Plot synopsis
Late one evening in the mid-sixties, TARDIS is sitting on the pavement of a quiet London street. From the outside, it looks like a London police phone box from the 1950s, but on the inside, it is a gigantic time machine.
Doctor Who is inside with his niece, Louise, and his granddaughter, Susan. They are about to leave for the year 2150, when a local policeman, Tom, opens the door and collapses on the floor. He has been hit over the head, while trying to prevent a burglary of a jewellery shop on this street. They have no choice but to take him with them.
He eventually recovers to find himself with three strangers in a future where the Daleks have destroyed most of London and are using the humans who survived as slaves in their mines.
With the help of the others, the Doctor prevents the Daleks from carrying out their plan and then takes Tom back to his time. Tom asks the Doctor to return him just before the robbery, so he is able to change history by apprehending the thieves. We see him capture them, and as he is driving them away, he is dreaming of becoming a detective inspector.
My comments
The Doctor says that his time and space machine, TARDIS (Time And Relative Dimension(s) In Space), is “capable of taking us to any age on any planet in any universe.”
When asked why the internal space of TARDIS is much greater than the space it occupies externally, the Doctor responds, “Just as time is regarded as the fourth dimension, so space is equally regarded as the fifth dimension, so space knows no boundaries and is completely timeless.”
At the end of the film, the past is changed. We do not know what effect this will have on the future. If the timeline continues to diverge, then the battle with the Daleks in 2150 A.D. may never take place.
For this to happen, the timeline would have to converge; however, there is no evidence or mention of converging timelines in this film.
However, there is a mention of his previous adventures in Doctor Who and the Daleks (1965). When arriving in London, he asks why the Daleks are there, as he thought he had destroyed them. Then he questions whether that battle had taken place before or after 2150 A.D., as it had not taken place on Earth.
Summary of time travel
Their first trip takes them to a future where they significantly change – therefore the future is open. Their return trip allows Tom to change the past, which shows it is also open. In both cases the timeline diverges away from the original.
Category of time travel
Science fiction: a time-travel vehicle.
Model of time
Open past, open future with a diverging timeline.
