The time is out of joint: O cursed spite,
That ever I was born to set it right!
– Hamlet Act I Scene 5.
So. Tonight’s series finale for Doctor Who.
To try to get my head round it, I’ve prepared a chart which attempts to show the different timelines for this series, as revealed by the finale. Or at least, my best guess at those timelines. Here it is now: click to see it full-size:
Some explanation is in order. As I read it, there are three timelines in this series of Doctor Who. Timeline 1 is the timeline the series was following up to last week. This is the timeline in which Amy meets the Doctor, Rory dies at the Welsh mine and goes through the Crack, etc. In the finale, we discover that Amy’s family have also disappeared through the Crack during her childhood. (Scribbled-out lines indicate lives that have been obliterated by the Crack.)
Timeline 2 is the timeline from the first part of the series finale. Amy 1 (i.e. Amy from timeline 1) and the Doctor go back to 102 AD, meet Rory 2 (the robot). (The jump in Amy 1’s timeline is shown by a “I” in a circle. Just because.) By a complicated series of time jumps (not depicted), Amy 1 ends up in the Pandorica, with Rory 2 guarding her for 1,894 years. Amy 2 is then born in 1989 and opens the Pandorica in 1996, triggering a series of events culminating in Big Bang II.
Timeline 3 is then the timeline from the end of the series finale. In this timeline, Amy’s family and Rory have remained in existence and Amy and Rory get married. The one flaw in this timeline is that the Doctor has never existed. However, at Amy’s wedding her vague recollections of the Doctor finally blossom into full remembrance, and the Doctor is promptly brought out of oblivion back into existence. (The only part of the Doctor’s highly complex timeline that I could bring myself to depict!)
So what’s it all about?
Well, as the closing scene made clear, there are still a lot of unanswered questions. However, let’s look at what we do know.
Various commentators have pointed out certain apparent flaws in timeline 1. Why does Rory’s badge suggest he started work in 1990? Why are the cars in the first episode all seemingly too old for 2010 (while the consumer electronics are bang up to date)? Why doesn’t Amy know about the Daleks? (NB: those two links are, with the benefit of hindsight, works of genius. Well, they were anyway, but now it’s clear how very nearly they nailed it. Read them.)
In the light of the series finale, I think the conclusion is this: timeline 1 is a damaged timeline. It’s damaged, and the damage shows up in the things that are missing or out of place. (This may then be the significance of the Doctor’s image-sorting sequence in episode 1: Rory’s badge, the missing ducks, etc.)
Timeline 2 is then an even more obviously damaged timeline, in which the entire universe has been snuffed out of existence. This reinforces the interpretation of timeline 1 as a damaged timeline, albeit less so than timeline 2.
Timeline 3 is then the world set back to rights, as symbolised by the restoration of Amy’s family, and by Amy’s marriage to Rory proceeding. The fact that it is at Amy’s wedding that the Doctor is restored may explain why the Doctor was so keen (after that attempted seduction by Amy on the night before her wedding in timeline 1) to ensure that Amy and Rory stay together and get married. Their failure to get married is in some way linked to the damaged timelines.
Yes, but…
Well, that still leaves plenty unanswered – in particular what caused the Cracks in the first place – but I feel this is a reasonable stab at the overall framework of what’s going on.
One final thought: did it strike anyone else that Amy’s parents didn’t look very much like her?
Time is out of joint 
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did it strike anyone else that Amy’s parents didn’t look very much like her?
Yes, but I thought, they were conjured up from her memories as a very young girl, so might not have been completely perfect. But then again the Doctor was, so… hmm.
And, as for doing a timeline diagram. That is really sad. Where “sad” means “the kind of thing I would do”. I am impressed.
How did River have that Tardis notebook if the doctor had never existed, though?
And, is it just me, or did whoever said “silence will fall” in the TARDIS sound suspiciously like Davros? Then again, I did also think of the Timelords themselves; I mean, if the Doctor can escape from the Pandorica then………
Hi Ruth, thanks for this. Yes, I had perhaps a little too much time on my hands on Saturday evening. 🙂
How did River have that Tardis notebook if the doctor had never existed, though?
Good question. I suspect that’s all linked in to the broader question of who on earth River is.
Another question my sister (who was profoundly unimpressed – made references to “back of a fag packet”) raised: why didn’t the sonic screwdriver open the Pandorica in the last episode, but did in this episode?
And, is it just me, or did whoever said “silence will fall” in the TARDIS sound suspiciously like Davros? Then again, I did also think of the Timelords themselves;
I can’t see Steven Moffat just digging up some old villain as the “reveal” to all this. Would be deeply disappointing if he did. Unless it turned out to be David Tennant as the Evil Doctor (as I’ve seen suggested somewhere), which would be quite funny.
I know lots of fans of the “classic” series would like it to be Morbious or Omega or something (and the kids would be like “whaaaaa?”) – I know this from certain forums that I don’t have time to post on any more anyway 😉
At the same time as I’m not sure Moffat would do something like that, I also don’t see him bringing in an entirely new Big Bad either…
There were some rumours flying about that Philip Madoc was the actor behind the Silence Will Fall voice but I think they’re pretty unsubstantiated …
why didn’t the sonic screwdriver open the Pandorica in the last episode, but did in this episode
Now that’s a good question. Was it definitely his screwdriver, actually? He didn’t have access to River’s newer version did he? *thinks back* no, hers was pretty obviously different and he would have noticed. Hmm. Because he’d done something to it when he was inside? That’s a bit weak… erm, dunno!
The sonic screwdriver can only open the Pandorica from the outside – in the previous episode, the doctor was inside it, with the screwdriver.
As for why he didn’t open it when he was still outside: would you want to open it if it was supposed to hold the most evil creature that ever existed? 😉
Els: thanks for that. Yes, makes perfect sense – I couldn’t remember if the Doctor had tried to open it with the sonic screwdriver in the first part. But of course he didn’t, for obvious reasons.
That still leaves open the question of what sort of impregnable prison it is that can be opened with a sonic screwdriver – perhaps another example of the writers’ overuse of the whole sonic screwdriver thing. I’m hoping someone will get the Doctor a Sonic Black & Decker Cordless Sander for Christmas, just for some variety.
“I’m hoping someone will get the Doctor a Sonic Black & Decker Cordless Sander for Christmas, just for some variety.”
Might even work on wood! 😉