the events of Blink.
In 2011 (if we go by the date it was transmitted) the automated prison ship that houses the Minotaur-like alien that is meant to be an off-shoot of a Nimon picks up Gibbis from his homeworld along with three humans from Earth. Gibbis sees Weeping Angels in the hotel room that is meant to be housing his greatest fear. Some might dispute that this is not a true appearance of the Weeping Angels but just an illusion projected by the prison ship. But that opinion is subjective since we do learn in another story that anything that holds the image of an Angel can become one.
Finally, there is a Weeping Angel and a Baby Angel that survived Rory and Amy's Paradox that are scavenging in New York in 2012. The Baby Angel resides in the Angel of the Waters statue. The Weeping Angel lurks in a nearby cemetery. Both play pivotal roles in displacing various characters in The Angels Take Manhattan. It's entirely possible that they actually recognize Rory and Amy for what they did and are trying to exact revenge. The Baby Angel doesn't actually realize that it set the events in motion that would lead to the destruction of the Battery Farm of Winter Quay.
INTO THE FUTURE....
After the failed invasion attempt on 20th Century Earth and the exploits of various teams of surviving scavengers during the 21st Century, little is seen of the Angels for quite some time (at least, within context of the TV show, thus far). Their next appearance is sometime within the 51st Centurry. No specific date is given during The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone, but several characters do state the century.
Prior to that appearance, we know that a huge host of Angels gathered on Alfava Metraxis and, somehow, became stranded there. We're guessing they had something to do with the extinction of the Aplans: a two-headed humanoid species that were native to the planet. I suggest that Weeping Angels arrived on the planet sometime around the 47th Century and actually accomplished what they had set out to do on Earth. The entire population was placed into Battery Farms and the Angels thrived for quite some time.
Somehow, however, the Aplans worked out a way to strand the Angels on their world before they were wiped out. We don't know for sure how as we're not sure how Angels actually travel through the Universe. It could be as simple as making sure every form of interstellar technology was utterly destroyed so that the Angels couldn't use any ships to get them off-world. Or it could be something far more complex if the Angels have some natural ability to transport themselves through space. A special jamming signal, perhaps, that nullifies that ability. Whatever the case, once the Weeping Angels had absorbed all the potential energy of the Aplans, they retreated to a temple-like structure known as the Maze of the Dead and began to decay.
A single Weeping Angel that had been held in human custody manages to commandeer a space freighter that was shipping it. The Angel intentionally crashes the vessel into the Maze of the Dead on Alfava Metraxis and the army stranded there start absorbing radiation from the ship's reactor core. Slowly coming back to life as they do.
They didn't count on a Crack in Time caused by the Doctor's TARDIS exploding to interfere with things the way it did. In the end, the Doctor fools the Angels and causes them to fall into the Crack and seal it up.
ANOTHER SPECIAL NOTE:
In this particular story, we see the Angels displaying abilities that were, hitherto, unseen:
That Which Retains the Image of an Angel Can Become One: We're still not entirely sure of the full extent of this power. Apparently, however, if you capture an image of an Angel in some way, the Angel can come into your location through that picture/footage. Whether it can fully manifest itself through the image or just uses it as a sort of portal to look through - it's uncertain to say. But it's definitely very creepy and makes them even deadlier than ever.
Don't Blink and Don't Look in Their Eyes: As if fighting a Weeping Angel wasn't complicated enough! We know that we can freeze an Angel by staring at it, yes. But now, you mustn't look into its eyes or the Angel can transplant itself into you and turn you into one of them.
Once more, this could reveal a method of reproduction among their species. Do they do it in two ways? Can they make Baby Angels but also convert humans into Angels? As usual, who can say for sure?!
Snap!!! Not so much a hidden power as a deficiency. Sometimes Angels are so low on energy that they can't send you back in time when they touch you. They will, however, still snap your neck.
We don't know if the Angels have always had these abilities. They were never seen until now. Could these be skills they've developed over the 5 000 years between 2012 and the 51st Century? Do Angels evolve? Or are these tricks they've always had but we've never seen until now. Thus far, these powers have only been witnessed in The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone.
THE FAR-FLUNG FUTURE
As has been established in other Chronologies and Timelines entries, the events of Time of the Doctor take place sometime around the 44th Century (the entry that truly commits to a date is in my History of the Cybermen series, Part 5 - http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/02/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of_27.html). Like several other aggressive species, the Weeping Angels respond to the distress call Gallifrey is putting out on Trenzalore and come to investigate
It is interesting to note that they are the one species that could easily slip past the forcefield the Papal Mainframe put around the planet. This says something about the nature of the Angels' power and technology. They seem to be more advanced than any other species out there.
It is also interesting to note that we don't seem to see any sort of Weeping Angel spaceship. Could my idea that they can just warp across space unassisted by technology be correct? It's entirely possible that they snuck aboard the ship of another species and traveled that way. But it's just as possible that, when they've gathered enough potential energy, they can somehow just will themselves to another part of the Universe. Which would also make getting past the Papal Mainframe's force field make more sense. Once an Angel has decided to arrive somewhere, there's no stopping it.
THE FAR FAR-FLUNG FUTURE
It is to my great shame that I must admit: I missed a Cybermen cameo when I was compiling my History of the Cybermen series a few months back. Technically, this event should also be in my Dalek History series but, in my defense, the episode wasn't out yet when I was putting together that particular chronology.
Fortunately, this cameo also involves Weeping Angels. So I can, at last, cover it here. If you want to imagine these next few paragraphs appearing at the bottom of my Dalek and Cybermen Histories - be my guest. I suppose I could cut and paste this in but I prefer to leave my acts of shame visible for all the internet to see!
It would appear that there were a set of Cloister Wars that probably happened sometime in or around the Time Wars (we see a post-Time War Dalek in the Cloisters that re-enforces this idea). Charting where this happens in Galactic History becomes a bit tricky. The Time Wars seem to take place outside of Time, itself and we can give no proper date to it. The Cloister Wars, I would imagine, happen under similar conditions. But I would like to think that there is a sort of "entry point" in the timeline where the various combatants start becoming involved with the war. The battles, themselves, take place in some sort of limbo dimension outside of time and space. There would also be an "exit point" where the war is over and various participants are now stranded in the Cloisters. We'll track these points and work out a sort of trajectory for them.
I would suggest the entry point would be some time shortly after the Andromedans breach the Matrix during Trial of a Time Lord. They seem to be the first species of non-Gallifreyans that find their way into the Super Computer of the Time Lords. Their actions attract the attention of Daleks, Cybermen and Weeping Angels (and, perhaps, others that we just don't see trapped in the Cloisters during Hell Bent) and they attempt to penetrate the Matrix after them.
The Doctor dates The Mysterious Planet as being several million years in Earth's future. How valid this claim is can be hotly disputed since he makes his prognosis after the most cursory of glances at his pocket watch But let's just say the Andromedan Breach happened sometime around then. This would indicate that Daleks, Cybermen and Weeping Angels are all around for the next few million years. No doubt, there were times when we didn't see much of them. But they were always lurking in the shadows. Surviving.
What exactly went on during the Cloister Wars seems very abstract. But there must have been some sort of skirmish. This seems to be more than just some attempts to hack into a really powerful computer system. But who can say for sure how it all played out.
They exit point from the Wars would be where the Time Lords are hiding near the end of the Universe. The Dalek, Weeping Angels, Baby Angel and Cybermen have been brought back into normal Time and Space but are trapped within the Cloisters for all eternity. No doubt, as the Universe expires once and for all - they will finally die with it. Not a great way to go out, though!
But that does mean that, even at the end of the Universe, the Weeping Angels are still at work...
Thus resolves one of our last entries in the Chronologies and Timelines series. I am tempted to cover the Ood and one or two more New Series monsters that have made multiple appearances. We'll have to wait and see...
In the meantime, here are a few other monsters I've covered.
Daleks (first entry - just keep following from there):
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/06/chronologies-and-timelines-tymecian.html
Cybermen (first entry - just keep following from there):
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/02/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of.html
Is this where it all starts? Did two Time Lords get changed into Weeping Angels and were sent back in time to somewhere near the Dawn of the Universe? Did they, after that, somehow find some way to procreate so that other Angels could stalk the cosmos? It does support a remark the Doctor makes in Blink that the Angels were originally good so there is a bit of cross-referencing to back this idea up.
The Master stopping Rassilon's plans in End of Time and the Doctor, ultimately, saving Gallifrey in Day of the Doctor may mean judgement was never passed on these two Time Lords. It's difficult to tell. Rassilon is a pretty harsh guy who likes to turn people to stone. So, even with all these events getting in the way, he may have made sure his decision was followed through. Since it's implied that one of the Time Lords was the Doctor's mother - this may be one more thing that motivates the Doctor to kick Rassilon off of Gallifrey.
Whatever the case, little is still known of where the Weeping Angels truly came from. It could've started with these two Time Lords. It could've been something entirely different.
I'm more inclined to believe that it was just some ancient race whose experiments with quantum locking went horribly wrong. That the two punished Time Lords never got properly punished. Or, if they did, they simply joined a race of Angels that were already roaming about causing trouble. But all of this is highly subjective. So if you want to think that it all started with those two Time Lords I can't really argue against you.
THE ANGELS VISIT EARTH
Once we move past the vague reference in End of Time, we don't see much of the Angels until the 20th Century. No doubt, from the Dawn of Time to The Angels Take Manhattan, they invaded a whole bunch of worlds and terrorized various cultures. But we see none of this on the show.
Chronologically speaking, the true first adventure involving the Weeping Angels would be Angels Take Manhattan. A substantial number of Angels have established themselves on Earth during the 1930s and are setting up their first "battery farm" in New York City. They are luring humans into the Winter Quay Building on Manhattan Island and subjecting them to a sort of vicious Time Loop that enables them to feed off their potential energy. As the energy builds, the Angels become stronger and stronger.
This would be, I presume, how they take over any civilization. The Angels establish an initial power base, then expand their feeding ground. Until, eventually, the entire population of a planet is set up in such a manner. Battery farms exist everywhere and the Angels can subsist indefinitely.
Fortunately, Rory and Amy put a stop to this process in 1938. They introduce a huge paradox into the battery farm which spoils the time energy the Angels are feeding off of and kills most of them.
SPECIAL NOTE: This is the first time we see Baby Angels (we'll only see them very briefly one other time in Hell Bent). We should probably speculate about them for a bit:
It's entirely possible that Baby Angels are a clue regarding the reproductive cycle of the species. The Weeping Angels were gathering a lot of potential energy from their battery farm in Winter Quay. Could it be possible that they were using some of it to propagate themselves? I doubt that Weeping Angels copulate in the way that organic creatures do, but they might use raw energy to create smaller versions of themselves that can slowly grow in size as they're fed more and more.
Having said that, Baby Angels could just as easily be a different strain of Weeping Angels. Creatures of the abstract that have just chosen to take on a smaller form. As usual, we have little or no information to go on, here.
THE AFTERMATH OF MANHATTEN
Rory and Amy's actions in 1938 certainly put a kibosh in the invasion plans of Earth, but it did not completely wipe out the Angels as the Doctor predicted. Some of them survived and continued to cause problems.
Before we get into those problems, we need to briefly divert our attention to the planet Tivoli. At some point around this time, the Angels must have attempted to invade there, too (how could they resist? Everyone else loves to take the place over). I would doubt it was the same group that tried to invade Earth. They took too heavy a blow. My guess is that there are several groups of Angels out in the cosmos.
The attack probably took place place sometime in the late 20th or early 21st Century. Recently enough that Gibbis remembers it vividly and it has left some deep psychological scars. More than likely, the Angels scared Gibbis so much because they didn't dominate in the way that most oppressors did on Tivoli. The Angels were probably kicked off by another group of invaders that wanted the planet. This seems to be the usual pattern of things.
In 2007, a group of four Angels that survived Amy and Rory's Paradox had banded together and were inhabiting the abandoned Wester Drumlins House. They were living as scavengers. Occasionally sending curious explorers of the house into the past and feeding off their potential energy. By a pure stroke of luck, they do this to the Doctor and Martha Jones. They discover, of course, that the Doctor has a TARDIS and they want to use it for their own nefarious purposes. Thanks to the timely intervention of Sally Sparrow, all four Angels are now permanently quantum locked as they stare at each other in the basement of the house. These are, of course, the events of Blink.
In 2011 (if we go by the date it was transmitted) the automated prison ship that houses the Minotaur-like alien that is meant to be an off-shoot of a Nimon picks up Gibbis from his homeworld along with three humans from Earth. Gibbis sees Weeping Angels in the hotel room that is meant to be housing his greatest fear. Some might dispute that this is not a true appearance of the Weeping Angels but just an illusion projected by the prison ship. But that opinion is subjective since we do learn in another story that anything that holds the image of an Angel can become one.
Finally, there is a Weeping Angel and a Baby Angel that survived Rory and Amy's Paradox that are scavenging in New York in 2012. The Baby Angel resides in the Angel of the Waters statue. The Weeping Angel lurks in a nearby cemetery. Both play pivotal roles in displacing various characters in The Angels Take Manhattan. It's entirely possible that they actually recognize Rory and Amy for what they did and are trying to exact revenge. The Baby Angel doesn't actually realize that it set the events in motion that would lead to the destruction of the Battery Farm of Winter Quay.
INTO THE FUTURE....
After the failed invasion attempt on 20th Century Earth and the exploits of various teams of surviving scavengers during the 21st Century, little is seen of the Angels for quite some time (at least, within context of the TV show, thus far). Their next appearance is sometime within the 51st Centurry. No specific date is given during The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone, but several characters do state the century.
Prior to that appearance, we know that a huge host of Angels gathered on Alfava Metraxis and, somehow, became stranded there. We're guessing they had something to do with the extinction of the Aplans: a two-headed humanoid species that were native to the planet. I suggest that Weeping Angels arrived on the planet sometime around the 47th Century and actually accomplished what they had set out to do on Earth. The entire population was placed into Battery Farms and the Angels thrived for quite some time.
Somehow, however, the Aplans worked out a way to strand the Angels on their world before they were wiped out. We don't know for sure how as we're not sure how Angels actually travel through the Universe. It could be as simple as making sure every form of interstellar technology was utterly destroyed so that the Angels couldn't use any ships to get them off-world. Or it could be something far more complex if the Angels have some natural ability to transport themselves through space. A special jamming signal, perhaps, that nullifies that ability. Whatever the case, once the Weeping Angels had absorbed all the potential energy of the Aplans, they retreated to a temple-like structure known as the Maze of the Dead and began to decay.
A single Weeping Angel that had been held in human custody manages to commandeer a space freighter that was shipping it. The Angel intentionally crashes the vessel into the Maze of the Dead on Alfava Metraxis and the army stranded there start absorbing radiation from the ship's reactor core. Slowly coming back to life as they do.
They didn't count on a Crack in Time caused by the Doctor's TARDIS exploding to interfere with things the way it did. In the end, the Doctor fools the Angels and causes them to fall into the Crack and seal it up.
ANOTHER SPECIAL NOTE:
In this particular story, we see the Angels displaying abilities that were, hitherto, unseen:
That Which Retains the Image of an Angel Can Become One: We're still not entirely sure of the full extent of this power. Apparently, however, if you capture an image of an Angel in some way, the Angel can come into your location through that picture/footage. Whether it can fully manifest itself through the image or just uses it as a sort of portal to look through - it's uncertain to say. But it's definitely very creepy and makes them even deadlier than ever.
Don't Blink and Don't Look in Their Eyes: As if fighting a Weeping Angel wasn't complicated enough! We know that we can freeze an Angel by staring at it, yes. But now, you mustn't look into its eyes or the Angel can transplant itself into you and turn you into one of them.
Once more, this could reveal a method of reproduction among their species. Do they do it in two ways? Can they make Baby Angels but also convert humans into Angels? As usual, who can say for sure?!
Snap!!! Not so much a hidden power as a deficiency. Sometimes Angels are so low on energy that they can't send you back in time when they touch you. They will, however, still snap your neck.
We don't know if the Angels have always had these abilities. They were never seen until now. Could these be skills they've developed over the 5 000 years between 2012 and the 51st Century? Do Angels evolve? Or are these tricks they've always had but we've never seen until now. Thus far, these powers have only been witnessed in The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone.
THE FAR-FLUNG FUTURE
As has been established in other Chronologies and Timelines entries, the events of Time of the Doctor take place sometime around the 44th Century (the entry that truly commits to a date is in my History of the Cybermen series, Part 5 - http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/02/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of_27.html). Like several other aggressive species, the Weeping Angels respond to the distress call Gallifrey is putting out on Trenzalore and come to investigate
It is interesting to note that they are the one species that could easily slip past the forcefield the Papal Mainframe put around the planet. This says something about the nature of the Angels' power and technology. They seem to be more advanced than any other species out there.
It is also interesting to note that we don't seem to see any sort of Weeping Angel spaceship. Could my idea that they can just warp across space unassisted by technology be correct? It's entirely possible that they snuck aboard the ship of another species and traveled that way. But it's just as possible that, when they've gathered enough potential energy, they can somehow just will themselves to another part of the Universe. Which would also make getting past the Papal Mainframe's force field make more sense. Once an Angel has decided to arrive somewhere, there's no stopping it.
THE FAR FAR-FLUNG FUTURE
It is to my great shame that I must admit: I missed a Cybermen cameo when I was compiling my History of the Cybermen series a few months back. Technically, this event should also be in my Dalek History series but, in my defense, the episode wasn't out yet when I was putting together that particular chronology.
Fortunately, this cameo also involves Weeping Angels. So I can, at last, cover it here. If you want to imagine these next few paragraphs appearing at the bottom of my Dalek and Cybermen Histories - be my guest. I suppose I could cut and paste this in but I prefer to leave my acts of shame visible for all the internet to see!
It would appear that there were a set of Cloister Wars that probably happened sometime in or around the Time Wars (we see a post-Time War Dalek in the Cloisters that re-enforces this idea). Charting where this happens in Galactic History becomes a bit tricky. The Time Wars seem to take place outside of Time, itself and we can give no proper date to it. The Cloister Wars, I would imagine, happen under similar conditions. But I would like to think that there is a sort of "entry point" in the timeline where the various combatants start becoming involved with the war. The battles, themselves, take place in some sort of limbo dimension outside of time and space. There would also be an "exit point" where the war is over and various participants are now stranded in the Cloisters. We'll track these points and work out a sort of trajectory for them.
I would suggest the entry point would be some time shortly after the Andromedans breach the Matrix during Trial of a Time Lord. They seem to be the first species of non-Gallifreyans that find their way into the Super Computer of the Time Lords. Their actions attract the attention of Daleks, Cybermen and Weeping Angels (and, perhaps, others that we just don't see trapped in the Cloisters during Hell Bent) and they attempt to penetrate the Matrix after them.
The Doctor dates The Mysterious Planet as being several million years in Earth's future. How valid this claim is can be hotly disputed since he makes his prognosis after the most cursory of glances at his pocket watch But let's just say the Andromedan Breach happened sometime around then. This would indicate that Daleks, Cybermen and Weeping Angels are all around for the next few million years. No doubt, there were times when we didn't see much of them. But they were always lurking in the shadows. Surviving.
What exactly went on during the Cloister Wars seems very abstract. But there must have been some sort of skirmish. This seems to be more than just some attempts to hack into a really powerful computer system. But who can say for sure how it all played out.
They exit point from the Wars would be where the Time Lords are hiding near the end of the Universe. The Dalek, Weeping Angels, Baby Angel and Cybermen have been brought back into normal Time and Space but are trapped within the Cloisters for all eternity. No doubt, as the Universe expires once and for all - they will finally die with it. Not a great way to go out, though!
But that does mean that, even at the end of the Universe, the Weeping Angels are still at work...
Thus resolves one of our last entries in the Chronologies and Timelines series. I am tempted to cover the Ood and one or two more New Series monsters that have made multiple appearances. We'll have to wait and see...
In the meantime, here are a few other monsters I've covered.
Daleks (first entry - just keep following from there):
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/06/chronologies-and-timelines-tymecian.html
Cybermen (first entry - just keep following from there):
http://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/02/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of.html
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