From Newsgroup: rec.arts.drwho.moderated
From Address: solar.penguin@gmail.com
Subject: Re: The way River Song won't be fixed

Ken Arromdee wrote:

> In article <366e7fab-77ef-4f98-9a11-096488d4ac97@g30g2000vbu.g
oglegroups.com>,
> solar penguin   wrote:
> >If fixing points works in a Schroedinger-style way, then points become
> >fixed when they (or their effects) are already known by time
> >travellers who are going to have been affected by them.  So in this
> >case, the Doctor's death probably only became fixed when Amy and Rory
> >witnessed it.
>
> We are talking about time travel.  Since Amy and Rory travelled to 1938,
> would the fixed point now be fixed from 1938 on?

Good question.  I suppose It would be fixed relative to the Doctor,
Amy and Rory's personal timelines (or more accurately the TARDIS's
personal timeline since its the TARDIS that actually travels though
time) not to absolute dates.

So yes, they would carry the fixing back to 1938 with them.

(In theory it should also be fixed relative to River's timeline as
well, but since she's a Mary Sue, all bets are off regarding what she
can or can't do!)

> Or is it only fixed
> for them but not fixed for natives of 1938?

Since the natives of 1938 can't time travel, there's no noticeable
difference between fixed and non-fixed points for them.

>  Could the people in the Meet Dave
> ship therefore change the "fixed" point?

I don't see the connection.  The Meet Dave people aren't natives of
1938.  Normal rules for time travellers apply to them.

>  What if Amy and Rory left a
> message for the natives of 1938; would they no longer be able to change the
> fixed point?  Or if they still could, why can't they just leave a message
> for the natives of 2011?

If Amy and Rory, and their travels through time, are part of what's
fixing the event, their note either wouldn't succeed at all, or would
succeed but then summon the Reapers.

>
> >> I'm sure there's a way for the Doctor to sic that bug on the Silence and
> >> change the timeline to fix the whole River Song mess.
> >Nice idea, but the mess is to big to be fixed that easily.
>
> What the bug can do is so incredibly big in scope that this isn't a
farfetched
> idea at all.

But that's only assuming the bug doesn't need help from the godlike
powers of the Trickster to manager something on that scale.  We have
no idea what its own, unaided scope is, but it's probably much, much
smaller.

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