#idk just rambling and trying to rotate why this whole 'you cant change history' plotlines in fathers day and waters of mars

[brilliantfantasticgeronimo]

hmmm. so, I'm starting the end of time in the rewatch... by this point, the themes of "the natural order of things must be followed or Bat Shit will happen" has reached its peak w/ last episode. I had parked analyzing that for later (where does this urge in s1-s4 to portray Time and History as unshakable forces come from? why is the theme of "inevitability" such a focus? and why does it work?)... but ToE janked me and asked me to analyze it now lol bc it comes and opens with this: It is said that in the final days of planet Earth, everyone had bad dreams. To the west of the north of that world, the human race did gather, in the celebration of a pagan rite to banish the cold and the dark. Each and every one of those people had dreamt of the terrible things to come. But they forgot, because they must. They forgot their nightmares of fire and war and insanity. They forgot. Except for one. I remembered this phrase on someone's blog and thought oh, it may have been a reference! and... indeed it is. To this poem from victorian era poet matthew arnold...

which I think clarifies some stuff they were going for a bit, with this "time can be (can't be) rewritten" theme, and also why donna's seemingly "pointless" memory erasure *had* to happen... because there's a recurring theme in s1-s4 that, to allow anything to happen in the future, things have to be scarified in the past. (for the human race to go to the stars A Lot of experimental crews had to die) etc... and, this works in tandem with the "everything has its time and everything ends" theme. for new life to be born, there has to be death, maybe it's just me projecting my slight taoism philosophizing into it but... it feels like doctor who's s1-s4 messaging around death + the passing of time seems to be almost ... a metaphysical law it is dictating: the dark things in our lives have to happen. we will fail to reach our potential (in the case of donna), we will lose people, we will regret things... but we can't undo what has been done or try to go against that "natural flow" of things, or else we will go human the equivalent of timelordvictorious / batshit insane lol