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What Cousin Eliza once referred to as "history-proof[ing]" (AUDIO: The Ship of a Billion Years [+]Loading...["The Ship of a Billion Years (audio story)"]) was the ability that allowed individuals to perceive alterations and changes to time; (TV: Flesh and Stone [+]Loading...["Flesh and Stone (TV story)"], Cold Blood [+]Loading...["Cold Blood (TV story)"], etc.) the chronology of the changes in time itself was known as meta-time, with an entire field of study existing around this concept, known as meta-history. (PROSE: Love & War [+]Loading...["Love & War (short story)"])
The ability was often associated with déjà vu (AUDIO: UNIT Dating [+]Loading...{"timestamp":"00:35:35","1":"UNIT Dating (audio story)"}) and the Mandela Effect. (PROSE: The Mandela Effect, Or Monsters on the Streets of London [+]Loading...["The Mandela Effect, Or Monsters on the Streets of London (short story)"])
Nature
Individuals with the ability
As an ability possessed by time travellers
According to the Eleventh Doctor, being a time traveller "change[d] the way you see the universe, forever," which allowed individuals to perceive changes to time, such as entire individuals being erased from time by the cracks. (TV: Flesh and Stone [+]Loading...["Flesh and Stone (TV story)"]) Ace had the ability to sense temporal distortions due to having crossed the time field "dozens" of times; it made her akin to "a sphere talking to a circle." (PROSE: Set Piece [+]Loading...{"name":"\"SetPiece\"","chaptname":"In Taberna","page":"93-94","chaptnum":"6","1":"Set Piece (novel)"})
The Eighth Doctor once explained that, in order to have the "necessary time travel chops" to remember previous versions of history, one had to be protected by a machine capable of time travel, such as his TARDIS. Indeed, Liv Chenka theorised they were protected from changing memories due to her and Helen Sinclair's association with the Doctor. The Doctor identified déjà vu as an "occupational hazard" of a time traveller. (AUDIO: UNIT Dating [+]Loading...{"timestamp":"00:25:55, 00:28:27, 00:35:35, 00:42:36","1":"UNIT Dating (audio story)"}) Similarly, the War Doctor explained that if an individual was inside a time machine they would remember "the timelines that never were." (AUDIO: The Shadow Vortex [+]Loading...{"timestamp":"00:51:47, 00:53:38","1":"The Shadow Vortex (audio story)"})
As an ability possessed by ordinary people
In some accounts, even ordinary people who had never travelled through time were able to remember alterations to history.[nb 1]
The Eleventh Doctor once explained that everyone had "memories of a holiday they couldn't have been on or a party they never went to, or met someone for the first time and felt like they've known them all their lives"; he considered everyone's memory to be a mess, as time was being rewritten daily. (HOMEVID: Good Night [+]Loading...["Good Night (home video)"])
Andrea Talwinning was mostly unable to remember the alterations to her timeline other than knowing that it didn't make any logical sense, while the Seventh Doctor and Bernice Summerfield could. It was unclear if Talwinning's memory augmentation contributed to this or not. (PROSE: Continuity Errors [+]Loading...{"page":"238","1":"Continuity Errors (short story)"})
Professor Grey speculated that the Mandela Effect, a phenomenon experienced by many people on Earth, was actually caused by "another timeline that ha[d] subsequently been ‘rewritten’." (PROSE: The Mandela Effect, Or Monsters on the Streets of London [+]Loading...["The Mandela Effect, Or Monsters on the Streets of London (short story)"])
Unnatural methods
In some accounts, it was an aberration even for time travellers to remember alterations to time, and thus could only possess the memories through unnatural methods.
The Ninth Doctor claimed that the memories of erased events were normally repressed and their surfacing to be a glitch. Rose Tyler's memories of a "redundant timeline" (COMIC: The Bidding War (part two) [+]Loading...{"part":"Two","1":"The Bidding War (comic story)"}) fractured her mind, putting her at the cusp of a psychotic episode. (COMIC: The Lost Dimension (part two) [+]Loading...{"part":"Two","1":"The Lost Dimension (comic story)"}) A linked account showed that the users of Eradicator X7s were given the ability to remember the targets that it erased from time. (COMIC: Secret Agent Man [+]Loading...["Secret Agent Man (comic story)"])
The Eleventh Doctor explained to Clara Oswald that she would not remember the events of the past day after he reversed that timeline, as "time [could] mend anything." (TV: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS [+]Loading...["Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS (TV story)"]) Exceptionally, these memories were awoken in Clara as she travelled through the ruins of a future TARDIS, by the telepathic circuits. (TV: The Name of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Name of the Doctor (TV story)"]) A later account explained that the telepathic circuits itself retained memories of deleted timelines. (PROSE: "Technology" [+]Part of Whotopia: The Ultimate Guide to the Whoniverse, Loading...{"namedpart":"Technology","1":"Whotopia: The Ultimate Guide to the Whoniverse (reference book)"})
Unclear
In some accounts, people were shown to possess the ability through natural or unnatural means that didn't necessarily preclude any of the previous methods.
In an account where the extent of those who had the ability was unclear, at least one time sensitive was known to have it, aside from the Eleventh Doctor. (COMIC: Assimilation² [+]Loading...["Assimilation² (comic story)"])
A Verron puzzle box could protect whoever held it from changes to time. (TV: Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? [+]Loading...["Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane? (TV story)"])
Extent and limitations
Individuals with this ability were naturally aware if parts of their histories retroactively changed, such as having experiences that didn't originally happen be injected into their lives; (PROSE: Bafflement and Devotion [+]Loading...["Bafflement and Devotion (short story)"], TV: A Christmas Carol [+]Loading...["A Christmas Carol (TV story)"], HOMEVID: Good Night [+]Loading...["Good Night (home video)"], etc.) In one account, the Eleventh Doctor claimed that as Amy Pond's history had been altered by the death of Rory Williams, she had to concentrate on the memories to preserve them. (TV: Cold Blood [+]Loading...["Cold Blood (TV story)"])
For those who didn't possess the ability, or had something in their own timeline changed, forgetting the memories was not instantaneous; (TV: Cold Blood [+]Loading...["Cold Blood (TV story)"], The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"], PROSE: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...{"name":"\"novelisation\"","page":"119-126","chaptnum":"Sixteen","1":"The Church on Ruby Road (novelisation)"}) Andrea Talwinning experienced the process in a fleeting moment, as a "whole new past unfold[ed] in her mind," with her old memories "melting away." (PROSE: Continuity Errors [+]Loading...{"page":"235","1":"Continuity Errors (short story)"})
In the subconscious
Vestiges of memories would often manifest as subconscious emotions, such as chills, (PROSE: Continuity Errors [+]Loading...{"page":"214-239","name":"\"errors\"","1":"Continuity Errors (short story)"}) fear, (AUDIO: Recruits [+]Loading...["Recruits (audio story)"]) suspicion, (PROSE: Loose Ends 3: The Regency [+]Loading...["Loose Ends 3: The Regency (short story)"]) sorrow, (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"]) and a craving for pasta. (PROSE: Taste the Noodles of Dracula [+]Loading...["Taste the Noodles of Dracula (short story)"])
As dreams
Memories of altered history often would exist as dreams or nightmares.
The Eighth Doctor remembered the prior version of his defeat of Dronid criminal Skagra during his fourth incarnation during a dream (WC: Shada [+]Loading...["Shada (webcast)"], AUDIO: Shada [+]Loading...["Shada (audio story)"]) due to presumed temporal instabilities (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Novices of the Untempered Schism","chaptnum":"4","1":"A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"}) caused by Borusa's failed attempt to extract the Fourth Doctor from his time stream. (TV: Shada [+]Loading...["Shada (TV story)"])
The Eighth Doctor once told Charlotte Pollard, who once had contradictory sets of memories for different versions of history, that her memories would subside when she next slept, with some remaining as memories, some as stories and some as dreams. (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear (part four) [+]Loading...{"part":"Four","1":"Seasons of Fear (audio story)"})
Evelyn Smythe was able to remember an alternate timeline as a horrific dream whenever she tried to sleep. The Sixth Doctor explained that those events had not been truly erased as they continued to live on as dreams, as nightmares, as shadows. People wouldn't dare acknowledge these as anything other than fantasy, as it was preferable than to acknowledge the atrocities they could commit. The Doctor hoped that people would take a warning from these shadows, as to not repeat the evils they once did. (AUDIO: Jubilee (part four) [+]Loading...{"part":"Four","1":"Jubilee (audio story)"})
Rose Tyler suspected Donna Noble dreamt about her travels with the Tenth Doctor in the version history that was overwritten by a parallel world. Later, after the negation of this world, Donna remembered it like a dream slipping away. (TV: Turn Left [+]Loading...["Turn Left (TV story)"])
Esme could remember one undone timeline like a mostly-forgotten, "queer" dream. (PROSE: Teddy Sparkles Must Die! [+]Loading...{"page":"102","1":"Teddy Sparkles Must Die! (short story)"})
Relationship to time
Memory had a special relationship to time. Different versions of history would continue to exist as memory, (AUDIO: Jubilee (part four) [+]Loading...{"part":"Four","1":"Jubilee (audio story)"}) and through their underestimated power, they could be used restore erased things back into existence, such as the Doctor and the universe itself. (TV: The Big Bang [+]Loading...["The Big Bang (TV story)"]) Indeed, a unique TARDIS was once born from a projected memory, and so the Fifteenth Doctor equated time and memory as one and the same. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"])
Within the Inner Reference Room of the Multiplicity, the flowers that grew aside the tree of time were "scented in memory". (PROSE: {{esquivalience}} [+]Loading...{"page":"14","1":"esquivalience (novel)","2":"'\"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000064-QINU`\"'"})
Physical artefacts
- Main article: User:Epsilon/Physical artefacts of altered history
Memory wasn't the only thing that could survive time being changed, as unaccountable little traces were left of the "people who fell out of the world", such as faces in photographs, luggage, and half eaten meals. (TV: The Pandorica Opens [+]Loading...["The Pandorica Opens (TV story)"]) Some notable examples included Rory Williams's engagement ring (TV: Cold Blood [+]Loading...["Cold Blood (TV story)"], The Lodger [+]Loading...["The Lodger (TV story)"], The Pandorica Opens [+]Loading...["The Pandorica Opens (TV story)"]) and a photo of Rory dressed up as a centurion and Amy Pond and a police officer. (TV: The Pandorica Opens [+]Loading...["The Pandorica Opens (TV story)"])
History
Pre-War era
Sometime in the 1990s, (TV: Battlefield [+]Loading...["Battlefield (TV story)"], etc.) Doris Lethbridge-Stewart spent one winter evening by the fire leafing through photographs of her wedding; she got Alistair's attention when she noticed that the Seventh Doctor had appeared in many of the photographs despite not having originally attended the wedding. To their surprise, they both then recalled a version of their wedding with the Doctor, Doris realising that her apology to him the previous summer about not inviting him spurred him to change time and attend. (PROSE: A Romantic Evening [+]Loading...["A Romantic Evening (short story)"])
Andrea Talwinning, a Librarian at the New Alexandria Library in 2668, began to experience her life be rewritten by the Seventh Doctor after she refused him access to a book about the genocide of the Deltherons. She immediately began having inexplicable thoughts of things she didn't previously know, and, as she spoke to Bernice Summerfield, had a chill when the phrase "rewriting the past" was used. Benny was aware that Andrea's appearance had also shifted in the space of five minutes. She soon came to have a vague understanding of what had happened as she deduced her life had become illogical through various contradictions, even though she couldn't consciously remember what her life used to be like. When the Doctor attempted once more to ask her for access, she confronted him, maintaining her stance despite her gratitude for the survival of her daughter who she correctly suspected had originally died. (PROSE: Continuity Errors [+]Loading...{"page":"214-239","name":"\"errors\"","1":"Continuity Errors (short story)"})
Having "crossed the time field dozens of times", Ace was able to sense a temporal distortion as she went to investigate a space-time rift near Akhenaten in 1366BCE. As she dismounted her chariot, she and Sesehaten were subjected to a minor time loop. Sesehaten was unaware of the looping. (PROSE: Set Piece [+]Loading...{"name":"\"SetPiece\"","chaptname":"In Taberna","page":"93-94","chaptnum":"6","1":"Set Piece (novel)"})
Preceding the Game of Rassilon, Borusa's attempt to use a Time Scoop to excise the first five Doctors from their time streams partially failed, leaving the Fourth Doctor and Romana II unable to be fully extracted and left in a limbo-like state; (TV: The Five Doctors [+]Loading...["The Five Doctors (TV story)"]) due to these temporal instabilities, as theorised in A Brief History of Time Lords, the subsequent events unfolded four different times with two different incarnations of the Doctor. (PROSE: A Brief History of Time Lords [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Novices of the Untempered Schism","chaptnum":"4","1":"A Brief History of Time Lords (novel)"}) In the version of events involving the Eighth Doctor, memories of the prior iteration of these events involving the Fourth Doctor arose in his dreams. When he told Romana about this, in his successful attempt to resume the course of history, she initially believed that the events had been prevented from happening in the first place, but his memories disproved this. (WC: Shada [+]Loading...["Shada (webcast)"], AUDIO: Shada [+]Loading...["Shada (audio story)"])
For a while, the Eighth Doctor travelled with Iris Wildthyme in her bus; on one trip through the time-space vortex, the duo meta-fictionally discussed their conflicting memories, often in relation to Doctor Who; the Doctor had a somewhat narrow-minded approach, keen to solve the definitive version of events, whilst Iris took a liberal approach, understanding that their lives were "a series of stories that involve paradoxes, time travel, mind control, virtual selves, cloning, regression, reincarnation, talking vegetables, cybernetics, regeneration, prolepsis, analepsis, alternative dimensional instabilities, metatextuality, allegory, satire, fantasy, revisionism, cliches, plagiarism and hoodwinkery." Despite his views, the Doctor was well aware his "already-troubled time stream" was subject to "[someone] slipping in extra adventures". He realised in horror that this meant his life was being elasticated, thus making him immortal. (PROSE: Bafflement and Devotion [+]Loading...["Bafflement and Devotion (short story)"])
Bernice once wrote a letter to her "Dear Friend", to thank him for taking her across time as it led to a sequence of events involving her becoming a mother. In this letter, she admitted that, while she could remember being on Earth during the Second World War, she couldn't "remember whether you were with me or if I was just hoping you were," (PROSE: Dear Friend... [+]Loading...["Dear Friend... (short story)"]) matching a set of accounts where Bernice was present in Guernsey 1941 with the Seventh Doctor (PROSE: Just War [+]Loading...["Just War (novel)"]) or her husband Jason Kane. (AUDIO: Just War [+]Loading...["Just War (audio story)"]) Indeed, there were conflicting historical records on this matter, as well as another which claimed that Bernice had thirteen half-immortal children by the last survivor of a race of time travellers, (PROSE: Paydirt [+]Loading...["Paydirt (short story)"]) corresponding to an account depicting an altered state of reality where all of the Doctor's life took place at the same time. (PROSE: The Infinity Doctors [+]Loading...["The Infinity Doctors (novel)"]) This was a matter of contention among a group of archaeologists in the 46th century, who debated the veracity of these records among many other highly conflicting accounts of Bernice's life. An aged Bernice, under the alias "Professor Kent", claimed that these accounts were based in truth despite them becoming warped throughout the millennia. However, her eyes physically shifting colour from blue to brown to green suggested something temporal was at work, and one archaeologist couldn't decide on the colour of her eyes after seeing this phenomenon. (PROSE: Paydirt [+]Loading...["Paydirt (short story)"])
When Sebastian Grayle returned to 305AD to kill the Eighth Doctor, at the Roman fort where his younger self's journey into immortality began, his younger self became horrified at what he would become and proceeded to kill his future self. He created a new version of history where he did not become immortal and hunted the Doctor, but rather lived his life with his love Julia with money gifted to him by the Doctor. Charlotte Pollard then questioned how this was possible due to the paradox, but the Doctor explained that this new version of history could overwrite the original due to the temporal disruption caused by Grayle's allies, the Nimons, and time healed itself to compensate for how they arrived in 205AD. Charley found her head to be filled with different, contradictory memories of both versions of history, and the Doctor explained that these would last until she next slept, with her "know[ing] some as memories, and some of them as stories, and some of them as dreams." He concluded by saying "the tides of time will wash us all clean." (AUDIO: Seasons of Fear (part four) [+]Loading...{"part":"Four","1":"Seasons of Fear (audio story)"})
After the nullification of an alternate timeline wherein the English Empire took over Earth with Dalek technology, Nigel Rochester, who had died, was restored to life and recognised the Sixth Doctor as he rushed to his aid, suffering from a heart attack. Later, Evelyn Smythe found that whenever she tried to sleep, she dreamt of the version of herself starving to death in the Tower of London. The Doctor explained that the alternate timeline wasn't entirely erased as it continued to exist on in people's memories, in the shadows, remembered as a warning against the atrocities they were capable of committing. (AUDIO: Jubilee (part four) [+]Loading...{"part":"Four","1":"Jubilee (audio story)"})
Due to temporal slippage, the exact date of when Sarah Jane Smith and the Third Doctor worked for UNIT shifted between the 1970s and 1980s. In 1996, when Sarah attempted to recall her time with the Third Doctor, she realised that she remembered both decades; the Eighth Doctor explained the cause of this phenomenon to her. (PROSE: Interference - Book Two [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Cool","name":"\"interference\"","chaptnum":"24","1":"Interference - Book Two (novel)"})
War era
War in Heaven
Due to Mother Mathara's interference in Gallifrey's history using the biodata virus, on the day before the War in Heaven begun, the Panopticon shrunk as history changed and important figures from Time Lord society were erased from history. While Fitz Kreiner remembered that the Panopticon was meant to have six sides, to represent the six colleges of cardinals, Romana III's personal timeline shifted such that it had always had five-sides, than four-sides, than three-sides, before having always been but a circular room. (PROSE: The Ancestor Cell [+]Loading...["The Ancestor Cell (novel)"])
Examining a set of hieroglyphs during the War, several members of the Society of Sigismondo di Rimini attempted to keep appraised of what was happening to Justine at the Osirian Court. As the Osirian Court had a special relationship to the timeline of the wider universe, only Eliza could follow the narrative as it changed, while John Pennerton only ever remembered the most recent version of the text. Eliza explained that it was because, as a member of Faction Paradox, her memory was "history-proofed". (AUDIO: The Ship of a Billion Years [+]Loading...["The Ship of a Billion Years (audio story)"])
After the War in Heaven was averted by the destruction of Gallifrey, one account suggested that the surviving Time Lords of the Post-War universe were unable to recall their heritage or many of their memories due to the shift in their personal timelines. (PROSE: The Adventuress of Henrietta Street [+]Loading...["The Adventuress of Henrietta Street (novel)"])
Last Great Time War
While trying to not be a part of the Last Great Time War, the Eighth Doctor took Sheena to be his companion, travelling to the cruise spaceliner Theseus. Due to a rapidly increasing number of alterations to the timelines, many things around the Doctor began shifting and he could invariably remember fragments of what was before. He didn't initially realise his companion Sheena became Emma, but still remembered she was called Emma when she became Louise. When she told him that wasn't her name, he remembered that it was Sheena, but she corrected him to her current name, although hesitating while doing so, evidently not entirely confident in her memory. He was terrified to discover he could not even remember how long he had been travelling with Sheena/Emma/Louise, nor "how or why or where" they met. He could vaguely remember freeing Koloth from his bonds when time shifted and he was returned to his confinement. He also remembered the ship was full of holidaymakers when time shifted again and the passengers became refugees from the Time War.
After Sheena/Emma/Louise was erased from history, he could remember her, but upon reuniting with some of the passengers he had met earlier, they told him he was alone and he agreed with them. However, he couldn't remember the current iteration of time, still remembering Captain Darvor's sacrifice of Koloth, which had shifted into a version of reality where Koloth had been willing. (AUDIO: The Starship of Theseus [+]Loading...["The Starship of Theseus (audio story)"])
On the Planet — the Ogron homeworld — the Eighth Doctor voiced how he couldn't see any good reason the Daleks would have to use Ogrons as footsoldiers. Upon the Twelve's reminder of the Ogrons' presence during the events at Auderly House, he soon realised that he had "inconceivable" conflicting memories, as he could remember the original, Ogron-less version of history and the version of history with Ogrons, due to the Overseer's interference. (AUDIO: Planet of the Ogrons [+]Loading...{"timestamp":"00:13:17","1":"Planet of the Ogrons (audio story)"})
Lara Zannis breached the quantum shield around Earth and created an alternative timeline where the Daleks invaded 1961 East Berlin. After this timeline was reversed, the War Doctor, Kruger and Professor Crane were able to remember this timeline. The Doctor claimed they able to do so by being in the TARDIS. (AUDIO: The Shadow Vortex [+]Loading...{"timestamp":"00:51:47, 00:53:38","1":"The Shadow Vortex (audio story)"})
Post-War era
On 2 April 2005, following the Dummy Massacre, Mark Young, who collected old Daguerreotype photographs from the 1840s, responded to Who is Doctor Who?'s request for sightings of the then missing Rose Tyler, reporting that he had found a family portrait with a striking resemblance to Rose. Mark would not have considered it worth mentioning were it not for the fact that her face had only appeared in the picture since yesterday. (PROSE: The Doctor Was Involved in the Dummy Massacre [+]Loading...{"writer":"Unknown","1":"The Doctor Was Involved in the Dummy Massacre (short story)"})
After time was wounded by the paradoxial survival of Pete Tyler, the Ninth Doctor assured Pete's daughter Rose that everyone would forget the aberrant events involving the Reapers; (TV: Father's Day [+]Loading...["Father's Day (TV story)"]) however, in early 2006, Mickey Smith began digging for information on the Doctor, believing him to be dangerous. He discovered an old wedding video taken during the wound in time, (PROSE: Essay Competition [+]Loading...["Essay Competition (short story)"]) leading Pete's widow Jackie to begin asking around the estate for help, when she made a discovery: it wasn't just her memory of the wedding was hazy (which she attributed to stress or Baileys) but everyone's. Mickey himself, when focusing on the wedding, could remember running up to the church, before wishing he hadn't done so. (PROSE: Rose's Dad? [+]Loading...["Rose's Dad? (short story)"]) In fact, there had actually been a number of contemporary of "cluster of reported anomalies, sightings of flying beasts, [and] missing people" in 1987, which had lead UNIT to compile a file on the subject. (PROSE: Essay Competition [+]Loading...["Essay Competition (short story)"]) In a similar yet distinct account, people remembered Rose staying with her dying father, but were unaware of her identity. (PROSE: Mickey's Blog [+]Loading...{"page":"177","1":"Mickey's Blog (short story)"}) However, other accounts claimed that everyone forgot the wound in time. (PROSE: Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia [+]Loading...{"page":"61, 159","ed":"2011 reprint","1":"Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia (reference book)"})[additional sources needed]
It was Jack Harkness's memory of assassinating Zloy Volk by erasing him from time with an Eradicator X7 that lead to him to question the practises of the Time Agency, which acted as the catalyst for his departure. Years later, during his travels with the Ninth Doctor, Jack was seemingly erased from time by a younger version of himself, (COMIC: Secret Agent Man [+]Loading...["Secret Agent Man (comic story)"]) but the Doctor and Rose discovered that he wasn't actually erased but rather hit by a transmat beam; they had, however, noted they could still remember him after his supposed erasure. While Rose was trapped in the Memgram Network, while Addison Delamar attempted to auction the Doctor's memories, (COMIC: The Bidding War (part one) [+]Loading...{"part":"One","1":"The Bidding War (comic story)"}) she remembered her cyber-conversion from a "redundant timeline". This glitch, as identified by the Doctor, caused his own repressed memories to return and begin overloading the Network, which he was connected to. He then broadcast his memories of the Time War to the factions fighting each other for his memories, an act that made them pensive. They left, not wanting to carry the weight of the Time Lord. (COMIC: The Bidding War (part two) [+]Loading...{"part":"Two","1":"The Bidding War (comic story)"})
The Doctor then took Rose to Horlak, a Warrior caste Silurian, in 1886 to prevent her from having a psychotic episode after the fracturing of her mind. (COMIC: "Ninth Doctor Special" [+]Part of The Lost Dimension, Loading...{"namedpart":"Ninth Doctor Special","1":"The Lost Dimension (comic story)"})
After their first failed attempt to open the heart of the TARDIS — part of Rose's bid to return to the Game Station in 200,000 — Jackie tried telling her to give up, but Rose refuted her claim that her father Pete would've told her the same thing. Rose then tried to get Jackie to remember when Pete died, when Rose was by his side, holding his hand, to tell her she knew her father would tell her to not give up on the Doctor. Distraught, she fled the TARDIS, but soon returned with a heavy-duty recovery truck, knowing that Rose was right — Pete wouldn't give up. (TV: The Parting of the Ways [+]Loading...["The Parting of the Ways (TV story)"]) In an account where Mickey Smith ran a blog, he wrote about how people remembered Rose being present for the death of her father, following Rose reminding Jackie of this event. (PROSE: Mickey's Blog [+]Loading...{"page":"177","1":"Mickey's Blog (short story)"})
After the Cardiff Space-Time Rift splintered, numerous temporal cracks widened resulting in objects and people from other time periods appearing all over the Earth. These cracks were used as a diversion by Bilis Manger, who manipulated Torchwood Cardiff into opening the rift, thus releasing Abaddon. The rift was closed back when Abaddon was killed by Jack Harkness which also had the effect of flinging back time, resulting in everyone who had died in the incident coming back to life including Rhys Williams, who had been murdered by Bilis after being brought to the Hub, only to return at his home with no memory of having been killed. In fact, no one other than Jack Harkness and his Torchwood Cardiff team remembered the events of that day. (TV: End of Days [+]Loading...["End of Days (TV story)"], PROSE: Torchwood: The Encyclopedia [+]Loading...["Torchwood: The Encyclopedia]] (reference book)"])
To sustain the paradox of the Toclafane invading Earth and killing their human ancestors, the Saxon Master installed a paradox machine within the control room of the Tenth Doctor's TARDIS, which he kept within the UNIT aircraft carrier Valiant. After the Master ruled over Earth for a whole year, Jack Harkness destroyed the paradox machine, resulting in the reversal of time to just before the Toclafane invasion. This reversal, however, did not occur within the Valiant itself, which the Tenth Doctor identified as being the "eye of the storm", thus all those within it at the time of the machine's destruction remained as they were and remembered the Year That Never Was. (TV: The Sound of Drums [+]Loading...["The Sound of Drums (TV story)"]/Last of the Time Lords [+]Loading...["Last of the Time Lords (TV story)"]) Jack would tell his team at Torchwood Cardiff that he had seen "the end of the world", (TV: Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang [+]Loading...["Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang (TV story)"]) identifying himself and Martha Jones as part of the "End of the World Survivors Club". (TV: Reset [+]Loading...["Reset (TV story)"]) Martha's family were also left to recover from the ordeal. (TV: Last of the Time Lords [+]Loading...["Last of the Time Lords (TV story)"], The Sontaran Stratagem [+]Loading...["The Sontaran Stratagem (TV story)"])
After the Time Beetle created a parallel world around Donna Noble, it erased all of her travels with the Tenth Doctor from time and resulted in his death. However, when speaking to Rose Tyler, who originated from the original timeline and had travelled to Donna's parallel world, suspected Donna dreamt of the Doctor and, when Rose told her she saved the Doctor's life, she had a flashback to the original version of history.
Later, after Donna negated the creation of this parallel world, she struggled to remember it when the Doctor asked her why she hugged him, as the memories were like a dream that was slipping away. She did, however, remember her encounters with Rose and the message she gave as she died — "Bad Wolf". (TV: Turn Left [+]Loading...["Turn Left (TV story)"]) She later remembered this timeline when the Doctor had to erase her memories of the adventures she had been on after becoming the DoctorDonna. (TV: Journey's End [+]Loading...["Journey's End (TV story)"])
After arriving at Bowie Base One on Mars on 21 November 2059, the Tenth Doctor, aware that the base was destroyed with all hands on this day, deliberately changed history by rescuing Captain Adelaide Brooke along with Yuri Kerenski and Mia Bennett, returning them to Earth and naming himself the Time Lord Victorious. When Adelaide defied his stance by committing suicide at her home, the Doctor immediately percieved the changes to history, which now recorded that Adelaide died on Earth instead of Mars, with Yuri and Mia remaining as the survivors. (TV: The Waters of Mars [+]Loading...["The Waters of Mars (TV story)"])
When Taphony, a Time Blank, was released by Professor Alistair Gryffen, she arrived at Gryffen Manor but was eventually convinced to leave for another dimension through the Space-Time Manipulator. This reversed time to just prior to her arrival and thus erased her confrontation with the K9 Unit. However, her appearance was remembered by K9 Mark 2. (TV: Taphony and the Time Loop [+]Loading...["Taphony and the Time Loop (TV story)"])
Both Amelia Pond and her aunt Sharon were aware "something was wrong" after Amelia's mum and dad were erased from history by the crack in her bedroom wall, although they weren't able otherwise remember them. Amy recalled this whilst living in 1930s New York. (PROSE: "Heroes of Earth" [+]Part of Whotopia: The Ultimate Guide to the Whoniverse, Loading...{"namedpart":"Heroes of Earth","1":"Whotopia: The Ultimate Guide to the Whoniverse (reference book)"}) When she was around seven years old, Amelia told the Eleventh Doctor she didn't have a mum or a dad, just an aunt — yet merely minutes later she recalled how her mum carved smiley faces into apples to make so she'd enjoy them. (TV: The Eleventh Hour [+]Loading...["The Eleventh Hour (TV story)"])
After the Byzantium crashed on Alfava Metraxis in 51st century, several members of the Church who were attempting to track down the Weeping Angel that had been held captive on the ship began to be erased from history by cracks in time. Amy remembered these members, Crispin and Phillip, yet cleric Marco did not. The Eleventh Doctor soon explained that this was because Amy was a time traveller, which altered the way she saw the universe. (TV: Flesh and Stone [+]Loading...["Flesh and Stone (TV story)"])
Following Restac's murder of Rory Williams in the Silurian city in 2020, time energy from a crack in time began consuming his body and erasing him from history; as he was part of Amy's own history, she had to attempt to preserve the memories of him, but a jolt from the TARDIS broke her concentration and she failed. (TV: Cold Blood [+]Loading...["Cold Blood (TV story)"], PROSE: Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia [+]Loading...{"name":"\"encyclopedia\"","page":"278, 391","ed":"2011 reprint","1":"Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia (reference book)"}, etc.) Later, Amy found herself crying though she did not know why, with Vincent van Gogh concluding that she had lost someone; (TV: Vincent and the Doctor [+]Loading...["Vincent and the Doctor (TV story)"]) at the back of her mind, she knew "something was missing from her life". (PROSE: Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia [+]Loading...{"name":"\"encyclopedia\"","page":"278, 391","ed":"2011 reprint","1":"Doctor Who: The Encyclopedia (reference book)"})
Amy and the Doctor were able to remember the Krafayis being present in van Gogh's painting The Church at Auvers after they travelled back to 1890 to aid him and stop the Krafayis. (TV: Vincent and the Doctor [+]Loading...["Vincent and the Doctor (TV story)"])
As nothing "[wa]s ever forgotten, not completely", with physical artefacts sometimes surviving, (TV: The Pandorica Opens [+]Loading...["The Pandorica Opens (TV story)"]) Rory's engagement ring wasn't erased from time (TV: Cold Blood [+]Loading...["Cold Blood (TV story)"]) and soon discovered by Amy when searching through the Doctor's tweed coat for a red pen. She was reminded of the crack in her bedroom wall. (TV: The Lodger [+]Loading...["The Lodger (TV story)"])
After travelling back in time to Stonehenge in 102, Amy confronted the Doctor about the ring. He explained that it was a trace of someone erased from time, partially debunking Amy's theory that he meant to propose to someone, but she assumed that it belonged to him for a female partner. They, and River Song, were then assisted by Roman soldiers, one of them mysteriously being a resurrected Rory who was dismayed that Amy couldn't remember him. The soliders were actually Auton duplicates, part of a trap for the Doctor created by the Alliance, as they were devised from Amy's psychic residue from her childhood home. As structures contained memories, the Roman soldiers represented her interest in Roman history, Rory created after a surviving photograph of him and Amy, and the Pandorica — the final piece of the puzzle — was created after The Legend of Pandora's Box.
As Rory's consciousness was genuinely him, however, he took back his engagement ring and begun trying to make her remember, but she already began crying barely after he introduced himself, inexplicably feeling happy. He then wrestled for his own autonomy as Amy remembered, understanding that he was physically and Auton and thus Amy was in danger. She stayed with him and he was unable to prevent himself from shooting him. (TV: The Pandorica Opens [+]Loading...["The Pandorica Opens (TV story)"]) Rory later reflected on these events whilst living in 1930s New York, although he alternately claimed that he was only able to remember Amy after she remembered him. (PROSE: "Heroes of Earth" [+]Part of Whotopia: The Ultimate Guide to the Whoniverse, Loading...{"namedpart":"Heroes of Earth","1":"Whotopia: The Ultimate Guide to the Whoniverse (reference book)"})
Amy later confessed to the Doctor that her life didn't make sense as she simultaneously remembered both having and not having parents, following the Doctor's reboot of the universe. The Doctor consoled her by explaining that everyone had memories of things thay didn't happen, which was really a result of time being changed daily. He decided to demonstrate the concept of having two sets of memories by taking Amy back to the day of her saddest memory, where she dropped an ice cream at a fairground in 1994. She then remembered that, after her ice cream had fallen, her future self had given her a replacement, which didn't originally happen, and the Doctor took her to her younger self to complete the memory. (HOMEVID: Good Night [+]Loading...["Good Night (home video)"])
In an altered version of reality created by the alteration of a fixed point in time, namely the Doctor's death, Amy was able to remember the Doctor both dying and surviving. She told the Doctor this after mentioning her memories going fuzzy, as "time [had] gone wrong". (TV: The Wedding of River Song [+]Loading...["The Wedding of River Song (TV story)"])
During the temporary merging of the Eleventh Doctor's universe and the universe of the USS Enterprise-D, from 2366-68, the Eleventh Doctor began to recall memories which he did not have originally: first, it was his knowledge of the Klingons, then an encounter with Captain James T. Kirk and some of the crew of the USS Enterprise in his fourth incarnation, then a shared familiarity with Guinan, who, as a time sensitive, also possessed the ability. (COMIC: Assimilation² [+]Loading...["Assimilation² (comic story)"])
In an alternate timeline, Clara Oswald learnt about her splinters from the Doctor and of his true name from The History of the Time War. Before travelling back in time to give his past self the magno-grab remote to prevent the timeline, he assured her that she would not remember it. (TV: Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS [+]Loading...["Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS (TV story)"]) However, while travelling through the ruins of a future TARDIS, the telepathic circuits began reawakening memories of the reversed timeline that Clara should not have been able to have. She remembered travelling through the TARDIS and the Doctor confronting her about her other selves, but she was not able to get answers from the Doctor as they began fleeing the Whisper Men. (TV: The Name of the Doctor [+]Loading...["The Name of the Doctor (TV story)"])
For Bill Potts's second trip in the the TARDIS, the Twelfth Doctor took her to the 1814 frost fair. New to the idea of time travel, she asked if there were any rules, such to not step on a butterfly; the Doctor joked that she had a friend, Pete, who just did that and was erased from time, and that Bill didn't even remember him. (TV: Thin Ice [+]Loading...["Thin Ice (TV story)"])
After Teddy Sparkles — a Reality Engineer who could refashion the past and future — reverted a timeline which Missy had manipulated him into creating, the three children Missy acted as governess to, Esme, Jack, and Peter, all had their memories fade away like a "peculiar" and "queer" dream. Shortly after the creation and undoing of a second timeline, Esme still recalled faded memories of the first, including a War. Additionally, Missy never indicated that she forgot the aborted timelines. (PROSE: Teddy Sparkles Must Die! [+]Loading...{"page":"97, 102","1":"Teddy Sparkles Must Die! (short story)"})
In the ruins of Andromeda, Bernice Summerfield discovered an ancient mirror, containing an imprisoned Daughter of Mine. Benny recognised her as (AUDIO: Shadow of a Doubt [+]Loading...["Shadow of a Doubt (audio story)"]) Aphasia, (PROSE: Human Nature [+]Loading...["Human Nature (novel)"]) despite Daughter of Mine's life having been rewritten many times by that point. Daughter of Mine was unable to remember many of these versions of history, and despite Benny's insistence for an apology for what her past self did, Daughter of Mine refused as she had no memory of committing those acts. Benny returned the mirror to where she found it, knowing that Daughter of Mine jad not learned anything from her visit or the countless monthly visits from different incarnations of the Doctor. (AUDIO: Shadow of a Doubt [+]Loading...["Shadow of a Doubt (audio story)"])
On the website Into The Unknown, Professor M Grey wrote about the Mandela Effect phenomenon, where people distinctly remembered things differently from recorded history, which he heavily speculated was caused by timelines being rewritten. He cited various notable examples, such as the date of Nelson Mandela's death, the number of states in the USA, metal men outside St Paul's Cathedral in the late 1960s and similar accounts of other metal men at the same location in 2014, an artificial star hanging over the world during Christmas 2006, and conflicting accounts of the Ironsides and space-faring Spitfires. Some of his commenters also shared their memories: Josh remembering shop dummies coming to life in 2005, and his father remembering a similar incident in the 1970s; DM mentioned how many other Unknowners recalled small cubes appearing everywhere; and GH remembered the Battle of Canary Wharf. (PROSE: The Mandela Effect, Or Monsters on the Streets of London [+]Loading...["The Mandela Effect, Or Monsters on the Streets of London (short story)"])
Following the publication of Frankenstein, Mary Shelley reflected on (PROSE: Loose Ends 3: The Regency [+]Loading...["Loose Ends 3: The Regency (short story)"]) the fateful night in June 1816 when she met the Thirteenth Doctor and her companions and faced off against Ashad; (TV: The Haunting of Villa Diodati [+]Loading...["The Haunting of Villa Diodati (TV story)"]) she introspectively questioned if she still would have been inspired to write her novel if she had never met the Cyber-Man, feeling as if she "ha[d] another life not lived, where things would have been the same, and yet different..." (PROSE: Loose Ends 3: The Regency [+]Loading...["Loose Ends 3: The Regency (short story)"]) This appeared to correspond with a series of accounts wherein Shelley travelled with the Eighth Doctor following a different version of the fateful night (AUDIO: Mary's Story [+]Loading...["Mary's Story (audio story)"]) and a separate encounter with Cybermen. (AUDIO: The Silver Turk [+]Loading...["The Silver Turk (audio story)"])
After the Thirteenth Doctor was arrested by the Judoon, (TV: The Timeless Children [+]Loading...["The Timeless Children (TV story)"], etc.) Yasmin Khan looked back on the different Prime Ministers of the United Kingdom, the Doctor having told Yaz of her encounters with the PMs some time before. She remembered the Doctor's accounts of Joseph Green and Harold Saxon — and how the former's identity as a Slitheen and the related missile incident, and the latter's identity as an incarnation of the Master and the following massacre of a tenth of Earth's population, were affected by the reboot of the universe and time being unwound respectively. Yaz was aware that most of the memories, although not all, were forgotten by the average person. (PROSE: Inside Number 10 with Yaz [+]Loading...{"page":"34-35","name":"\"yaznine\"","1":"Inside Number 10 with Yaz (short story)"}) In a related account, where the Doctor was writing a prison diary, she remarked on how humans didn't remember a massive battle in One Canada Square, although not making it clear if these events had been affected by temporal phenomenon. (PROSE: Top Secret! [+]Loading...{"page":"28","1":"Top Secret! (short story)"})
Due to being protected by the TARDIS, the Eighth Doctor and Andy Davidson retained the memories of previous iterations of a time loop in UNIT HQ in the 1970s or 1980s, while individuals such as Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart, Ron Winters and Tony Clare, were not protected for they had not been in the TARDIS. Gron — an Ogron whose malfunctioning time machine caused the time loop — also retained his memories due to protection from his machine. (AUDIO: UNIT Dating [+]Loading...["UNIT Dating (audio story)"])
Meanwhile, in an alterted version (AUDIO: Crossed Lines [+]Loading...["Crossed Lines (audio story)"]) of 2020 London, Tony's memories began "slipping and shifting" due to him being at the centre of the time disruption, whilst Ron's memories weren't altered. Liv theorised that they were protected from memories being rewritten due to travelling with the Doctor, while Helen theorised that Tony's memories being in flux was due to the still-malfunctioning TARDIS. After the time loop was broken by the Doctor, Tony's memories settled. (AUDIO: UNIT Dating [+]Loading...["UNIT Dating (audio story)"])
During the Redaction (AUDIO: Rescue [+]Loading...["Rescue (audio story)"], etc.) in 2022, Cleo Proctor and Shawna Thompson looked around the Black Archive as Petronella Osgood debriefed Abby McPhail; Shawna happened across a Dalek casing, inviting Cleo over to look, who recognised and feared it despite having no conscious memory of it. She tried pressing head archivist Joel for details, but he refused. (AUDIO: Recruits [+]Loading...["Recruits (audio story)"]) This appeared to corresponded with accounts that asserted that the reboot of the universe subtly altered Earth's timeline so that the general population forgot the Daleks. (PROSE: Dalek Combat Training Manual [+]Loading...{"chaptname":"Invasion Earth","chaptnum":"XI","1":"Dalek Combat Training Manual (reference book)"}, Inside Number 10 with Yaz [+]Loading...{"page":"34-35","name":"\"yaznine\"","1":"Inside Number 10 with Yaz (short story)"}, etc.)
Upon a cracking of the timeline, a result of the death of newborn Ruby Sunday at the hands of the Goblins, (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"]) the new version of reality grew in permanence as the memories of Ruby were written out from her family and everyone who ever knew her, save the Fifteenth Doctor. He observed her mother, Carla, how she looked "confused, as though somewhere deep down, in a place growing further and further from her reach as every second passed... she knew something was wrong, something important was missing." As he pushed her to remember Ruby, she, in turn, tried convincing him that she was happy with her bitter life, yet she begun uncontrollably crying. (PROSE: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...{"name":"\"novelisation\"","page":"119-126","chaptnum":"Sixteen","1":"The Church on Ruby Road (novelisation)"}) Ruby's last words before the timeline was cracked, "mum, don't move", appeared to have inadvertently influenced Carla's solitary life. (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"])
When the Doctor travelled back in time to save Ruby from the Goblins, he saw her mother walking away from the church on Ruby Road; (TV: The Church on Ruby Road [+]Loading...["The Church on Ruby Road (TV story)"], etc.) later, on Baby Station Beta in 21506, when the Doctor had a vivid flashback to that night, he was aware "the memory changed" when Ruby's mother instead turned and pointed. (TV: Space Babies [+]Loading...["Space Babies (TV story)"]) Later, when using the time window at UNIT HQ, the Doctor identified this as a result of how time itself changed. (TV: The Legend of Ruby Sunday [+]Loading...["The Legend of Ruby Sunday (TV story)"])
Undated events
Following the Unravel, Jenny Everywhere shifted into the Third Universe and travelled to a snowy planet to rescue two Pinguis, who had had their lives rewritten by the catastrophe; whilst Jenny herself had not been witness to the pre-Unravel version of time, she nonetheless felt "in her bones" that even their names were meta-historical revisions. However, she didn't have the heart to tell them. (PROSE: A World of Pure Unimagination [+]Loading...{"page":"3","1":"A World of Pure Unimagination (short story)"})
Within the Multiplicity, both Head D.C. Miltontheus and Caretaker ______ possessed the ability. ______ was aware that the alphabet's originally order was "T, V, U, W", after it had been Unravelled and become "T, U, V, W". After ______ disposed of The Book of Belgian Dutch by placing it into the special disposal chute, which erased it from time, Miltontheus confronted the Dictionary Contributors about it; while ______ had no trouble recalling their actions leading up to its erasure, the other Contributors were less fortunate, as they were not only unable to remember the book, they also forgot Miltontheus's confrontation later that very same day. Some Contributors believed their work shifts had just "flown by", with such vague thoughts not even troubling them given the nature of their environment. ______ continued to remember, but elected mentally not to raise the subject.
After usurping Miltontheus by rewriting The Book of the Head Dictionary Contributor of the D&DL Department and erasing him from time, ______ became the new Head D.C., with the other Contributors none-the-wiser. They, however, remembered Miltontheus. (PROSE: {{esquivalience}} [+]Loading...{"page":"9-12, 16","1":"esquivalience (novel)","2":"'\"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000148-QINU`\"'"})
After the Noodle Man was defeated, many individuals across the 10,000 Dawns and beyond awoke as if from a daze, and many of the events of the Noodle Incident were effectively undone, with York being largely restored, (PROSE: Taste the Noodles of Dracula [+]Loading...["Taste the Noodles of Dracula (short story)"]) following its destruction by thermonuclear missile. (PROSE: I'm So Normal I'm So Normal I'm So [+]Loading...["I'm So Normal I'm So Normal I'm So (short story)"]) To some, the events seemed to merely have been a dream, with some having a craving for pasta, while others such as Auteur, Lord Thymon, the Bookkeepers, and Marilyn Monroe retained full memory of the incident. (PROSE: Taste the Noodles of Dracula [+]Loading...["Taste the Noodles of Dracula (short story)"])
Behind the scenes
- As the ability is inextricably linked to time travel, direct or not, it was never brought up in the "classic" era of Doctor Who, as the show rarely showed the Doctor altering established history, let alone the effects of doing so. In one the ability's first appearances, Steven Moffat's 1996 short story Continuity Errors [+]Loading...["Continuity Errors (short story)"], it was regarded as a novelty.[1]
- Contrariwise to later media, an exchange between Steven and Vicki in The Time Meddler [+]Loading...["The Time Meddler (TV story)"] has the characters theorise that if the Monk altered the outcome of the Battle of Hastings, their memories would change so that they could only remember the new version of history. However, their theory is not proven, as the Monk was unsuccessful, nor did any character such as the Doctor confirm it.
- The novelisation [+]Loading...{"noital":"1","1":"The Time Meddler (novelisation)","2":"The novelisation"}, while expanding the Doctor's explanation of the dangers inherent to the Monk's intereference, doesn't address their theory about memories.
- Given that Continuity Errors [+]Loading...["Continuity Errors (short story)"] would influence many of Steven Moffat's scripts, the ability became particularly frequent in his scripts for Series 5 and Series 6. However, it became less frequent as the show progressed and stories with time travel integral to the plot diminished. It, however, did make an evident return in Russell T Davies's Season 1.
- Contrariwise to later media, an exchange between Steven and Vicki in The Time Meddler [+]Loading...["The Time Meddler (TV story)"] has the characters theorise that if the Monk altered the outcome of the Battle of Hastings, their memories would change so that they could only remember the new version of history. However, their theory is not proven, as the Monk was unsuccessful, nor did any character such as the Doctor confirm it.
- Although rarely named in stories it appears in, the idea of individuals being able to recall memories of events in their lives that have been altered, of which they were not an active participant in the divergence, is frequent.
- TVTropes, a popular wiki for discussion of tropes in media, groups this concept with the ability for time travellers to remember events as they were before they personally altered them; this wiki page does not cover the latter ability.
- This ability is theoretically the same as the Mandela Effect, although most appearances of this concept are not identifed as the Mandela Effect, and many noted cases of the Mandela Effect in the DWU are actually of individuals, willingly or otherwise, forgetting historical events such as alien invasions. The Mandela Effect often has people remember one of at least two versions of history, whereas this concept has people remember both.
- This is also applicable to déjà vu.
- The exact mechanics of this ability in the DWU often cary story to story, with some suggesting that only time travellers possess it, whilst many others show that ordinary people are at the very least able to subconsciously recognise alterations, manifesting in emotions such as sadness and fear.
- Oddly, Donna Noble is entirely unable to remember the version of history before she and the Fourteenth Doctor accidentally changed the name of gravity to mavity in Wild Blue Yonder [+]Loading...["Wild Blue Yonder (TV story)"], despite having been shown in Turn Left [+]Loading...["Turn Left (TV story)"] to be able to remember a parallel world that she negated.
- Furthermore, the Tenth Doctor should be able to remember the version of history in Turn Left where he never met Donna.
Discussion in non-fiction
- The ability has been detailed in various works of non-fiction, often providing explanations for its mechanics.
- The Absolutely everything we learned from Doctor Who this series... article in The Brilliant Book 2011 explains that this ability is caused by time travellers having their own complex histories which places them outside the "normal stream of events", immunising them from forgetting whatever was erased by the cracks in time. The article takes into consideration how things wiped from a time traveller's own history and how they then can forget it.
- In the instalment of Who Knows! printed in Doctor Who Adventures #204, a reader asked how the Nestene Consciousness took a memory print of Rory Williams, who had been erased from time; the DWA team merely clarified the information seen on television, explaining that traces of Rory were deep inside Amy's mind.
- This instalment was printed just two issues prior to Who Knows!'s replacment, Doctor, Doctor!, where the Eleventh Doctor would give in-character responses, so an explanation from his point of view was missed by a small margin.
Appearances in other non-DWU media
The ability to remember and perceive alterations to history has appeared in various series that have crossed over with the Doctor Who universe.
- In the Red Dwarf episodes Timeslides and Demons & Angels, Arnold Rimmer and Holly (in the former) and Dave Lister (in the latter) can remember previous versions of history.
- In the Marvel Multiverse, Bishop is shown to have this ability, such as in the Age of Apocalypse storyline, Wolverine in the House of M storyline, and Spider-Man in the One More Day storyline, among many other examples.
- In Star Trek: First Contact, the crew of the USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-E) can remember the timeline where the Borg assimilated Earth through extenuating circumstances.
- Several Star Trek episodes from different series and various spin-off novels also feature this ability.
- In the Magic: The Gathering novel Time Streams, Karn remembers the averted timeline where a Phyrexian spy killed everyone at the Tolarian Academy, and planeswalker Urza can remember the broad strokes of the timeline despite having not time travelled himself.
- In The Crew of the Copper-Colored Cupids, some characters can almost remember Lethe-548 after her erasure from history by the Retconning Crocodiles.
External links
Footnotes
Notes
- ↑ These accounts do not necessarily contradict the former accounts, as the former accounts often show non-time travellers being able to remember different versions of history to different extents anyway.
References
- ↑ Lyons, Steve (20 August 2020). DWM 555 - Apocrypha p. 60. Panini Magazines.
[[Category:Memory]] [[Category:Temporal theory]] [[Category:Information storage]] [[Category:Information retrieval]] [[Category:Effects of time travel]]