I'm confused, does Earth remember what happens in Doctor Who or does it all get forgotten?

[Biran53]

The President of the United States is murdered... and no biggie.

Wait, didn't that not happen when the paradox machine was destroyed? Or is that referring to something other then the Master and his invasion with the End of Time humans (not to be confused with the invasion where he turned all of humanity into copies of himself)? Actually, with how often world leaders and politicians in general bit it in the Whoverse, it's probably in a situation like 24 where it happens so often it's only worth of a footnote and a passing mention on the 6o'clock news.

The paradox machine reset time AFTER the president was assassinated by England Prime Minister on live television.

Yeah. Fuck that finale. By GOD, has the show come a long way climbing out of that ditch.

 

[Thaluikhain]

The President of the United States is murdered... and no biggie.

Wait, didn't that not happen when the paradox machine was destroyed? Or is that referring to something other then the Master and his invasion with the End of Time humans (not to be confused with the invasion where he turned all of humanity into copies of himself)? Actually, with how often world leaders and politicians in general bit it in the Whoverse, it's probably in a situation like 24 where it happens so often it's only worth of a footnote and a passing mention on the 6o'clock news.

That should still have happened, and the paradox thingy erase everything that happened shortly afterwards.

Also, given who had just killed the PotUS, things might be a bit awkward.

RTD didn't even try to keep it straight. Dalek (taking place in 2012) relies on no one knowing who the Daleks are... except it turns out the Daleks launched a well-remembered invasion right before said story would have taken place.

They invaded London. "Dalek" was set in the US, there was no local content for the US news.

A giant Cyberman terrorized Victorian London... and no one remembers.

This is one of the things the Doctor mentions as odd when Amy can't remember the daleks, though, there is supposed to be some reason, it's just not explained.

 

[Something Amyss]

The answer is both. Blame it on a show that ran for decades with multiple writers, styles, and directions.

This is one of the things the Doctor mentions as odd when Amy can't remember the daleks, though, there is supposed to be some reason, it's just not explained.

I thought they did end up explaining it. That it had to do with the cracks.

 

[WindKnight]

In Smith's era, he asks Amy to explain daleks to Churchill, but she doesn't know about him, and he says that's very strange, and it looks like that'd be part of the arc plot, but wasn't.

OTOH, in the old series, UNIT was formed in response to a monster attack, and seems to have odd special powers.

Generally, though, it seems that every story set on modern Earth is set on the real world, ish, which means last time's invasion doesn't count, because it'd change the world away from the one we know.

I think, generally speaking, its a variation on 'a person is smart, a crowd is stupid' - the general idea that anything that's outright too weird is quickly assumed to have been a prank or a scare writ large, because weird things like that don't really happen in 'real life'. (kind of like the 'somebody else problem' field in HHGTTG, or the metaphorical 'reality filters' in the discworld novels)

Yeah, I don't like it that much either.

 

[Netrigan]

The answer is both. Blame it on a show that ran for decades with multiple writers, styles, and directions.

This is one of the things the Doctor mentions as odd when Amy can't remember the daleks, though, there is supposed to be some reason, it's just not explained.

I thought they did end up explaining it. That it had to do with the cracks.

Amy's crack is always the reason

I liked Moffat's soft reboot there. It was undone, but if you want to believe something was written out then it was. It could be the reason no one remembers the giant T-Rex. It can be why no one remembers the UK space program of the 70s/80s (no one can agree when that happened). Amy's crack explains it all.

 

[Dalisclock]

An interesting theory (running even during the Classic episodes) was that the Doctor's constant meddling with Earth's history throughout adventures and shennanegans puts the planet in a state of constant flux. History is constantly being rewritten and unwritten even due to the smallest of changes in the past. The future remains roughly the same, but slightly different.

Plus, I think it was (admittedly) a mistake to have the Earth invaded so many goddamn times in earlier series of Nu Who. It was becoming ridiculous with every foreseeable villain trying to take over the planet every week. You'd think at some point Planet Earth would just say, "fuck it" obliterate any thing coming within a few light years of the planet's atmosphere.

Not to mention that some of these plots have been going on for decades if not centuries,and the periods for mutiple alien groups trying to take over overlap.

And yet somehow Earth isn't the biggest battlefield in the universe.

And as the OP said, it's pretty amazing how easily people in the Whoverse pull the "Aliens don't exist" thing, despite there being more then enough evidence of not just one, but mutiple species running around. Especially since people are kind of used to the idea that aliens could exist now, so it's not like trying to explain a cell phone to someone in the bronze age.

 

[Netrigan]

And the Dalek invasion I'm talking about is The Stolen Earth which tecnically happens a few years before Dalek. Moffat's little reboot is the only way to reconcile that timeline.

 

[small]

well you can have something huge on the news now and people forget it next week with the big celebrity scandal.

but it would be an interesting story, who or what is behind the people of the world seemingly forgetting all these events, some group like torchwood for instance?

ah what does it matter i gave up on the show once the space egg was introduced, it still dumbfounds me how moffat managed to kill a show for me in a single episode that i have watched since the late 70's and i even put up with colin bakers crap doctor

 

[Thaluikhain]

well you can have something huge on the news now and people forget it next week with the big celebrity scandal.

Never been anything as huge as repeated alien invasions.

Though, yeah, certain news outlets would have us believe otherwise. There is a certain size of font you just shouldn't use unless aliens are invading.

ah what does it matter i gave up on the show once the space egg was introduced, it still dumbfounds me how moffat managed to kill a show for me in a single episode that i have watched since the late 70's and i even put up with colin bakers crap doctor

Ouch...though Colin Baker wasn't that bad...by today's standards.

(In fairness, it's the writing, not the acting, but YKWIM)

 

[Dalisclock]

The Torchwoord/Harriet Jones arc were some of my favourite parts. It seemed like they were going somewhere for a while, even Jack Harkness's saying "The 21st century is when everything changes, and you gotta be ready", I think it was even in the intro to Torchwood, seemed like something big, completely different was going to happen with the frequent visits to Earth. Unfortunately it seems that the most of that was Torchwood, and it didn't seem to go any further (I didn't watch all of the 11th Doctor, so I could be mistaken, I didn't enjoy that series). And then they killed off most of Torchwood, killed off more in a miniseries, and I haven't started the last Torchwood miniseries, but I wouldn't be suprised if they introduced more members and then killed them off too.

Yeah, Torchwood had some great promise and they apparently couldn't figure out what to do with it. I'm guessing it was supposed to be "Children of Earth" or "Miracle Day" which they were talking about, even though "Children of Earth" was pretty much yet another alien invasion that's never mentioned again.

Considering between DH/TW they've done pretty much every world shattering event possible, perhaps it happened and we missed it?

 

[small]

well you can have something huge on the news now and people forget it next week with the big celebrity scandal.

Never been anything as huge as repeated alien invasions.

Though, yeah, certain news outlets would have us believe otherwise. There is a certain size of font you just shouldn't use unless aliens are invading.

ah what does it matter i gave up on the show once the space egg was introduced, it still dumbfounds me how moffat managed to kill a show for me in a single episode that i have watched since the late 70's and i even put up with colin bakers crap doctor

Ouch...though Colin Baker wasn't that bad...by today's standards.

(In fairness, it's the writing, not the acting, but YKWIM)

i watched an ep with him last night, totally agree that its the writing, but he was obnoxious and a total twat as a character

 

[Kotaro]

In New Who at least, Earth was aware of it for a while, with characters referencing the various invasions.
But then it was mentioned during the cracks in the universe arc that things were being removed from reality entirely, and from Amy not appearing to remember any of them, it's implied that many of those events were among them.
I have no idea how things currently stand, with that arc resolved.

 

[Netrigan]

In New Who at least, Earth was aware of it for a while, with characters referencing the various invasions.
But then it was mentioned during the cracks in the universe arc that things were being removed from reality entirely, and from Amy not appearing to remember any of them, it's implied that many of those events were among them.
I have no idea how things currently stand, with that arc resolved.

I think that was rather the point. I think Moffat wanted those stories out of the way but didn't want to explicitly write them out. As it stands, if you want those stories to have happened, they did.

Ther is no canon (both Davies and Moffat agree on this point) so it comes down to personal canon. If you want the audio plays to count, then they do.

 

[Thaluikhain]

i watched an ep with him last night, totally agree that its the writing, but he was obnoxious and a total twat as a character

Every Doctor is different from the last Doctor. Apparently they decided that Davison was generically nice, so Baker should be a character nobody would want to watch.

There is a slight problem with that, which they realised, and so they changed him to be much better later on, just in time for the show to go on hiatus and then have him replaced.

 

[Loonyyy]

The Torchwoord/Harriet Jones arc were some of my favourite parts. It seemed like they were going somewhere for a while, even Jack Harkness's saying "The 21st century is when everything changes, and you gotta be ready", I think it was even in the intro to Torchwood, seemed like something big, completely different was going to happen with the frequent visits to Earth. Unfortunately it seems that the most of that was Torchwood, and it didn't seem to go any further (I didn't watch all of the 11th Doctor, so I could be mistaken, I didn't enjoy that series). And then they killed off most of Torchwood, killed off more in a miniseries, and I haven't started the last Torchwood miniseries, but I wouldn't be suprised if they introduced more members and then killed them off too.

Yeah, Torchwood had some great promise and they apparently couldn't figure out what to do with it.

Yeah, it wasn't sure if it was a MA-15 X-Files, Drama, or just counting time on the sidelines. The episode with the cannibals, or the guest starring James Marsters were great, or the episode with two Jack's, but a few episodes were just way off, and then just when it was hitting it's stride, almost half the team gets wiped out, and then they decide to wrap it up with a miniseries. Loved it for it's entire air though, although Children of Earth was kind of another fuck you (Except for David Capaldi swearing his head off at things, because that's twice as funny now he's the Doctor).

I'm guessing it was supposed to be "Children of Earth" or "Miracle Day" which they were talking about, even though "Children of Earth" was pretty much yet another alien invasion that's never mentioned again.

I think so. Which is kind of lame because they get invaded, repel the invasion, and everything's back to status quo isn't what I'd call "everything changes".

Considering between DH/TW they've done pretty much every world shattering event possible, perhaps it happened and we missed it?

Probably. I always interpreted Jack's words to mean that the 21st century was when we made contact with aliens, advanced our technology with alien technology, or we move out into space and meet aliens.

Or maybe it was the Master's invasion? That could be it, since everything does change, and then it changes back, and Jack helps with that. Bit of a weak one if it's that one.

 

[TheVampwizimp_v1legacy]

I find it funny that aliens keep on coming to earth for, really no actual reason but just because everybody in the universe decides that earth is special. The Rachnoss could have gone anywhere to hide, but they picked the newborn earth. The Silence could have gone anywhere to find and silence the Doctor, but they picked earth. Davros decided that Earth was one of the 27 most important planets in the universe for building his reality bomb. Hell, even the cracks in the universe kept showing up on earth, way more often than anywhere else the Doctor 'n' Friends went. And I'm only talking about New Who here. What's so special about this lonely little rock, the backwater home of intelligent species #69826548298?

And then, hundreds/thousands/millions of years in the future, it's humans who are the nasty invading aliens you want to watch out for; for example, the Ood.

 

[Zontar]

Snip

Well in all honesty the Silence and cracks make some sense due to the doctor travelling to and from Earth on a constant basis to visit and refuel. The rest, though, is kind of iffy. Though I'm surprised they don't use the Earth invincible issue to have aliens come to Earth as refugees that other sci-fi franchises have done. The only times I can remember it in the returned series was that employ from the Titanic who only wanted to have a home and that kid whose species reproduces by giving children to the infertile. I'd actually like to have an episode where it's an alien who came here to live the Earth dream, whatever they may think it is. Maybe have it be a social commentary on how some view Polaks recently. Maybe they have a kid who didn't even know they weren't human until the mad man with a blue box came by and ruined everything.

Hell, that would make a better episode then anything this season has turned out.