The mind works in mysterious ways and mine even more so. As the season finale of Doctor Who came on, before the little blue head in the box could speak I realized what they were getting at, I also kind of figured out how. But the question, the question at the beginning of it all, in this instanc the question hidden in plain sight that all of us have always known but of course with a little play on words would never think of.
Now as Doctor Who has always had a thing against spoilers and I am a fan I will keep to that covenant. What I will speak of instead is exactly when does time begin? I mean none of us were actually there at the beginning now were we, nor our ancestors. None can tell us how the sun looked on that first day, or the moon, how tall the first tree grew so in actuality the beginning of life on this planet was not yet the beginning of "time." When th e first sentient beings began to notice that 1 hour was not the same as the next while it had always been ticking away as we crawled from the primordial ooze or from the mind's eye of some great deity still yet that was not the beginning of time, so when pray tell did time begin, why at the first recording of it. The first time some one set a not into the ground to gauge how this hour was different then the last and that upon the start of a new day Rebirth had begun. And at that time it was so young, so very, very young. While we knew that time continued once the sun went down we didn't really have a way to gauge it at first, how do you record said unit of time when the almighty glowing bright spot in the middle of the sky is not there and the only other glowing object does not move the same. Hell it may not even be there some nights, that most likely would have been the invention of the hour glass. It may not have been perfect a single second or two of missing those last few grains of sand or even an energetic flip and time would be slightly off. Hell even we in the present have to reset our clocks by one that we have sworn to have absolute accuracy down the the pulse of an atom.
I have jumped ahead have I not, so we have gotten to the hour glass which was good as long as someone was diligent in turning it would could keep rather decent record of time. So for humanity time had finally begun, yes we already had farming, yes we already had rudimentary writing and now we also had TIME. The thing that all men run from, the thing that all women deny until de Nile becomes ONLY a river in Egypt because they themselves have run out of tricks to remove it's mark. And yet even then while "time immemorial" may have just begun what about time some place that is not as advanced as somewhere else. I mean while here in the western world we have a calendar at about 2000, and if we use BC we maybe be able to get another 2000 there are calendars that are in the 5's or 6000. The Mayan calendar that is about to expire was supposedly counting down 20,000 years, so does time start when it started or does time start at the beginning of the STORY, I mean we call it hiSTORY but we forget to check and see who's story we are playing in. So if the beginning of time depends on who's sandbox we are building castles in then when we leave say our reality exactly when does the next reality's time start.
In a show where time is a play thing, and people and places are always interchangeable. Where even the lead actor whether loved or hated is not a fixture and if need be can be shifted out as to continue the series without losing too much steam and hopefully keeping those of us who love it in thralled until once again a new champion must lead the quest. The king is dead, long live the king. And as usually is the case while his "crown" may remain the same, and his sword reforged and shined anew RARELY does the old king look like the new king. And that little trick about hiding in plain sight, oh how brilliant. Because when you think of a man who can be(and has even though they have yet to think of it all if it exists he can, and if you can imagine it the second the thought crossed your mind he is already there) any time, any where, who has lived for over 900 years. Really what else would you do with that much time. The companions change, the interior changes(slightly), the SCREW DRIVER changes(didn't really notice that too much at first, but it does and not just the lights) and yet the rules are set in stone.
I have been dragging my feet haven't I, so seriously what is the question that has been being asked by Doctor Who fans since the show began, yes that and only that would be the question we have all asked, and yet already forgotten as we follow the funny little man in his little blue box and his companions and now his wife. Indeed, while it may seem a let down when they finally ask the question, answer it for us and let the "silence" fall, in essence for a show that has drawn us back in and given us reason to compare notes again it may be ballsy, I may have figured it out 40 minutes before my suspicions were confirmed, but I enjoyed the ride none the less and I appreciate the pains taking way they have gone about setting up the next leg in the story. Which causes me to wonder, if one can do why not the other?
So my fellow Whovians how far from the floor was your jaw and how happy were you that you will be allowed to continue with bated breath until finally we have the answer we have always been waiting for.
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