Some thoughts on NuWho's "Last Great Time War"

[Eternal_Freedom]

These thoughts have been rattling around in my head for a few months now. I will say up front they are nothing but speculation, from someone who's experience of the Doctor Who noves etc is limited to what I read on this site and Wikipedia. With that said, lets go:

The main thought is this:

"Was the Last Great Time War (and its resultant conflicts in seasons 1-4) a self-fulfilling prophecy/predestination paradox? (I use both because I can never remember exact definitions for the two)

My reasoning is as follows:

• In Genesis of the Daleks, the Time Lord says "We foresee a time, when the Daleks will have destroyed all other life forms and become the dominant creature in the universe"
  The Time Lord then orders the Doctor to avert the Dalek's creation
  This act is noted in the expanded media, and the "Aliens and Enemies" book as the trigger that caused the Time War in the first place
  The Time War happens, everyone dies, the Cult of Skaro escapes, hides, dies, Caan goes back and rescues Davros
  Davros proceeds to build a weapon that will kill everything and leave the Daleks as the sole creatures in the universe
  That sounds, to me, very much like what the Time Lords foresaw.
  Hence, I believe it is possible that the Time Lords saw a possible future where the Reality Bomb was detonated, and acted to avoid this future, and in doing so, set up the events that caused it to happen anyway

What does everyone else think?

[Night_stalker]

That seems to make sense, givne what evidence we have.

[Stark]

It makes no sense at all. If they'd foreseen their own destruction in a time war they'd have expected or prevented it; indeed their intervention in Genesis is what bought Davros back into history.

They didn't evenwant the Daleks exterminated; pushing them down a different path wood have worked too. Davros resulted in the destruction of Skaro lol.

It's the first shots in the time war because it was a direct intervention. The Daleks wouldn't have the capability to respond for yonks, during which the time lords did nothing. The war wasn't a regular pew pew war until later phases.

[Slybrarian]

I don't think it was meant to be a literal prophecy when the Time Lords said they foresaw the Daleks becoming powerful, so much as a prediction based on statistical analysis plus their usual technological time-voodoo. Really, if they'd had a better idea of what was going to happen, they probably wouldn't have bothered with a minimal intervention via the Doctor and sent a smart bomb instead, or someone a bit more reliable (say, the Rani) if they had to send an actual person.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Fair point. Obviously it can't have been a literal prediction, given the differences between the writing dates, but it just struck me as an interesting coincidence