CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES: 

Part 2 of The Tymecian version of Dalek History (a.k.a - The Right Version)

This one's a long one. So I've decided to break it down a bit and will release the chapters over the next little while so that it's a bit more digestible! Since the entire essay is complete, the wait between posts won't be quite as long as it normally is....

PART TWO:   THE WARS AGAINST EARTH AND THE RETURN OF DAVROS

Having been forced off Skaro, the Daleks were roaming through the cosmos in two distinct versions.    The solar-powered Mark Threes probably stayed in space as much as possible but sent the Mark Twos down to various planets to be employed as occupation forces.    It's likely they attacked various worlds in this way.   The Mark Threes would form blockades around an alien planet so that other neighbouring worlds could not assist in resisting the invasion.   And then the Mark Twos would go down to the surface of the blockaded planet to subjugate and plunder.  

            

Most likely, the Doctor in his Second Incarnation had several unseen adventures against the Daleks during this period.   Which is why the Second Doctor was easilly recognizeable to the Daleks during  Power of the Daleks. From the Doctor’s perspective, he had these clashes against the Daleks sometime after his encounter with them in Evil of the Daleks.   

            

Of course, our space-faring Mark Threes were also into exploring the universe.   All kinds of scout ships were sent out in this era.   Not all of them came back, though.    One of those scoutships crashed on the planet Vulcan.  A planet that was eventually colonised by humans from the planet Earth.   The story of Power of the Daleks takes place.

    

There seems to be some controversy with the dating of Power of the Daleks. From what I’ve heard of the audio tracks and seen of the still images, there is no clear indication of the date this story takes place. I believe a Radio Times listing claims it is 2020 - which seems a bit too early. Space travel technology seems a bit too sophisticated for a 2020 Earth society to handle (either that, or we make some huge strides in the next 5 years). It is obvious Power takes place before Dalek Invasion of Earth as the humans don’t seem to recognize the Daleks they’ve revived. I would be more inclined to think this is a late 21^st Century/Early 22^nd Century timeline that we’re dealing with.

While some expeditions into Deep Space are failing, the Mark Twos and Threes are gaining more and more ambition as they invade more and more planets.   Perhaps, at this point, they might have even had a close brush or two with the Cybermen.  They delve into the Cybermen's past and are inspired by their use of the planet Mondas.    And while the scout ship on Vulcan never returns to the Dalek fleet, other scout ships have come back from Earth-occupied Space.    Reports are logged and the Daleks have noted the abundancy of rescources on Earth.   They also note that Earth is expanding quickly and could become a formidable foe if they are not nipped in the bud, soon.   So the Daleks decide to attack the planet Earth and create their own version of Mondas.    A planet they can pilot around the universe, too.

            

And so, Dalek Invasion of Earth ensues and their plans are ruined.    This is a most crippling loss to the Dalek War Effort.    Before the lifeless Mark Twos can be recovered, the Mark Threes are attacked by a spacefleet assembled from Earth's colony worlds and driven back to their own end of the cosmos.    It is for this reason that we only ever see the solar-powered Dalek from this point onward.   The other model is never used again.    The failure to invade Earth also becomes the Daleks' first actual battle that they've lost.   And while they continue to invade other parts of the Universe - what happened on Earth is never forgotten.   The Daleks vow that they will, someday, take revenge.

            

During this period of time where the Daleks have turned away from Earth, the Third Doctor probably had a few unseen run-ins with them.   These adventures probably take place after his exile but before he meets Sarah Jane Smith (Sarah doesn't recognise the Daleks in Death to the Daleks).   Which would explain why the Daleks know what his third body looks like in such stories as  Frontier In Space, Planet of the Daleks and Death to the Daleks.   

            

After a few years of conquest in other parts of the Universe, however, the Daleks do finally return their attention to Earth and its ascociated colonies.  The first attempt at the Daleks' revenge on Humanity doesn't happen until some centuries after Dalek Invasion of Earth.   The Daleks turn their eyestalks back to that end of the galaxy, but they have become cleverer this time.    They decide to intentionally weaken Earth's forces before engaging them in intergalactic war.    And, of course, we witness the events of Frontier In Space.

            

Sometime between these two stories, we might guess that the Daleks poked around near or even on Skaro and re-established some sort of contact with the Thals.   This incited the peace-loving species to take action against them, again.   Having never taken much interest in space travel, they, at last, develop prototype space vessels and use them to begin assaulting the Dalek Fleet.     They discover their operations on the distant planet of Spiridon and a mission is sent there to investigate.    And Planet of the Daleks takes place.  

            

Even though their pre-war efforts have been thwarted, the Daleks are still resolved to fight the human menace and decide to engage Earth's forces.   Or, perhaps, Daleks can just hold on to a grudge forever and can't resist avenging their loss way back in the 22nd Century. Whatever the case, a legitimate Space War ensues.  Most likely, during this particular war, the Thals are finally wiped out.   As we never seem to hear from them again after Planet.

            

As we all know, there are problems with a Plague near the end of the huge Earth/Dalek Space War.    In an effort to cure that plague, an expedition is sent to the Planet Exillon where large deposits of paranium have been detected.    Death to the Daleks takes place at this point.  

            

We can't be sure of exactly how the Space War between Humanity and the Daleks ended.   It seems certain, however, that Earth came out on top of things.   Whether the Daleks withdrew in defeat or became busy in other parts of the cosmos - none can say for sure.   But Earth seemed free of the Dalek Menace by the time we start hitting the 27th Century.

            

However, the Daleks were still holding that grudge and want to conquer the Earth in some way.   Political machinations, plague and full frontal attack had all failed.   As they look for a more lateral approach, they end up making one of their most pivotal discoveries: 

            

Time Travel. 

            

Unable to defeat Earth in the present, they explore the Fourth Dimension and attempt to go back into the past to manipulate Human history to their advantage.   Somehow, their meddling creates an alternative timeline in which Earth's Cold War ends up resolving in much the same way theirs' did back when they were merely Dals on Skaro.    Humanity is ravaged by atomic bombs and the Daleks can easily come in and take control of the planet. 

            

And so, Day of the Daleks takes place.   It should be noted that the Space Wars of 26th Century have actually done a lot of damage to Dalek Records and they, at first, don't recognise this incarnation of the Time Lord.  Only after a brain scan is his identity verified.   

            

With this second conquest of 22nd Century Earth now averted, the Daleks temporarilly give up the fight to defeat the Earth and turn their attention elsewhere.   A short time later, they meet the Movellans and declare war on them.    

            

Of course, the Great Empasse ensues as neither side could bring themselves' to launch an attack against the other.   In an effort to eliminate the stalemate, the Daleks return to Skaro to unearth their creator.   The Movellans send a mission of their own to stop them.   Destiny of the Daleks now happens.   Again, one should note the conspicuous abscence of Thals on Skaro during this story.   Either they've been wiped out - or they've left Skaro and live somewhere else.    It's highly unlikely that the Daleks could be running a mining operation on Skaro if the Thals were still there.   We would have, at least, seen some sort of effort on the Thals' behalf to stop the operation.

            

We also see what appears to be a far more elaborate underground bunker in Destiny of the Daleks than the one we saw in Genesis of the Daleks. If you refer back to Chapter One of the essay, you’ll see that I mentioned that the Mark Threes seriously expanded the bunker during their Great Wait. At some point, the Fourth Doctor must’ve had an unseen adventure in the expanded bunker (a second covert mission for the Time Lords, perhaps?) as he knows his way around it quite well.   

            

Sometime around this era, a Dalek is plucked out of Time and Space and sent to the Death Zone on Gallifrey (The Five Doctors).   

            

The progression of stories is quite evident for the next little while since continuity in Dalek stories is quite tight during the 80s.   The Daleks lose the war against the Movellans and Davros is rescued from his prison to help the survivors of the Movellan virus.   Ressurection of the Daleks takes place, here.

            

How Davros survives the virus and ends up on Necros is a bit vague.   One gets the impression that a few unseen skirmishes may have taken place between the Sixth Doctor and the Dalek Creator between Ressurection and Revelation (Davros seems to instantly recognise the Sixth Doctor and can even build statues in his likeness - perhaps these confrontations occur in the Doctor's timeline somewhere between Trial of a Time Lord and Time and the Rani since Peri doesn't seem to recognise a Dalek or Davros).  Eventually, however,  the Sixth Doctor is lured to Necros and we see the events of Revelation of the Daleks.

            

Again, how Davros survives his fate at the end of this story is uncertain.   But much happens between Revelation and Remembrance.   He is brought back to Skaro and put on trial (the Daleks, weakened from their war effort against the Movelllans, "return to their ancestral seat" and become planet-bound again for a time)  Davros, for some reason, is not punished for his treachery against the Daleks.   In fact, he somehow manages to create a Civil War.  In the process of doing this, he becomes a self-appointed Emperor (or, more than likely, clones another head and makes that the Emperor while he remains hidden, somewhere) and a renegade faction still loyal to the Supreme Dalek splinters off and begins openly fighting the Imperial Daleks. 

            

In this political climate, the events of Remembrance of the Daleks take place.   

            

Now, the destruction of the planet Skaro does create some predicaments for future continuity.    But the Doctor does explicitly state that he sent the Hand of Omega some "thousand years into the future" from the date of 1963 (he loves doing things in "millenial chunks" when it comes to Daleks, doesn't he?)   This would mean that Skaro is destined for destruction sometime in or around the mid 29th Century.    But the Daleks we see in Remembrance are, more than likely, only from the 28th Century.  So they still have a little time left before their homeworld is obliterated forever.   In fact, it's entirely possible that the Daleks spent nearly another century on Skaro knowing it was doomed.  

CHRONOLOGIES AND TIMELINES: 

The Tymecian version of Dalek History (a.k.a - The Right Version)

This one's a long one. So I've decided to break it down a bit and will release the chapters over the next little while so that it's a bit more digestible! Since the entire essay is complete, the wait between posts won't be quite as long as it normally is....

This is one of my favorite things to postulate regarding long-term villains and/or monsters in Doctor Who: How, exactly, does their history play out within the context of the stories that have been shown about them. While adventures involving Daleks have happened in one order in the Doctor's timeline - the fact that he has traveled through Time means that, from the Dalek's perspective, their experience of him has happened in an entirely different way. And that's part of what makes Dalek stories so fun - trying to figure out what their "proper" order is.  It can also be something of a conundrum.    But sorting out this puzzle has given my fanboy brain endless hours of enjoyment.  

Before I begin, it should be noted that I have read various other manuscripts that have done the same thing as I have, here (Terry Nation and John Peel's book on the Daleks, Jean-Marc Locifier's  Terrestial Index and so on...).  While many of these other efforts mainly gel with my own theories, there are a few points we greatly differ on.   Should you be familiar with these other works, this will become quite evident to you as you read along.  

Anyway, here goes:  

PART ONE:  THE EARLY DAYS ON SKARO

It all begins, of course, on Skaro.   Probably some time back when Early Man on Earth was just starting to get good at hunting and gathering.    Skaro was already a somewhat advanced civilization, by this point.   Most likely, they'd even done a bit of space exploration and had learnt a fair amount about the galaxy they inhabited.   Maybe even set foot on a few other planets.

            

However, there was a big problem with racial disharmony on Skaro.    The advanced civilization had evolved into two basic cultures - one barely distinguishable from the other - but the differences were distinct enough to provoke an Ultimate War (I say "Ultimate" because I assume there were probably many wars before the one we eventually see in Genesis).

            

The two sides of this War were, quite naturally, the Kaleds and the Thals.    And while the War was, initially, fought from opposite ends of the planet, it is said that it waged on for close to a thousand years.   As populations were decimated - the enemies moved closer.   Until, eventually, most of the planet was now barren from the ravages of battle and the surviving population of both races were inhabiting huge protective domes that were practically only spitting distance away from each other.   

            

And into this mess, the Fourth Doctor is dropped.    And the events of Genesis of the Daleks ensue.   We meet Davros for the first time and get some somewhat revisionistic history that almost flatly contradicts the events of The Daleks.  But, good little fanboy that I am, I can make sense of this.   

            

Of course, the important piece of information to note to help fix this is a bit of throwaway dialogue in Episode Two.    The discussion of the different models of travel machines.   The Daleks we see in Genesis are "Mark Three".   Which suggests there are two other versions of Daleks that were built before them.   The Mark One was, most likely, largely unsuccessful and was scrapped, altogether.    The Mark Two was probably experimented with more extensively before it was, eventually, abandoned.   The Mark Three used most of the same design as the Mark Two but Davros found a different power source for them.    Mark Two used static electricity.  Mark Three relied on solar power (or, quite possibly, psycho-kinetic energy - or a combination of the two).       

            

There is one other important snippet of dialogue that we get in Part Six of Genesis that also helps to reconcile some of the continuity issues.    The Doctor makes an assumption that he has set the Daleks back a good thousand years or so.   It seems almost absurd that the Doctor can make such an assumption - but he does understand the Daleks better than anyone.   So we should take him at face value.  

            

Let's assume that the millennium he speaks of takes place entirely with Mark Threes remaining in the bunker.   Given that they are in a facility designed for humans rather than Daleks, it would take some time for them to even adapt the technology around them to work for Daleks rather than Kaleds.    Once they've adapted the technology, however, they start digging themselves' out of the bunker.   But all this adaptation and burrowing takes years to properly accomplish.   

            

At the end of Genesis of the Daleks, we get the impression that there is a fair amount of Thal survivors.   That they have banded together with the Mutants of the Wasteland and will probably try to rebuild what's left of their society now that the Thousand Year War is definitely over.   The Mark Threes, as we've just said, take several years before they can emerge again.   This gives the Thals and the Mutants some time to reconstruct their society.   The emerging Dalek force, quite small in comparison to the Thal/Mutant community, see how outnumbered they are and immediately descend back into their bunker.   

            

While, the Mark Three Daleks, themselves', are too few (there is, to all appearances, only a handful of them at the end of Genesis).   They repair their incubation chambers and set about building an army.   They also expand their bunker into a huge underground base.   The Thals and the Mutants have moved to another part of Skaro and don't even notice this development occurring.  So several more years pass as the Mark Threes build themselves' up.   

            

More than likely, there was also a small amount of Kaleds kicking around during all this time and they have created a tiny colony of their own.  They are also thriving on another part of the planet far away from everyone.   But they are keeping an eye on the Thals and the Mutants - seeing that the two only seem to be getting along so well.    If nothing else, the Thals seem greatly intent upon remaining distinct from the Mutants.   Within the colony they are building up - there is a fair amount of racial segregation.   Thals stay with Thals and Mutants with Mutants.   They only cooperate with each other on the most basic of levels.         

            

Eventually, enough disagreements started happening between the Thals and the Mutants.   Seeing this problem, the Kaleds choose to band with the Mutants and create a proper nation of their own.    Not wanting to repeat the mistakes of the Thals, this new alliance re-christens themselves' as "Dals".    Distinction between Kaled and Mutant is lost and they are a stronger people for it.     

            

Of course, animosity now begins to grow between the Thals and Dals.  Technology begins to advance, too.   The neutron bomb is eventually developed and the two cultures experience the equivalent of a Cold War.   Both sides possess an endless arsenal of world-destroying missiles that are just waiting to be launched.    

            

Around this time, the Mark Threes re-emerge from their bunker to poke around a bit.    They have now amassed a formidable army and the bunker is now quite the underground base. It's taken quite some time to do this with their limited resources - several decades, at least.   But they feel ready to, at last, re-conquer the surface.   

 

By this point, however, the Mark Three Daleks see how close the Thals and the Dals are to an all-out war.    Again, they descend underground and choose to wait out that war.    No doubt, one side will wipe out the other and they will only need to fight one army instead of two.         

            

Quite to the Mark Threes' surprise, the Thals and Dals choose to use their Neutron Bombs against each other.    Once more, the surface of Skaro is devastated.    The Great Wait underground is prolonged for an even larger period of time as the radiation from the Neutron War must now clear before they can re-emerge.    This process takes another five hundred years or so.   

            

Which means the Doctor isn't far off in his estimation that the Daleks have been genuinely set back for a thousand years.  Had they not been buried in that bunker, they would have immediately returned to the surface and conquered Skaro quite quickly.  The Thals, Mutants and Kaleds that had survived the Thousand Year War were still too small in number and would've posed no real threat against even a handful of Daleks.   But being trapped underground for a few years set the Mark Threes back just enough to create a series of events that slowed down their overall quest to conquer the Universe. That whole series of events went on for nearly a thousand years.   As usual, it's a bit of a stretch - but we can get it all to work.   And it also allows us to make sense of the whole Kaled/Dal continuity error.         

            

The Neutron War wiped out most of the Thal and Dal population.   The survivors were suffering greatly from radioactive contamination.   Both species began to mutate.   The Thals, of course, eventually mutated Full Circle.   But not so with the Dals.   Inter-breeding with a race already influenced by mutation meant that they would evolve differently after the catastrophe.    They would turn into the slug-like creatures that Davros had first engineered those many years ago.    Vaguely recalling Davros' theories, the Dals look back into his works.  While most of his research was kept secret and could not be recovered - some of his work was much more public knowledge.   This included most of his findings regarding the Mark Two Travel Machines.    As the Dals tried to re-build a civilization after the Neutron War, they used Davros' Mark Two designs to secure a future of some sort for themselves'.    They built a version of Dalek reliant upon static electricity and began to place the more advanced versions of their mutation into them.  Their future was now secure and they continued to build a city for their new Dalek form to dwell within.  

            

The remaining Thals, however, had moved out to a more remote part of the planet where there was still some fertile land for them to work.  But the move came at a sacrifice. Not a lot of technology was made available to them in that new location.  So as the Daleks bred in their City and continued to become more and more advanced, the Thals stayed close to nature and maintained a fairly primitive lifestyle. They also became extreme pacifists.  

            

And now, the events of The Daleks take place. And while it looks like our Mark Twos are done for by the end of this particular battle, close to a thousand years have now passed since Genesis of the Daleks.   Those nasty solar-powered Mark Threes have waited out the radiation and are finally ready to properly re-emerge onto the surface and begin their plans for conquest.   

            

One of the first things the Mark Threes do is discover the abandoned Dalek City.   They take advantage of their find.   Certain adaptations are made to the Mark Twos to make them more mobile.   They're given little receptor dishes so that power can be transmitted to them.    And while they are probably considered an inferior model of Dalek - the Mark Threes are still a relatively small army and every single soldier is needed to expand the Empire. 

            

No doubt, a great clash between Daleks and Thals occurred on Skaro at this time.   We can't say for sure what happened in that battle - but we get the impression that the Thals actually drove the Daleks off the planet.    The Daleks formed a space fleet of some sort and went off to conquer the Galaxy.  The Thals probably ignored the Dalek menace once it left their world and only started to decide to do something about the Dalek Spacefleet some great time later.  

            

FIXING CONTINUITY GLITCHES:

THE DOUBLE TIMELINE: EXPLAINING THE CONUNDRUM OF THE SECOND DOCTOR

The Second Doctor, lovingly portrayed by actor Patrick Throughton, became a bit of a problem during his return appearances in the 80s. No one was upset with the actor when he reprised his role in both The Five Doctors and The Two Doctors, but we were just a little bit bothered with the writers (only a bit, though - cause it's hard to begrudge Terrance Dicks or Robert Holmes!). By no means did we think either of these beloved scribes had written particularly bad stories, but they did commit a greater sin. They got some really important continuity wrong. In fact, aside from the "Dating the UNIT stories" debate, this is probably the next biggest continuity glitch that has ever occurred in the show.

As Dicks and Holmes were writing their respective scripts, they had both forgotten that during the Second Doctor's era - his origins were still a mystery. Only in his final dieing moments is it revealed that he is a Time Lord who who ran off in a stolen TARDIS. By the time this information is shared, he is very firmly captured by his people and about to be sentenced to exile and regeneration. There is no real oppurtunity for Doctor Two to go out and travel some more. He is doomed.

And yet, when we see him in The Five and Two Doctors, this particular incarnation is speaking quite freely about the Time Lords and his fate at their hands. He is even undertaking missions for them. All of which would seem to be impossible. When his stories were being made in the 60s, Throughton's Doctor had no open association with the Time Lords. If he had made contact with them before his final story, they would've inflicted the same fate on him as they did in The War Games. But the Second Doctor that we see in the 80s stories seems to be radically different from the one we watched during his adventures in the 60s.

Is there any way we can reconcile these discrepancies? The Discontinuity Guide, a wonderful work of non-fiction that was published in the 90s (if it's not in your collection, you need to find it), does a great job of fixing the problem. It proposes the concept of a "Season 6b". The basic idea of the theory is that the Celestial Intervention Agency (or CIA, for short) was watching the Doctor's trial and pulled him out of it just before he was about to be regenerated. They made a deal with him - he would be granted his freedom to roam the Universe but he would need to undertake missions for them from time-to-time. The concept works great and gets the whole incongruity to gel. It's the theory that I tend to stick with.

But before The Discontinuity Guide was published, I had formulated a theory of my own. One that works even better in light of things that we've now seen in the New Series. And while I still agree more with the notion of a Season 6b, I thought it might be fun to share my own pet theory, here:

During Episode One of The Three Doctors, we see the Chancellor and the Lord President on Gallifrey looking at an event from the Second Doctor's timestream on a scanner screen. They pluck him out from that event and bring him to the present where he starts working with his third incarnation. The sequence we see on the screen is not from a previous Second Doctor story. It looks a bit like it's from The War Games but it's not - they filmed entirely new footage. I suggest that this was "an unseen adventure". A story that was never televised that took place while he was travelling with Jamie and Victoria. Probably somewhere near the end of Season Five.

Once the Second and Third Doctor are united, we see them enter into a sort of mental communion in which the Third Doctor gives the Second Doctor a full update on the situation. This is one of the most significant events that helps form my theory. Doctor Three lets his predecessor learn his entire future. He's not just letting him see the current crisis, he's letting him learn all about the events that would lead up to it. He might even be doing this on purpose with the hope that he can meddle in his own past and change the outcome of those events.

Which is exactly what happens. The Time Lords are not aware that the Two Doctors entered into this psychic conference with each other. They erase the Second Doctor's memories of the Omega Crisis when he returns to his proper timeline, but they don't erase the memories his third incarnation implanted. The Second Doctor is now sitting somewhere near the end of Season Five with a knowledge of what is going to happen to him shortly. Being the anarchistic fellow that he is, he makes an attempt to change his own future.

His boldest step is to leave Jamie and Victoria behind at the end of this unseen adventure that we witnessed a fragment of in The Three Doctors. He doesn't intend to leave them there forever. He wants to go out into Time and Space and actually get good at steering the TARDIS. Only then, will he go back and get them. A properly steerable TARDIS will mean he can keep travelling with his companions but avoid certain adventures that he knows he must not have. But he also knows that altering his timeline like this can be dangerous business. He'd rather not put his friends at risk as he first undertakes the decision. Only once he sees that he can really control things will he allow Jamie and Victoria re-join him.

So, for a while, the Second Doctor travels alone. He starts developing the ability to steer his erratic time vehicle a bit accurately but not quite well enough to go back and get Jamie and Victoria, yet. It may be sometime during this part of his life that he does have a fight with the Terrible Zodin. We don't know much about his relationship with her - but it may have happened, here. Eventually, however, he does arrive on Earth in the 80s and reads about his old friend the Brigadier in an article in The Times. This inspires him to pop into yesterday and visit him. The visit should be relatively safe as he has no intention of bringing the Brig on board the TARDIS. Just a quick hop back to say hi to him.

For once, he's able to steer the TARDIS properly and he joins Brigadier Alistair Gordon Lethbridge-Stewart for the UNIT reunion. But since he sees no evidence in the article in The Times that he was at the event, he chooses to visit the whole thing as discreetly as possible. After he arrives, we hear the Doctor claiming to be "bending the rules a bit" to be there. He remains pretty non-specific about how he is altering the Laws of Time, but this could be what he's alluding to. That he's actually actively trying to change his own future.

Of course, when he first sees Jamie and Zoe in the Tower of Rassilon, he thinks it might be possible that he is witnessing some sort of "echo" from a parallel reality. Could his timelines still be intermingling a bit? He's not certain so he doesn't want to do anything to harm them. But then he takes a better look at them. They seem older than they were when they were travelling with him. So if they are from that alternate timeline, they would've had the experiences they had during The War Games and would've been sent back to their own time and had most of their memories of him erased. Yet this version of Jamie and Zoe seem far too familiar with him. So he knows that they are illusions and dispels them.

This explains, of course, how the Doctor is able to know that Jamie and Zoe shouldn't know who he is anymore. Even though their memories would've been erased during a moment in his own timeline where it would've been impossible for him to go out and start travelling again. A bit convoluted, of course. But then, most fan theories that are fixing continuity glitches are.

The Doctor continues travelling on his own for a bit and gets better at steering the TARDIS. In his pursuits to improve his navigating skills, he actually ends up doing a bit of re-decorating and a newer version of the console is installed. Finally, he decides it's safe to go back and get Jamie and Victoria. He was hoping to come back to the exact point in time where he left them, but he only does so well. He's a few years off and they are now a bit older. However, they are still willing to climb back aboard the TARDIS and travel with him some more.

So, off they go. The Doctor appears to have effectively changed his own future and is back to his usual antics: travelling with friends and getting into trouble. But such actions do still create ripples in the Causal Nexus. They are subtle but they do not escape the eyes of certain Time Lords in high places. Members of the Celestial Intervention Agency detect the time disturbance the Doctor has created by altering his future and trace things back to him. They find him and confront him on what he's done. They threaten to bring his actions to the attention of the High Council unless he's willing to strike a deal with them. Knowing the Doctor could make an excellent operative, they promise to keep their silence if the Doctor will undertake missions for them from time-to-time. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, the Doctor accepts their conditions.  This latest addition to the CIA is given his first task: confront his old friend Dastari about the Kartz/Reimer time travel experiments.

Victoria doesn't like the sound of any of this and asks if she can be dropped off somewhere where she can pursue an interest she is developing in graphology. Wholly confident that he can pick her back up again, the Doctor complies. The CIA, however, notice the deviation in his course to let Victoria disembark and install a device in the console that will give them dual control of the TARDIS. Just to make sure he goes where he's meant to.  While such an action infuriates him, the Doctor still takes Jamie to Space Station J7 and they have a meeting with Dastari.

From here, of course, the events of The Two Doctors can logicallly ensue. The Sixth and Second Doctor have their adventure together and then both incarnations return to their own business. The Second Doctor goes back to pick up Victoria and the Sixth Doctor keeps arguing with Peri.

We can assume that Doctor Two continued travelling in this altered timeline for a while longer. He would still get sent on missions by the CIA once in a while but he would, mainly, just enjoy a whole new lease on life. Perhaps Victoria still left him and he and Jamie pick up Zoe. Or perhaps other companions were found. Who can say for sure? But, more than likely, the Doctor chose to openly avoid his confrontation with the War Lords. Knowing that if he did encounter them then this would lead to his exile.

This avoidance might have been his undoing. Perhaps the War Lords rose to such a power in the galaxy that the High Council of the Time Lords had to investigate them. Perhaps, in that investigation, they discovered the divergence the Doctor created in his own timeline. Alternatively, the disruption the Doctor was causing in Time may have just become too difficult to hide and it was, eventually, brought to the High Council's attention. Whatever the case may be, the Doctor was apprehended and the problem was corrected.

We're not sure exactly how they solved the problem, of course. But these are the Time Lords were talking about: they're pretty good at manipulating the Fourth Dimension. It may be that they just snatched the Doctor back up and put him on trial again and sent him into exile. That what he did when he was sent back to his timeline after The Three Doctors is now True Canon.  We would hate to think, though, that all those televised stories we saw in the latter part of the 60s were deleted from the Doctor's personal history (okay, maybe we wouldn't be so upset if The Space Pirates never happened!).  So it may be possible that the Time Lords arranged for both timelines to exist at the same time. That, somehow, both these realities exist together. That when the Doctor thinks back to the days of his second incarnation, he has two sets of memories. Perhaps, even key participants in both chronologies also remember two versions. Or, at least, they did for a bit. More than likely, poor old Jamie got his memories erased again when the High Council caught up with the Doctor a second time.

This idea of two different timelines existing concurrently might seem outlandish. But we recently witnessed something similiar with the Eleventh Doctor and his excursions on Trenzalore. In Name of the Doctor he very definitely visits the planet at a time after his death where the TARDIS is in a vicious state of disrepair. These events had to have happened in order for him to meet Clara and start travelling with her. But in Time of the Doctor, the outcome we see in Name of the Doctor is changed. He gets a whole new regeneration cycle and does not die on Trenzalore. But if that is the case, then how does Name of the Doctor happen? Again, it has to occur or the Doctor and Clara would never meet.

The answer, of course, is that Time Lords can allow their timeline to split like that once in a while if it has to. And then re-join, later, at an appropriate point. For a time, though, the Doctor's life actually travels along two paths at once.

In fact, this may have also happened at the end of the Trial of a Time Lord season. In one timeline, he goes off and has a bunch of adventures with Mel where they, eventually, fight the Vervoids. In another timeline, he and Mel leave the Space Station where the Doctor's trial took place and, a short while later, the Rani forces the TARDIS to crash and cause the Doctor to regenerate. This would explain why we still see him in the costume he was wearing during his actual trial in Time and the Rani rather than the costume he was wearing in Terror of the Vervoids.

Of course, a simpler explanation would be that the Doctor chose to change back into the outfit he wore during his trial after the events of Terror of the Vervoids. But I hate simple explanations.

So, up until Name and Time of the Doctor, we have not seen any televised evidence that the Doctor can have two timelines at once. Which made my theory of the Second Doctor's alternate timeline a bit more difficult to swallow. But in light of this new evidence, it could be entirely possible that the Doctor's timeline can split now and again and create these sort of complex paradoxes.  Given how complicated extensive time travelling can be, it's entirely possible that Time Lords can do these sort of things.

Or maybe it's just easier to believe in the Season 6b theory.

Yeah. It probably is....

BOOK OF LISTS: 

10 MOST PIVOTAL MOMENTS IN THE DOCTOR'S LIFE(VES)

            One of the many treats we received during the fiftieth anniversary season of Doctor Who was that intensely memorable opening sequence in The Name of the Doctor.  You know what I'm talking about: a brief peak back to "Gallifrey - a long time ago" where we watched that fateful moment where the First Doctor escaped with Susan in a rackety old TARDIS and started his adventures in Time And Space.   I think we can all agree that this was, without a doubt, the most important moment in the Time Lord's life.    Had he not made this all-important decision to forsake the ways of his people and go out into the Universe, we would never have had a show.  Or, at best, we would have had a far more boring one where the Doctor probably just caused some trouble in various Time Lord council meetings and was shouted down a bunch of times (a premise that I doubt would've lasted 50 years!).  

            But one of the most wonderful traits about this series is the fact that the Doctor's character does evolve and develop as the the show progresses.   So, while that brief sequence gave us a glimpse of the most pivotal moment in the Doctor's life, there are many more moments throughout the Classic and New Series where we see other significant decisions getting made that propel the lead character's destiny in all kinds of interesting directions.    Here, in chronological order, are the ten most pivotal moments in the Doctor's long and tangled history....

1. Making Amends with Barbara (The Brink of Disaster)

            For the first handful of episodes of Doctor Who, the Doctor isn't the nicest of fellows.   He seems very warm to his grandaughter but is most hostile towards her two school teachers that have been thrust upon him.   He argues constantly with her history teacher, Barbara Wright and actually seems to be in a power struggle with her science professor, Ian Chesterton.

            All this tension comes to a climax in the hastily-inserted third story The Edge of Destruction. Where a fault in the TARDIS' circuitry actually starts getting its passengers to behave very erratically.   And within all these strange motives, paranoia begins to flare.    The Doctor and the two teachers make all kinds of accusations back and forth and it really seems like they are about to become the most hated of enemies. 

            But then the problem in the TARDIS is sorted out and everyone cools back down.  And towards the end of that second episode (titled: The Brink of Disaster) the Doctor chooses to finally make peace with his two unexpected companions by offering a legitimately sincere apology to Barbara for his unacceptable behaviour.   In this moment, the Doctor loses much of the cold and selfish exterior we've been seeing so far and starts to really let some of his hidden charm shine through.    More importantly, he starts to allow himself to become attached to someone else besides Susan.   Basically, he starts letting humans affect him.   This will, forever, change his attitude.  

2. The Trial of a Time Lord (Episode 10 of The War Games)

            Next to his actual escape from Gallifrey, this is probably the most important moment of them all for the Doctor: Gallifrey finally catches up with him.  From hereon in, he is no longer slipping between the cracks amongst his own culture.   The Time Lords are now aware of who he is and what he's up to.    The nature of his journeys will never be the same.   Firstly, they will actually end for a while as he serves out his exile.  He will struggle constantly to escape his imprisonment on 20th Century Earth and fail again and again.   Eventually, he'll be allowed brief moments of freedom to perform specific missions for the Time Lords.  Even after the exile is revoked, we get the impression that the Time Lords are watching him more closely, now.   Especially since he is still, occasionally, maneuvered into sticky situations on their behalf.  Even three regenerations later, his people are still observing him intently as he stumbles upon one of their scandals and is placed on trial, yet again.   It seems he will never escape their all-pervading stare.     

            The decision to ask his peers to help him against the evil War Lords has far-reaching consequences for the rest of his travels.   From this point onwards, he will have to deal with the influence of his own people and the ongoing restrictions they will impose upon his freedom. 

3.  Freedom!   At last!    (Episode Four of The Three Doctors)

            The tenth anniversary tale packs a huge wallop in the Doctor's personal life.    He not only gets to know himself a whole lot better (and, oddly enough, doesn't seem to get on well with his other personaes) but he also meets one of his greatest boyhood heroes.    On top of all that, he manages to save both Gallifrey and the Universe, itself.  

            But none of that is as important to him as those last moments of Episode Four.   Past incarnations have been sent back to their proper timelines.  Supporting characters have filed off to their own business.   Jo Grant has had a nice heart-to-hearts with Doctor Three.   And then, suddenly, we hear the sound of materialisation and witness a familiar-looking circuit appearing on the time rotor.    As a thanks for all he's done, the Time Lords have revoked his exile.   He's free to roam the universe again.    It almost seems that the Doctor's love for travel grows stronger from this point, onwards.   Not just in the Pertwee incarnation, but in all subsequent portrayals.    Having been starved of what he enjoys most for several years, the Doctor appreciates his ability to go anywhere in Time and Space all the more once his punishment has been rescinded.  

4. Meeting his old Mentor, once more, but having no scarf.... (Episode 6 of Planet Of Spiders)

            A moment similiar to the apology to Barbara.   As he re-encounters the old Hermit that used to mentor him back when he was a young Gallifreyan, the Doctor realizes he must make a major change in his attitude.   In a brief exchange with his old teacher, he comes to terms with the fact that his love of travel also comes with a greed for knowledge.   And that his desire to stick his nose into everything and know as much as possible can have serious consequences.   What was meant to be the harmless acquisition of a beautiful sapphire has turned into a major disaster that could unleash the most dangerous of meglamaniacs upon the Universe.  

            Before this moment, the Doctor always seemed to be running away from accountability.    Yes, he saved lives and helped people - but he also delighted in being irresponsible.   But his encounter with his mentor sets him straight and he takes responsibility for what he's done.   In so doing, Doctor Three is thrown upon the funeral pyre.   

            As we watch Doctor Four take over, we do see more instances of him discussing the duties he has as a Time Lord - even one that has renounced the ways of his people. In the New Series, this trend continues.  The occassional speech is declared about his obligations even though he believes there is no one left from his society to stand in judgement over him.  That whole outlook seems to begin during that fateful discussion in the first few minutes of the final episode of Planet of Spiders.

5. Accidental Presidency (Episode Two of The Deadly Asssassin)

            What was meant to be just a little legal trickery to postpone his imminent execution ends up affecting his life for several incarnations.  Having being framed as the murderer of an outgoing Lord President of the Time Lords, the Doctor is looking for any way to buy himself more time so he can find out who the real culprit is.    Once again, he is facing a Gallifreyan courtroom.   Having researched Time Lord legalities, he finds a loophole that will keep him alive for just that bit longer.    He nominates himself to become the next Lord President.  

            As the events of Deadly Assassin ensue, we discover that the only other candidate for the position is the actual assassin the Doctor has been looking for.   As the killer is brought to justice, the Doctor is faced with the most ironic of fates.   By default, he holds the highest position in his civilisation.   He has become Lord President of the High Council of Time Lords.  

            While this status sometimes works to his detriment (ie: Chancellor Flavia trying to force him to stay on Gallifrey at the end of The Five Doctors), the Doctor does use his title to his advantage, now and again.   The most obvious example was in The Invasion of Time where he returns to Gallifrey to receive his coronation and also thwart a combined Vardan/Sontaran invasion.   But we see other instances, like in Timelash, where he declares his title to the attacking Bandrils in hopes that it will stop them.   

            Ultimately, the Doctor's neglect of his Presidential Duties caused him to lose the title during his Sixth Incarnation.   But, for at least a century or two, he was the Grand Pooba of all Time Lords.   And that had to make him feel pretty special after serving that nasty exile only a few years earlier.   

6. Farewell to the Mouth On Legs (Episode Four of Ressurection of the Daleks)

            Again, a moment of harsh attitude change.  The Daleks are condemned to a strange toothpaste-spewing defeat at the hands of the Fifth Doctor.   Tegan Jovanka, his long-serving companion, suddenly turns to him and declares: "It's stopped being fun."   Tearfully, she bids him farewell and resumes her life in 1980s London (for the second time, actually).   

            Peter Davison is well-known for bringing a huge dose of vulnerability to his portrayal of the Doctor and we never see it more strongly than in the moment after Tegan leaves.    In a brief discussion with his other companion, Turlough, he pronounces that he "must mend his ways."  

            It seems, at first, to just be a reflective moment after losing an old friend.    But as subsequent incarnations start rolling on, we do see changes in the Doctor's attitude towards his enemies.   He becomes more pro-active and less merciful.   Even a bit more devious.   His darker side is emerging more and more.    Before this incident, the Doctor was more the sort of protagonist who just seems to stumble into trouble.   Afterwards, he seems to seek trouble out and stare it straight in the face.  He also seems to have more of an "eye for an eye" mentality.    Repaying evil with evil.    Some versions of him show this attitude more strongly than others (ie: Doctor Seven) - but it does seem to be his general approach after he loses Tegan.    Given some of the less-than-compassionate things that he's done, we must almost wonder if "mending his ways" was such a good choice to make that day.   

7. "Unlimitted Rice Pudding!"  (Episode One of Remembrance of the Daleks)

            Two incarnations later and the off-hand comment about mending his ways seems to reach its ultimate fruition.   For the first little while of his Seventh Life, the Doctor is more of a clown with just the slightest hints of a darker, more manipulative nature.    But then, as Doctor Who begins its Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Celebration, we start to see the claws come out.  

            Achieving such ominous titles as the Cosmic Chess Player, Time's Champion or The Oncoming Storm, the Seventh Doctor seems to openly declare war on the Evils of the Universe. In the opening few minutes of Remembrance of the Daleks, we see that he is not accidentally visitting Earth in 1963 and just happens to run into the Daleks.   He's there on purpose.   He has a plan.  

            Yeah, we've seen the Doctor walk in with a pre-set gameplan before (Invasion of Time is a particularly good example of this strategy), but we've never seen him with one so thorough.    Nor have we seen him execute a plan so visciously.   The man is, basically, out to destroy an entire solar system so that he can thwart the machinations of his foes.   One must admit: that's pretty harsh.  

            In Remembrance, the Doctor develops a very serious "edge" to his personality.   An edge that emerges consistently throughout the rest of his Seventh Incarnation and continues to reveal itself to a lesser or greater extent in several subsequent regenerations.   Yes, a decision was made way back in the Days of Five.   But the execution of that decision happens here.   The Doctor has become downright powerful.  And a little dark and forboding on top of that.

            Some even believe that this particular decision was so monumental that it actually became the first shot fired in the Great Time Wars.   How's that for impact?

8.  Physician Healing Thyself (Night of the Doctor)

            Just when we think the Doctor can't get any darker, a seven minute web-isode takes the character to an even greater extreme!  

            Trying to bounce back from all the cruelty of his Seventh Personae, Doctor Eight does seem to be a much more merciful manifestation of our title character.   Just look at how he tries to reach out and save the Master as he's being sucked into the Eye of Harmony.  And he does this gesture after that rotten renegade Time Lord has spent the whole story trying steal away his remaining bodies.   If that doesn't say "new-found sense of compassion" - then nothing does!

            And that sense of mercy seems to persist throughout the unseen adventures of this incarnation.    Even as the Time Wars begin, he refuses to participate in them.   As important as it may be for the Daleks to lose, he just sees the whole event as something he cannot involve himself with.  That fighting in the Time Wars will reduce him to the same level as his enemies.    Instead, he chooses to remain at the fringes of the battlefield - trying to help the fallen in any way he can.   

            But that strategy, ultimately, becomes his undoing as he finds himself back on the Planet Karn.  With a mere four minutes of life left, he must make the most crucial of decisions: fight in the Time Wars or let the Universe die with him.   In despair, he decides to be "the Doctor no more" and the secret War Doctor is born.  

            A decision that rocked continuity to its very foundations and revealed a side so dark to the Doctor that even the Valeyard would feel a bit inadequate.  This is probably the Doctor's blackest moment.    It is here that he stops believing in himself and becomes all that he hates.   A decision that will haunt him for multiple incarnations...

9.  Time Lord Victorious (Waters of Mars)

            Having dealt with all kinds of levels of survivor guilt, the Doctor finds himself approaching the end of his Tenth Incarnation.   The various companions he's had since the fateful day he ended the Time Wars have helped to heal him from his self-inflicted wounds.   But the weight of those companions ending their travels with him has become too heavy.   It's not like the old days where he could move on from their departures and find someone new.   It all seems to hurt too much, now.   And so, the Doctor takes his Lonely God mantle to its fullest extent: he chooses to travel alone.  

            But as Donna points out - it's not good for him to be alone.    He no longer has someone to tell him when to stop.   And so, as his loneliness consumes him more and more, he starts questioning those duties he must maintain as a Time Lord.  Who is left to punish him should he start breaking the rules?   Why must he continue to suffer because of his respect for the Laws of Time?  

            And from the Lonely God, the Time Lord Victorious briefly emerges.  As he lands on the famous Bowie Base established on Mars in 2059, the Doctor knows that he has encountered a Fixed Point in Time. That he can do nothing to interfere with the tragic events that are about to ensue.   But, just this once, he decides not to adhere to his all-important principals and attempts what is probably one of the greatest offenses a Time Lord can commit:  he chooses to change a Fixed Point.    To make things happen the way he'd like to see them turn out rather than the way they are meant to.  

            While it was scary to see him turn into a warrior in Point #8 - it is far more frightening to see him, here.   In this case, he has turned into a meglamaniac.    And if it wasn't for the suicidal decision of Adelaide Brooke, he may have stayed that way.   For just the briefest of instances, the Doctor becomes the villain he has defeated so many times before.  

            A short while later, the Doctor regenerates. We see a change in his grieving process over the Time Wars after that. A change so heavy that his Tenth Self is aghast to see how he has “moved on” during Day of the Doctor. But the poor choice he made at the Bowie Base has shown him just how dangerous he can be when he doesn’t do something to lay all that angst to rest. The experience was a crucial tipping point in his attitude. He never wants to go that far again and adjusts his attitude accordingly to avoid it.

10.  Not Quite the Time War We Thought it Was... (Day of the Doctor)

            No doubt, some of you have looked at these last few points and remarked to yourself:  "Why hasn't he included Pressing the Big Red Button that ends the Time Wars?!"    And, if it hadn't been for the Fiftieth Anniversary Special, it would have been Point #9.  But Day of the Doctor sheds new light on that particular moment and shows that the decision made on that day wasn't quite as it seems. 

            After having made multiple decisions since his Fifth Incarnation that have taken him down a darker and darker path, the Doctor achieves the ultimate triumph in this tale.   He returns to the Doctor he once was: the Man Who Finds a Better Way. 

            The tremendous emotional toll of the last seven seasons of the New Series is reversed in an instant as three different incarnations of the Doctor stand in some lonely alien barn - ready to initiate the most painful choice he has ever made.   And then, in a stroke of genius, the Doctor realizes things don't have to happen the way they do.   In the same way that he avoided his future without actually changing the established order of events at the end Series Six, he now does the same thing with his past.   To all intents and purposes, the galaxy believes that the Doctor unleashed The Moment and wiped out the Time Lords and the Daleks during the Fall of Arcadia.    But now, he knows differently.    Somewhere, in a pocket universe, Gallifrey Stands.   

            A whole new direction is presented in the Doctor's life.   Thanks to the decision of this day, he has truly begun his long journey home.

           

           

            

FIXING CONTINUITY GLITCHES:

This is one of several pieces I submitted to a fan publication that wanted me to write something for them. They asked for outlandish theories and this is, easilly, one of the most over-contrived explanations one could provide for the notorious "half-human issue" that gets raised in the 96 Telemovie. I don't even, necessarilly, believe in this idea. But I hope you'll find it to be a fun way to look at the whole problem.

The Seventh Doctor's Fob Watch:  More Than Meets the Eye
(No it isn't a Transformer - it's something just as cool, though)


The fob watch - or "pocket watch" as it is sometimes referred to - has been a favorite accessory for the Doctor throughout most of his lives.  Particularly back in the Classic Who days.   With the exception of the Second and Fifth Incarnations (and, including the Eighth), we've seen all the versions of the Doctor from the Old Series carrying this particular type of timepiece at some point during their existence. In the New Series, the Eleventh started sporting one during the later part of his era.
     
      Some Doctors, like the Sixth, wore one quite faithfully throughout his entire tenure.   Even after his mishap on Necros, we assume that he finds a new watch quite quickly as we see him using one in his very next story. His successor, the Seventh Doctor also wore a fob watch at all times.  Throughout most of his era, he clasped his to the lapel of his blazer and tucked it into his breast pocket. But when we saw him in the 96 Telemovie, he had shifted it to the vest pocket like so many other Doctors before him had worn it.
 
      As his stories progressed, we got the impression that Doctor Seven’s fob watch did more than just tell the time.   In Silver Nemesis, it appears to have a very sophisticated alarm system that can actually analyze the time period it's in and alert the Doctor to an impending doom.   In Survival, it even seems capable of doing low-level scans for him.    In much the same way that the First Doctor's ring had some very special properties, the Seventh Doctor's pocket watch appears to have some unique abilities too.
 
      As we move past Doctor Seven and into Series Three of New Who, we learn that a Time Lord's fob watch can be even more special.  That it is a vital component of a Chameleon Arch:   a special piece of technology that fits on a Time Lord's head and can re-write his biology.  It not only gives him a new identity that he believes to be true, but it actually changes him into a new species.  At the same time, the device has an attachment that can store his essence in a special receptacle that looks exactly like a pocket watch with crazy concentric circles on it.  When the watch is opened in the Time Lord's presence, the essence is released back into him and he reverts back to his true form.   Whatever false identity the Time Lord created through the Chameleon Arch is erased.   But the memory of all the things he did in that identity is retained.   We saw both the Doctor and the Master use Chameleon Arches to facilitate certain plans they had made to escape and hide themselves' from their enemies.    In both cases, those weird-looking fob watches were integral to the schemes they had hatched.   Without that receptacle to store their true identity in, they would never have been able to return to their true selves' at the proper opportunity.

       We saw a slight variation on Chameleon Arch technology at the end of Last of the Time Lords and the beginning of The End of Time - Part 1.   As a means of exacting a resurrection after his death, the Master sealed his essence in a special ring that also seemed to have some weird runes on it.    It was a very clever ruse to ensure that he could survive after a death that might completely destroy his body.   In fact, we might now safely guess that he used something similar to survive his incineration at the end of Planet of Fire.   Although, how he was able to create the resurrection ritual that we saw in End of Time on the planet Sarn demands some serious creative thinking.    Which means it's still difficult to piece together exactly how the Master survived to return, once more, in Mark of the Rani. But, thanks to those stories in Series Three and the 2009 Specials, we have a slightly clearer idea of things.  

      But now, let's go back to the Seventh Doctor.  Well known as the slyest, most conspiring incarnation we've ever seen, this version of the Doctor was obsessed with the Great Games he was playing with the Universe.  Affectionately dubbed:  "The Cosmic Chess Player", he was constantly creating complex masterplans to advance the Greater Good. None of the other incarnations before or since went to such extravagant lengths to execute their battles against their enemies.   Yes, other incarnations have been a bit crafty and a little manipulative.   Some have even been a bit pro-active.   But none go as far as the Seventh Doctor went.  

     Which leads me to believe that Doctor Seven might have taken out an extra insurance policy just in case one of his masterplans went wrong and he actually ended up getting diced up in the cross-fire of some battle he'd intentionally arranged.  And since he was so conniving, this insurance policy would be a fairly convoluted one.  

      I suggest that the special fob watch that could already do some extra tricks could also carry his Time Lord essence in it.  Just like the fob watches we would later see in Series Three of New Who.   In fact, it is my belief that Doctor Seven's fob watch worked more like the Master's ring.  It's there as an emergency if his current body should get destroyed before it can regenerate.    It's entirely possible that the Doctor constructed a special "resurrection chamber" inside the TARDIS for just such an emergency.   Being as sneaky as he is, the Time Lord may have even put a post-hypnotic suggestion in Ace's mind (or any other companion that may have followed her during those notorious "wilderness years" when Doctor Who went off the air) to take the fob watch from his body if he should die and bring it to that special room in the TARDIS where he could then be called back into existence.

      When you think about it, this is not something we would put past this particular incarnation of the Doctor.   Again, he was truly obsessed with winning his games of cosmic chess and was not afraid to hatch the most complex of schemes to do so.   So a special fob watch that could resurrect him in an extreme emergency is not entirely far-fetched.

      But why am I going to such great lengths to postulate all this?   Like all hardcore Who fans, I'm trying to get a very nasty piece of conflicting canon to fit!

     Okay, it's the beginning of the 96 Telemovie.    The Seventh Doctor is now travelling alone. But he's still carrying that fob watch on him and it's carrying his special back up plan in it.  He goes to pick up the Master's remains from his trial on Skaro.    We learn, of course, that the Master has sealed his own essence inside this strange green goo that can take on the form of a snake.   Whether or not this is also some form of Time Lord Chameleon Arch technology at work, who can say for sure?   My guess is it's some other alien technology that works in a similar way to a Chameleon Arch.  The Master would do this because if he used Time Lord technology, the Doctor would instantly recognize what he was up to and take measures to stop him.   Instead, the Doctor's pretty sure that he really is just stowing the Master's remains and bringing it to Gallifrey (he's still a little suspicious, of course - but not enough!).    

      Shortly after bringing the Master's urn aboard the TARDIS, the strange goo that has the Master's essence in it breaks loose and immediately fuses itself with the TARDIS console. The console starts sparking nastily and the time ship crashes to Earth. Why does the Master actually cause this to happen? How does this relate to his plans of stealing the Doctor's remaining lives?  It doesn't actually seem to make sense.

      This is because I believe the TARDIS' crash landing was not actually part of the Master's plan but rather the result of his plans backfiring.  The Master enters the TARDIS console so that he can access the Chameleon Arch and transfer his essence into the Doctor's body through it.   However, because the Doctor is using Chameleon Arch technology in a way it's not intended and the Master's own container for his essence is only so compatible with Time Lord technology, some kind of weird "short circuit" occurs. The Master’s essence is rejected from the Chameleon Arch programming in the most vicious of manners. Causing the whole TARDIS to strongly react from the rejection and crash land on Earth.  

      At the same time, this short circuiting of the Chameleon Arch affects the Doctor's fob watch.   A human identity that is kept in the system should the Doctor ever want to disguise himself as one (which, of course, he eventually does several incarnations later) is downloaded into the watch.
Our TARDIS now crash-lands in San Francisco in 1999.   The Doctor is shot down by gangsters.  The Master's gooey essence scampers off to try to hatch some new scheme to steal his rival's body.  Chang Lee rushes the Doctor to the hospital, unknowingly taking the Master along for the ride so that he can eventually inhabit Bruce's body for a time.   Could it be that, as he lies unconscious in the ambulance, Doctor Seven already sees that he's having a lot of trouble inducing his regeneration?   Somewhere in his subconscious mind, he's trying to telepathically reach out to his fob watch. Fearful that his body is about to die, he wants to store the most recent version of his identity in the watch so that he doesn’t lose any memories during a forthcoming resurrection.
       
      No doubt, he's designed the watch to be telepathically, as well as physically accessible. There would be any number of times when he would want to open the watch and not use it to store his essence. He probably has a special subroutine set up so that he can only access those properties of the watch through sheer concentration.  Something his complex Time Lord mind could do even when it's at rest. Of course, the watch does something he didn’t expect.  Again, the Master caused that weird short-circuiting in the Chameleon Arch and he's now receiving human biological and mental patterns rather than sending his Time Lord essence into the watch.  

     So when that regeneration finally takes place later within the morgue - some human essence accessed from the fob watch while in the ambulance gets infused into the whole process and voila!    We have an Eighth Doctor who is half-human.  

     Think about it: the Doctor never claims his partial human lineage before or after this story.   It's only ever mentioned here.   Chameleon Arch technology is the best way to explain this.    It is, after all, capable of re-writing Time Lord biology - which would account for the Master seeing a human retinal structure as he looks at the Doctor through the Eye of Harmony.   It's also capable of instilling false memories.   Which is why the Doctor is suddenly claiming to Proffessor Wagg that he has a human mother when he's never mentionned this before or since.   This is all the result of Doctor Seven's attempts to access the fob watch when he's not fully conscious.   The short-circuit caused by the Master has messed up the process. He didn’t store his identity in the watch – he received a new one. But it’s just a partial re-write. Most of who the Doctor is remains intact. There’s just some extra human stuff added to the mix.   Which is why this new incarnation is claiming to be half human and even has some biological human traits.  It's all the result of the Seventh Doctor's and the Master's over-contrived plans not quite going the way they wanted.

      It's a bit of a mess, really.  In much the same way as Doctor Eight claiming to be half-human creates a bit of a mess of established continuity.   So, in that sense, this wonderful over-contrived theory fits the scenario quite nicely.  

      Once the Master's back-up plan of using the Eye of Harmony to steal the Doctor's remaining lives is also ruined, Doctor Eight is able to get a bit of downtime.   As he sits in the TARDIS console room after making some repairs - he clues in that something is wrong.  Perhaps, the needle flicking on the record player is the TARDIS' way of giving the Doctor a clue that things are amiss.  Whatever the case, he realizes his claims to being half-human don't make sense.   He's gotten his things back from Chang Lee. Which, of course, includes the fob watch.    The Doctor puts two and two together and sees what's happened.   He repairs the Chameleon Arch, plugs the fob watch into it and plops the whole contraption onto his head.   All his human biology and false memories are purged and he's a proper Time Lord again.   More than likely, that particular fob watch is now just a fob watch again.   He clasps it back onto his vest and continues on with his adventures, deciding he never wants to use the watch as an emergency back-up plan ever again.   After all, look at the trouble it caused him!

      Again, if we take this whole crazy idea and apply it to the situation - it is one of the better ways to explain this whole "half-human continuity issue".    It's all because the Seventh Doctor's fob watch was way more than it appeared to be.   Because the Master didn't know this, when his own sinister plot to commandeer his greatest enemy's remaining incarnations is employed - it creates a massive backfiring for both of them!    
     
      And for a brief period in time, the Doctor is genuinely half-human.   On his mother's side, of course!