Dear Johnny Fanboy,

When the Doctor warned Rose not to touch the baby (her younger self) in the Doctor Who episode Father's Day, I thought to myself: Great! The writer has subtly acknowledged the events in the Peter Davison serial Mawdryn Undead, in which it is shown that the same person from two different points in time cannot touch without shorting out the time differential, resulting in a huge explosion.

However, later on in the episode Pete thrusts the baby into Rose's arms. Although this is said to cause a paradox that lets a Reaper into the church, there is no explosion. Why not?

I know the Doctor has never been affected by meeting and shaking hands with himself, etc, but I reckon that's just because he's a Time Lord and he is unaffected by most time disturbances (for example, in The Time Monster and Invasion of the Dinosaurs).

Adam Leigh

Johnny Fanboy replies:

A crucial difference between the meeting of the two Brigadiers in Mawdryn Undead and the meeting of the two Roses in Father's Day is that the Brigadiers touch skin-to-skin: they reach out towards each other and their fingertips meet. When Rose touches herself (oo-er), the baby's clothes separate them. However, the very proximity of the two Roses is sufficiently paradoxical to allow a Reaper to enter the church.

Alternatively, the Reaper itself could instantly absorb the energy released by the shorting out of the time differential, thus preventing the explosion while gaining strength from it.

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