A completely stupid and nerdy question.

[shada pavlova]

Here's a continuity question that nobody has thought of, or even cares about.

If the Reality Bomb was meant to eradicate ALL parallel timelines, why didn't it affect the Master's parallel 2009?

Right, you lot try to think of an answer to that whilst I watch Part 3 of Planet of Evil.

[Perry Vale]

Right, you lot try to think of an answer to that whilst I watch Part 3 of Planet of Evil.

Which I think is co-incidentally the amount of time it took RTD to write the reality bomb into the plot.

[Rob McCow]

I don't know how time travel works in the Doctor Who universe.

In our Universe, it's quite straightforward.

[Captain Tancredi]

The conclusion I came to several years ago was that if the Doctor keeps travelling back and forth in time, the events of each successive journey overwrite any contradictions with his previous journeys. So the most recent adventure trumps all the previous ones.

[Jon Masters]

<snigger> Ian said Trumps <snigger>

I would use some off the cuff excuse like....the Master's paradox machine prevented Davros' return from developing in that timeline because of its link to the far future where clearly the Universe hadn't been destroyed.

[Jeff]

Conpletely indeed.

[Logo Polish]

But it didn't affect the parallel universe that Rose lives in either, one which would also appear to have been caused by a timeline divergence at some time, so perhaps it just didn't really work?

[Andrew Curnow]

I don't even understand the question? The Master's parallel universe had already been 'unwritten' at the end of TLOTT hadn't it?

[Zbigniev Hamson]

I can't even remember what the reality bomb is...

[Pip Madeley]

Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey etc etc.

[SiHart]

It's a paradox created by a paradox machine- I suggest you may find your answer by thinking about that!

Si xx

[Si Hunt]

If the Reality Bomb was meant to eradicate ALL parallel timelines, why didn't it affect the Master's parallel 2009?

Because it was never actually used?

Si.

[shada pavlova]

Because it was never actually used?

Si.

Then explain Turn Left to me.

Dimensional retro-closure and all that.

[Andrew Curnow]

I think Logo's got it - Davros can talk the talk, and he can big up his machine but actually it just didn't work that well. D'oh!

Although I still don't understand the question - what's it got to do with the Master's parallel world?!

[Logo Polish]

Ta, Andrew.

Then explain Turn Left to me.

Dimensional retro-closure and all that.

That was because of Donna going back and preventing the other timeline from developing by nipping it in the bud where it diverged, surely?

[Si Hunt]

Then explain Turn Left to me.

Time Beetle/Trickster agent diverts Donna's timeline so she has to correct it. Nothing to do with the reality bomb, or the Master.

I get the impression you're trying to make it all more complicated than it is.

Si.

[cyberchris35]

I think the answer to the Turn Left problem is in Donna's timeline the Doctor dies before he meets Martha Jones. So he never get thrown into the future by Captain Jack jumpping on the TARDIS and so never meets Professor Yana. Martha never tells about the fob watch and so the Master stays in there and Harry Saxon never exists so the paradox timeline never gets created.
If you understand that then your better than me.

[Perry Vale]

The big problem with Turn Left, is that the following story contradicts it. The Stolen Earth shows, and there's a bit of a clue in the title, that Davros needs to steal the Earth to make his reality bomb work. 27 precise planets/moons are needed. However in Turn Left, the "stars are going out", yet they shouldn't be doing so, as Davros doesn't have all the planets needed and hasn't stolen the Earth.

And of course Journey's End raises a small point about 'Midnight' too, assuming that episode was set in our future?

[Rob McCow]

Can we call this the Pavlova Paradox?

[Jon Masters]

Can we call this the Pavlova Paradox?

Isn't that how, despite being cloaked in cream, bits of meringue fly across the room when you try to cut one ?

[Zbigniev Hamson]

It's a bit hard to summon the enthusiasm to try and make sense of it all, when you know that the person who made it all up in the first place didn't really give it all that much thought to start with.

Mind you, you could say that about the entire history of the series really

[Jeff]

You people think too much.

[Dave Tudor]

So what is it?

[Si Hunt]

I've never seen one before, no-one has.

Si.

[shada pavlova]

Let me try and explain the question a bit more thorughly.

The Reality Bomb was supposed to destroy ALL parallel universes, whether they occured naturally (such as the Cybusmen timeline) or diverged due to extratemporal incursion (like the Master's parallel 2009 or the one in Blood Heat when the Silurians killed the 3rd Doctor at Wenley Moor. And I've only mentioned that because I've just read Blood Heat and I think it's amazing).

But my point is, the Reality Bomb should have obliterated the Master's parallel 2009, as it would have done for all potential timelines. Including the Inferno-verse.