Well there are lots of theories which fall, I guess, into several groups.
Those which try to explain what Adelaide thought she was doing, irrespective of any temporal physics. This includes hand-wavy psychological stuff about how she'd worked herself into a point where she had taken a decision to die and couldn't actually back out of it (the best supported of all the theories on the screen, I think), and theories that she had been infected and realised the fact. Some think she was very unstable and killing herself to teach the Doctor a lesson out of pique. Also theories that she'd interpreted the Doctor's words to mean any or all of the below and hoped or somehow believed that as long as she died, it didn't matter where.
Those which try to explain what the Doctor thought was going on, irrespective of whether he was right. A lot of these hinge around him saying "it's just a theory" so it doesn't matter that ultimately rescuing Adelaide and the other two didn't bring around the collapse of the universe, just that he thought it would. There's a suggestion that the Doctor can perceive "fixed points" through some extra Time Lord sense. So he doesn't need to read the history books to think they all have to die, he can "see" that its vital to history that the all die on the base. He then choses to take the risk of ignoring that perception. In the "extra perception" theory, its also possible that its only Adelaide who's death is apparently critical (not the base is destroyed, everyone dies bit), but he misinterprets that to think it is all the people on the base. An alternative to the whole perception thing is that the Time Lords or the TARDIS have some kind of map of immutable points in history with big DO NOT INTERFERE signs over them. In that case he may also just decide that he doesn't believe them.
Those which try to explain why its so important Adelaide dies but apparently doesn't matter where she does so. I guess the "she's infected" theory fits into that. Also if you freeze frame and read all the web entries in the episode it's apparently clear that it's still Adelaide's death that motivates her grand-daughters actions - it just turns out the precise nature of that death wasn't as important as the Doctor thought.
Those which acknowledge that the suicide was unnecessary and try to reconcile the Doctor's rescue of the survivors with the idea that something bad should happen if he does. So some reckon the Doctor's actions will be shown to have repercussions in the two specials being shown over Christmas. Some say its probably not that bad things always happen in these situations but that if you mess about with known history (or special fixed points) then bad things often happen (e.g. when Rose tried to save her father), the Doctor may have got away with it on this occasion, but might not in future.
I'm sure there are probably lots more out there than I've listed, since I tend to switch off a bit when reading them on the grounds that RTD clearly just hadn't thought it through properly.
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dancing_serpent
(no subject)
Date: 2009-12-03 11:13 am (UTC)Those which try to explain what Adelaide thought she was doing, irrespective of any temporal physics. This includes hand-wavy psychological stuff about how she'd worked herself into a point where she had taken a decision to die and couldn't actually back out of it (the best supported of all the theories on the screen, I think), and theories that she had been infected and realised the fact. Some think she was very unstable and killing herself to teach the Doctor a lesson out of pique. Also theories that she'd interpreted the Doctor's words to mean any or all of the below and hoped or somehow believed that as long as she died, it didn't matter where.
Those which try to explain what the Doctor thought was going on, irrespective of whether he was right. A lot of these hinge around him saying "it's just a theory" so it doesn't matter that ultimately rescuing Adelaide and the other two didn't bring around the collapse of the universe, just that he thought it would. There's a suggestion that the Doctor can perceive "fixed points" through some extra Time Lord sense. So he doesn't need to read the history books to think they all have to die, he can "see" that its vital to history that the all die on the base. He then choses to take the risk of ignoring that perception. In the "extra perception" theory, its also possible that its only Adelaide who's death is apparently critical (not the base is destroyed, everyone dies bit), but he misinterprets that to think it is all the people on the base. An alternative to the whole perception thing is that the Time Lords or the TARDIS have some kind of map of immutable points in history with big DO NOT INTERFERE signs over them. In that case he may also just decide that he doesn't believe them.
Those which try to explain why its so important Adelaide dies but apparently doesn't matter where she does so. I guess the "she's infected" theory fits into that. Also if you freeze frame and read all the web entries in the episode it's apparently clear that it's still Adelaide's death that motivates her grand-daughters actions - it just turns out the precise nature of that death wasn't as important as the Doctor thought.
Those which acknowledge that the suicide was unnecessary and try to reconcile the Doctor's rescue of the survivors with the idea that something bad should happen if he does. So some reckon the Doctor's actions will be shown to have repercussions in the two specials being shown over Christmas. Some say its probably not that bad things always happen in these situations but that if you mess about with known history (or special fixed points) then bad things often happen (e.g. when Rose tried to save her father), the Doctor may have got away with it on this occasion, but might not in future.
I'm sure there are probably lots more out there than I've listed, since I tend to switch off a bit when reading them on the grounds that RTD clearly just hadn't thought it through properly.