Doctor Who: The amnesia problem – When mixing eras doesn’t work

Classic Doctor Who characters meeting ones from the New Series can be fun. But can it also prove problematic? Not just in terms of continuity, but also in terms of storytelling, too? (This article contains spoilers for numerous Big Finish audios.)

In 2015, after years of making many Doctor Who audios and spin-offs based entirely on the Classic Series, Big Finish finally acquired the license to the New Series, as well. Since then, we’ve had brand new Tenth Doctor stories starring David Tennant, audios set during the Time War, and numerous spin-offs, including Jenny: The Doctor’s Daughter and The Diary of River Song.

This last one in particular brings me to a key point. Across this series, River has met her husband numerous times. But none of them have been the right incarnations: from Series 1 to Series 4, River met the Fourth to Eighth Doctors in reverse order.

Obviously, this brings up a key issue: why didn’t Ten remember her when they “first” met in Silence in the Library? Across this series, there are good reasons for that. The best ones are given in Series 1 and 4. In 1, River simply keeps her distance and avoids letting the Eighth Doctor see her. In 4, history has changed so completely thanks to a group called the Discordia that the Fourth Doctor has known River for a long time already. When the Discordia are dealt with, history goes back to the way it was, with the Doctor having no knowledge of River.

The other series do give strong reasons too. Series 3 in particular has the personal element of Madame Kovarian’s return. After failing to kill the Eleventh Doctor, she tries to kill the Fifth Doctor, instead. Amnesia is used for the story, but River meeting the Fifth Doctor makes sense because of who’s trying to kill him and why.

The War Master has been an extremely fantastic series from Big Finish. But the most recent entry in the series gave us a rather problematic element of continuity…

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

When and why it doesn’t work

However, when Classic Series characters continually have to forget about New Series characters, it can get a bit repetitive. I’m not against characters from different eras meeting, but I also want it to have an impact. If one, or even both of them are made to forget about it by the end, is the story really worth telling?

One of the worst examples recently is The War Master: Rage of the Time Lords. Now, admittedly, the Eighth Doctor meeting the War Master is an exciting idea. And the final episode of that box set features a lot of fantastic scenes between Paul McGann and Derek Jacobi.

Still, the ending – in which the Master simply erases the Eighth Doctor’s memory completely of the events – still feels unsatisfying. Yes, it was important that the story kept in mind the fact that the Tenth Doctor didn’t recognize Yana in Utopia.

But an alternative explanation – like the lack of recognition tying into the Chameleon Arch’s perception filter, for example – could have been given. At the very least, the Doctor just forgetting what the Master looked like rather than the whole story would’ve been more satisfying. As it is, Eight forgetting everything about that particular story only served to highlight why some meetings probably shouldn’t happen.

River’s involved in Doom Coalition worked extremely well for the series, and actually gave us some creative storytelling.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/Big Finish Productions.

Image obtained from: Big Finish Productions.)

When it does work

Having said that, I will say that I’m not against Classic and New Series characters meeting entirely. In fact, Big Finish have given us many great meetings over the years – usually without the use of amnesia as a resolution.

Doom Coalition features my favorite example of this. Once again, River has to help the Eighth Doctor. But what makes this work is that, in this case, the threat is so big that she knows he can’t forget a single second of it. As a result, River gets extremely creative – even using a clever disguise or two.

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Some of the best examples we’ve had this year have to be in The Legacy of Time. A box set celebrating twenty years of Doctor Who on audio, most of the episodes featuring characters from different eras meeting for the first time. Bernice Summerfield and River Song are brilliant to listen to together, and Jo Grant being reunited with the Third Doctor is a joy to hear.

What makes these meetings work is that there’s nothing to say that they didn’t happen, thus ensuring that the continuity fits nicely. Honestly, one of the only stories in the set that does feature amnesia as a plot device is when the Fifth Doctor meets Jenny. In that case, at least, it’s not only handled just right, but the Fifth Doctor meeting Jenny (i.e. Peter Davison working with his daughter Georgia Tennant) is too good an idea not to explore.

So Classic and New meetings can work, even the ones that shouldn’t. But (a) there should be a good reason to bring such different eras together and (b) there needs to a good explanation for it, too. So if we are going to get more such meetings in the future, I hope that there’s a good balance between these two elements, at least.

What do you think? Do you think Classic era characters meeting New Series ones can work? If you’ve listened to Big Finish, do you know of any examples that worked particularly well? Or any that didn’t? Let us know in the comments below.