Weird Time: Dr Who

How on any planet am I supposed to make sense of that?

Well first off I'm just going to concentrate on the most recent series to give me a fighting chance as I haven't the time nor stamina to watch all 30 seasons of the show.

Plot: The last of the Time Lords travels around space and time in a police box making friends, getting into scrapes and saving the Earth over and over again.

What type of time travel is it? It's old-fashioned, nuts and bolts, paradoxes-be-damned time travel.

Time is fluid, you can change anything - whether on purpose or accidently - anytime, anywhere.

The Doctor is like a tourist, taking in everything from the creation of the Earth to the end of the universe. But more like a handyman, he fixes things with his sonic screwdriver as he goes along.

However, every so often the writers introduce parallel universes or alternative timelines - so who can be really sure?

One golden rule seems to be he can't go back to the same place twice. So if someone dies in front of the Doctor, he can't go back just before it happens because he's already there. I think the universe would explode if he did.

What's the problem? Well, obviously, paradoxes.

In one episode nasty winged creatures turned up to 'fix' them, while it has been hinted this used to be the Time Lords' job before they got zapped by the Daleks.

But then I'd guess it would be pretty boring seeing the Doc go places but without the ability to meddle.

And anyway, he's an alien who does most of his jiggery-pokery on Earth, so it's very much doubtful he's going to run into his granny.

There is one very interesting take on the time travel in Doctor Who which makes the case for Gallifrey (the Doc's home planet) being the Greenwich Mean Time of space. The farther away from Gallifrey he travels, the farther back in time he can go.

But head back home and he'll be back in the present time.

It has no basis in science but I like the idea. And maybe in this case we can be more forgiving for not sticking to the rules.

Dr Who has been going for more than 40 of our Earth years and hundreds of writers have produced their own take on the time travel problem, so just sit back and enjoy the ride!

For more science jiggery-pokery, take a swift glance at the Mercury's Weird Science blog.