From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated
From Address:
jameskuyper@verizon.net
Subject: The end of the great Time War.
[Spoilers for "Day of the Doctor" throughout]
Something has been bothering me ever since I saw Day of the Doctor, but
I've only just now had time write it down.
The almost complete disappearance of both sides in the Time War has
always been a bit difficult to comprehend. It was a war that threatened
the entire universe, implying that it was being fought at many different locations throughout the universe. Being a Time War, it was also
presumably also being fought at many different times throughout history.
How could any plausible event cause the disappearance of all forces
supporting either side from all of space-time? As long as we didn't have
a detailed understanding of just how the war ended, we were free to
imagine that the mysterious "Moment" was somehow sufficiently powerful
and sophisticated that it could cleanly pluck all combatants on both
sides throughout all of space-time, and trap them inside a time lock.
Now we know that The Moment wasn't actually used - except as a source of counseling. We've learned that the battle was not spread throughout time
and space, but concentrated around Gallifrey. The two sides were not
jointly tearing the universe apart; the Time Lords were losing, badly.
The likely outcome, without the Doctors' intervention, would have been a complete Dalek victory, not the destruction of the universe (though it's
hard to choose which of those two consequences would have been worse).
At the time that the Doctors removed Gallifrey from the universe, the
Time Lords should have had agents on many planets around the universe,
carrying out covert operations against the Daleks, who had been
unwilling or unable to get back to Gallifrey in time to contribute to
the final defense. Therefore, the disappearance of Time Lord
civilization should not have been as complete as has been previously
implied. Since the Daleks were winning, they also should have had at
least a small fraction of their forces scattered everywhere, just to
maintain and administer their empire. Therefore, even the complete
destruction of their fleet besieging Gallifrey should not have wiped out
their civilization, either. They should have a had a lot more survivors
than the small number we're aware of.
More to the point, the destruction of the Dalek fleet could not
plausibly have been complete. When Gallifrey disappeared, it's amusing
to imagine that every single Dalek ship got destroyed by a shot fired by another Dalek ship, but it's not at all plausible.
--
James Kuyper
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