Talk:Alternate timeline

Doesn't the destruction of Gallifrey count as an alternate timeline since it was negated by the Doctor? Call me confused, but the Doctor does seem to have clear memories of actually destroying the planet before he saved it.--The Eleventh Doctor (Trust me. I'm the Doctor.) 07:08, December 26, 2013 (UTC)


 * Which destruction of Gallifrey are we talking about?
 * I'll assume you're talking about the Time War memory of its destruction, it's just that. The Doctor mis-remembers for an incarnation or 2, but it doesn't actually exist as a separate timeline. It's just missing / not part of his memory. --Tangerineduel / talk 11:48, December 26, 2013 (UTC)
 * Actually I'm going with alternate timeline since the Time Lords didn't intervene the first time in his death on Trenzalore.--WarGrowlmon18 ☎  01:15, December 27, 2013 (UTC)
 * I was thinking it's not really an alternate timeline but more the Doctor and universe being made to think the Time Lords were dead. But you make a good point that the Time Lords didn't intervene in Doctor dying on Trenzalore in the original timeline, possibly meaning Gallifrey and the Doctor die in the same timeline, though that's me being technical. My only counter is that I'm still not certain that the Doctor's death on Trenzalore is an alterante timeline as it's in Trenzalore's future, after the Seige. So the events of Time of the Doctor could've always hapened, and the events of Name of the Doctor could still happen, with the Doctor visiting Trenzalore again some day and die there. Steed ☎  22:34, January 24, 2014 (UTC)

Doctor's Death on Trenzalore
That was in an alternate timeline. It was specifically stated several times that the Doctor's survival was changing the future. They kept stating that him dying during the siege would be his death from the Name of the Doctor, Clara begged the Time Lords to change the future and the Doctor said the Time Lords could help him change the outcome of his death.--WarGrowlmon18 ☎  01:15, December 27, 2013 (UTC)

Clarification
There are examples of alternate timelines and then there is talk, like in Flesh and Stone, of time actually being rewritten. I get the impression there is a distinction here, where the timeline can be rewritten, in addition to instances of time being changed resulting in another timeline. I'm thinking of this in terms of history being changed, such as when WOTAN conquered Earth: this was the original timeline before the Doctor defeated WOTAN. This can also go back to the cracks in time, where we are still unsure if the CyberKing or reality bomb were un-erased from history. Steed ☎  22:34, January 24, 2014 (UTC)

Clara in the timestream
So I think I saw on Clara's talk page that her splintering in time (I never thought about it) is actually an alternate timeline now because of Time of the Doctor. The Great Intelligence was defeated, but then the Doctor was saved from dying on Trenzalore, meaning the Intelligence never could have had the chance to kill him. So it's like an alternate timeline off of an alternate timeline. I don't know if they're talking about it with the DWM comic, since Clara is meeting one of her selves with the Twelfth Doctor, but is Clara splintering and living a million lives actually an alternate timeline that should be included? Steed ☎  03:21, June 18, 2015 (UTC)

Grammar
According to the dictionary, the word "alternate" describes events that "occur in turn repeatedly." In contrast, alternative describes an event (or timeline) that is "available as another possibility." While this definition is also listed under "alternate" in most modern dictionaries, it is explicitly labeled as a North American colloquialism. Wouldn't this page be much better named "alternative timeline"? NateBumber ☎  05:48, May 13, 2017 (UTC)


 * This was already covered in Forum:Alternate vs. alternative timelines. Doug86 ☎  15:18, May 13, 2017 (UTC)