Fixed points

[jkarr]

So those of you who know about and watch Dr. Who have probaly heard about "Fixed Points" (specially in the last season), where basically a event has to happen and cant be changed, other wise history gets messed up.

Well i was thinking, can fixed points be applied to actual history?...i dont mean with the whole dimension collapsing and all that stuff from the show, but where certain events (like the creation of fire, in the way a sentient species would use it) happen, or have to happen, no matter what?

wanted other peoples opinions on this

 

[Codae]

I don't think the concept is meaningful. There's no way to distinguish fixed points from coincidental points, since the only way to tell (unless you have some innate collection to Time itself) is to try to change something from how it was going to happen--and "how something is going to happen" is determined, in part, by the presence or absence of someone with a propensity to try changing it.

 

[JjeeporCreepor]

To be frank, and speaking as a long-time Doctor Who fan, I think that the "fixed point" vs "unfixed point" thing doesn't amount to anything more than whether the Doctor can be bothered putting himself out or not. Like quite a few aspects of the new series, probably best left unaddressed by the writers, tbh.

 

[Sicarius]

So those of you who know about and watch Dr. Who have probaly heard about "Fixed Points" (specially in the last season), where basically a event has to happen and cant be changed, other wise history gets messed up.

Well i was thinking, can fixed points be applied to actual history?...i dont mean with the whole dimension collapsing and all that stuff from the show, but where certain events (like the creation of fire, in the way a sentient species would use it) happen, or have to happen, no matter what?

wanted other peoples opinions on this

Have to happen in order to ... what? Or because of what? The Doctor Who concept is about certain events that are so important that time would collapse without them. But the invention of fire, the birth of man, World War 2, Justin Bieber: None of them matter any more or less to the real universe than the death of an ant or the birth of a star. There's no real 'web of time'.