Howling:The Tomorrow Windows, certain stories negated timelines, NOT "Non-DWU"
Please DO NOT add to this discussion.
This is pretty long, Also not sure if it belongs on the Panopticon instead? But it has long been argued about a certain section in The Tomorrow Windows. Namely where the Eight Doctor looks and sees his future. This has been discussed somehwre here before(couldn't find link), but was dismissed. However, it is clear who at least some of these people are, and it is clear what is and is not being said. Anywhere, here it is:
A planet exploded in a silent flash. A listless-looking man sat on a sofa beside a girl in a red dress in an unconvincing medieval dungeon. An aristocrat with a high forehead and devilish, shadow-sunken eyes sucked on an asthma inhaler. A man in a cream suit strolled through Regent's Park, his long hair swept back, his nose bent, his chin held imperiously high. A kindly-faced old gentleman in an astrakhan hat pottered in a junkyard, chuckling. A short, impudent-looking man, his ginger hair in disarray, plucked fluff from the collar of his afghan coat. A stockily-built figure in a crushed velvet suit and eyeliner stared arrogantly into the distance. A scruffy student with unruly, curly hair shrugged and smiled an apologetic, lopsided smile. A stranger stood alone on a sand dune, his hair scraped into a ponytail, his cloak flapping batlike in the wind —
The picture drifted. Sometimes it seemed to settle upon one face and then another. Sometimes the figures merged into a double-exposed photograph. Sometimes other men appeared, each one in pseudo-Edwardian dress —
Then it solidified into one, final figure. a wiry man a gaunt, hawklike face, piercing, pale grey-blue eyes and a thin, prominent nose. His lips were set into an almost cruel, almost arrogant smile. He had an air of determination, as though withholding a righteous fury. As though facing down the most terrible monsters.
Then he turned to the Doctor and his expression softened into a broad, welcoming grin, as if so say, "This is what you've got to look forward to."
Unfortunately this was dismissed as it was wrongly interpreted to mean that The Curse of Fatal Death (TV story) or Scream of the Shalka are part of the same continuity as The Tomorrow Windows. When it is very clearly saying something else. However, these stories(and others like The Feast of the Stone, Good Companions, Revenants and Greenaway (short story) are clearly not "non-DWU", but rather negated timelines. much like the future Earth ruled by Daleks in Day of the Daleks (TV story), the devastated 1980 in Pyramids of Mars (TV story) or the future where Donna turned right and never met The Doctor in Turn Left (TV story). Breaking it down:
a)A listless-looking man sat on a sofa beside a girl in a red dress in an unconvincing medieval dungeon. That's Rowan Atkinson's Ninth Doctor in The Curse of Fatal Death (TV story).
b)An aristocrat with a high forehead and devilish, shadow-sunken eyes sucked on an asthma inhaler. That's Richard E. Grant's Ninth Doctor in Scream of the Shalka.
c)A short, impudent-looking man, his ginger hair in disarray, plucked fluff from the collar of his afghan coat. That's Peter Anghelides's Ninth Doctor from short stories such as Good Companions.
The others are less certain however, if we know what was going on in late 2003, it becomes clearer. When it was announced that RTD was bringing back Who, we didn't know who would be playing the Ninth Doctor. However, the newspapers, magazines and websites had a field day "confirming" who had been cast. People such as:
i) A stockily-built figure in a crushed velvet suit and eyeliner stared arrogantly into the distance. That sounds very much like Eddie Izzard, who certain papers stated outright had been cast as the Ninth Doctor. But not as many papers that "confirmed" that
ii)A scruffy student with unruly, curly hair shrugged and smiled an apologetic, lopsided smile. ...Alan Davies was "definitively" the Ninth Doctor.
The others are trickier. A kindly-faced old gentleman in an astrakhan hat pottered in a junkyard, chuckling. is clearly William Hartnell in An Unearthly Child (TV story). This may sound bizarre to younger fans, but back in the early 2000's many fans had a theory where Doctor Who was cyclical. Namely that the longhaired, blue-eyed romantic Earth Doctor would one day grow old and become certain longhaired, blue-eyed Doctor with a certain granddaughter.
The man in the cream suit and the man with the ponytail are open for debate.
The thing is though that at least three of these are definitely NINTH Doctors in already-released stories. And there are eight people here, which would mean the Doctor would have sixteen incarnations. Are these all future incarnations of the Eighth Doctor? Absolutely not:
The picture drifted. Sometimes it seemed to settle upon one face and then another. Sometimes the figures merged into a double-exposed photograph. Sometimes other men appeared, each one in pseudo-Edwardian dress.
Clearly these are all potential futures for the Eighth Doctor at this time. At this point the Eighth Doctor could become Rowan Atkinson in COFD. He could become Richard E. Grant in SOTS. He could become the redhaired Good Companions Doctor. He could become one of any number of people...
Then it solidified into one, final figure. a wiry man a gaunt, hawklike face, piercing, pale grey-blue eyes and a thin, prominent nose. His lips were set into an almost cruel, almost arrogant smile. He had an air of determination, as though withholding a righteous fury. As though facing down the most terrible monsters.
Then he turned to the Doctor and his expression softened into a broad, welcoming grin, as if so say, "This is what you've got to look forward to."
...but he will only regenerate into one Ninth form. The others were all potential Nines. They are not "NONDWU" Doctors any more than Turn Left or Pyramids of Mars or the history-is-messed-up reality in The Wedding of River Song (TV story) took place in a different universe. It's all the same DWU, only one is the real timeline. The others exist in negated timelines, just like the 1980 where Sutek had destroyed the Earth, or where the Tenth Doctor died in The Runaway Bride (TV story).
So, The Tomorrow Windows was never stating that all these people were The Doctor's future. It was stating that all these people could potentially be the Doctor's future. But in the end, only one would be, and it even tells us which one that is.– The preceding unsigned comment was added by 41.132.178.90 (talk).
