Leap in the Dark: Timeline
Mar. 8th, 2008 02:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
nonelvisI could not have written this story without working out its timeline in advance, and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
platypus suggested other people might be interested in seeing it, too. Again, you may not want to look at this until after reading the story.
9:00 – Party starts. Machine is configured to go 4 hours.
9:53 – TARDIS arrives (Bubble Room, 2)
10:00 – Time jump. The Doctor is shifted to 11:12. Donna is shifted to 10:33.
10:13 – The Doctor arrives [somewhere], cutting off his conversation with Graham. We don’t see it and it doesn’t matter because of the 10:20 event.
10:20 – Time jump. The Doctor is shifted to 11:42.
10:28 – The Doctor arrives near the Jungle Room, where Graham is mixing drinks. Meets up with Graham, finds out about the party.
10:33 – Donna arrives in the Jungle Room. Meets Bernard, gets a drink.
10:40 – Time jump. Donna is shifted to 11:35. The Doctor is shifted to 10:13. Graham is shifted to 11:45.
10:49 – Phengarian arrives (Hologram Room, 3)
10:54 – Murder is committed (Central Hallway near Red Room, 3)
10:58 – The Doctor arrives in the Red Room. Phengarian brushes by him.
11:00 – Time jump. Doctor is shifted to 10:28. Phengarian shifted to 11:18 in Foam Room.
11:12 – Doctor arrives in the Foam Room (second floor), heads for the Jungle Room, suggests a conga line.
11:13 – Donna discovers Mae’s body, goes looking for the Doctor.
11:18 – Donna makes it down to the first floor, meets up with the Doctor briefly before the 11:20 jump.
11:19 – Phengarian has just enough time to kill someone else in the Foam Room.
11:20 – Time jump. Donna is shifted to 11:44. The Doctor is shifted to 10:58. Phengarian is shifted to 11:50.
11:35 – Donna arrives in the Jungle Room, witnesses the conga line.
11:40 – Time jump. Donna is shifted to 11:13.
11:42 – The Doctor arrives at the Bubble Room and gets into the TARDIS.
11:44 – Donna shows up in the queue for the loo outside the Bubble Room. She sees the bubbles floating outside, heads for the TARDIS.
11:45 – Graham discovers dead bodies in the Foam Room.
11:48 – Graham places emergency call, realizes that cops can't get through his shield. Heads to his room (second floor, central to building) to disable device.
11:50 – Phengarian arrives near Bubble Room.
12:05 – Doctor and Donna confront Graham.
platypus suggested other people might be interested in seeing it, too. Again, you may not want to look at this until after reading the story.9:00 – Party starts. Machine is configured to go 4 hours.
9:53 – TARDIS arrives (Bubble Room, 2)
10:00 – Time jump. The Doctor is shifted to 11:12. Donna is shifted to 10:33.
10:13 – The Doctor arrives [somewhere], cutting off his conversation with Graham. We don’t see it and it doesn’t matter because of the 10:20 event.
10:20 – Time jump. The Doctor is shifted to 11:42.
10:28 – The Doctor arrives near the Jungle Room, where Graham is mixing drinks. Meets up with Graham, finds out about the party.
10:33 – Donna arrives in the Jungle Room. Meets Bernard, gets a drink.
10:40 – Time jump. Donna is shifted to 11:35. The Doctor is shifted to 10:13. Graham is shifted to 11:45.
10:49 – Phengarian arrives (Hologram Room, 3)
10:54 – Murder is committed (Central Hallway near Red Room, 3)
10:58 – The Doctor arrives in the Red Room. Phengarian brushes by him.
11:00 – Time jump. Doctor is shifted to 10:28. Phengarian shifted to 11:18 in Foam Room.
11:12 – Doctor arrives in the Foam Room (second floor), heads for the Jungle Room, suggests a conga line.
11:13 – Donna discovers Mae’s body, goes looking for the Doctor.
11:18 – Donna makes it down to the first floor, meets up with the Doctor briefly before the 11:20 jump.
11:19 – Phengarian has just enough time to kill someone else in the Foam Room.
11:20 – Time jump. Donna is shifted to 11:44. The Doctor is shifted to 10:58. Phengarian is shifted to 11:50.
11:35 – Donna arrives in the Jungle Room, witnesses the conga line.
11:40 – Time jump. Donna is shifted to 11:13.
11:42 – The Doctor arrives at the Bubble Room and gets into the TARDIS.
11:44 – Donna shows up in the queue for the loo outside the Bubble Room. She sees the bubbles floating outside, heads for the TARDIS.
11:45 – Graham discovers dead bodies in the Foam Room.
11:48 – Graham places emergency call, realizes that cops can't get through his shield. Heads to his room (second floor, central to building) to disable device.
11:50 – Phengarian arrives near Bubble Room.
12:05 – Doctor and Donna confront Graham.
no subject
on 2008-03-10 07:46 pm (UTC)I wish I'd saved the email to
1) Every 20 minutes, people (not rooms) are jumped to a point along their pre-existing timeline running from 9pm - 11:50pm. (It would have been until 1am, had the machine continued to run.)
2) Yes, this means that the machine, in a way, has to have prior knowledge of everyone's timelines, because it can't jump you to a time period before it's enabled or after it's disabled. If quantum mechanics can support the concepts of particle entanglement and spooky action at a distance -- because it always comes back to quantum mechanics, doesn't it? -- then I think it's okay to make the logical leap, no pun intended, that once the machine gets going, everyone's timelines are fixed. For the same reason, you'll note that the Doctor, Donna, and the Phengarian are never jumped to time periods before they arrived in the house.
3) You can't overlap with yourself because you are moving along a linear timeline. If you start at point A and jump to point C, you may come back to point B later, but only at the moment in time in which you would have arrived at point B in a linear fashion.