Reversing the paradox

[unfeathered]

Okay, it's a long time since I've watched Last of the Time Lords (will try and have a look tonight) but I just got thinking: when they reversed the paradox, everything on the earth got reversed but the Valiant didn't, right? So what happened to those people who were on the Valiant right before the paradox kicked in - all the film crews and world leaders or whoever they were? I know the President got zapped and so there wasn't a body (right?), but there were other people present at that point who didn't suddenly appear on the bridge of the Valiant when time was reversed.

So where did they go?

And no, I'm not expecting an actual canon explanation for this, because they don't think things through that thoroughly, but can anyone suggest something that makes sense? At the moment, all I can imagine is them somehow popping up at their homes or something, going "Whu....?"

Comments

[dune-drd.livejournal.com]

The most logical answer would be 'Plot hole' - my fannish explanation is that only those people on the Valiant that were present when the paradox *reversed* weren't affected by time rewinding

[unfeathered]

Oh yes, definitely plot hole. I'm just trying to make it make sense in my own mind.

only those people on the Valiant that were present when the paradox *reversed* weren't affected by time rewinding

Yes, absolutely. But that leaves the people who had been there originally but weren't when time rewound. Really, they should have just appeared on the bridge or something!

[aeron-lanart.livejournal.com]

If they were still alive they had probably been locked up so we just didn't see them on screen. And then they were retconned.

Or, they all appeared at the various airports/whatever they would have had to use to get to the Valiant in the first place, and were like "Hang on, weren't we up there a minute ago?" aka "Whu...?"

In Reality it's called Rusty driving his truck through the plot holes in the hope that we don't notice/don't care.

[unfeathered]

Heh, I like the airports idea! That's about the best I can come up with too. I wish I could make sense of it, though.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

I spent 10 minutes typing and erasing increasingly more outlandish possible explanations before I decided aeron_lanart was probably closest to a plausible explanation. They just had time reverse itself a bit more than everyone else did and were on Earth in various places

[unfeathered]

Yeah, it's about the best explanation, isn't it?

[eskimosatan.livejournal.com]

It's been a while since I saw it, too, but I don't remember the two Toclafane being there, either, and I'm wondering exactly how far back the paradox went back. Like, if the Toclafane being there at all were part of it, and, if so, they were a big part of the Master's plan. So, if you assume that his plan didn't go into action because the Toclafane couldn't be there, then he didn't run for Prime Minister. So, then everyone who died on the Valiant, or were there for the press conference, have now been put back where they would have been had the Master never been elected as Prime Minister and held that press conference on the Valiant.

Right. Or, they just didn't think about it. Take your pick.

[unfeathered]

Oh yeah, definitely they just didn't think about it! *g*

But it can't have reversed beyond the paradox starting, can it? Or not more than a few minutes, anyway?

Gah. I hate it when I can't make sense of stuff!

[lyorn.livejournal.com]

Hm. They couldn't re-appear on the bridge, since the Valiant as a place was stablilized against the paradox. Everyone who died on the Valiant will probably stay dead. (Time is bouncy and can take a small amount of paradox). Everyone who was on the ship at rollback has still lived through the year. But those who left the Valiant during that year would zap back to space-time-causality coordinates that do not exist anymore since the Valiant has moved. Which is a nasty idea if taken literally. Maybe they slipped into an undefined., unstable state for a moment and which spit them out somewhat randomly, maybe by some (insert name of elemental particle or unknown wave here) association that makes most of them end up close to what they call home.

[unfeathered]

Oooh, now I like that explanation! Mmmm. Thank you!

[mad-jaks.livejournal.com]

Brain is numb. Cannot compute

[unfeathered]

*grins* Don't worry about it. It's just something I wanted to make sense of, because it frustrates me when I can't!

[emiliusredux.livejournal.com]

To be honest, I never really believed that it was the Valiant itself that was protected from the parodox. I always assumed that it was centralized around Jack, the fact of the universe. The Valiant was protected simply because he was on it.

Or that'h how I forced myself to see it anyway. Most things about that episode didn't make sense. I felt insistant that something had to.

Btw, I love your stories, especially your Master Plan one. I've been reading it for ages. It's taken me this long to reply because for some reason my computer spent the year refusing to grant me an e-mail account. Without that, I couldn't get an LJ account.

*sighs*

Sorry for ranting. Once again, I love your stories.

[unfeathered]

I always assumed that it was centralized around Jack

I seriously need to rewatch, but I thought what was actually said was that it was around the paradox machine rather than Jack. Yes, not the Valiant in itself, but it would affect the Valiant because it's the only inhabitable place anywhere near the paradox machine.

But the Jack idea is an interesting one... :-)

And wow, thank you! It's always lovely to know that people are actually reading my stories! *G*

[emiliusredux.livejournal.com]

Now tha you mention it, The Doctor did say that. Sorry. I've only seen the episode once but it was to rushed and I was still scratching my head at the Doctor's Tinkerbell moment.