That is when what if becomes dangerous. In the first example, you get rapped up in that idea. That something will happen to you for no reason when there is no evidence supporting that it will happen. The best example I can come up with is the mirror from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. You look in the mirror, see the one thing you desire the most, and go mad with longing. The second example can be equally as bad. You did a bad thing; stole from someone, cheated, lied, etc. and didn't get caught. If you didn't get caught the first time, why would you get caught the second time? 'What if I did it again? Well, nothing. I got away with it the first time!', and the cycle goes ever downward.
I've gotten a bit off track here. What if is a very powerful question, one which can go in any number of different ways. For today's post, let's ask a very specific what if? question: What if Doctor Who were to end?
The answer is... well we don't even have to speculate. Doctor Who took a 16-year hiatus starting in 1989. At the time, the show had been loosing popularity, so it simply wasn't doing as well as it used to. The program later came back in 2005 and has stayed on until this very day.
NuWho, as the program from 2005-now is affectionately refereed to as, has been going on strong since is started. There is no sign of it stopping anytime soon. In theory, it never has to end; the Doctor could just keep regenerating and regenerating forever. However, as a great man once said, all great things must come to an end. As a fan of the show, I hope this doesn't happen for a long time. I want to be able to watch the show for many years to come. But when the show does end, I would want it to end well, with a satisfying ending that ties up any and all loose ends the show has. What if I had to write that very final season of one of (if not the) greatest science fiction show ever to be created? Well, I guess it would go a little something like this:
Pre-Ultimate Season: The Doctor has regenerated 25 times. Nearing the end of his second regeneration cycle, he knows his next regeneration will be his very last. In the last episode of this season, the 23rd Doctor (Author's Note: it would be the 23rd because of the War Doctor regeneration and David Tennant regenerating into himself) is somehow injured and regenerates into the 24th Doctor. This new Doctor sends whatever companion he has home so that he can spend the last of his life by himself. In the last moments of that episode, the Doctor scans his body for any anomalies. The screen blinks red and displays these words: VORTEX SICKNESS. The Doctor, now in tears, says: "I have less time than I thought." and the last episode ends.
The Final Season: In the last episode of last season, the newly regenerated Doctor finds out he has Vortex Sickness, a rare condition among Time Lords that is the result of either traveling too much throughout time and other universes or spending too much time in or near a TARDIS or anything else that has a direct connection to the Time Vortex. The Doctor, spending most of his extremely long life in his TARDIS, has traveled through time a lot, more than any other living thing in existence. Vortex Sickness is basically your soul being sucked into the Time Vortex. The Doctor will slowly loose his memories and other skills until, ultimately, his atoms separate and he fades into the Time Vortex. Calculations predict that he has about 10 years to live. Knowing that traveling in time, or even being in his TARDIS will shorten his lifespan, the Doctor goes back to Gallifry in the first episode, where the Time Lords tell him that there really isn't any hope, as the only way to cure Vortex Sickness would be to separate the Doctor from the Time Vortex, which is impossible as the very fabric of the universe is made up of the Time Vortex.
The Doctor decides that he is not going to spend his life stuck at Gallifry being bored until he denigrates. So, over the course of 22 episodes, the Doctor takes his greatest enemies and traps them in the literally inescapable dimension Insanitarium. Every single Dalek, Cybermen, Silence, all of the Doctor's strongest foes are trapped there, bringing peace to the universe.
This shortens the the Doctor's lifespan, as he has had to travel in the TARDIS to trap the monsters in Insanitarium. The 24th episode of the season and the last one in the series takes the Doctor back to Gallifry before the Time War broke out, where he meets a young Time Lord named Metus. The Doctor, recognizing this Time Lord but not sure where he met him, takes him on a ride in the TARDIS. Something in the Doctor tells him to speak to Metus about how there is more to the universe than just Gallifry; that Metus can have amazing adventures like the Doctor did.
The TARDIS lands on Earth in 2014. Metus falls in love with Earth and it's people. He had never been here before, and absolutely adores it. The Doctor tells Metus of some of the adventures he's had on Earth, even though he can remember only a few and the details of those stories are fading quickly. The Doctor realizes that he doesn't have much time left and needs to get Metus back to Gallifry.
The TARDIS lands on Gallifry, and the Doctor begins to expel regeneration energy, as the process of dying from Vortex Sickness is almost like regenerating in reverse. Metus, who thinks the Doctor is regenerating, goes up to the Doctor to ask him why he's regenerating. He gets right into the Doctor's face too, which triggers the Doctor's memory about Metus. "I know you. I know how I know you." The Doctor says as he's dying. "How do you know me, Doctor? We've never met before." Metus replies. "You'll know who I am soon enough. Now, promise me something." the Doctor says, painfully. The Doctor asks Metus to never give in. To never be cruel or cowardly. The Doctor begs this of Metus, who says yes, that he will never give in, or be cruel or cowardly. Metus leaves the TARDIS, walking straight out the door, and watches as it just fades away. Not in and out as the TARDIS normally disappears, but it just silently fades out. And with that, the Doctor is gone.
Metus is mesmerized by Earth and absolutely has to go back. He ends up stealing a TARDIS right from under the Time Lord's noses and taking it to Earth with his small granddaughter, landing in 1950's London. As he lands, Metus figures that he is going to need an Earth name to fit in, so he tries to translate his own into any language from Earth.
Metus looks at the monitor, amazed at the result his TARDIS gives him, which happens to be in English. Metus sees this and realizes that it must mean something: that he was going to do some amazing things.
Metus is a Gallifrian word, and when translated into English, it means doctor.
What if? What if the BBC sees this and adapts it for the very, very last season of Doctor Who? What if the show ends in 150 years and I don't get to see how it ends? What if it ends very differently than the manner depicted here? What if they just cancel the show after Series 9, just like they did in 1989, and no one gets a satisfying ending? I honestly don't know.
This ending might not be great for you, personally. But for me, with a much, much more fleshed out final product, I would be extremely happy with this ending. It comes full circle and ties up any loose ends the show has. Isn't that all we can ask for in an ending, whether it be the end of a TV show or the end of something much greater and more significant?
Endings are inevitable. We can't stop them from happening, because that itself would be an ending, an ending to endings of sorts. Great things, bad things, thoughts, opinions, and other dull things, all of it has to stop somewhere. Otherwise no question would ever end, and neither would any answer. Death and life would both be eternal. No, every sentence has a period, every show has a finale, every life has it's death, and every story has it's ending. We must do what we can before we come upon our own finales.
But we can dream. We can hope and believe. We can weave our own stories. Every sentence has it's capital letter, every show has it's premiere, every death begins in life, and every story has it's beginning. Even this blog post has a beginning.
We asked a simple question. We asked the question that allows us to dream and hope and believe. We asked the question that we use to weave stories and tell tales. The question of imagination, those simple two words with a question mark at the end that can birth something beautiful and amazing and wonderful or dark and scary and evil. The question of storytellers, playwrights and people everywhere was the one we asked.
We asked: What if?
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