“People assume that time is a strict progression of cause to effect. But actually from a non-linear, non-subjective viewpoint it’s more like a big ball of wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey… stuff.”

The Doctor, Blink

Humans, we’re so … linear. For me, rewatching the series, and especially the Moffat ones, I think the quote from Blink may almost be a mission statement for his run. Both Russell T Davies and Steven Moffat have expressed some astonishment in the past at how fixed and unmoving some fans have become. Perhaps the quote deals with some elements of fandom, and our own subjective viewpoint of linear continuity. The dreaded canonical back story of the Whoniverse.

When discussing Asylum of the Daleks on a Guardian thread we had someone post something along the lines of “Those Daleks could never have been in Death to the Daleks (the Exxilon reference), they looked nothing like them! Clearly RTD era”. How clever of him to spot it. I could have pointed out, in an effort at fanboy brinkmanship, “Who cares – Exxilon had no Dalek survivors. Moffs a fool”. I resisted, and I’ll explain why later.

Cybermen history can be problematic too. Why do we suddenly have Cyberfleets in the future when the Doctor told Rose they had died out long ago in Age of Steel. Well I know that they didn’t. The Fourth Doctor told me about the human/cyberman conflicts of the future. The second doctor often encountered cybermen in the human future. Ten’s reference was clear nonsense. The Doctor blowing up a Cyberfleet feels right to me. It’s always been like that.

These are my linear subjective experiences of the timeline. They outweigh your knowledge, and therefore I win!! I often think that’s why continuity is so important to some people. A very adult obsession with collecting and collating facts. Trying to place them in logical order. A linear order usually, and boy, do we like looking for the cracks in the Whoniverse.

It’s a trap for writers and for fans. A trap like the one the Doctor fell into in Series 5. Cracks in the Universe that threaten to swallow the Doctor who risks being brought low by his own history. “Remember every black day I ever defeated you”. Yes Doctor, we do, and we’ll hold it against you in the court of continuity boredom. We want you locked in a Pandorica like prison because of your history. We want it to remain special. And unchanging.

I have no desire to be a continuity bore anymore. Oh – I’m interested in the continuity of, and making sense of what’s going on in the Moffat era and I’ll pass judgement on his overall run at a later date. But I’m not going to demand that he limits himself to my narrow linear perspective of what Who is and can be, or attempt to reconcile some bad decisions by other writers at some time in the past into his universe. Or the next showrunner, whoever they are. The Doctor has changed the universe so many times everything is possible. It’s a timeline issue.

Yep, the Eleventh Doctor, as he promised Amy, has cured me of being an adult. Ask Lindalee Rose what the Daleks in Death to the Daleks looked like she’ll point at the screen. They’ve always looked like that, in her and the Doctors current timeframe. The story still happened. Certain details changed – the exterior shell is just a tank for what’s inside. Time can be rewritten. Or another Dalek expedition to Exxilon happened later, and one of them survived.

You see what I did there? I made up a story, in my head, about a Madman in a Blue Box. We do it regularly on The Doctor Who Forum. People have actually sold books trying to reconcile the continuity issues. Just stories and wild theories made in their heads. Collaboratively, my friends, we could write a bestseller about forgotten pasts, improbable futures and ever-changing nows.

The future for the series is in the imagination of the viewer and the excitement of the journey. Not the dull acquisition of facts and passive observation of the Universe. The Doctor knew this. It’s why he and his flighty temptress, Old Sexy, ran away from the Time Lords in the first place.

Don’t blame Moffat for any of the above. I don’t know if this is what he’s thinking. It’s just my own interpretation of it from my own limited subjective view. It’s my theory-weary, if you like. Make up your own. In your head.

Make it a good one, eh?

I originally posted a slightly different version of this comment on The Guardian’s blog and while, like the Doctor, “I hate repeats” I wanted this here. Sorry.