The Blinovitch Limitation Effect is a fictional principle of time travel physics in the universe of the long-running British science fiction television series Doctor Who.
It is usually understood as having two aspects: firstly, that a time traveller cannot "redo" an act that he has previously committed, and secondly, that a dangerous energy discharge will result if two temporal versions of the same person come into contact. The first aspect is similar to a real-world physics conjecture, the Novikov self-consistency principle.
How the Blinovitch Limitation Effect works has never been made clear by any of the television programme's production teams. It remains a convenient plot device rather than an attempt to rationalise time travel in the Doctor Who universe.
Read more about Blinovitch Limitation Effect: The Original Series, Theories, The New Series, Popular Culture
Famous quotes containing the words limitation and/or effect:
“When we get to wishing a great deal for ourselves, whatever we get soon turns into mere limitation and exclusion.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)
“I guess what I’ve really discovered is the humanizing effect of children in my life—stretching me, humbling me. Maybe my thighs aren’t as thin as they used to be. Maybe my getaways aren’t as glamorous. Still I like the woman that motherhood has helped me to become.”
—Susan Lapinski (20th century)