From: ira2p@faraday.clas.Virginia.EDU (Iain Robert Asplin)
Subject: Re: Many Questions About Dr. Who
Organization: University of Virginia
Date: Sat, 3 Oct 1992 15:34:39 GMT

In article <wDP2RB2w165w@somenode.uucp> doctor@somenode.uucp (Daniel Klugh) writes:
>CXMP@MUSICA.MCGILL.CA (CXMP) writes:
>
>Borusa became President-elect.The are probably 100's of millions of 
>Gallifreyans.(Earth is a severly over crowded planet)
>Time Lords are all scientists and/or scholars.They forbid themselves from 
>interfering with lesser species.(same reason as the Prime Directive in 
>Star Trek)
>The TARDIS was huge from the start.
>The "Edge of Destruction" had them going near the core/center of the 
>TARDIS.TARDISs are made to be scientific outposts/"ships".
>The Master's TARDIS is very similar to the Doctor's.
>The Time Lords don't care enough to chase him.
>Gallifreyans are sterlie.(at least the females are)

"the Edge of Destruction" did not have the crew going anywhere near the
core/center of the ship as you put it.  That happens only in the novelization,
written in the late 80s, so this cannot be taken as canon.
Also, there is absolutely no foundation for the "Gallifreyans are sterile"
comment within the series itself.  I have not yet read the Cat's Cradle
books but even if they say this is so, it means nothing as the New
Adventures cannot be taken as canon.  
The Doctor has spoken of a "family" on a number of occasions and we know
Susan is his granddaughter, so I would tend to think the reverse is true.


>
>Dalek:Exterminate the Doctor.
>
>Doctor:Exterminate me?Oh,I see,you're going to exterminate me.
>EXTERMINATE ME?!?!?!?!
>
>DALEK:Yow!
>
Well, he certainly came close.  How about in "Revelation of the Daleks"
after Davros gets his remaining hand shot off, Davros calls their failed
escape attempt "A foolish waste of energy."
And the Doctor replies,  "No arm in trying."

>> 
>
>I have also argued that point.
>Let's take you example.If the Earth gets devastated in the early 20th 
>century unless the Doctor stops Sutekh then until he takes care of 
>that,any adventure(including all the UNIT adventures)would never of 
>happened.So obviously he is probability traveling.(travel to alternate 
>realities)
>Now while this conincides with real life time travel,it kinda messes up 
>the mythos of Doctor Who.Paradoxes come around from everything existing 
>in one time line.Now "Inferno" and "Pyramids of Mars" sugest a 
>multiversal structure like or reality has.(Inferno:"So free will isn't an 
>ilussion")
>But the whole buisness about changeing your personal time line only 
>creates a paradox in a uni-versal ,er,universe.So we have to invent some 
>hybrid of the two theories.


Personally, I always liked the FASA Doctor Who Role Playing Game's
idea on this, that whilst time can be changed, it does tend to try and
go back to its earlier flow.  Hence the term "timestream" which we
hear throughout the show a lot.  
Even though once can divert a stream somewhat, after a while it settles
back down again into its proper channel.
Mind you, get a bulldozer as big as Sutekh, and then you can actually
"dam" the timestreams and create LOTS of chaos.

(Incidentally, while on the subject of "Timestreams," I thought it might
be interesting to point something out.  We all know how Harlan Ellison
fell in love with the show enough to write the introductions to the
initial American releases of the novelizations. 
In one of his episodes of "The New Twilight Zone" (which he wrote, not
just edited in this case), we meet a descendant of John F Kennedy who
goes back in time and averts the assassination.
Two thing of Who-interest in this story.  One is the date and the event
Harlan decided to play with (wonder what debuted the very next day?),
and two is that when this man consults his pocket-watch time computer
about the effects of his intervention, it's using all the Who time
terminology such as "timestream" and "timeline.")

d
>Of course the Dalek question is moot as they still got blown up when a 
>Dalek ran over the wires.Thus the Daleks had to develop normaly(over 300 
>years)instead of artificialy.

Actual figure was 1000 years I think.  Just a minor one here.
>