Skip to main content

time travel - Why couldn't Clara see future incarnations past the "11th" doctor? 


From episode 239 "The Name of the Doctor"

Inside The Doctor's grave, we are shown a beam of light which is said to be "the scar tissue" of his journey through time. The Doctor describes the light as both his past and his future.




"My own personal time tunnel. All the days, even the ones that I, uh, even the ones that I haven't lived yet." - The Doctor



But after Clara travels down the time tunnel, and sees the forgotten incarnation, she says:



"But I never saw that one. I saw all of you. Eleven faces, all of them you! You're the eleventh Doctor!"



Why was she unable to see the Peter Capaldi doctor or any other Doctor that followed?


The best answer I was able to come up with, is that when you enter the light you have to start at the beginning of The Doctor's life, and re-appear linearly through his time line. This would explain why the Gallifreyan version of Clara knew his name and what he was doing, but also why the versions of Clara who met the Matt Smith Doctor didn't know who he was. She was slowly forgetting with each new copy.


Another possible theory is that she didn't need to look any further than the point she was at when she jumped into the light. She may have been able to save The Doctor by defeating the Great Intelligence at an earlier time and re-writing events in such a way that there would be no need for her to travel into his future.


Does anyone have any other theories or evidence as to why this is? I was also concerned about the interior of the dead TARDIS being the same as the current interior, but I suppose that may be a question for another thread. Yes, I'm aware of budgets and not being able to predict what will happen later in the series, but I'd hate to see this as a plot hole later down the line. Convince me that it's not!




Answer



Because the average Time Lord has only thirteen versions of themselves, and since the 11th Doctor is actually the 13th, it means his timeline stops at Trenzalore: his death. That's why Clara never saw the 12th Doctor, because is he is slightly derived from the Doctor's apparent "fate".


The Time Lords saved the Doctor by giving him a second regeneration cycle, making it so the Fall of the Eleventh never happened and never will. Capaldi is called the 12th Doctor, but is really the 14th, or if you wanna be really technical, the first incarnation of the new set.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

harry potter - Did Dolores Umbridge Have Any Association with Voldemort (or Death Eaters) before His Return?

I noticed that Dolores Umbridge was born during the first Wizarding War, so it's very likely she wasn't a Death Eater then (but she is pretty evil -- who knows?). After that Voldemort was not around in a way that could affect many people, and most wouldn't know he was planning to rise again. During that time, and up through Voldemort's return (in Goblet of Fire ), did Umbridge have any connection with the Death Eaters or with Voldemort? Was she doing what she did on her own, or was it because of an association with Voldemort or his allies? Answer Dolores Umbridge was definitely not a good person. However, as Sirius points out, "the world isn't split into good people and Death Eaters". Remember that he also says that he doesn't believe Umbridge to be a Death Eater, but that she's evil enough (or something like that). I think there are two strong reasons to believe that: Umbridge was proud to do everything according to the law, except when she trie...
Post a Comment
Read more

futurama - How much time is lost in 'Time Keeps on Slippin''

In time Keeps on Slippin' , Farnsworth creates a basketball team which he matures by abusing Chronitons. This leads to time skipping forward by random, but ever increasing amounts. How much time was skipped in this way? Answer Unfortunately, I don't think a good estimate can be made for this, for two reasons: Many of the time skips move forward by an indeterminate amount of time. At one point, the Professor mentions localized regions of space skipping forward much more than others. We then see two young boys on the street below complaining about having to pay social security, only to suddenly become senior citizens and start complaining about wanting their money. Thus, each individual could have experienced a different amount of time skippage.
Post a Comment
Read more

aliens - Interstellar Zoo story

I vaguely remember this story from my childhood: it was about an interstellar zoo that came to Earth with lots of bizarre and unusual species, and humans would file through and gape at all the crazy looking creatures from other planets. The twist came at the end when the perspective shifted to the other side of the bars and we discovered that the "creatures" were traveling through space on a kind of safari. They thought they were the visitors and we were the animals. Neither side knew that the other side thought they were the zoo creatures. Answer Got it. Zoo, by Edward D. Hoch. Published in 1958. Link to Publication History Link to PDF
Post a Comment
Read more

tolkiens legendarium - Did Gandalf wear his Ring of Power throughout the trilogy?

After Gandalf discovered that Sauron was back and sent Frodo on his quest to Rivendell, did he continue to wear Narya (one of the Three Rings)? It seems like a huge risk to continue to wear it after the Nazgûl (Ringwraiths) started to try and reclaim the One Ring; if they managed to get the ring to Sauron, couldn't he be corrupted by his power? Whatever powers Narya bestows upon him couldn't possibly be worth the huge risk, could it? Answer When Sauron forged the one ring and put it on his finger, the other ring bearers were immediately aware of him and his intentions and removed their own rings. There is no reason why they couldn't merely do so again. As soon as Sauron set the One Ring upon his finger they were aware of him; and they knew him, and preceived that he would be master of them, and of all they wrought. Then in anger and fear they took off their rings. "Of the Rings of Power and the Third Age," Silmarillion
Post a Comment
Read more