Ah, that makes sense. Still, I don't think the implication was that the planet had been erased - just torn apart.

Depends on whether you think that 'the silence' is the time energy from the end of the universe, or the Void, or something else.


I'm still not convinced - after all, the first one we saw was on Amy's wall, not the wall of any other child in the world. And there do seem to be a disproportionate number on Earth, in the places Amy has visited. Besides, the sequence with Amy asking the Doc why he wants her to travel with him certainly implies that he's considering there being a connection.

But you're right - that might just be a red herring to make us think it's Bad Wolf all over again, or to make Amy descend into paranoia. Especially because of the zoom into the TARDIS keyhole at the end of 'Vampires', it may be that the TARDIS is the focus, not the travellers inside.

The only ones seen on Earth so far are the one in her wall and the one in Churchill's cabinet war rooms.

But I do think there is some connection to her. Let's face it the Doctor said at the end of Flesh and Stone 'its you, its all about you...' or words to that effect.

Seen yes. But presumably there's one in Venice somewhere. If they were so common that one person could hit three by randomly picking places in the whole of Earth geography and human history, then we would have suffered worse than the Saturnyne. It's either following Amy, the Doctor, or the TARDIS. Given the way that people keep mentioning 'The Doctor in the TARDIS', I'm starting to come round to the idea that Amy is a ginger herring.

I think the library card is to remind us that the library is in the pool. In SitL the pool was in the library.

I'm reading The Writer's Tale :TFC at the moment.
Chronology wise, SM said yes on 28/9/07. SitL had been written about that time and FotD soon after. RTD and SM collaborating to make sure the Alternative 'Turn Left' world and SM's 'Girls World' were very different.

They met on 19/12/07 for coffee to discuss SM's plans for series 5 just before RTD started writing the season 4 finale (while battling chicken pox too !)
There's some cryptic clues about Series 5 in what he writes about the meeting. Without spoiling anything, it seems certain that they discussed 'rewriting' and the 'crack' at their meeting.

The concept for the Xmas special was conceived a few days after this meeting with RTD originally wanting to call it The Two Doctors (what does that tell us !)

Was about to say something similar in the lines of when Moffat had said yes....and that it was before RTD had written the Next Doctor. So yes, the crack well and truly could be part of that as well.

The one in venice was shaped in the storm! It took me three watches to find it! (Yes, I know, I have no life!)

And just want to point something that no one has pointed out yet, the time lords don't know about it, but they're in a time lock aren't they? Does this mean that they can't find out about it, or, more likely, that the crack can't get INTO Gallifrey.

The higher quality screen captures show that it was marked 'Shoreditch Library'.

like most things it can be explained away as "wibbly-wobbly timey-wimey" I expect.

I wouldn't get your hopes up too much that this crack arc will lead in to older episodes. Although it may slightly do. This because I think Moffat knew that this series would of lost a few old fans but would of brought in a lot of new fans who wouldnt know a lot about earlier episodes so its not likely to go into older episodes other than the stuff like 'The Next Doctor' who I presume will just have a passing mention

I agree. I don't think we will necessarily see or be told the crack has re-written other events from series 1-4. I think now it has been established, that's all we need to know. Any inconsistencies can be attributed to the crack without heavy exposition. Moffat simply wanted a to clean the slate a little to give him more scope.

Anything that seems inconsistent with things that happened before can just be put down to 'the crack changed it'.

Its interesting that the crack is a similar device to the Time War, only with the Time War we weren't told it changed previous events. However, I think in some fans' minds it can be used to explain inconsistencies.

At the end of the day, even if the crack totally wiped out series 1-4, they still exist from a viewers point of view.

Has the cracks in the universe lead to the Doctor & companions coming close to crossing their own time lines? There was a scene in Flesh & Stone with the Doctor. Any continuity errors might be part of the arc.

This my theory but every time The Doctor cause the crack everytime he regenates with out knowing he has done it after all it is time he dealing with

it might be a wild theory but it might be the only possiblty

So, within the Doctor's explanation, we viewers are all time-travelers

I think it has something to do with "end of time". Universe bleeding and all that. The pandorica opens. The pandorica sounds rather time lordy to me. My theory comes from random things past and present that seem to fit together.
In EOT Gallifrey, the time lords and the master were sent back into the time war. According to what has been said and what we have seen, those that are not part of the time lock can leave it, ie Dalek Caan, therefore the master should be able to leave too. Now we all saw how corrupt the time lords have become, especially Rassilon. As far back as "the five doctors" it was said there were many rumours that rassilon was not the good wise ruler. So maybe rassilon and the high council have pacified the master by keeping him alive with the promise of a complete resurrection if he can find a way to take them with him out of the time lock.
The cracks that appear will be linked to the doctor because it has also been said that all time lords have a kind of telepathic link. Once it was even implied that it is more than that. In Logopolis when adric asked if the master had read the doctors mind the doctor said that in many ways time lords have the same mind. So to expand these things together. In EOT the link is the beat of four in the masters mind, which the doctor hears when he links with the master in part one, so the link could be present in the doctor too, and would also be transmitted to the TARDIS and the cracks follow them around as they are the attempts by the master to break through.
Then we have the pandorica, in the Deadly Assasin the eye of harmony the source of all time lord power is located beneath the Panoptican, very similar sounding wouldnt you say?. So hows about the Pandorica being something of gallifreyan origin that was sent out of the time war in the final days before it was time locked. In this series the tardis has been slightly off on more than one occasion so maybe the master has a measure of control trying to use it to find the pandorica. The doctor believes the pandorica to be a myth so he would not put 2 and 2 together for the moment. The Pandorica opening could be its "activation" like the activation of the genesis arc in Doomsday. Once activated there is a link but maybe it takes things into the time lock instead of out so we could have a finale set on Gallifrey. It could be the masters plan all along to open the pandorica to draw the doctor in who would face a choice, destroy the time lock and allow the time war to end using the "moment" mentioned in the EOT, or him and his companions be trapped forever in the time lock. The master also brings Daleks, cybermen and sontarans to gallifrey to force the doctor to destroy the time lock in the hope they will wipe each other out leaving him in control of galifrey and time itself.........

Any thoughts please bear in mind its been a hot day and quite a lot of lager has been consumed as i write this

mmm, maybe...although not sure they'd be bringing the master back so soon, but maybe that's all part of the herring!

also a Panopticon is a theoretical prison created by a man (human) called jeremy bentham. it is a prison with only one guard that can see all the prisoners.. the prisoners know they are being watched so will behave accordingly, eventually there would be no need for a guard at all.....that's the theory anyway... was an inspiration for big brother and cctv

which thinking about it does hold connotations with the atraxi prison and the eye!!!
and guarding a pandorica, guarding a panopticon.......
is the pandorica a prison of some sort??????

mmmmmmmmmmm