Talk:Time differential

Lead
The lead's really muddy right now, and because I'm not sure what's trying to be said, I'm not sure how to change it. Clearly we need something simple.
 * A time differential was — what, exactly?

The gobbledygook that's there now just doesn't parse correctly. It's not straightforward English. We need something short and punchy in the lead. Maybe some of these would work: I have no idea if you're trying to say anything like that, but somehow I think we need to be moving towards more direct language like that. 22:01: Thu 06 Oct 2011
 * the underlying cause of the Blinovitch Limitation Effect
 * essentially the temporal "gap" between two differently-aged versions of the same being. When these two versions touched, the differential caused the Blinovitch Limitation EFfect, typically resulting in an explosion that was usually detrimental to the very fabric of space and time.


 * I don't really see what's wrong with it. The "time differential" was how the narrative described a certain aspect (what sort of aspect has never been explained) of different points on a single timeline which had made contact.  I think the current lead describes that general effect as best as we can while staying in-universe. &mdash; Rob T Firefly - &#916;&#8711; - 22:05, October 6, 2011 (UTC)


 * I've condensed it a bit for readability. How does it look now? &mdash; Rob T Firefly - &#916;&#8711; - 22:12, October 6, 2011 (UTC)


 * Well, I don't think we're there yet. Looking at it from the position of someone who might not have encountered those stories, it's still pretty arcane.   It's not really your fault or anything — the source material doesn't give us much to work with — but I don't walk away from the lead feeling any the wiser.  Since the sources don't actually give us a plain English explanation, maybe we should switch away from
 * A time differential was . ..
 * to
 * A time differential occurred when . ..
 * Maybe that could go something like:
 * A time differential occured when a single entity met another version of itself from a different point on its own timeline. The temporal gap between them was known as the time differential. If the two touched, the Blinovitch Limitation Effect would be encountered, the time differential would be "shorted out", and an explosion would usually occur.


 * Such explosions were seen when two versions of the Brigadier and two versions of the Eleventh Doctor's sonic screwdriver touched. (DW: Mawdryn Undead, The Big Bang)


 * On other occasions, different results occurred. When Rose Tyler touched her infant self, there was no explosion, but the Reapers came through the wound created in the fabric of the space-time, and began to destroy reality.  (DW: Father's Day)  On various occasions, the Time Lords were able to allow different incarnations of the Doctor to interact and physically touch each other without the appearance of any sort of time differential issues.  (DW: The Three Doctors, The Five Doctors, The Two Doctors) After the demise of the Time Lords, the Tenth Doctor was able to interact with the Fifth Doctor with minimal difficulty. The worst effect seemed to be that the Fifth Doctor temporarily aged as a result of the differential being shorted out.  However, these effects were said to have vanished after he returned to his proper time stream.  (DW: Time Crash)


 * I dunno if this is at all close to what you're trying to say, but I offer it as something to think about, anyway. 00:42: Fri 07 Oct 2011