GRAVITY? SCHMAVITY!

DOCTOR WHO
WILD BLUE YONDER

When the Doctor and Donna met Isaac Newton in 1666, Donna made a joke about “the gravity of the situation”.  After they left, however, Newton couldn’t quite remember what that strange word was that they used.  He eventually settled on using “mavity”.  

As the episode continued, the Doctor and Donna both used that new word, probably not realizing that they had changed History.  (Remember, they were not in his presence when he came up with it.)  In that new timeline, they, like everybody else in the world since Newton published his findings in 1687, had been using “mavity” instead of “gravity”.

EXAMPLE 01

The Doctor:
We could take a look.
Donna Noble:
Or we could stay here, wait for the TARDIS to mend itself so I can get back home. My family is waiting for me!
The Doctor:
Yeah, all right. Yeah!
Donna:
Still, wherever we are, could be worse. We've got air; we've got light; we've got mavity.
Doctor:
Yeah.

EXAMPLE 02
Donna:
But... if we're in space... There's no stars. Where are the stars?
The Doctor:
We could be inside a dust cloud or a... mavity well, or....

EXAMPLE 03
The Doctor:
What is making that noise?
(An alien body comes into view)
There.
(CLANG!)
The captain of the ship. Circling round and round forever. Caught in the gravity field.
DONNA:
Caught in the what?
THE DOCTOR:
Mavity field.

As seen/heard in that instance, the Doctor’s mind can straddle realities and remember the original timeline, as well as the various alternate pathways.  Probably.  (I’m not sure, but I think that has been established in the Past.)

What disturbed me at first was that I assumed the word “gravity” existed long before 1666.

I, as usual, was wrong.

As he was English, I think Newton coined the term based on the Latin roots, not the Old French.  So that would buttress the late 17th Century claim.

Stanford University looked at the etymology and the cultural history of gravity.  Click here if you’re interested in reading it.

Will RTD eventually address the situation to correct the word’s history?  Time travel is O’Bviously well-established in the series’ corner of the TV Universe, so this could be handled in a small patch, a scene even shorter than the one which caused the timeline shift to “mavity”.

But then again, as expansive as his vision has been in the past (and this episode “Wild Blue Yonder” fits that bill!), RTD can get sloppy with details that jar with real science.  So he might just leave it as is and forget about it.

(Remember how a mass shower in the topical application of all medicines blended together was able to cure everybody in that New Earth hospital?)

But until then, wouldn't it be great if other TV shows which should be sharing the same TV Universe as 'Doctor Who' started using the word "mavity" instead of "gravity"?

All the uses of "gravity" in past TV episodes would be locked into the old timeline before the "mavity" revision.

We shall see what we shall view….

UPDATE:
With both "The Giggle" and "The Church On Ruby Road," the word "mavity" was used.  RTD has been known to sprinkle the episodes in a season with a phrase which pays off by the season finale.  First it was "Bad Wolf" and a couple years later it was "Mister Saxon".

So it could be that the use of "mavity" will pay off with a big climactic reveal to cap off Davies' return to the series....