Alternate timeline: Difference between revisions
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|The [[Process]] enslaves the [[Time Scaphe]] crew||[[Seventh Doctor]]||[[PROSE]]: ''[[Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible]]'' | |The [[Process]] enslaves the [[Time Scaphe]] crew||[[Seventh Doctor]]||[[PROSE]]: ''[[Cat's Cradle: Time's Crucible]]'' | ||
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|'''[[Silurian Earth]]''' | |'''[[Silurian Earth]]'''||Destroyed, not negated, by [[Seventh Doctor]]||[[PROSE]]: ''[[Blood Heat]]'' | ||
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|'''[[Alternate timeline (Time & Time Again)]]'''||[[Seventh Doctor]], [[Ace]] and [[Bernice Summerfield]]||[[COMIC]]: ''[[Time & Time Again (comic story)|Time & Time Again]]'' | |'''[[Alternate timeline (Time & Time Again)]]'''||[[Seventh Doctor]], [[Ace]] and [[Bernice Summerfield]]||[[COMIC]]: ''[[Time & Time Again (comic story)|Time & Time Again]]'' | ||
Revision as of 23:53, 27 February 2013
An alternate timeline was a reality that diverged from the "true" timeline due to the actions of time travellers or other temporal phenomena. They were different from parallel universes in that they did not separate cleanly at the point of creation resulting in the new timeline destroying the old one. (PROSE: Imperial Moon)
Physics
Alternate timelines could be visited accidentally by contact with a time track (TV: The Space Museum, AUDIO: The Mutant Phase) or other anomalies (AUDIO: Colditz) in the Time Vortex. Deliberate travel to these timelines was possible if the traveller possessed something, such as the sigil ring, that allowed them to change time streams. (PROSE: Goth Opera)
They may have diverged from points in history where there was temporal fluctuation. The power required to adjust the timeflow and overcome temporal inertia on such a scale couldn't fit on a single planet, but beings with enough power were capable of doing so, such as Sutekh, the Guardians of Time, Rassilon, and the Chronovores. Even the Doctor or the Master could have the know-how or inclination to create them. Because the universe only had a finite amount of mass and energy to exist as one universe, the creation of an alternate timeline adversely affected the real timeline, causing chaos throughout the universe; releasing enough energy could destroy the timeline and set history back on its correct course. (PROSE: Blood Heat)
Though a timeline may be negated, memories of it could still be retained. (TV: The Big Bang, The Impossible Astronaut)
Metaphysics
From a metaphysical viewpoint, alternate timelines were always being extinguished as fewer and fewer choices became open. This is particularly affected by time travellers who changed the future whenever they arrived in a new time. This was the cosmic pain of the universe and in this manner Gabriel and Tanith were personifications of the timelines that never existed. (PROSE: Falls the Shadow)
Terminology
The phrase "alternate/alternative timeline" was sometimes used interchangably with "parallel universe" however alternate timelines usually changed after a single moment in time, whereas parallel universes usually had more than one difference from the "normal" universe.
Timelines encountered by the Doctor
Timelines encountered by others
| Timeline | Negated By | Featured in |
| Insects of the Mind evolve as the dominant life on Earth | The existence of time travel | PROSE: Falls the Shadow |
| Britain is a conformist republic | The existence of time travel | PROSE: Falls the Shadow |
| Andrea Yates' World | alternate Andrea Yates | TV: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? |
| The Trickster's World | Eddie and Barbara Smith | TV: The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith |
| Ship erases Sarah Jane Smith, Luke Smith and Clyde Langer | Adam Lloyd | TV: The Mad Woman in the Attic |
| Deindum from the future conquer the galaxy | Bernice Summerfield | PROSE: Present Danger, AUDIO: Escaping the Future |
