Monday 21 February 2011

The Mystery of MΨTH

I was looking on the Doctor Who forums today, and I found this:


Everything – and I mean everything – since The Tenth Doctor went into that curious trance state as he regenerated in TEOT2, is a Myth generated and sustained by Ψ (Psi) energy.

Notice that the Dream Lord did not vanish at the close of Amy's Choice but persisted as a reflection. This means that the 'reality' which was restored is only as real as the dreams were. I'm increasingly thinking that none of Series 5 could logically have happened. Amy should have remembered the old-paradigm Daleks, as the Cracks could not have wiped them out without all kinds of repercussions. (Neither Doomsday nor Journey's End could have happened, and I don't think that even Moffat would dare to erase the acclaimed Bad Wolf Bay scene.) The Cybus Cybermen are no more, and could not have returned in Pandorica. In fact, the grand alliance of the Doctor's enemies could never have been forged. Realistically. (And why would the Daleks want to save a universe they had previously tried to annihilate?)

It is, indeed, all a fairytale. I'll wager that Amy is not real. (Neat solution to the, unfortunately, near-perennial problem of how to get rid of a companion: she never existed in the first place.) And The Eleventh D ain't real either – which is why he has 'generic' attributes drawn from all previous Doctors. The Doctor has not regenerated. He is caught in a between-regenerations virtual-reality limbo while the TARDIS attempts to separate out his dark side which came to the fore in The Waters of Mars. This dark side has been distilled out in the form of the Dream Lord and will ultimately be snagged by the pre-Time War Timelords in the shape of the Valeyard. (When you think about the Journey's End double-regeneration, you'll see that The Tenth Doctor could have been on his 12th incarnation in TEOT2.)

Furthermore, could all of this be happening in the space of a single moment? Is that what 'The Partisan' (if that's the lady I'm thinking of) meant when she said that the Doctor "still possesses the Moment"? Obviously, this "Moment" is something of crucial importance for the Timelords as it contains the potential for their own destruction.

And, despite some of my earlier theories, I'm playing with the idea that River Song is an avatar who has been written into the Myth to ensure that the Dark Doctor really does get separated out. (No, I haven't forgotten that he's already met her future self outside of the Myth, in the Library. Perhaps, like the Valeyard, she acquires a physical reality of her own after the dream collapses?)

But I'm getting a bad feeling about her role in this now. We know that she practically worships "her" future Doctor as some sort of Super-Doctor, and doesn't that sound very Timelord Victorious? Remember Peter McKinstry's design for
River's diary pages? The TARDIS with the words, "Time, see what's become of me" and, "the Timelord Victorious lives". Ominous words, from her past – but the Doctor's future.

Could this be saying something - could the mystery of MΨTH be a reference to the Doctor's regenerations?

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