Howling:Interfering With Personal Timeline

The Howling → Interfering With Personal Timeline

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So it's stated many times by The Doctor (The most glaring and recent example being the episode Fathers' Day in the original reboot) that interfering with one's own personal timeline will have disastrous consequences, cancel out history, et cetera. This is supposedly supported by The Eleventh Doctor in Big Band/The Pandorica Opens, when the two versions of the doctor's sonic screwdriver spark when held near each other due to "temporal friction"; i.e., the paradox of two identical objects being at the same point in space and time, but at different points on the object's timeline. So why is it that, when Rose touched the other version of herself in Fathers' Day, a great catastrophe occurred, but the Doctor is visibly seen to embrace his past/future self , exchange words, and all the rest when he uses the vortex manipulator to sneak away and wire up the Pandorica without the timeline negating like it did prior?110.175.4.178 12:10, September 17, 2011 (UTC)

Also, Amy touches her younger self in this episode too. 110.175.4.178 12:10, September 17, 2011 (UTC)

What you have to recognise not all interference in a personal timeline is the same, you have to look at it in context. First I'm going to pull up a classic series example: In Mawdryn Undead two Brigadier's met each other and gave off the same energy that the sonic screwdriver gave off when it touched itself in The Big Bang. This is due to the Blinovitch Limitation Effect and in both cases despite two selves from the same timeline meeting the timeline looped around, eg. the meeting didn't cancel out the future because that future version used to be the past version that meet itself. On numerous cases the Doctor has came into contact with himself, why it hasn't effected him has never been explained but I would guess it has something to do with the fact he's a time lord. And on Father's Day, Rose changed the timeline and caused a grandfather paradox as opposed to an ontological paradox as mentioned with the Brigadier, the Doctor and the sonic screwdiver. The vastly different nature of the paradox allowed the Reapers in; despite to the fact that history was being re-written around them the baby Rose was still the same Rose as adult Rose which caused the Blinovitch Limitation Effect however due to the Reaper's presence the energy was syphoned off to allow another one to get through. And as for kid Amy and adult Amy touching in The Big Bang, they were two different Amy's from two different time lines one from where the universe existed and one from a collapsing universe. Like I said at the beginning you have to take into account the circumstances when it happens. The Light6 13:04, September 17, 2011 (UTC)

I agree with the point about a collapsing universe, but the flaw in that logic is the sonic screwdriver causing the Blinovitch Limitation Effect after the universe collapse. If the sonics caused the effect, then the Amys should have as well.

However, in the Big Bang when Amy touches her younger self she did so standing in the light of the Pandorica which may have limited the effects. I cannot recall if they touch again in the episode, but if they do I believe the effect is more like static electricity. Object of point A in the time line comes into contact with the same object from point B form its timeline. Temporal difference (much like voltage is an electrical potential difference) is discharged and must be built up again before it can be discharged again. Object from A and from B are moving at the same “speed” through Time and therefore do not create a temporal difference until one of the two time-travels to a point where they have different potentials.

As for the Doctor and the same effect, I believe that every time that has happened; it has been between two different incarnations of the Doctor (please post if this is otherwise because I am very interested in these situations). In essence the physical properties of the two are different enough to perhaps eliminate the effect. If the two Doctors of the same incarnation, but different points in time, were to come into contact, this effect may be witnessed. That is unless Time Lords are indeed immune as mentioned before.MasterIII 06:03, September 19, 2011 (UTC)

Nope, in The Big Bang/Pandorica Opens, the Doctor uses the Vortex Manipulator to transport himself a few minutes back in time after being shot by the Stone Dalek. His younger self, still in the eleventh incarnation, however, props him up, then hugs him as he whispers something into his ear. It's a major plot point of the episode, and it makes no sense to me, seeing how the Blinovitch Limitation Effect is shown to still exist mere minutes before, when the Doc touches the screwdrivers. 110.175.4.178 07:05, September 19, 2011 (UTC)