FIXING CONTINUITY GLITCHES: WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED AT THE END OF THE KEY TO TIME? - THE SEQUEL

PART 2: WHAT ROB THINKS...


All right, Part 1 covered the various popular fan theories regarding the somewhat puzzling ending of the Key to Time series. Let's look at the correct one, now. 

Sorry! Did I say that out loud? I meant my theory...


THE TYMECIAN THEORY....

Most theories that fandom seem to come up with regarding the end of the quest for the Key to Time perpetuate the idea that the Doctor still ended up doing good even though he appears to be abandoning his mission. I prefer to believe that he didn't. That he was just being irresponsible and decided not to worry anymore about the battle going on between the two Guardians so that he could go back to just travelling and seeing the Universe. We saw him try, already, to take a break from the Quest during Androids of Tara. This does seem to indicate he was getting tired of the whole thing.

This sort of behavior happens in other stories too. In Day of the Moon, he really should have looked into the girl in the astronaut suit more thoroughly but he chooses not to care. At the end of the story, we see him consciously decide to just pursue aimless travel rather than investigate something important. This is just the way the Doctor is, sometimes. He likes to shirk responsibility.

It just so happens that the shirking of his responsibility in Season 16 had some serious consequences. That, because the Doctor never handed the Key to Time to the White Guardian so he could do what needed to be done, the Universe has suffered for it. The Doctor, himself, even realized the graveness of his mistake and tried to fix the problem in a later incarnation. But it was too little too late. Ultimately, he did manage to reduce the negative effects of his failure but he was far from eliminating them entirely.

There's much that happens in the future of the series that supports this idea. But to truly flesh my theory out, I even consult some stuff that went on before the Key to Time saga.

Let's put together a bit of a timeline:


PREDICTIONS AND MISSIONS

Some time ago, the Time Lords received a prediction from the Matrix warning them of the power the Daleks were beginning to amass. Their great prophetic computer showed them a time that would come where the Daleks would challenge the Gallifreyans for their supremacy over Time and easily vanquish them. Horrified at what they saw, the Time Lords knew they had to do something to prevent it.

So they contacted the Doctor and asked him for his help. He was the best candidate to deal with the Dalek Menace. In fact, they were pretty sure that he hated the Daleks enough to wipe them out of existence. If given the opportunity. They had not bargained on his ethics getting in the way so much, however, and he refused to destroy them utterly. But the Doctor had delivered a crippling enough blow to their development by sealing them in a bunker at the dawn of their creation . This slowed down their progress enough that, by the time they emerged from their underground tomb, they had missed several key opportunities that would have caused them to evolve along a different path and made them more powerful (see Part 1 of Dalek History if you want to understand this concept a bit better - http://robtymec.blogspot.ca/2015/06/chronologies-and-timelines-tymecian.html ).

The Time Lords were satisfied with the results. The Matrix was no longer showing a future where the Daleks had taken over the Universe. So the High Council felt they could rest easy, now.

The Guardians, however, were more finely tuned to look into future events. They foresaw a Great War that would erupt between Daleks and Time Lords but the outcome of such a battle seemed unclear. The White Guardian wanted to prevent the whole thing from happening, of course. He saw the incalculable damage the War would cause to the cosmos. The Black Guardian, quite naturally, wanted the exact opposite. He wanted to enhance the effects of the War and plunge all of Time and Space into chaos and oblivion.

Both of them saw that using the Key to Time would enable them to freeze time and make the necessary alterations to achieve their desired outcomes. Both put into effect a plan that would retrieve the six segments so that they could execute the necessary changes. The White Guardian asked the Doctor to find the segments for him. The Black Guardian allied himself with the Shadow and had him just wait at the location of the sixth segment for the Doctor to show up with the other five.


WAS THE BLACK GUARDIAN HOPING TO START THE TIME WARS?

There is a sequence in Armageddon Factor where the Shadow gives the Doctor a vague idea of what the Black Guardian's ultimate plans for the Key to Time are. He explains that the war between Zeos and Atrios was but a staging ground of things to come. That, long term, he and the Black Guardian wanted to create a war in which one half of the Universe was fighting the other.

Is this a description of what the Time Wars could have been? We know that the key combatants were Daleks and Time Lords. But we also know there were other factions involved. Strange beings and races that get described in stories like Stolen Earth or End of Time, Part 2. Was there meant to be even more combatants? We hear General Staal in Sontaran Strategem lamenting over the fact that his race was not able to participate in the Time Wars. I also have a pet theory that the Cybermen from our reality were involved in an early skirmish and may have been, more or less, completely wiped out (this is why the Doctor says "I am getting so old" when he sees the head of a Cybermen in Van Statten's museum during Dalek - it's been a while since the Cybermen have been extinguished from the cosmos). So there seems to be some evidence to suggest that other aggressive races in the Universe were trying to join the battle.

Could it be that the Black Guardian envisioned a Time War where all the races that sought to rule the cosmos were on one side and the rest of the Universe would need to defend itself against them? Was this his ultimate goal?

The White Guardian, on the other hand, wished to arrange circumstances so that the Time Wars just didn't happen at all. Perhaps, when Time was frozen, he would do still more to curtail the development of the Daleks so that they could never grow to a level of power that would make them a real threat to the Time Lords. This way, the Time Wars would never begin.

It's my personal belief that the Time Wars are the great threat to Time and Space that the White Guardian is describing at the beginning of the Ribos Operation. They are also the horrible plan that the Shadow is describing near the end of Armageddon Factor. No one on the production team of Season 16 knew this at the time, of course. The Time Wars weren't even a glimmer in Russell T. Davis' eye, yet. Nor do I think that RTD makes his own connection between the Time Wars and the Key to Time. This is just my own sad personal theory. The sort of nonsense a fan formulates on a sleepless night where he's watched too many episodes and his brain has gone on overload.


A CHANCE AT REDEMPTION

While the Doctor continued on with his adventures, his mischief with the Key to Time starts weighing heavily on him. He may have even stumbled upon shreds of information that indicated that the Time Wars were coming and that his failure to complete his mission for the White Guardian had contributed to their creation. He didn't fully know what the Time Wars would be like. He'd only seen a few scant clues. But he knew he had to do something to make up for his irresponsibility.

It's my opinion that he made these discoveries somewhere after Season 24. In my History of Gallifrey series, I discuss the idea of the TARDIS malfunctioning and sending the Seventh Doctor back to Ancient Gallifrey (http://robtymec.blogspot.ca/2015/10/chronologies-and-timelines-history-of.html). Perhaps those problems with the TARDIS also allowed him slight glimpses into the future that gave him a vague idea of what the Time Wars would be like.

This is part of what prompts the Doctor to become so pro-active when we re-join him and Ace at the beginning of Season 25. He lashes out quite viciously at both the Daleks and the Cybermen over the next little while. Wiping out huge portions of their respective armies. Could it be that he learnt they would be combatants in the Time Wars and was hoping that these powerful strikes against them would reduce their military might enough to prevent them ever being able to challenge the Time Lords? Was it a vague look into the future that helps prompt such a huge change in the Seventh Doctor's personality?

After the events of Remembrance of the Daleks and Silver Nemesis, the Doctor continues operating in such a devious manner against his enemies because he just finds it to be a more effective way of combating evil. But he is pretty sure that he's done enough to prevent the Time Wars. Which is why he does eventually go back to wandering through time and space less purposefully. Particularly after his seventh regeneration.


THE FINAL OUTCOME

Of course, the Seventh Doctor's efforts were not enough. The Time Wars still happen. It's entirely possible that all that survivor's guilt that he experiences throughout his Ninth and Tenth incarnations stems partially from a sense of direct culpability. He had the opportunity to prevent the War way back in his fourth body but, instead, he chose to just screw off. And now he must live with the consequences.

But should he be too mad with himself? Let's remember, if the Black Guardian had gotten his way, the Time Wars would've been far worse. He had planned to get one half of the Universe fighting the other. So denying him the Key to Time, at least, stopped that. More than likely, the efforts the Doctor did make in his seventh incarnation reduced the harmful effects even more. And his decision to become the War Doctor and participate in the battle contained some major damage, too. At the time that he made his decision, many of the Higher Races believed that the Universe would still end up being destroyed as a result of the War. This is why the Sisterhood of Karn wanted him so badly to join in the battle. They knew if anyone could save all of Time and Space - it was the Doctor. He'd done it several times, before.

So, yes, as irresponsible as he was at the end of Armageddon Factor, the Doctor's done a lot to atone for his negligence. And, while a great amount of damage still occurred because he didn't properly complete his mission for the White Guardian, it still could've been a whole lot worse.


In case you missed it, here's Part 1 of the essay...

http://robtymec.blogspot.ca/2016/06/fixing-continuity-glitches-what-hell.html

FIXING CONTINUITY GLITCHES: WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED AT THE END OF THE KEY TO TIME?

PART 1: WHAT THE FANS THINK...



So I was working on my Progressive Doctors essay on the Fourth Doctor when I reached the Key to Time season and realized an interesting sidebar was presenting itself. It had been some time since I've tried to deal with a Continuity Glitch and a huge one was suddenly staring me in the face. Sufferer of ADHD that I am, I set aside my Progressive Doctors essay to tackle it.


PRESENTING THE PROBLEM:

Graham Williams does something very bold with Season 16. In many ways, he should be applauded for it. His Key To Time plotline is the show's first true attempt at an "umbrella season" - as they were called back then. Having a season that tells one long story (albeit, a story broken down into subsections) is a narrative style that has become quite commonplace in modern-day television. But The Key To Time was shot way back in the 70s. So we should be massively impressed with how far ahead of his time Mister Williams is.

So why don't we sing more praise for Season 16? Could it be that, as advanced of a premise as it was, The Key to Time saga does not end on the best of notes?

Armageddon Factor, in general, tries just a bit too hard to be high comedy. Especially when you consider that it is wrapping up a season-long storyline. It should be taking itself a bit more seriously to create a better sense of epic scale. Instead, it's more of just a goofy little runaround with a few rather clever moments.

But those last few minutes of the tale are what really disappoints. Having spent a whole season assembling the Key to Time, the Doctor just breaks it all apart and scatters the segments back across the cosmos. While no one actually used the term "WTF?" back in 1976, that was probably the general sentiment of the audience as the closing credits began to roll...

To the casual viewer, that finale was probably a bit of a letdown. But to the true hardcores who stay up late at night wondering what exactly gas in a Praxis range might  be, the ending to The Key to Time was genuinely baffling. During the opening minutes of The Ribos Operation, the White Guardian goes to great expository lengths to explain to the Doctor that the Universe has reached a critical point. That the Key to Time is needed to bring the entire cosmos to a standstill so he can fix things. If the Doctor doesn't retrieve the Key and give it to him, then all of Time and Space will plunge into eternal darkness and chaos. Also, it is very important that the Black Guardian doesn't get his hands on it. He will use the Key for evil purposes.

This is the central premise of the entire Key to Time season: Find the key. Give it to the White Guardian so he can stop the Universe from collapsing. Make sure the Black Guardian doesn't get it.

So the Doctor splitting the Key back up fulfills part of that mission. The Black Guardian doesn't end up getting his dirty little mitts on it. That's great. But what about the other stuff? All of Time and Space was in trouble - the White Guardian explicitly stated that right at the beginning of the saga. Only by giving the Key to Time to him could this problem be rectified. But that never happens. So why didn't the Universe go to complete and utter crap when the Doctor scattered the segments to the Four Winds (or, maybe, we should say Six Winds)?

The truthful answer was, more than likely, that the writers and the script editor should have been paying better attention to things. But that's hardly a fun answer, now, is it? So let's start by looking at a few interesting theories that explain away this somewhat huge discrepancy. In the second part of this essay, we'll look at my own ideas on the matter.

SOME POPULAR THEORIES....

THEORY #1: THE WHITE GUARDIAN DID HIS THING WHILE THE DOCTOR FROZE TIME

Of the different theories that I've heard, this one seems the most feasible. The basic premise is that during that brief moment in Part 4 of Armageddon Factor where the Doctor and Romana actually had the Key to Time fully working, the White Guardian was able to make whatever adjustments needed to be made to the Universe. Not only are the actual operators of the Key to Time unaffected by its influence while it's in operation, but Guardians are above its influence, too. Unbeknownst to the Doctor and Romana (and the viewing audience), when they put that fake piece in place and actually had all of Time frozen, the White Guardian did what he needed to do to restore the balance of the Universe.

What's nicest about this theory, of course, is that it makes the Quest for the Key to Time complete. The Doctor did truly accomplish his mission and save the Universe rather than just spend a season of the show assembling the segments for a brief moment only to break them up again. Basically, it means there was an actual point to Season 16 rather than making it a bit of a silly runaround that came to nothing.

There is, of course, one huge hole to this theory. If the White Guardian could do what he needed to do when Time was frozen in Part 4 - wouldn't the Black Guardian be able to do the same? I suppose it might be a case of whoever acted the most quickly once the Key to Time was engaged is the one who gets the outcome they desire. And the White Guardian was, somehow, able to act first. Or it could be that whoever's ally is using the Key to Time enables that particular Guardian to do what they want? The Doctor and Romana were acting on behalf of the White Guardian all season. So when they got the Key working, the White Guardian could go to work. While the Black Guardian could only hope to steal away the Key and re-shape the Universe to his design once either he or his servant was in possession of it.

THEORY #2: IT WASN'T REALLY ABOUT GETTING THE KEY TO TIME FOR THE WHITE GUARDIAN

With this premise, we're to believe that the White Guardian was lying to the Doctor in Ribos Operation.  That he didn't truly need the Key to Time, he just needed the Doctor to stop the Black Guardian from acquiring it. In this way, the Doctor is not being a huge unreliable jerk that is leaving the Universe in some kind of a lurch. It was actually only the Black Guardian that needed the Key. He was going to use it to create eternal chaos and suchlike. But, thanks to the Doctor, it was snatched away from him before he could execute his sinister plan.

The theory is interesting but also has a few holes. The first one being that the White Guardian is a being of pure goodness. Would it be in his nature to be able to lie? I suppose we could excuse this away by claiming he was telling a "white lie" (pun completely intended). Sometimes, to accomplish a greater good, we have to tell a little fib here and there.

The next problem, though, is why would he bother to lie? Why not just say to the Doctor: "I want you to get the Key to Time cause if the Black Guardian gets it there will be trouble." Why go to the trouble of creating a story about needing the Key to Time, himself? Perhaps the White Guardian understands the Doctor's psychological makeup and knows that he works better if he thinks he's working to something good rather than just trying to prevent an evil. It's a bit of a stretch. But it's the best I can come up with!

There is a variation on this idea that works even better. Again, the mission the Doctor is sent on at the beginning of Ribos Operation is a false one. But it is the Black Guardian disguising himself as the White one that sends the Doctor on it. This way, all the lieing makes more sense.

THEORY #3: THE POINT OF THE JOURNEY IS NOT TO ARRIVE

I find this one the most creative. Once more, we're back to the idea of a Universe that needs fixing by the White Guardian. In this instance, however, he doesn't need the Key. It's actually the quest to find the Key that fixes things. The Graff Vinda K needed to be thwarted from re-building his empire, Queen Xanxia's attempt to become immortal needed to be stopped, Cessair of Diplos needed to be brought to justice, and so on...

As the Doctor rights the various wrongs that are occuring around him while finding the various segments, he's doing the repair work that the White Guardian needed to execute to set the Universe right. So that when he gets to the end of the quest, he need only scatter the segments again and prevent the Black Guardian from using it.

I like this one quite a bit. But, again, we run into the problem of why the White Guardian didn't just tell the Doctor this right at the beginning. Perhaps he knew, already, that the Doctor would behave so irresponsibly at the end. But he also knew the Doctor would want to see justice done at the various places where the segments had been hidden. It was all part of a great masterplan that the Doctor need not fully understand.




Okay, those are the most popular fan theories that I'm familiar with regarding just what exactly happened at the end of the Key to Time saga. What's my own personal theory? How well does it line up with Popular Fan Consensus? You'll find out shortly when I release Part Two...

And, yes, there was a Rush quote that I threw in to this particular post. Did you catch it?