Yes, you heard me. Google it. Ok, I guess I should tell you what to google. *dramatically plays Beethoven’s fifth symphony on electric guitar* The bootstrap paradox.
In one of many monologues performed by Peter Capoopy-I mean Capaldi in Doctor Who, he poses a strange situation: there once was a man – a time traveler, naturally – who loved Beethoven so much that he used his time machine to visit the great composer himself. Once he was in the correct place and time, he asked around for this master of music, but could not find him anywhere. Nobody had ever heard of him at all. The time traveller panicked. What would the world do without the great Beethoven’s music?! But alas! This clever man brought his sheet music for Beethoven to sign. So, he published the music and BECAME Beethoven. The world went on without a second glance, which poses a question: who composed Beethoven’s fifth?
Beethoven himself was never really a man in the first place, so how could it be him who composed? But on the other hand, how could the time traveller, who was born in his own separate time frame and couldn’t have really composed it at all? Beethoven could have written it, but it all cycles back to the time traveller, and back to Beethoven, on and on forever until your head falls off from confusion. Where was the beginning of this whole thing?
I think it is safe to say that there is really no “beginning.” If you think about it as a pillar that goes up and up until it reaches above the clouds, changing from Beethoven and traveller on and on, then it ultimately has to have some ending to it. This doesn’t work because there is no beginning or end, it simply repeats itself in a cycle in order for the time stream continuom to stay alive and well. However, if you think of the bootstrap paradox as a circle, running from composer to traveller forever and ever, this is a more accurate representation. Sadly enough, there really is no answer to the Doctor’s Earth shattering question of who composed “Beethoven’s fifth.”
My question is, why bring this whole thing up now? Why not when Eleven and young Amy work together to save Amy/Rory/Eleven/whoever else needed saving from Pandora’s Box? There were multiple tiny paradox’s within that single episode, just to name one example. The answer, my friend, is simple:
Google it.
