ANALYTICAL: CROSSING TIME STREAMS - PART 1: SOME BASIC RULES

Looky here!  An actual ANALYTICAL essay! Haven't written one of these in ages! 

It's been a bit difficult for me to do an ANALYTICAL because I've been legitimately busy with this goofy career of mine. Nothing requires heavier research than this style of essay so it's been tough to find the time do all the work that's required of me. But I do find the results very rewarding so I have missed doing these. Hopefully, you enjoy reading my observations as much as I enjoy making them. 


As many have said over the years, it's ironic that a show about time-travelling doesn't actually display much examples of it (well, truth be told, the Eleventh Doctor era changes that up a bit!). More times than others, time travel is only used to get the characters into their next story. After that, the narration tends to stay fairly linear.

As has been mentioned in parentheses in the previous paragraph, there is an era of the show where we do see the TARDIS and other modes of temporal transportation put to greater use. During such efforts, a number of things can be created. Aborted timelines would be one of the more frequent by-products of such gestures. In time, we'll probably delve into them quite heavily. But it won't be in this entry. For this post, we will merely look at the rules and patterns that seem to get established whenever a character crosses their own timeline. Before we can go much further, however, we should probably clearly establish what constitutes "crossing your own timeline"



DEFINITION:

As usual, the best way to define a trend in Doctor Who involves giving examples of what doesn't constitute a part of the pattern. Still, we'll try to start with a solid definition before getting into negative examples.

Crossing Your Own Timestream: (def) The conscious or unconscious act of temporally displacing yourself so that you are returning to a point in time and space that you had occupied previously. In essence, you have the opportunity to legitimately meet yourself (though, quite frequently, such an action is very specifically avoided). 



WHAT IS NOT CROSSING YOUR TIMELINE:

Just so we're really clear, we'll look at a few examples where one might almost feel that there's been a proper crossing of timestreams. But, according to my definition, that's not what truly happened.

Communication Only:  
We see numerous examples of this. The Doctor is, sort of, crossing his own timestream in order send a message to himself. A future version leaves an important note for his seventh incarnation to find that saves the day in Battlefield. Eleven calls Clara from the past just after he's regenerated in Deep Breath and Twelve is in the background, listening. The Doctor places all kinds of recorded messages for himself in Time Heist. Technically, the Doctor is crossing his timeline to do this. But I wouldn't say he's truly doing it. It's a pretty big grey area.

So Close: 
Very near misses could almost constitute a crossing of timestreams. But, if you want to be a purist about it - it doesn't fit the definition. We get the impression Eleven arrives just after his assassination in The Impossible Astronaut. So, not a proper crossing. Or the Doctor and Jo go off on a huge adventure on the planet Uxarieus and then return to the UNIT lab only seconds after they've left in Colony In Space. Again, they're very close to crossing their own timestreams - but not quite. 

Basic Geography: 
"you have the opportunity to meet yourself" - is a key point in my definition. The Doctor has been in the same relative time period so often that it's quite likely that there's been a bit of an overlap from time to time (Twentieth or Twenty-First Century Earth would be the best case of this - although we've also seen him doing a lot in the Fifty First Century during New Who). But if he's not within distance of meeting himself, I don't qualify it as a "proper" crossing of his timestream. A good example of this would be the fact that The War Machines and The Faceless Ones do seem to take place on the same day. But the First Doctor, Ben and Polly are in one part of Britain while the Second Doctor, Ben and Polly are in another. There is probably some overlap, here. Where the trio are all in the same place at the same time. But they are a considerable distance from each other and have no chance of meeting. So we're not really going to dwell on this too hard. It's another instance where, technically, this is a crossing of the timestream - but it's not enough of one for me to give it much more attention than this particular paragraph.

Multi-incarnation encounters: 
Two or more different incarnations coming together is, most definitely, a proper crossing of timelines. But I've already examined the whole process quite thoroughly in another essay (https://robtymec.blogspot.ca/2017/11/analytical-psychology-behind-multi.html) so I'm not going to do much of a re-tread, here. It will get mentioned from time-to-time, But if you really want to read the observations that I've made on such a process, go to the link I just provided.


BASIC STRUCTURE AND RECURRING PATTERNS (AND EVEN SOME BASIC RULES):

Okay, we've got some nice clear definitions in place. Let's actually look at some of the things that go on when such a process occurs. Even with all the different production teams that have worked on the show over the years, they do tend to adhere to certain guidelines when they use this particular device in a story. Here are a few of the major things I've noticed:


Entry and Departure Points: 

Aside from a notable exception or two, the show always bothers to go to the trouble of showing the breach in the timeline and the moment where the decision is made to make the breach in the timeline. In The Big Bang, for instance, we see the Doctor appearing to Rory at Stonehenge and giving him instructions on how to release him from the Pandorica Vault. Later in the episode, we see the Doctor running around in the museum with Rory and both Amies (I'm guessing this is how you pluralize "Amy"). Suddenly Rory points out to the Doctor that he appears the way he did when he visited him at Stonehenge. The Doctor realizes this is the moment where he's meant to go back in time and release himself from the Pandorica Vault. So he uses the vortex manipulator to do that.

Both points in the crossing of the timeline are clearly illustrated in this instance. Where the breach occurs and where the decision is made to create the breach. There can be interesting variances on the formula - but the convention persists. For example: Again, in The Big Bang, we see an older version of Amy meeting her younger self in the pre-titles. After the title sequence - we go back and see how the encounter was arranged. It's a bit of a reversal of what we will see the Doctor do in the same episode (he encounters himself after he's been shot by a Dalek then goes and gets shot by a Dalek and jumps back in time to meet himself). If the narrative had been told in its proper linear fashion, we would have seen the Doctor and Rory placing Amy in the Pandorica Vault and then we would see Young and Old Amy running into each other at the museum. But it's still the same basic principle. Both points in the crossing are displayed.

This is an important aspect of illustrating a crossed timeline. So much so, that even an android being displaced in time during Timelash gets that treatment. It's usually shown in the proper linear fashion, too. Someone pops out of nowhere at a weird time in the story and we only see, later, where and when they make that decision to go back in time and cause that appearance to happen. It's a great story-telling device as it builds a certain level of intrigue that only gets properly explained later. It's also some very tidy plotting. On the rare occasion where we don't see both points in time, it does feel strangely out of balance. 



One Time Around: 

This is a variation on the entry and departure points principal. We haven't seen it demonstrated much, but it does happen from time-to-time.

Occasionally, a timeline crossing creates a sort of aborted timeline. Events have to happen a certain way and then the Doctor has to go back into his past and cause them happen in a different way. In so doing, of course, he wipes out the first sequence of events and time re-sets itself slightly.

We really only see this happen in the New Series. The first time was in Father's Day. When Rose lacks the courage to go to her father and comfort him in his final moments, the Doctor takes her back one more time to try again. We actually see the Doctor and Rose in two different iterations at once. The Rose that makes the second visit runs forward and saves her father's life. Causing the other Rose and the Doctor to fade out of existence because she's changed the course of events. But the first sequence had to occur before the second one could. If things were going purely by the entry and departure point principal, then the first set of Rose and the Doctor would have watched the Second Rose run forward and save her dad. Instead, the First Set have to go through the sequence of events that leads Rose and the Doctor to making the second visit. It's pretty wibbly wobbly and timey whimey but it does make a sort of sense and is something time travelers are capable of doing under the proper circumstances.

It's interesting to note that there seem to be times when you can't cross your timestream in such a manner. When Clara is trying to get the Doctor to go back in time and save Danny Pink during Dark Water, he points out that it wouldn't work. That, in that instance, events would collapse in upon themselves. He would never go to save Danny Pink because Danny Pink would have never died. And yet, in Journey to the Center of the TARDIS he goes back in time to see himself and stop the TARDIS from being destroyed but only because the TARDIS got destroyed. The same rule should apply here - but it doesn't. 

This seems to indicate that Time Lords have a sort of instinct that enables them to see when they can go one time around and when they can't. Whether or not this is true or it was just a bluff to see the full extent of Clara's treachery - we're not entirely sure.



Side Effects:

Something else that we don't see all that frequently, but it occurs often enough to make it something time travelers must be wary of when they interrupt their own timestream.

One would think that entering into your own past or future would be a clean enough affair. You use some sort of temporal mechanics to displace yourself. You end up meeting yourself (or try to avoid meeting yourself). You pop off again and return to your proper place in time and space. No fuss, no bother. Right?

Most of the time, that is the case. But, every once in a while, weird stuff can happen. Side effects occur and things get a bit sloppy.

The most common side effect is that the senses of the people in the time zone you're visiting can be affected. In both The Space Museum and Big Bang, for instance, people could not see or hear the Doctor or the TARDIS Crew when they crossed their timeline. During Space Museum, they even became intangible. 

We've seen the Doctor grow genuinely ill during more complex time crossings. During The Five Doctors and Name of the Doctor, he became incapacitated for a time because of the complications that developed when crossing his own timeline (it could be debated that, by my definition, Name of the Doctor does not constitute a proper crossing of timelines - it's difficult to say). These ill feelings, of course, were created because it was not just a normal crossover. His fourth incarnation had been stranded in the Time Vortex during Five Doctors. And his entire past was being altered several times during Name of the Doctor. When these sort of variables get heaped on to a crossover, severe side effects of this nature can influence a time traveler. 

And then, of course, there's the memory issue. Sometimes, you can just plain forget what you did when you met yourself. Again, I believe that complexity has something to do with this. It usually only happens in multi-incarnation encounters. Several versions of the Doctor are banding together and it becomes too complex to retain. Yes, Missy was telling her previous incarnation that this was happening to her - but I still maintain that she was lying. 




Keeping a Distance:

This is something that gets emphasized heavily most of the time that we see a crossover. Don't actually let your past self see your future self. If they do, don't talk to them. And, for God's sake, don't come into physical contact with yourself (we'll dwell more heavily on this point in a moment).

The exception to the rule seems to be multi-incarnation encounters. Different versions of the Doctor seem to have little or no problem with interacting with each other. But we've even seen the Doctor try to avoid himself when it's the same incarnation crossing over. Episodes like Father's Day or Before the Flood demonstrate this quite clearly. The Doctor firmly instructs Rose to wait until her past version flees the scene before going to be at her dying father's side. He, most emphatically, does not want their past selves to meet their future selves. Under The Lake, of course, adheres to this principal even better. The Twelfth Doctor goes to great lengths to avoid himself when the TARDIS "traps" him in his own timestream. He even sets the hibernation unit to only release him after he has left the sea base in the TARDIS and gone into the past.

The biggest reason for staying away from yourself when you cross your own timeline seems simple enough: you run the risk of accidentally telling yourself something you shouldn't know about your own future. Learning something about what is to come can have all kinds of bad effects on that causal nexus. Best not to expose the Universe to that level of risk. So, if you do slip into your own timestream - keep a distance from yourself! 



No Contact:

This is a bit of sore point. It's a rule that has been heavily emphasized but frequently broken. While it does relate to the Keeping a Distance requirement, it merits a discussion of its own. 

In Mawdrn Undead, the Doctor expends endless amounts of histrionics emphasizing that the Current Day Brigadier can not meet the Brigadier From the Past. There will be a huge explosion that will take out the better part of a galaxy if he does. It's all quite dramatic and very intense and creates a really awesome resolution to the story's central conflict. And we learn, very succinctly, that people from two different time zones should never come into physical contact with each other. It could prove disastrous if they do.

And yet, the only other time we see a violent reaction of this nature is when the sonic screwdriver comes into contact with itself in Big Bang. There's a bit of a pop and then everything is fine.

Admittedly, an object from two different time zones probably wouldn't have as much impact when it comes into contact with itself as would a sentient being. But the real problem with this rule is the fact that we have seen sentient beings come into contact with themselves on numerous occasions but there's been no reaction like the one we saw with the Brigadier. Why is that?

Time Lords are obviously exempt from this rule. There is probably something built into their DNA that allows them to run into themselves and have physical contact without the usual consequences. This gets all those multi-incarnation encounters to work just fine. Different incarnations love to shake hands with each other as they depart. This should be causing all kinds of massive explosions - but it doesn't. It even makes moments like when the Eleventh Doctor takes hold of his "dying" self in Big Bang be okay. Even if the same incarnation from two different time zones touch each other there will be no real ill effects.

But while on the subject of Big Bang,  Adult Amy Pond has quite a bit of contact with a younger version of herself and we don't get that Sensational Brigadier Reaction that happened in Mawdryn Undead. One episode later, Kazran also has quite a bit of physical contact with himself, too (there is no way to phrase that without it sounding just a little bit wrong!). How do they get away with doing this without a group of immortals with a deathwish around to absorb the blast?

Aside from these two circumstances, we don't really see this happen anywhere else (well, it does occur in Father's Day but the Chronovore-like creatures probably harness the time energy to boost their own strength and enter the church). The best guess I can venture is that the Universe had just been destroyed in Big Bang. The Laws of Time were a bit wobbly during such a fragile period. Particularly with Amy. Her incident took place during an alternate timeline where the Universe was in the process of collapsing. All sorts of rules might suddenly stop working during such a situation. Kazran's incident took place shortly after the Universe re-booted (it's clear that this is a honeymoon gift to Rory and Amy so Chritmas Carol probably happens immediately after Big Bang). Perhaps, because the re-boot is so fresh, Time isn't working completely properly. Because of this, Kazran is able hold himself as a boy and it doesn't cause the galaxy to implode or something horrible like that. But if there had been a few stops along the way before getting to Kazran's planet, it might have been a different story. It's probably also likely that the Doctor, as a Time Lord, knew the Laws of Time weren't quite properly restored so he didn't need to freak out with Kazran like he did with the Brigadier.


And there we have some basic recurring patterns or even a set of rules that apply to crossing your own timestream. I'd like to write a second installment in this little saga where we look at the Doctor's specific experiences with this sort of phenomenon. We'll also look at the experiences of various companions and supporting characters who have also gone through this. Which means, of course, that another ANALYTICAL essay is soon to come. 

No doubt, you're waiting with baited breath....