Issue 21 Fall 2018 Forward to About Thirteen
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Issue 21 Fall 2018 forward to about Thirteen........... By Craig Hanson................27 Hamiltonian Mechanics ............... TThree Of An Imperfect Pair or How I Learned To Stop Worrying And - The Leisure Hive..................... Love Peter Davison's Doctor.......... By Thomas D. Bowyer..........3 by Don Klees....................29 Blog High for happiness................ Doctor Who Is ... ......................... Art & Text by Steven Sautter By Jamie Beckwith..................31 .......................................6 Twice Upon a Time Screening.......... By Will Forbes...................7 EDITOR’S NOTE I think many of us would like to be Time Lords. The Benny Code..........................8 After all, to be a Lord of Time implies having some mastery over time, which is some- By Matthew Kresal............7 thing I could really use. It would enable me to get edited faster and also to get on with the PDA for the PdaS......................... other things in my life. However, I am not a Time Lord, so that’s By Nick Mellish................10 why 21 comes to you at this date. I wish you happy reading. Aya Vandenbuscche ............. Enjoy our articles by frequent contribu- tors as well as new writers Nathan Mullins and Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale + Don Klees, as well as the art contributed by old Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale – stalwarts and new contributors (Lunart, Hy- The Final Chapter....................11 enacub, ArwendeLuhtiene, FionaBasta, Ezekiel Huerta and Chester H. Magruder III). What are the Targets For?—A Sort This is likely to be the last issue before of Review of the 10th anniversary issue. So, catch you on the flip side . by Leslie McMurtry..........14 Leslie McMurtry The Tempest and the Time Lord ..... by Steven Sautter.............17 Hospital Ghosts........................... Fiction by Nathan Mullins.......23 Thirteen Things I’m Looking .......... The Terrible Zodin Art by Hyenacub Hamiltonian Mechanics - The Leisure Hive By Thomas D. Bowyer Introduction ’s always had an . interesting relationship with science. On the one hand, the series was developed primarily to teach people about concepts in science and history, and as such, you will find that many episodes have a strong scientific basis. This is even seen in the present day, such as the episode “ ,” which has, at its horrific core, the idea that time can travel at different rates for different people, based on Einstein’s Let’s say that Argolis is one light year theory of Relativity. Equally so, science can away from Earth, which means that it would often be a little bit disappointing, with no take light one year to travel to Argolis. This greater disappointment than the fact that cur- means that if you were to get out a telescope rent scientific theory states that it is impossible and look at Argolis, you would be seeing Argol- to travel backwards in time. But what if we is as it was one year ago, and likewise, if you could? The story “ were on Argolis and were looking at Earth, you ,” written by David Fisher and script edit- would see Earth as it was one year ago. And ed by science journalist Christopher H Bid- we’ll set some ground rules first before we start mead, covers a way to travel through time that the trip, just to make things less complicated. may prove to be feasible, one day, using some- So we’ll say that on Earth, the year is 1980, the thing called a tachyon. year that “ ” was first broad- cast. And if we look at Argolis, we are seeing Background – What is a tachyon? the light that has traveled from Argolis to us, To understand what tachyons are and why and that light left Argolis in the Argolis-year they’re important, let’s first talk about the 1979, even though in Argolis, it is the Argolis- speed of light. The speed of light is very fast year 1980 as well and they see us in the Earth indeed. It is 3.00 x 108 metres per second, which year 1979. Now, let’s pop in our spaceship and means that in one second, it could travel from travel to Argolis at half the speed of light, just the North Pole to the South Pole approximately to start. The journey takes two years, and we 15 times. Now, the speed of light acts as a sort arrive in Argolis in Argolis-year 1982. And if of “speed limit” for the Universe. Nothing can you got a telescope to look up at Earth, you travel faster than the speed of light, according would see light that left Earth in the Earth-year to Einstein’s second postulate of Special Rela- 1981, even though in Earth, it is currently 1982 tivity. To see why this is important, let’s go on as well. And if you were to make a round trip a trip to Argolis. back to Earth, you would arrive in Earth in The Terrible Zodin 3 1984, and look up at Argolis and see that it is 1983. So far, so simple. Let’s repeat the experiment, but at a different speed, say, the speed of light. So you leave Earth in 1980 and arrive at Argolis now in the Argolis year-1981. And if you looked up at Earth as soon as you arrived (and this is where things get trippy), you would see yourself leav- ing Earth! This is because you’re looking at light that left Earth from exactly the time that you left – 1980. And if you were to leave Argolis and go back to Earth, you would arrive on Earth in 1982, and if you were to look back at Argolis as soon as you arrived, you would see yourself leave Argolis! Now let’s repeat the experiment, but Figure 1: Pangol's dancing with the power of Tachyonics even faster, by breaking the speed of light entirely, going at twice the speed of light. So we leave Earth on the 1st of January 1980 and arrive Yeah, tachyons are theoretical particles, which means that people have thought that they might in Argolis on the 1st of July, 1980, Argolis-time. exist, but there is no evidence to suggest that As is now traditional, we look back at Earth, they do exist. So “ ,” is for the and we would see (and this is genuinely trippy) moment, pure science fiction. But we can, for Earth as it was on the 1st of July, 1979. This is the purposes of this article, say that they do before we have even left Earth, which is slightly exist, and from that, we can see whether what insane. And if you were to travel back to Earth, they’re capable of makes any sense. you would arrive at Earth at exactly the time So let’s start with the first thing that that you had left, the 1st of January 1980. And if tachyons are seen doing, which is in Part One. you were to have gone even faster on the return One of the Argolins, Pangol, goes into a booth trip, say at 4 times the speed of light, then you’d known as The Generator where his image from have arrived on the 1st of October 1979, before inside the booth is projected onto a screen you’d even left Earth in the first place! called The Visidome. On this screen, we see his And it is reasons like that which is why body parts detach from one another, and start it is impossible to travel faster than the speed dancing about, as in Figure 1. Pangol’s explana- of light, because if you travel faster than the tion for this is that “A tachyon field can be speed of light, then that means that you would made to arrive at point B – that Visidome, say be theoretically able to travel through time, – before its departure from point A, the Gener- which would violate all the laws of time, and ator”. And this makes sense, it’s just like what create all sorts of wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey happened when we traveled faster than light to stuff. But let’s say that there could be some- Argolis and back, and arrived before we left, thing that could travel faster than the speed of except this time, it’s the image of Pangol’s body light. This is called a tachyon, and forms the parts dancing that’s arriving at the Visidome scientific basis of “ .” before Pangol chooses to make them dance. So yeah, this bit holds water, in my opinion. “The Leisure Hive” Next, we look at another thing that the tachyons can do, which is change the age of No. something. Now, I can’t speak for things that The Terrible Zodin 4 undergo cellular regeneration to make them earlier on in the story that’s so horrendously younger, as it supposed in this story, because I bad, I was convinced that the rest of the story don’t know enough about that field to com- must be scientifically rubbish as well). Now, if ment, but I can speak for the idea of the Doctor you don’t mind, I’ll be off on a trip to Argolis. being aged, as is seen in the cliffhanger to Part If I hurry, I might be back in time to catch last Two. This could be achieved by tachyons night’s football match. through an unfortunate by-product of traveling faster than the speed of light. When we went on the trip to Argolis and back at twice the http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/blogs/physics speed of light, it took a year to complete, so you /2015/08/can-you-really-go-back-in-time-by- would have aged a year.