(I mean, someone who likes DBZ and Death Gate and Doctor Who has got to be an incredibly rare combination!)
Hee - but how can you not like DBZ? (it's funny, in Japan pretty much everyone our age likes DBZ. In a nostalgic 'fun when we were kids' way, but still...people who never read manga or watch anime still know DBZ. It really was that big here - still is, I guess!) I think that's why I'm going all 'you're interrogating this from the wrong perspective!' with you & Dr. Who - I'm used to you understanding the allure of things that, er, normal people are blind to, so the divergence is jarring! But there is something relieving about it, too, I suppose (makes it easier to sort out which bits of brain are mine ^^)
because we *know* there are a few times when he's crossed timelines with himself; like getting Martha's attention in the first Martha episode before he's actually, officially met her yet, or meeting Sally Sparrow for the first time after she's already helped him against the Weeping Angels.
Ah, but both of those times seem to be operating in a 'fixed timeline' universe (such as what's in Gargoyles. It's the most logical way to handle timetravel, but can be difficult from a storytelling perspective because it's restrictive). Martha sees the Doctor before meeting him in the hospital; the paradox would be created if he didn't go back for the parlor trick. Ditto with Sally Sparrow. There's no paradox there. But if he met his 70-year-old friend, then went back and met him again at 40, that version of the 70-yr-old wouldn't exist anymore, and I don't know what would happen...it's what Jack means, when he's talking about waiting for a version of the Doctor who would coincide with him (that is, it's a tragedy that he didn't meet the Doctor say during the werewolf jaunt; but then Jack wouldn't be there for Torchwood. So he couldn't have met the Doctor, because he didn't, which is why the Doctor's not terribly apologetic about it.)
Fixed timeline isn't how Doctor Who always operates, obviously, since he seems able to change histories sometimes (...at least he says he does, such as stating that the 4th Bountiful Human Empire is off-course. Now that I think about it, does he actually ever change history that we know of? As in things happen differently the second time through? Other than "Father's Day" and that was a right mess.) Especially since alt universes exist. The Doctor implies the universe is flexible, since he compares it to the malleable timeline of "Back to the Future"...but it's not something he mucks around with willingly.
...No, I haven't spent hours & hours discussing various time travel systems with my brother late at night, why do you ask? XD
I am so curious how Donna & the Doctor will shake out, I think it'll be great to have someone who will call him "Martian boy" and smack him when he needs it (and much as I love the Doctor, I will admit he needs it sometimes.) And I hope to heck she doesn't fall for him. I'm all for her going after potential boyfriend candidates wherever they go (and rejecting them as not worthy) while being totally oblivious to the Doctor being a man - would be good for him to get it from that side for once!
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Hee - but how can you not like DBZ? (it's funny, in Japan pretty much everyone our age likes DBZ. In a nostalgic 'fun when we were kids' way, but still...people who never read manga or watch anime still know DBZ. It really was that big here - still is, I guess!)
I think that's why I'm going all 'you're interrogating this from the wrong perspective!' with you & Dr. Who - I'm used to you understanding the allure of things that, er, normal people are blind to, so the divergence is jarring! But there is something relieving about it, too, I suppose (makes it easier to sort out which bits of brain are mine ^^)
because we *know* there are a few times when he's crossed timelines with himself; like getting Martha's attention in the first Martha episode before he's actually, officially met her yet, or meeting Sally Sparrow for the first time after she's already helped him against the Weeping Angels.
Ah, but both of those times seem to be operating in a 'fixed timeline' universe (such as what's in Gargoyles. It's the most logical way to handle timetravel, but can be difficult from a storytelling perspective because it's restrictive). Martha sees the Doctor before meeting him in the hospital; the paradox would be created if he didn't go back for the parlor trick. Ditto with Sally Sparrow. There's no paradox there. But if he met his 70-year-old friend, then went back and met him again at 40, that version of the 70-yr-old wouldn't exist anymore, and I don't know what would happen...it's what Jack means, when he's talking about waiting for a version of the Doctor who would coincide with him (that is, it's a tragedy that he didn't meet the Doctor say during the werewolf jaunt; but then Jack wouldn't be there for Torchwood. So he couldn't have met the Doctor, because he didn't, which is why the Doctor's not terribly apologetic about it.)
Fixed timeline isn't how Doctor Who always operates, obviously, since he seems able to change histories sometimes (...at least he says he does, such as stating that the 4th Bountiful Human Empire is off-course. Now that I think about it, does he actually ever change history that we know of? As in things happen differently the second time through? Other than "Father's Day" and that was a right mess.) Especially since alt universes exist. The Doctor implies the universe is flexible, since he compares it to the malleable timeline of "Back to the Future"...but it's not something he mucks around with willingly.
...No, I haven't spent hours & hours discussing various time travel systems with my brother late at night, why do you ask? XD
I am so curious how Donna & the Doctor will shake out, I think it'll be great to have someone who will call him "Martian boy" and smack him when he needs it (and much as I love the Doctor, I will admit he needs it sometimes.) And I hope to heck she doesn't fall for him. I'm all for her going after potential boyfriend candidates wherever they go (and rejecting them as not worthy) while being totally oblivious to the Doctor being a man - would be good for him to get it from that side for once!