From "Rose" to "The Big Bang" -- what did(n't) happen? (series 31 spoilers ahoy!)

[DigiFluid]

This occurred to me when The Big Bang first aired, and I've been chewing on it since then but haven't been able to decide.

Throughout this year, there's been references made to Amy not having any recollection of major events--particularly those of the RTD era. As we find out by the end of the season, this is because Cracks in the fabric of the universe have been swallowing things up and erasing them from the timeline. And with the ending of The Big Bang, the universe is corrected solely on the strength of Amy's memories.

So having never experienced any of the events that happened during the RTD years because of the Cracks and therefore having no memories from which to restore them--does that mean Stephen Moffat (and crew) has retconned the entire RTD era from existence?

And to narrow the focus a little, what about this season in particular? The timeline is restored from her memories, wherein there were Cracks in the fabric of the universe. So what, if anything/how much of this season actually happened? Don't her memories of the Cracks create a self-perpetuating problem?

[Replicator Todd]

Wow, that seriously is a question I cannot even fathom an answer to....I just try not to think about it.

[Alan Wake]

This is perhaps the greatest question to ever come across the minds of humans.

Solving this riddle could very well make a crack in the fabric of space and time.

I implore you to ignore this.

[SaberBlade]

I don't believe that anything was retconned.

Amy's memories would have directly affected the Doctor, bringing him back, but I think everything else was left up to the Pandorical. That's assuming she did bring him back, it was believed he'd not return but River remembered him, so why not Amy? Amy's powers of memory may not have been that important at all, the Doctor just didn't want to return to her life if she didn't remember him. The guy was dressed for her wedding already, suggesting that he was back, changed and just waiting for her to remember him.

Amy only had a short time with the Doctor so there is so much that would have happened that she'd not even know about. It's not just an issue of her not knowing the RTD events, but also everything else that happened from First to Eighth.

I'd say the first season with Matt was retconned, as there were no cracks, so Prisoner Zero didn't escape and everything as a result from it never happened. Great news though, could mean that the Power Ranger Dalek's never happened either.

[Serebii]

I believe that everything happened. It's just Amy's memory of them that didn't happen, perhaps her parents were there to protect her against Daleks, but then they fell into the crack later so Amy's mind couldn't handle the lack of memory so just blotted out the whole event

[Puddle-Jumper]

Ive been trying to work this out in my head since it aired, and I got nothing.. except this.. It was said a few times throughout the season that Amy Pond was the girl that didn't make sense, this was because that crack in the universe was eating away at her life, and some of that had poured into her head, and for the crack to close this energy had to come back outta her head, and with it, it partially used her memories to fill in some blanks for the stuff that the pandorica was missing, e.g. the stuff that had fallen through the cracks.

So Im guessing that RTD's era still happened,
everything from season 1 still happened, but perhaps Amy and Rori remember it slightly differently, maybe instead of not having parents, Amy just happened to be home alone that night etc
Rori was restored because Amy's memories started the process and the pandorica's restoration field took it from there.
River Song seemed to be unaffected by it, have absolutely no idea why...
The Doctor and everything about him was restored because Amy's memories started it, and/or perhaps the universe needs him to exist in order for the universe to exist.


Guys keep in mind we still don't know why the TARDIS blew up, the significance of the date of Amy's wedding, this time next year Im sure we'll have a lot more answers

[Alan]

As far as I'm concerned...everything after Big Bang II was restored.

[pbellosom]

I'm going with everything is exactly the same except people don't know aliens exist anymore. And every single continuity error in the entirty of Doctor Who is ironed out as well

[Serebii]

I'm going with everything is exactly the same except people don't know aliens exist anymore. And every single continuity error in the entirty of Doctor Who is ironed out as well

Na, it's not like that as the new series ties in with SJA (11th Doctor is going to be in two eps this autumn) and that's keeping it all the same.
The new series of Torchwood also is to continue similarly, with RTD saying that the world will know about aliens in interviews about it.

No reboots at all

[P-90_177]

You see Moffat has been extremly smart in how he has dealt with the things Amy and Rory can and can't remember. Cos the two main aliens they came across which they said they couldn't remember before are Cybermen and Daleks. The sycorax were a reletively small encounter since she lived in such a small village and it was shown that the government tried to cover that up, same with the slitheen. The Toclafane were completely retconned at the end of the last of the timelords and the Sontarans were easy enough to cover up since they could have just said that ATMOS was defective.
Therefore in the future if they ever feature the Daleks or Cybermen again, regardless of whether they are remembered or not, the characters can still be familiar with them since they've encountered them before.

Therefore the fact that Amy can't remember the alien events in RTD's era needn't be reffered to ever again unless Moffat wants to.

[Col.Foley]

Nothing was retconned from the series or from any of the Doctor's time line. The answer lies in River's diary, things that Amy would have no knowledge about and if the universe was purely rewritten 'from her memories' she would have had no knowledge. Yet the 'writing was back' and we can assume the pictures. But that still proves that the Doctor was restored to the time line completly. All of his regenerations, all of his adventures, and his mark on the universe. What I wonder about that though why wasn't the UNiverse burning without him, ala its a Wonderful life?

In this season though things get a little bit more interesting. The cracks in the universe only affected the direct events in the episodes, The Eleventh Hour, Vamps of Venice, Time of Angels/ Flesh and Stone, and Cold Blood. The events from any of the other episodes still happened and still are part of the time stream. (YAY FOR POWER RANGER DALEKS ).

But the really curious thing all the events that happened in those episodes it is unknown to know how they escaped in some of them without the exisistance of the cracks. Like in Flesh and Stone where he directly used the cracks to solve a problem. However it is still reasonable to assume that he found another solution because River was still alive to be killed in Forests of the Dead. Or based on the infinite temporal flex the Cracks might have still exisisted in that one episode, (blow back, memory of the cracks, residual from TARDIS BOOM), or the lack of the cracks are meaningless since the events still happened, or because there was no Cracks the Angels had no reason to go to that planet, the Byzantium did not crash, and the adventure never happened. Unlikely because of the Diary.

The curious thing of all this though that these events still happened all of the season has been restored in Amy's and Rory's and the Doctor's memories so for them these events happened, though it is unlikely for the rest of the universe that they did.

I don't believe that anything was retconned.

Amy's memories would have directly affected the Doctor, bringing him back, but I think everything else was left up to the Pandorical. That's assuming she did bring him back, it was believed he'd not return but River remembered him, so why not Amy? Amy's powers of memory may not have been that important at all, the Doctor just didn't want to return to her life if she didn't remember him. The guy was dressed for her wedding already, suggesting that he was back, changed and just waiting for her to remember him.

Amy only had a short time with the Doctor so there is so much that would have happened that she'd not even know about. It's not just an issue of her not knowing the RTD events, but also everything else that happened from First to Eighth.

I'd say the first season with Matt was retconned, as there were no cracks, so Prisoner Zero didn't escape and everything as a result from it never happened. Great news though, could mean that the Power Ranger Dalek's never happened either.

Victory of the Daleks Happened...Power Ranger Daleks are cool

I believe that everything happened. It's just Amy's memory of them that didn't happen, perhaps her parents were there to protect her against Daleks, but then they fell into the crack later so Amy's mind couldn't handle the lack of memory so just blotted out the whole event

huh?...oh...interesting.

[Pharaoh Atem]

You see Moffat has been extremly smart in how he has dealt with the things Amy and Rory can and can't remember. Cos the two main aliens they came across which they said they couldn't remember before are Cybermen and Daleks. The sycorax were a reletively small encounter since she lived in such a small village and it was shown that the government tried to cover that up, same with the slitheen. The Toclafane were completely retconned at the end of the last of the timelords and the Sontarans were easy enough to cover up since they could have just said that ATMOS was defective.
Therefore in the future if they ever feature the Daleks or Cybermen again, regardless of whether they are remembered or not, the characters can still be familiar with them since they've encountered them before.

Therefore the fact that Amy can't remember the alien events in RTD's era needn't be reffered to ever again unless Moffat wants to.

and now this thread makes sense to me.

[Puddle-Jumper]

Wait so have we an explanation for why Amy couldn't remember RTD's era?

[Puddle-Jumper]

In this season though things get a little bit more interesting. The cracks in the universe only affected the direct events in the episodes, The Eleventh Hour, Vamps of Venice, Time of Angels/ Flesh and Stone, and Cold Blood. The events from any of the other episodes still happened and still are part of the time stream. (YAY FOR POWER RANGER DALEKS ).

But the really curious thing all the events that happened in those episodes it is unknown to know how they escaped in some of them without the exisistance of the cracks. Like in Flesh and Stone where he directly used the cracks to solve a problem. However it is still reasonable to assume that he found another solution because River was still alive to be killed in Forests of the Dead. Or based on the infinite temporal flex the Cracks might have still exisisted in that one episode, (blow back, memory of the cracks, residual from TARDIS BOOM), or the lack of the cracks are meaningless since the events still happened, or because there was no Cracks the Angels had no reason to go to that planet, the Byzantium did not crash, and the adventure never happened. Unlikely because of the Diary.

I was thinking about this and I tried to explain it to myself the same way the doctor would, or I think he would.. and it goes something a little like,

"Well the cracks still happened, if the cracks didn't happen then they couldn't have unhappened, and the reason I didn't know about them before recently as because they were directly linked to my personal time line, so while they had exploaded back and forward throughout all of time, they avoided me until they could, which was when the event was about to happen, which was the center of the anonomoly, when the explosion happened"

then amy would say.. "that doesn't make any sense?"

and the doctor replies with.. "wibboly wobboly timey whimey"

[doctorluke]

what is the RTD era? amy didn't know about the daleks, cyberman and others, because time was re-written. That's what the docter says on The Time of Angels anyway.