User blog:MasterCharmander13/Explaining The Shalek Paradox

So now having had read K9's story for DWA, I saw that he missunderstood the Shalek Paradox(somewhat), so I'm making this blog post to explain it to everyone, so you know how to, or not to, use it in your episodes.

So Old Shalek guided the Doctor to the past. The Doctor met Young Shalek(the Shalek that is a companion right now), and they traveled togheter. Old Shalek however only guided The Doctor to the past because The Doctor told him he had to, while he was young and traveling with the Doctor.

If Shalek were to be killed during his travels with the Doctor, there would be no Old Shalek, meaning The Doctor won't meet Shalek, meaning Shalek won't die, meaning Old Shalek does exist, meaning The Doctor does meet Young Shalek, and Shalek dies again in his travels. I think everyone knows this.

Now... In K9's story, when the Tardis dissapeared, The Doctor panicked, because this meant Shalek couldn't ever return to Castela to become Old Shalek and do what Old Shalek did in The Island of Paradox.

Aaaand...that's not how it works. The only, definitive, way the paradox can happen is if Shalek is dead(Take Future Vision for example).

Let's take a look at "The Leader of The Thieves", The Doctor explained that, even if Shalek will be killed if he goes back to Castela, the paradox doesn't happen yet. Let's take this as an example: Shalek stops traveling, goes to Castela. Now there are 2 options.

1. He's killed, which leads to the paradox.

or

2. He's not killed.

The future isn't set in stone, Shalek could be killed,or he could not be. The future isn't set in stone, and until it is(Shalek dying), the paradox won't begin.

So this is the same with the Tardis problem from K9's story.

They lost the Tardis which means Shalek can't return to Castela. But this does NOT start the paradox yet. They might find the Tardis. Or they might not. But the point is, they MIGHT find it. That possibility is there.

So no paradox happening. However, if they lose The Tardis, and they never find it again, and Shalek dies of old age, then the paradox will start. It doesn't start imediatelly as they lose the Tardis. It only starts when the possibility of Shalek being old on Castela and doing what he did in TIoP, dissapears, that's when the paradox starts.

In Future Vision, Shalek was killed.There was no way of Shalek doing what he did in TloP, because that requires him being old, and...you know... ALIVE!

Sure, you might argue that there was still a possibility of Shalek doing what he did in TloP, because The Time Dalek could revive him(which ended up happening), but the Paradox did start, because there was no NATURALLY OCCURING way of Shalek doing what he did in TIoP. The Time Dalek removed his X while time was stopped. Because, naturally, The Doctor wouldn't have time to get to the Time Dalek AND convince him to remove his X in 10 seconds(in 10 seconds the time loop would begin).

The Doctor then stopped time with The Tardis's 1-time use feature, found The Time Dalek, and convinced him to remove his X. Had this time stopping feature not exist, The Doctor wouldn't have time to find the Time Dalek AND Convince him to remove the X in only 10 seconds. Stopping the time was unnatural, not something the universe does by default. Which is why the paradox started while a possibility of Shalek's revival was still there. Because techincally, that possibility doesn't exist unless time is stopped, which, as I said before, isn't natural.

So I hope I explained this well enough. :P