Making Sense of Listen’s Gallifreyan Gallivant
Connor Johnston examines the divisive scene from “Listen” in a new light before offering a theory.
With this week’s eerie adventure came with it what is shaping up to be possibly one of the most controversial scenes of Series 8 so far, and possibly even of Doctor Who history. The scene is question being of course the glimpse into the Doctor’s childhood when Clara, via the TARDIS telepathic circuit, landed in what would soon become potentially one of the most instrumental moments of the young Time Lord’s life.
Judging from the initial reactions, there seems to be a lack of “middle ground” when it comes to people’s opinions on the scene. It seems to be either one extreme: “Holy Rassilon, that is the best scene in the history of Who”, or another: “Holy Rassilon, that scene completely ruined the episode”. Regardless of personal positions on the scene however (To which I fall towards the first extreme of an overwhelming love for it), today I beg the question “Was the scene even possible?” – Is it logically conceivable that the journey could have been made? To your DVD collections Whovians… we have a case to crack!
Time-Locked
The very first argument that seems to come up is that of Gallifrey being Time-locked. A Time-lock seems very self-explanatory, but just in case we’ll define in as a mechanism whereby an event or series of events is rendered unreachable by time travel, blocking off a section of the Time Vortex. It very much sounds like quite a definite resolution, but alas the Time-lock has been broken at least twice before; once by “The New Three Doctors” in “The Day of the Doctor”, aided and guided through by the Moment, and of course by Dalek Caan who attempted (and partially succeeded) in making an emergency temporal shift and travelling back to the Gates of Elysium to save Davros – but at the complete cost of his sanity. No Moment, no guidance – and Clara’s sanity seems very much intact… so how on earth was the Time Lock breached with little to no consequences at all?
It’s very simple: Gallifrey is not time-locked, the Time War is time-locked. Part of Gallifrey’s history is in the Time War, and that part of their history is locked away. Gallifrey was transported to a pocket universe at the end of the Time War, and that is why the Doctor can’t go back to such crucial events. All the travels to Gallifrey in the classic series were had before the Time War began, so the time lock had not yet been put into place. Through the new revelation of what really happened during the final day of the Time War that the 50th Anniversary presented us with, we know that Gallifrey wasn’t removed from all of space and time, simply frozen and the events of the Time War time-locked away at that point in its history.
Yes, it’s a difficult concept, and yes there are questionable variables, but without enough knowledge about how Time-Locks work we can only fill in so many blanks. It’s my personal understanding that a Time-lock acts to completely block off certain events – BUT also works to ensure no prior events be corrupted or interfered with in a way that would change the outcome of the locked events. Hence why the Tenth Doctor states to Donna that he cannot go back and save his own people in “The Fires of Pompeii”. This idea that the time-lock only mainly effects events in the Time War is supported by certain quotes in “The Day of the Doctor” – “These EVENTS should be time-locked. We shouldn’t even be here.” – (note EVENTS… not PLANET) – and of course the implication that one dark day the Doctor went back and counted the children that would have died on Gallifrey prior to the Time War.
This raises another reason the Doctor doesn’t go back to Gallifreyan events that haven’t been blocked by the time-lock or labelled as corruptible – imagine the emotional toll on the poor man. He can only take so much. And would he be able to control himself? What’s the true reason Clara tells him not to look where they are?
So, by reasoning the time-lock shouldn’t in any way hinder Clara and the TARDIS landing in the barn that night in the Doctor’s childhood. If anything, it should encourage it as it literally creates a fixed point in time by the fact that it is monumental in contributing to the establishment of the time-lock in the first place, but more on that later. Alas – the time-lock is not the only argument getting in the way of the Barn scene’s easy access into continuity heaven…
Breaking the Barrier?
Even without the hindrance of the Time-lock, the issue of how Clara managed to pilot through the Transduction Barriers still must be raised. For those not so familiar with Gallifrey’s use of Transduction Barriers in Classic Who, they are quantum force fields that protected Gallifrey and the Time Lords from invasion. These barriers were raised around Time Lord space stations, and even at times the planet itself, and in theory TARDISes were unable to pass through them without permission. I will stress those two words: IN THEORY, as over the history of Doctor Who the Barriers have been either breached or forcibly deactivated many times. In “The Invasion of Time” they were deactivated by K9 under the orders of the Fourth Doctor, and in countless audios and novels – most recently “Engines of War” – the Doctor’s TARDIS is fully capable of doing so. Given the barriers flawed reputation, there’s no reason that dictates Clara and the TARDIS couldn’t have broken through… but what if there was no need to break through at all?
Permission Granted?
And here we get to the theoretical segment of the article – perhaps Clara and the TARDIS never had to “break” through… what if they were granted permission. Let’s look at what we know about the origins of the Doctor and Clara’s relationship – Speaking in linear (a rare occurrence when speaking about Doctor Who) – it all began with a woman in the shop, who gave Clara the telephone number for the TARDIS (information that is hard to come by) and disguised it as a “Computer Helpline”. In “Deep Breath” it was later implied that this same woman or force was responsible for bringing the Doctor and Clara together once again through the advert in the newspaper. There is someone out in the universe very keen on keeping the pair together, but why? My own personal opinion regarding who the woman in the shop is has changed constantly: If you’d had asked me during Series 7B I would of said River Song, after Deep Breath there was no doubt in my mind it would be Missy – but post “Listen”, I’m not quite certain anymore.
Could it be that the Time Lords themselves have been the ones manipulating the two from beyond their universe? They certainly have motive now! They now know that the Doctor will one day save them. The newly unearthed information from “Listen” tells that The Doctor exists because the TARDIS went earlier in his timeline, Clara served to partially inspire the young Time Lord, leading then to set up the events of him one day stealing a TARDIS, and then further more to one day saving Gallifrey. This moment is made even more instrumental now- it’s now one of the most defining events in the Doctor’s (and due to his latter actions Gallifrey’s) history – a fixed point in time that needs to happen for history to be set in motion – A fixed point to ensure the Time Lord becomes the Doctor who saves Gallifrey, a reason that no doubt would lead the Time Lords (Possibly the CIA – Celestial Intervention Agency) to allow the TARDIS passage past the Transduction Barrier? A clear motive to why the Time Lords would want Clara and the Doctor kept together.
Everyone else has had a crack, why not I! If the Time Lords can be attributed with the manipulation of the Doctor and Clara, perhaps the woman in the shop was a Time Lady that we’ve already met. Someone who we know has communicated with the Doctor’s companions and guided them to aid him before? Someone like the mysterious Woman from “The End of Time”. What an unexpected, yet in theory completely payable twist that would be! I’ll leave you here to ponder that one for a while – however unlikely it is, a boy can always dream!
A Distant Destination?
Of course perhaps it’s nothing so complicated at all. Yet another option to explain the feasibility of the scene taking place is the suggestion that the Barn was indeed not on Gallifrey. Not exactly my favourite explanation as there’s not much discussion to be had for either side of the argument – though if true it would disprove any continued support for the events being time locked or guarded with a Transduction Barrier. Even though it hasn’t been specifically and directly stated that the Barn resides on Gallifrey, it was very much implied through the War Doctor stating he has no interest in surviving the aftermath of the Moment’s wrath in “The Day of the Doctor”. In saying that however, there is every chance that the barn may be situated in a surrounding system, but I doubt we will ever know with full certainty.
The Future Factor…
And of course the last thing to take into account is that possibly this article is written prematurely. Perhaps there will be lasting effects of the gallivant to Gallifrey either on Clara or the TARDIS and we’ve been too quick to judge? But alas it is far too early to tell, with the remaining episodes of Series 8 being time-locked away for several more weeks, to all bar the little Dalek Caan’s who have prompted to read ahead. To whom we mustn’t judge… only hope that they too have lost their sanity! Despite the existence of this article, for me it doesn’t make a difference with the context of the narrative whether Clara should have been able to get there or not. We were blessed with one of the most beautiful scenes in the history of the show, a scene that uncaptured everything the Doctor, the show and its story stands for. And in my heart, that’s truly all that’s important.
Until next time folks – that’s another case cracked!
