Those of us who watched the TVM several times over the few months following illicit screenings and legitimate broadcasts could be forgiven for asking what drugs Matthew Jacobs was on. Presumably, some people actually know, and the others are trying to get hold of them. It was, for me, the ending which provided the most confusion. To those bowled over with the excitement of the movie it seemed creative, but the rest of the universe discarded it as complete bollocks. Whilst Im not sure that any Doctor Who fans are justified in getting terribly excited about scientific literacy, an explanation has fermented in my Earl Grey addled brain and is determined to force itself upon you. Those of you who enjoy complete bollocks should therefore skip this section and go and watch Battlestar Galactica.
Bearing in mind its basic impossibility anyway, time travel theory in Doctor Who is dependent on removing people completely from space and time. They then travel through a vortex before popping back into reality at a point different to the one they left. The displacement is either spatial or temporal, or both. The personal time streams of the travellers must remain unaffected and are therefore relative to the rest of the universe; otherwise the seventh Doctor would become the first Doctor when he landed in Shoreditch in 1963. Regarding the TV movie, if this theory holds true then after the eye has been closed and the TARDIS has moved back a couple of days, Grace and Chang Lee should still be dead. Whatever time the TARDIS moves to, the Earth will still have been affected by the Eye of Harmony and the Master would still be in need of a manicure. The ending, therefore, defies all reasonable natural laws of time travel, should there be any.
The point that most people seem to miss, of course, is that the fabric of space and time has been warped by the Eye of Harmony. In effect, all laws of physics, spatial and temporal have been subverted by the release of forces which cause huge global catastrophes, enable the Doctor to walk through windows, and even make Graces sofa disappear. The impossible is, therefore, becoming a reality, thereby allowing all sorts of fascinating rubbish to be dreamt up in the name of fun television.
At the climax to the film, when the TARDIS goes into a Temporal Orbit, there is no mention of it actually leaving its spatial co-ordinates. When Grace jump starts the TARDIS it is pulled back through itself in time, allowing the Eye of Harmony to re-absorb the energy it released. The unusual nature of this occurrence is obvious. The TARDIS is travelling backwards through time, but not the vortex.
The effect is rather similar to pulling a sock inside out - the far end is pulled through all the rest of the sock before arriving at the start. When two instances of the TARDIS meet, two instances of the Eye must also meet, the earlier instance of which is distributing power. Since the latter instance must have less energy it absorbs the others output. As a direct result of this, anything which happened after the Eye began affecting reality cannot have happened and time tries to right itself accordingly.
A rubber ball analogy to time is currently in vogue, meaning that when time is put under stress it bends and warps but tries to keep its basic shape. As time rights itself, the Doctor and the Master, both Time Lords (more or less) are unaffected. Grace and Chang Lee however, are caught up the changes that are made. Remember, the Doctor knew that Grace was destined to do great things and time is merely trying to go back to as close to its original course as it can.
And so the ending, at least, works. Just about. It requires no small amount of mental gymnastics, and a clean pair of socks for a practical demonstration, but it does work. If you can forgive the inherent absurdity of Doctor Whos basic concept (this guy travels through space in a Police Box for heavens sake!) then you can surely cope with a few plot holes when the whole movie was so incredibly stylish. If a little blue.
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