Help a beginner to understand "Blink" (and Doctor Who)

[mauriciomds]

Hello. First, let me say that I don't know much about Doctor Who. I met this forum through another Cubicle7 game (The One Ring). Yesterday I watched my first episode. I was recommended to start with an episode acclaimed by all, Blink. Let me say that I really enjoyed it and I'm anxious to watch it all.

However, there are some things in the episode that made me think a lot and I could not find a justification. I do not know if they are plot holes of this episode, if I did not fully understand them, or if it's just the style of the series. Spoilers of Blink below:

1) How the universe was never accidentally destroyed? Let me explain: Billy says he could not interfere with his own destiny, as preventing his going to the past would cause a paradox that could destroy 2/3 of the universe. I imagine that this explanation has been given by the Doctor. However, other people have been attacked by the weeping angels and they have not had the guidance of the Doctor. I imagine that people with established life at the present time (family and all) would try to prevent their trip to the past, possibly resulting in the accidental destruction of the universe.

2) I did not understand the talk of Sally with the recording of the Doctor. The Doctor knows what Sally speaks through the transcript of the conversation. However, the transcript of the conversation exists only because Larry has identified the DVD lines perfectly fit with the Sally's speech. One does not exist without the other. So how the conversation came about?

3) Sally deliver the transcript to the doctor at the end of the episode. However, if she had not delivered the transcript to the doctor, she never would have been saved from the weeping angels and therefore the transcript could not possibly be delivered.

[misterharry]

Jul 1, 2015 16:18:38 GMT mauriciomds said:

Hello. First, let me say that I don't know much about Doctor Who. I met this forum through another Cubicle7 game (The One Ring). Yesterday I watched my first episode. I was recommended to start with an episode acclaimed by all, Blink. Let me say that I really enjoyed it and I'm anxious to watch it all.

Welcome to Doctor Who and to the forum!

However, there are some things in the episode that made me think a lot and I could not find a justification. I do not know if they are plot holes of this episode, if I did not fully understand them, or if it's just the style of the series. Spoilers of Blink below:

1) How the universe was never accidentally destroyed? Let me explain: Billy says he could not interfere with his own destiny, as preventing his going to the past would cause a paradox that could destroy 2/3 of the universe. I imagine that this explanation has been given by the Doctor. However, other people have been attacked by the weeping angels and they have not had the guidance of the Doctor. I imagine that people with established life at the present time (family and all) would try to prevent their trip to the past, possibly resulting in the accidental destruction of the universe.

I think the Doctor's warning wasn't so much against Billy Shipton interfering with his own past, but that his older self shouldn't make contact with Sally Sparrow before that final day of his life. But anyway, the end result would be the same for either of these, by creating a temporal paradox.

As to why the universe, or significant chunks of it, haven't been destroyed by other people sent into the past by the Angels, there are a number of possible explanations - though none of them are explicit in the story. Firstly, we don't know how far into the past most people are sent. In the case of Kathy Nightingale, she was sent back to 1920 and died twenty years before the events of Blink, so by then she would have lived for 60-odd years, settled into her new life and was too old to make contacting her family a practical solution. Perhaps this is what happens to the majority of people and Billy's two lives overlapping are the exception to the rule. Secondly, perhaps it has happened and the universe used to be much, much larger than it is now. Thirdly, perhaps the Doctor was being flippant and he didn't mean it literally. Sure, a temporal paradox would cause problems, but maybe the Doctor only told Billy that 2/3 of the universe would be destroyed in order to convince him not to contact Sally. And fourthly, it could indeed be a plot hole.

2) I did not understand the talk of Sally with the recording of the Doctor. The Doctor knows what Sally speaks through the transcript of the conversation. However, the transcript of the conversation exists only because Larry has identified the DVD lines perfectly fit with the Sally's speech. One does not exist without the other. So how the conversation came about?

The glib answer is that it's wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey. In fact, it's Steven Moffat's predilection for using the time travel premise of Doctor Who to play with cause and effect. You're correct that the one cannot exist without the other - it's effect becoming its cause, and vice versa - and is a deliberately nonsense explanation used for semi-humorous effect.

3) Sally deliver the transcript to the doctor at the end of the episode. However, if she had not delivered the transcript to the doctor, she never would have been saved from the weeping angels and therefore the transcript could not possibly be delivered.

The same as in my answer above - it's Moffat playing with the audience and using the time travel premise of the show to mix up cause and effect. You'll see it again in such episodes as The Big Bang and Space/Time.

[Hedgewick]

Yes, welcome! If you enjoyed "Blink" as a first foray into the worlds of Doctor Who, then you're in for a wonderful ride. Regarding your questions, it's very much as you suggest: "It's just the style of the series." The show's stories will bend, twist, and break established science, time travel, and temporal physics to suit the needs of the plot. In most cases it's best to accept the Doctor's word on things. Truly, Time Lord science is far beyond human comprehension! Simply let the "wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey" explanations wash over you and have fun with it.

If that's not enough, then I heartily recommend picking up Cubicle 7's The Time Traveller's Companion. This supplement to the role playing game offers an excellent depiction of the ins and outs of Gallifreyan science and technology, stitching together a great deal of the time travel dynamics presented on the show and offering some detailed explanations. The answers to questions regarding paradoxes, vortex navigation, temporal displacement, and the Blinovitch Limitation Effect are all in this book.

[Catsmate]

There really isn't a lot of consistency about how Who treats the mechanics of time travel unfortunately. Certainly there are occasions, such as Ace's portrait in Silver Nemesis, where a companion gets a hint of their own future (and thus should know that they won't die in the immediate future as they seem to have a future ahead) but it's also implied that time is moderately plastic and changes can occur. Minor changes seem reasonably easy in fact, just look at the Prime Ministership of Harriet Jones which the Tenth Doctor seems to have terminated out of pique. Though this entire thing might have been a long term gambit of his; you can never really tell.

Certainly the early Classic Who stories, when it was intended more as an Educational programme, implied that the past couldn't be altered. Though the Doctor never seemed so scrupulous about events after the 1960s...

From a gaming perspective this can be a little irritating; can you save person X with minimal disruption to the timeline? And what level of disruption is acceptable?
What about a companion/friend that's killed, can they be saved? For myself I allow this if there's sufficient ingenuity and care taken. As long as you don't actually witness the death (they're thrown over a cliff for example) there's a degree of 'fuzziness' (quantum uncertainty) that allows you to act, but the more detailed information you have the more constrained you are.

Wrt your point about Sally and the transcript, I'd describe this an example of a Predestination Paradox, i.e. she has to do this. Though there could be a level of leeway here; maybe the Doctor found the transcript in the shop after she was killed and pieced things together. Sufficient leeway to avoid players taking too much advantage of time.

Another factor, which the recent discussion on the sinking of the Titanic has reminded me about is the Limelight Effect (name borrowed from the Time Riders RPG). Basically it's difficult for time travellers to reach certain events, otherwise they'd become rather crowded. Purely my take.

[mauriciomds]

Thanks for the replies. I am finishing the first season and I'm loving it.

[Hedgewick]

Jul 8, 2015 15:07:57 GMT mauriciomds said:

Thanks for the replies. I am finishing the first season and I'm loving it.

Glad to hear it. You have a lot to look forward to. It gets better with every episode!