Chapter By Chapter features me reading one chapter of the selected book at the time and reviewing it as if I were reviewing an episode of a TV show or an issue of a comic. There will be spoilers if you haven’t read to the point I have, and if you’ve read further I ask that you don’t spoil anything further into the book. Think of it as read-along book club.
We’re almost to the end of the story, which is good because I’m running out of things to talk about in the intro. Lucky for me last week I came up with a topic. Our heroes are going through time in pursuit of the TARDIS and to undo all the mess of this story, but it’s not like history hasn’t been played with before in this franchise. First you have the general problem of doing a science fiction show about the future in that the future in the real world is ever changing. Star Trek ran up against that with their take on the 1990s, and if there was a Eugenics War I’m sure it would have made all the papers. Meanwhile in the Whoniverse we don’t have starships that require the crew be in stasis, space observatories in Antarctica being invaded by cyborgs from a planet on the other side of space, and New Who hasn’t been any different since I doubt we’ll have either a Bountiful Human Empire or reality and game shows turned deadly. Time changes and events in most stories set in the future will eventually have outdated technology touted as futuristic or events in some far-off year not matching up what actually happens.
It doesn’t matter than messing with history was the least offense of the Timeless Child. Were the pre-Daleks called the Dals or the Kaleds? When the Doctor destroyed the Daleks in his first meeting with them are they still destined to die or were they just Daleks left behind who didn’t get the sweet tech upgrades? Is Skaro blown up or not and how did that affect the Thals? There have been two different origins for the Loch Ness Monster in Who lore. Between the meddling Monk, who wouldn’t be introduced until a few seasons after when this story would take place in what passes for continuity, the Master, and the Rani plus the Daleks themselves learning how to build a time machine “wibbly wobbly timey whimey” has been going on for a long…time…now. “Fixed points” are just an excuse to not have actual historical events like wars or the shooting of John F. Kennedy being used as story points that might come off as insulting to viewers…yet I’m pretty sure even this franchise has played with Jack The Ripper because nobody cares about prostitutes in the 1800s I guess. Insult them all you want. Even then new Who has messed around with history, and I don’t just mean the Cybermen attack in 1800s or a dinosaur running around the Thames around the same time. There’s even the rule that you shouldn’t make contact with your past/future self, which I guess doesn’t matter when it comes to one of your regenerations. This series doesn’t always play by it’s own time travel rules, and considering this show went on so long that writers forgot stuff nobody thought to come up with probably hasn’t been helpful.
Meanwhile The First Doctor and his Companions are dealing with a 2006 we know wasn’t even close to coming to pass in 2005, when the book was published, so let’s see how they plan to set our history to rights.
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