I'm kind of confused about this whole thing. Was Gallifrey actually destroyed to begin with? What I remember from Ten's last episode was that they were in a Time Lock or something like that; totally cut off from the universe and so functionally destroyed, I suppose, but not technically. They had that Timothy Dalton, clearly alive, trying to lead them back, only they were going to come back right on top of Earth and restart the war, so the Doctor wouldn't let it happen.
It's quite possible I am forgetting and/or fundamentally misunderstanding things, but how is this particularly different from Gallifrey being stuck in a painting?
yeah, ugh, that whole thing is a real headache to get straight in one's head. that's one thing i totally understand people complaining about, though it does all fit together without contradictions. (i like this article, the last section talks about how the two stories relate to each other! (http://www.doctorwhotv.co.uk/the-day-of-the-doctor-sorting-out-the-time-differentials-55471.htm)) but no, it was never actually destroyed, just locked in a set course of events that seemed to be bound to end in its destruction, but turned out to actually end in it being saved at the last moment.
the way i think of it, the difference is that the time lock in the end of time wasn't so much a place as a state, one of events being sort of "frozen", so that instead of being able to play out in many different ways, there was literally only one possible course of events. like a chunk of ice, the water molecules are locked together in that crystal pattern and can't move about freely the way they can in liquid water. nobody can get out simply because that single course of events doesn't include anyone getting out, and nodody can go back either because it also doesn't include anyone returning from the future. the whole chunk is still swimming in the more "liquid" time of the rest of the universe though, the bits that touch it are still affected by it being there, it's just not possible to change anything inside the chunk itself. whereas what the doctor (all of him) did in the day of the doctor seems more like just completely taking gallifrey and everyone on it out of the universe and shoving it into a tiny parallel one. (also i don't think it's meant to literally be inside the painting, i totally thought so too at first, but why would the doctor need to go looking for it if it was inside a painting that was right in front of him...)
of course we could also pretend that the whole specials year including the end of time never actually happened in that form and that ten actually sacrificed a regeneration to save donna without having to erase her memories! that is clearly a much preferable story. ;)
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elsewhence
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Date: Friday, 6 December 2013 05:27 pm (UTC)It's quite possible I am forgetting and/or fundamentally misunderstanding things, but how is this particularly different from Gallifrey being stuck in a painting?
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Date: Friday, 6 December 2013 08:14 pm (UTC)the way i think of it, the difference is that the time lock in the end of time wasn't so much a place as a state, one of events being sort of "frozen", so that instead of being able to play out in many different ways, there was literally only one possible course of events. like a chunk of ice, the water molecules are locked together in that crystal pattern and can't move about freely the way they can in liquid water. nobody can get out simply because that single course of events doesn't include anyone getting out, and nodody can go back either because it also doesn't include anyone returning from the future. the whole chunk is still swimming in the more "liquid" time of the rest of the universe though, the bits that touch it are still affected by it being there, it's just not possible to change anything inside the chunk itself. whereas what the doctor (all of him) did in the day of the doctor seems more like just completely taking gallifrey and everyone on it out of the universe and shoving it into a tiny parallel one. (also i don't think it's meant to literally be inside the painting, i totally thought so too at first, but why would the doctor need to go looking for it if it was inside a painting that was right in front of him...)
of course we could also pretend that the whole specials year including the end of time never actually happened in that form and that ten actually sacrificed a regeneration to save donna without having to erase her memories! that is clearly a much preferable story. ;)