| 1 | Click [[Headscratchers/DoctorWho here]] to go back to the main page. |
| 2 | |
| 3 | '''WARNING! THERE MAY BE UNMARKED SPOILERS!''' |
| 4 | ---- |
| 5 | [[index]] |
| 6 | * [[Headscratchers/DoctorWhoS29E1SmithAndJones "Smith and Jones"]] |
| 7 | * [[Headscratchers/DoctorWhoS29E13LastOfTheTimeLords "Last of the Time Lords"]] |
| 8 | [[/index]] |
| 9 | |
| 10 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 11 | |
| 12 | [[folder:"The Runaway Bride"]] |
| 13 | * When Donna's banging on the taxi windows and yelling for help, why in the world did no one call the police? They even distinctly show that several drivers noticed her doing it. But apparently they just didn't bother doing anything about it? |
| 14 | ** Because those motorists aren't really in any position to help and also, I don't think anyone could see that the driver was a robot Santa. (Though that would cause problems if the cab had to go through a toll booth) |
| 15 | * The Doctor offers to take the Racnoss queen, and her kin, to a new planet. The queen refuses and continues with the kill-everyone plan. The Doctor responds by killing the queen... and also killing all the other Racnoss at the center of the Earth. Wait just a minute: have ''they'' refused the Doctor's offer? Have they even heard it? Is he just assuming that they'll refuse the offer because that's what the queen did? |
| 16 | ** The whole point of that was the Doctor is getting too ruthless. That's why Donna tells him to stop. |
| 17 | ** They draw a direct contrast with this in "Partners in Crime". The Doctor is practically a demigod, considering how much he accomplishes on a regular basis. It's impressive that he hasn't been corrupted by all that power, beyond a few moments like this one where he goes too far. |
| 18 | *** I assumed that since she was the queen and they were her children, it was like a Queen-Bee/Worker-Bee scenario, where her decision was the decision of all of them. |
| 19 | *** And how would they react to finding out that their Empress was murdered, anyway? |
| 20 | *** And that assumes that they were even intelligent enough to understand. IIRC, they were hatchlings who were "born starving". They may have been mindless bundles of devouring instincts. And if they weren't, they were still going to eat everything living, and it's unlikely that they'd be more moral than their mother. |
| 21 | *** And if she had agreed, how would she have gotten through the TARDIS doors? Mind you, the image of the Queen of the Racnoss trying to enter the TARDIS only to get stuck half-way and have her legs flailing helplessly about would have been hilarious. |
| 22 | *** TARDIS doors? What? She has ''her own spaceship''. She teleported into it to try to escape at the end. |
| 23 | * The Doctor sends the entire Thames into the center of the Earth. Notwithstanding all the problems draining a very heavily used river would cause, wouldn't sending torrents of cold water at the core just mess stuff up? If the water didn't vaporize by the time it passed through the mantle, it would cool the core, making it stop spinning and consequently shutting down the magnetic field, exposing everyone on Earth to deadly solar radiation and probably frying them all within hours. |
| 24 | ** Then again, this episode also portrays Earth's core as a giant star-shaped spaceship, so all that might be null. |
| 25 | *** I'm perplexed as to how a hole of water a few feet across would be able to cool the entire core. |
| 26 | *** The Earth's core isn't a space-ship, just its exact center. Of course, if that can survive the pressure exerted by the weight of the world for 4.6 billion years(along with [[ApocalypseHow everything that's happened to the planet]]), why is the Empress' ship destroyed with lasers? |
| 27 | *** Because it ''has'' survived the weight of the world for 4.6 billion years on top of everything else; it's perhaps not unreasonable to suggest that even though it had survived this long then it's still probably a bit battered and weakened by now. Plus, Torchwood probably has some nifty gear in its arsenal. |
| 28 | *** Furthermore, being built to withstand great forces of pressure isn't necessarily the same as being built to have strong defensive armour that can withstand full-scale mass military assaults. To compare, there are deep-sea submersibles that are built to withstand the tremendous pressure that is exerted at great depths on the ocean floor, but if you got them onto the surface and fired tank and artillery shells at them for long enough, you'd probably manage to severely damage if not outright destroy them quickly enough. |
| 29 | *** The ship isn't necessarily at the ''exact'' center of the planet, either. It was simply the biggest gravity-well in the original dust cloud that condensed to become the Earth; the accumulation of debris around its mass needn't have been evenly distributed. |
| 30 | ** All the water in the Thames is going to be a mere drop in the bucket compared to all the billions of tons of water that seep down through underground rivers and cracks every day, all over the planet. At most, there may be a bit of an increase in output from all the land and undersea geysers within a few hundred miles of the sinkhole, and a lot of steam bubbling up out of the hole once the river fills up again. |
| 31 | [[/folder]] |
| 32 | |
| 33 | [[folder:"The Shakespeare Code"]] |
| 34 | * What did the Doctor do to annoy Queen Elizabeth? Or what is he ''going'' to do? |
| 35 | ** Apparently, he's just really good at annoying English queens. |
| 36 | *** Wrong Doctor. That would be Nine; we know he turned into Ten but Queen Bess does not. |
| 37 | ** He married her, as shown in "The End of Time". |
| 38 | *** And apparently, had a ''great'' honeymoon... which ended all too quickly. In any case, the Doctor says the marriage was "a mistake". |
| 39 | *** That was almost certainly the reason. The last thing you will ever do is make a ''mistake'' with a Tudor-era King or Queen. Funnily enough, it is actually theorized that a failed relationship with an yet unknown member of her court was possibly the reason why the real life Elizabeth was famous for refusing to marry. An example of the writers doing a little research perhaps? |
| 40 | *** And "The Day of the Doctor" finally gave us the ''whole'' story. |
| 41 | *** Hell hath no fury like an English monarch scorned. |
| 42 | * Martha asks how it's possible the Carrionites could have taken over the world in 1599, when in the future she and the Doctor came from this quite obviously hasn't happened. The Doctor compares they're situation to what happened to Marty [=McFly=] in ''Film/BackToTheFuture1''... But in that movie, Marty traveled to the past, and accidentally interfered with the lives of his parents, thus changing his own future. The Carrionites' plan, on the other hand, had nothing to do with the Doctor and Martha; if they hadn't traveled back to 1599, the plan would've still carried out the same way, and the Carrionites would've actually ''succeeded''. So Martha's question is still valid. The only way all this would make sense was if time travel in the Whoniverse worked on the principle of YouAlreadyChangedThePast: the Doctor and Martha were always meant to go to 1599 and stop the Carrionites. But based on The Doctor's ''Back to the Future'' speech, he doesn't seem to believe this is how time travel works. |
| 43 | ** It could be that rather than offering a completely accurate summary of the mechanics of time travel, he's simply using a fairly relatable and easily understandable (if not 100% applicable) example that Martha (and the audience) will be likely to get; an outside force (Marty / the Carrionites) has interfered in history and altered it slightly, so time travelers from the future (again, Marty / The Doctor and Martha) have to fix it otherwise the future will drastically change with terrible results (Marty will cease to exist / the Carrionites will conquer Earth). It's not ''exactly'' like their current situation, but it's just a simple off-the-cuff metaphor to help her / us understand the basics of what's going on, not a concrete foundation for the rules of time travel in the ''Doctor Who'' universe. |
| 44 | ** Also, they're less than half an hour away from the Carrionites destroying the entire planet; he doesn't exactly have time to sit down and draw up a flowchart. |
| 45 | [[/folder]] |
| 46 | |
| 47 | [[folder:"Gridlock"]] |
| 48 | * The litter of kittens in "Gridlock". Assuming that humans and sufficiently advanced cats can reproduce together, why would a human female bear a litter of kittens? The size of a litter depends on the number of ova available during fertilization, and modern humans tend to only release one or two at a time. The human may have been part cat herself, or otherwise modified to this effect, but surely if livable space is at a premium, you'd want to employ a more conservative reproductive strategy. |
| 49 | ** But sentient beings have been shown not to reproduce "conservatively" in tightly packed urban spaces. In fact, poor people in cities in the Industrial Revolution often had a crap-ton of kids because very few lived to adulthood, due to the squalor. In light of this, the world of "Gridlock" seems a lot worse. Plus, a species can't "evolve" over the course of what was it, a few decades, unless the trait that's being bred out has become near 100%, immediately fatal. And even then, that's not really evolution, that's just a trait falling out of the gene pool — in this case, the trait of multiple-ova ovulation. Still, your "she's part cat!" theory is the best way to explain the litter, I think. |
| 50 | *** Heck, for all we know, she could've been born just as much of a cat-human as her husband: she just had herself made over into a "hu-girl" because they're members of the Reverse Furry Fandom. |
| 51 | ** And while we're on the subject, how does a human and a cat-human produce a litter of cats? |
| 52 | *** Maybe they sort of evolve from kittens into adolescent catchildren. Probably more horrifying than human puberty. |
| 53 | *** Come on. A cat person whose offspring are ''literal kittens''? RuleOfFunny. |
| 54 | *** "Litteral Kittens" Some puns are obligatory. |
| 55 | *** It was basically the setup for the Doctor's (admittedly pretty funny) "having kittens" pun. |
| 56 | *** I thought it was RuleOfCute. It seemed to me like the camera lingered on that basket of kittens long enough to give us all time to let out a prolonged: "Awwwwwwwwwwwww...". |
| 57 | *** I just assumed they'd reproduced by some means other than the standard mammalian one; uterine replicator, anyone? And that the kittens grow up into cat-humans. |
| 58 | *** Remember that back in "The End of the World" Cassandra's whole deal is the fact that she's the last "pure" human and, by her standards, everyone else calling themselves human are in fact essentially mixed-race with a whole load of alien and non-human DNA swimming around the gene-pool. It's entirely possible that Mrs. Brannigan is herself part-cat to some degree (or at the very least her DNA is sufficiently non-human to enable her to mate with a cat-human), but it just doesn't look as obvious with her as it does with Mr. Brannigan. |
| 59 | *** Its about ''5 billion'' years into the future. To put that into comparison, that's about 37,000 times longer than the current existence of our species. Even if humanity didn't develop exponentially, cat people and regular humans having a litter of kittens would be easy by this point. [[WebSite/SFDebris Granted, it must've itched like hell...]] |
| 60 | *** It could have been a reference to Creator/CordwainerSmith's ''Underpeople'', where a CatGirl like C'Mell would give birth to literal kittens. |
| 61 | * Do you mean to tell me that five billion years in the future, after trees and cats have become humanoid, the descendants of humanity have survived the natural death of the solar system and colonized the stars, and pompous rich people can live on indefinitely as a bizarre skin-trampoline thing, they STILL have not discovered car fuel that doesn't cause tons of smog? That's just sad! |
| 62 | ** Well remember that the Macra, who feed off of smog, were living at the bottom of the motorway. It's possible that the Macra had manipulated technology in that direction before they "devolve", or (more likely) that the ones who built the cars put in that technology in a misguided belief that giving the Macra a steady supply of food would placate them. Another possibility is presented by the ventilation at the bottom of the motorway, which were apparently intended to siphon off the smog (until they jammed). It may be that the vents took the smog to somewhere where it was recycled into something useful, making dirty engines an advantage (It should be noted that the smog is apparently heavier than air, and thus would always make its way into the vents). |
| 63 | ** Consider that there are some places even today when the automobile is ubiquitous that still use the horse-and-cart. Some technologies persist even when they're technically outdated because they're useful, cheap and convenient for those who need them. In the year five billion, petrol-fueled vehicles are presumably the equivalent; most of the people in that tunnel were fairly poor to begin with, so it was probably the best they could afford. |
| 64 | ** It might be that it is expected any alternatives would be solar or electric which might be difficult to get underground for long periods of time. Perhaps the history is such that instead of extensive research into cleaner burning fuels all, or most, of the eggs were put in the electric/solar baskets. |
| 65 | ** People only colonized New Earth out of a sense of nostalgia, which would be the same reason life on Earth was kept around 4 billion years past its sell-by date and human evolution keeps being reversed back to good old Homo Sapiens. Perhaps they decided to use fossil fuels there for nostalgia as well. |
| 66 | * Why couldn't the Face of Boe simply say [[spoiler:"the Master is alive in human form"]], instead of "you are not alone"? If he had been less cryptic, the information might've actually been, you know, ''useful'' to the Doctor, instead of being something he figures out only when it's too late. |
| 67 | ** Because Boe [[spoiler:wasn't referring to just the Master still being alive.]] |
| 68 | ** Well why couldn't he say, [[spoiler:"the Time Lords are still alive and the Master has taken a human form"]], then? |
| 69 | ** Boe ''is'' on his dying breaths at that point. Dude's billions of years old and seconds from croaking, cut him some slack. Frankly, the Doctor's entirely lucky Boe both managed to remember enough and had enough energy to pass the message on at that point. |
| 70 | ** If the Face of Boe is indeed Captain Jack Harkness, that means he was there when those words became relevant. Presumably he is now old and wise enough to know better than to mess with his own past, which could possibly change events dramatically to the point he wasn't there, and thus never could have warned the doctor in the first place. |
| 71 | * Is there a particular reason why the old couple in the beginning is dressed like the couple from the famous painting ''American Gothic'', by Grant Wood? |
| 72 | ** No. |
| 73 | * Why does everyone in New New York, except for the TV announcer, have a British accent? |
| 74 | ** Because they're not speaking English, they're speaking whatever language predominates in the year 5 billion. The TARDIS translates it into English for Martha's sake, and renders it with a British accent because the old girl first encountered the language when One parked her in a London junkyard in 1963. |
| 75 | ** Why doesn't the [=TARDIS=] give the TV announcer a British accent too, then? |
| 76 | [[/folder]] |
| 77 | |
| 78 | [[folder:"Daleks in Manhattan"/"Evolution of the Daleks"]] |
| 79 | * Why did the Cult of Skaro time warp to 1930?! Caan was later shown to be able to travel through time accurately to rescue Davros. Wouldn't it make more sense to go to a future date and therefore have the technology to rebuild their empire? |
| 80 | ** Entering the Time War is near-impossible and almost tore Caan to shreds. He only did it as a last resort. Also, I'm gathering that the Time War wiped Skaro and the Dalek race from time itself. |
| 81 | *** Nope, Skaro is still around and the Doctor and Amy visit it in the online adventure "City of the Daleks", which the showrunner has confirmed is in continuity. |
| 82 | *** Okay, I've played that game. Did you miss the part where the Daleks completely rewrote time with the Eye of Time where Amy starts disappearing ''Back to the Future''-style? Or how the Daleks suddenly take on the series 5 forms? Somehow I doubt Caan would have been able to reach that on his own. |
| 83 | ** The last time we saw the Cult of Skaro before 1930 they had initiated an "emergency temporal shift". Odds are they had no choice where they ended up and they didn't want to risk another uncontrolled timejump if they could avoid it. |
| 84 | ** Even if they got stuck in 1930, why don't they just wait until they have the technology to properly rebuild their race? Yeah, Daleks are not known for their patience, but these Daleks are designed to think about the box(which explains why they even contemplated the Human-Dalek project). Also Daleks appear to not age or just live really long (Metaltron managed to survive for 50 years, and the Emperor of the Daleks was in the darkness for at least 200+ years), and I imagine that the Cult of Skaro was given immortality. Given how many times the Daleks invaded the Earth, they could probably just wait until the events of "Remembrance of the Daleks" (only 33 years from 1930) and silently steal an Imperial ship/reverse-engineer it if they want to avoid altering their own history. |
| 85 | *** What are they supposed to do in the meantime — play Scrabble? Leaving aside the fact that the Cult of Skaro waiting around uselessly for a more technologically advanced period or some more Daleks to show up wouldn't make a particularly good story at all, they clearly ''are'' thinking outside of the box by attempting to solve their current problem with the technologies that are available to them rather than just waiting for some more Daleks to show up and solve it for them. |
| 86 | *** And Daleks are somewhat egotistical about their abilities. |
| 87 | * Why oh why did Caan, Thay and Jast think the Dalek Humans (those pale skinned people with Dalek minds) were worthy of the title of Dalek? They look just like people! And this is the race that started a civil war against the Imperial Daleks for having slight alterations, along with going insane from human material. |
| 88 | ** The Cult of Skaro are Daleks who used more creative ways to survive and kill at any cost. Besides, the Emperor formed the Cult, so presumably they're on the Imperial Daleks' side. They're the last four Daleks in existence, so they have to adapt in some way or die. |
| 89 | ** In slight response to the above, that's also something that's a headscratcher. While admittedly it's been a while since I've seen the episode, if I remember correctly, Dalek Sec began to show compassion and other very human emotions upon merging his DNA with human DNA. How could the Daleks, who just ''witnessed it happen'', think it a good idea to turn humans, brimming with, obviously, human DNA, into Daleks? |
| 90 | ** I thought they turned the humans into a brain-dead blank slate and the reason they turned against their masters was the Doctor's own DNA getting in the way of the gamma lightning thingamawhoosit. |
| 91 | ** The Dalek Humans were likely intended to have the ideology of a Dalek. Dalek Sec's HeelFaceTurn could've been due to the merging of his and a human's mind. Besides, they'd probably use them as stepping stones to actually making bonafide Daleks. |
| 92 | *** They were "pure Daleks", or near enough, but Sec's original plan was to give them human traits. |
| 93 | *** Specifically, he'd intended to give them traits associated with ''evil'' humans, like cunning and ruthless adaptability. Having them exhibit contrary traits of mercy, disobedience, and ''especially'' questioning authority was the Doctor's contribution. |
| 94 | ** Remember, the Daleks are the mutant descendents of HumanAliens, the Kaleds. Most Daleks would naturally see the "human Daleks" as even more of an abomination than actual humans are, but possibly the Cult is open-minded enough to see them as ''re-created Kaleds'', hence "proto-Daleks" and provisionally acceptable as minions. |
| 95 | ** "Into the Dalek" establishes that even ordinary Daleks ''could'' be capable of acquiring a rudimentary sense of right and wrong, if not for their travel machines' integrated computer-links' tampering with their memories. Sec didn't just incorporate human DNA into his own, he ''stood up and left his travel machine'', so its brainwashing functions couldn't inhibit his emotional development anymore. |
| 96 | * Apparently Dalek Caan is capable of pinpointing where and when he wants to go, aka the Time War. However the Cult of Skaro ended up in 1930. Shouldn't they transport to a more scientifically advanced period of history, or even another planet? After everything, they probably know the Earth inside-out! "Yeah, let's flee into Depression-era Manhattan instead of a more advanced era and place. [[SarcasmMode I'm sure it won't screw us over!]]" |
| 97 | ** Why would they need to go to a more scientifically advanced period in history or planet? They seemed to have all the technology they needed and only ended up failing because of the Doctor, who might have showed up wherever they went. Also, a more advanced location might have produced people who more readily noticed them and could try to fight them (and even if the Daleks themselves wouldn't have been easily destroyed, their project could have been) while the Depression allowed all those people to go missing without anyone really caring. Even though I'm sure they chose it by random, the time and place they were in suited their purposes just fine. |
| 98 | ** Here's an easy explanation: the first time they did the emergency time shift it was basically random, because they didn't have the technology to make pinpoint time warps on short notice. After winding up in a less-than-ideal place, they made a point of improving their technology so that pinpoint time warps ''would'' be possible on short notice. It was this upgraded time-warping tech that Dalek Caan used after the Manhattan plan failed. |
| 99 | ** Alternatively, Dalek Caan temporal-shifted somewhere else at random, but it happened to be more suited for developing a plan that would enable Caan to break the Time Lock and re-enter the Time War. No one ever said that Dalek Caan went back to the Time War immediately after this story. |
| 100 | * Way back in "The Parting of the Ways", the Daleks detect Lynda behind the asteroid-proof door. In this episode, a Dalek glides right past the Doctor and Tallulah, but it doesn't detect them. Why not? |
| 101 | ** Perhaps scanning that thoroughly wastes valuable power that they don't have since their emergency temporal shift. |
| 102 | ** Also, at the time Lynda is communicating via some kind of communication device with the Doctor and the others; they presumably found her by tracking the signals she was generating. Since the Doctor and and Tallulah aren't communicating in such a fashion they don't track them that way. |
| 103 | * How is it that Dalek Sec developed a conscience and other "constructive" human attitudes when Mr Diagoras was shown to be a vaguely sociopathic BadBoss and the literal embodiment of AmbitionIsEvil? |
| 104 | ** Vaguely sociopathic and evilly ambitious BadBoss he may have been, but he probably still had more conscience and humanity within him than a Dalek. Then again, Mr. Diagoras does look a bit like a mobster than a promoted foreman (his Sicilian accent, his bodyguards when he's recruiting bodies, the foreman thinking he's referring to Italians when Diagoras summons his bosses from "out of town", etc.) |
| 105 | *** The thing is, he never showed any of these traits before he was absorbed. |
| 106 | *** The very fact that he's, you know, ''human'' means he automatically has more humanity than a Dalek, which is not human at all and has been clearly shown over fifty years to have no conscience whatsoever. It shouldn't be too much of a leap to make that Mr. Diagoras, while he might be a complete dick, isn't as bad as a Dalek. |
| 107 | ** Sec didn't incorporate Diagoras' ''mind'', he incorporated his DNA. Just because Diagoras was enough of a ruthless S.O.B. for the Cult to find him suitable doesn't necessarily mean he was genetically ''predisposed'' to be that way: his ruthlessness could be learned behavior, not inborn. For all we know, he could have an identical twin with the exact same DNA who volunteers in a soup kitchen. And Diagoras' own personality could be a combination of someone who just got a lot of power (Solomon says Diagoras was only a foreman until a few months ago) and is also under a lot of pressure himself (it's the Daleks' schedule he has to answer to). |
| 108 | *** Diagoras mentioned that after WWI he decided to only take care of himself. It's possible Diagoras used to be a decent person [[TookALevelInJerkass before the war hardened him]]. |
| 109 | * Why does the Doctor act like Sec is the first-ever Dalek to develop a conscience? He should remember what happened to The Last Dalek/Metaltron, who developed a conscience and killed itself out of pure self-loathing and remorse. |
| 110 | ** This kind of depends on your interpretation — it could be clearly argued that the Last Dalek killed itself not out of remorse and conscience, but because it was so disgusted at being tainted with humanity and being made "impure" that it would rather die than continue on as an impure Dalek. Presumably the Doctor took this interpretation of events. |
| 111 | ** And either way, the Last Dalek did commit suicide, which Sec showed no inclination to do. The Last Dalek might have been good, he might have been evil, but it didn't really matter because he was dead. Sec wasn't just alive and planning to stay that way, he wanted to make up for the past actions of his species. |
| 112 | [[/folder]] |
| 113 | |
| 114 | [[folder:"The Lazarus Experiment"]] |
| 115 | * So Lazarus creates technology that allows a human to cheat death by renewing their entire body near the point of death so they can live longer. Predictably it doesn't work properly. The Doctor berates Lazarus, saying that mortals shouldn't be doing this sort of thing. He even specifically says it's against the laws of nature. But here's the thing. Time Lords use this technology! He's used it himself 9 times at this point. Hypocritical much? |
| 116 | ** We don't ''know'' that Time Lords use technology to regenerate and it's not just a biological ability of theirs. If it is a natural ability, it's not really hypocritical that the Doctor doesn't approve of what Lazarus was doing. |
| 117 | ** Regeneration being down to technology is a plot point in two old school stories ("Mawdryn Undead" and "Underworld"). |
| 118 | ** Except the new series has contradicted the old series in a number of places, including this. It is implied that the ability to regenerate is a result of prolonged exposure to the Time Vortex. In "A Good Man Goes to War" this is indicated as an evolutionary process. |
| 119 | *** The ability to regenerate itself seems to be written into Time Lord DNA, but certain aspects of the regeneration process, such as the number of regenerations a Time Lord can have, seem to be "controlled" by the Time Lords. |
| 120 | ** Even if the Time Lords' ability is biological rather than technological, why does that matter? You'd have thought the Doctor would be above [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_nature naturalistic fallacies]]. |
| 121 | ** You have to remember, the Time Lords (and therefore the Doctor) are the Olympian gods of the Whoniverse. They don't take too kindly to ''anyone'' else horning in on their territory (which explains why they were so against Dr. Crozier's experiments in "Mindwarp" — successes on that front would give his patients lifespans comparable to the Time Lords). It's also because the Doctor is only too aware of humanity's effort to screw things up ''royally''. As he tells the Sisterhood in "The Brain of Morbius", "Death is the price we pay for progress." |
| 122 | ** Note that the Time Lords are pretty familiar with regeneration energy and all its implications, while Lazarus clearly has very little idea what he's dealing with. So the Doctor could be saying, in essence, "You can't expect to just instantly jump from mortal to poof — immortal, you've got to learn in reasonable steps". It also could be that if anyone understands WhoWantsToLiveForever, it's the Doctor. Remember he had that whole exchange with Rose in "School Reunion" that discussed this. |
| 123 | * Why does Francine side with a complete stranger, who she only has his word for on what he says and the information he gives, over the man who is friend of her daughters and selflessly fought with the mutated Lazarus to protect her, her family and anyone else. And I understand where she's coming from, wanting to keep her daughter safe and make sure she's not going to wander from the life she's planned on, but it's so hard to be sympathetic when she slaps the Doctor for no reason. |
| 124 | ** She disliked the Doctor immediately (apparently just because she thought he was dating Martha, which is something that happens with parents), which caused her to blame him for Martha running back into the danger zone, rather than think about how he was risking his life. Unreasonable, of course, but that is a perfectly legitimate character flaw. In addition, as shown in "The Sound of Drums", The Master wasn't just some random guy, and there was a sort of mind control going on. It all just worked together to make her act the way she did. |
| 125 | *** True that, but the man who gave Francine the information had no proof that he represented Harold Saxon. How did she know he wasn't lying about his sources? |
| 126 | *** Who says he had no proof? We didn't see their entire exchange, he could easily have shown her some proof between approaching her and her calling Martha. |
| 127 | *** Francine is pretty clearly not a person who is greatly inclined to question and challenge authority. Plus, why would he lie about something like that to begin with? |
| 128 | *** They probably flashed an official-looking badge at her. People follow [[JustFollowingOrders authority figures]]. Especially when they don't like the person the authority figures are targeting in the first place. |
| 129 | ** Francine's initial suspicion and dislike for the Doctor seems to stem from the way their introduction went. Martha's faux pas, the Doctor's "I've heard so much about you!", him being a good-looking single bloke, and being vague about how he knows Martha, is enough to raise red flags with Francine, especially when Francine is already fiercely determined that Martha do well in her studies.[[note]]Francine, like Jackie, actually displays a bit of classism with this attitude, not wanting Martha to throw her studies away for some worthless bloke. It's actually an inverse of Jackie's initial "you belong here on the estate, not out exploring the universe" attitude towards Rose time-traveling with the Doctor[[/note]] She sees him as a threat to Martha's career, and then The Master's men tell her that the Doctor is also a threat to Martha's life. So she's being manipulated to be suspicious of the Doctor from the start. Still, the writers took her from 0 to 60 way too fast. |
| 130 | *** And it wouldn't take much for the Master's aides to make the Doctor sound like an incredibly dangerous person. Pick two or three stories, indicate that his file is full of incidents like that, maybe say something about how the Doctor tends to recruit young women of Martha's age to be his companions, plus there being a secret government agency that was founded by Queen Victoria just because of him, an agency which just so happened to employ Francine and Clive's late niece Adeola, who was killed indirectly by the Doctor, they can play into Francine's fears. You have to remember that the Master arrived in London around the same time as the Sycorax invasion. And since the Master was Minister of Defence at the time (and was the one who gave the orders for the tanks to shoot down the Racnoss webstar), he would have known immediately that the weapon that shot down the Sycorax ship was well beyond Earth's capabilities, and he would have learned about Torchwood. Imagine his gleeful delight at discovering there was a secret organisation on the Doctor's pet planet with the charter purpose of stopping him. |
| 131 | *** This is arguably one example of many situations where the Doctor would've had it much easier if he still had Rose by his side to smooth things over. If Rose were still there, one of two things would've happened: 1) if Francine still slaps the Doctor, Rose would have given her a dressing down (to the point of Francine feeling guilty enough to apologize, but said apology gets cut off by the crash from Lazarus killing the paramedics), or 2) earlier in the evening, when Martha is introducing the Doctor, Rose would have been able to convince Francine that the Doctor was not this secret boyfriend of Martha's and/or trying to distract Martha from her studies, maybe even come up with a plausible cover story to explain how they know Martha. There's at least [[Fanfic/BeingToTimelessness one fanfic]] that shows that this would've had the effect of softening Francine's concerns about the Doctor to her just being worried about Martha going along with two people who do dangerous work for a living. And it'd also have the long-term effect of her being less inclined to believe the Master's lies. (If that happened, the Master would've probably had to resort to extortion, such as kidnapping Tish, and blackmail Francine into betraying Martha) |
| 132 | * It's possible I missed something, as I do a lot, but how exactly did the youth machine come with the side effect of turning Lazarus into a [[NightmareFuel horrifying unstoppable skeletal scorpion... thing...?]] |
| 133 | ** It didn't just de-age Lazarus's cells, it re-activated dormant genes that represent evolutionary holdovers / paths not taken. In essence, a grain of truth (they seem to be referencing interons) meets the same kind of ArtisticLicenseBiology and HollywoodEvolution that affected the episode "Genesis" of ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''. |
| 134 | ** The Master funded the experiment that produced the youth device, because it's what let him turn his usual laser screwdriver into an instant-aging weapon. It's possible that the Master secretly arranged for the youth machine to mess with Lazarus' genome in horrific ways in order to tie up loose ends, and/or just for kicks. |
| 135 | ** It also helps sell the Doctor's point made in the first headscratcher, namely that you can't just cook up an immortality machine with no experience and expect it to work perfectly. |
| 136 | [[/folder]] |
| 137 | |
| 138 | [[folder:"42"]] |
| 139 | * Why does the Doctor give the crew such a hard time in "42" for not properly scanning the sun? He himself was surprised when he found out it was a living being and considering that he's supposed to be the most advanced being in the universe how could he possibly expect a few humans to have any reason to scan it (or even the technology to try)? |
| 140 | ** Because ''the Doctor'' wasn't illegally using the sun for fuel. It didn't matter if he knew it was alive or not, as he wasn't doing anything that could hurt it. The crew was scooping up fuel which would damage a living sun, so he thought that they should have at least checked. When he calls them on it, they don't say anything about not having the technology to scan it even though that would have been a great excuse for them not doing so. They just say something about how it's illegal so they just grabbed it and tried to leave. |
| 141 | ** The point was that they couldn't have been expected to know that the star could be alive to begin with. The Doctor clearly had no idea that it could be until well into the episode so how could they? |
| 142 | *** Yes they could have. They specifically say they didn't do it because they didn't have time to. Which means they knew it could be alive but didn't bother to check. Pretty much tells you why the scoops are outlawed in the first place. |
| 143 | *** That also implies that humans have scanned stars pretty regularly, yet they don't consider the star a possible reason for the problems. Besides that, it seems a bit ridiculous to think that humans would know that the star could be alive when the Doctor (the individual you can expect to know more than anyone else) didn't consider it until near the end. |
| 144 | *** Maybe they couldn't have been expected to know, but the Doctor seemed to think that if they ''had'' scanned they would have discovered it. Had they done basic safety measures then they would have learned that the star was alive. Of course, given that no one was around them, it really makes no sense that they claimed they "didn't have time" to scan it. Who cares if it's illegal, if no one is going to be there to catch them in the act then they had time to scan it. |
| 145 | *** I had always thought that there were multiple reasons to scan a star other than to check for signs of life; for example, is it stable enough to scoop fuel from without collapsing? Are there dependent planets with life nearby? Are there elements of this star that would be harmful to the ship and its crew? Again, basic safety procedures, and they would've gotten that bonus of detecting life signs. |
| 146 | *** I can't remember the episode fully and so can't recall what their complete justification was (although IIRC they were running low on fuel, meaning that "they didn't have time" before they completely ran out and thus lost power, were stranded and / or fell into the sun anyway, which does make a bit more sense in the context) but they could just be making excuses there; after all, not only has it turned out that they ''have'' just been caught out doing something they really shouldn't be doing, but it's resulted in them injuring and infuriating a sentient sun which is now doing it's best to kill them. They possibly think claiming "we didn't have time!" will mollify things a bit more than "well, we could have done a scan but frankly couldn't be arsed, really." |
| 147 | *** Unless I'm thinking of the wrong bit, he's possessed at that point isn't he? I always figured it was more the sun's anger than his own, although it was blended with his own. So he's annoyed, but the sun is really furious. |
| 148 | * Why can't the Doctor just put everyone on the TARDIS and fly to safety? Did I miss a line of exposition somewhere? |
| 149 | ** Pretty much, yeah. The room the TARDIS was in was vented with heat, wasn't it? I don't think they could reach it until the ship was out of harm's way of that sun. |
| 150 | ** Yeah, the first thing the Doctor did when he heard about what was happening was yell that he'd get them out and try to reach the TARDIS. He just couldn't. |
| 151 | * So, the whole "get through 29 doors" thing — they could have already tried doing this but they needed the Doctor just to say to try it? |
| 152 | ** The main reason he suggested going through the doors was to get to the TARDIS, which probably wasn't much of a priority for the rest of the crew. They seemed to be more concerned with fixing the damage to the ship and managing the increasing heat. |
| 153 | ** Above is not quite correct. In the very beginning of the episode, the Doctor and Martha come out into the heat-venting room and then out into the ship's interior. Cath, Scanel, and Riley run to them, and they discover the ship is out of control toward the sun. When the Doctor asks why he can't hear engines, Cath says it went dead just four minutes earlier, and then Irena comes running as the aforementioned 29 doors slam shut on her heels. They hadn't thought of going through the doors because the doors weren't sealed yet. |
| 154 | [[/folder]] |
| 155 | |
| 156 | [[folder:"Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood"]] |
| 157 | * Why did the Family give John the [[SadisticChoice sadistic choice]]? They only wanted John to change back, which not killing Martha and Joan would incentivise John to do, but why the choice? |
| 158 | ** Maybe they were trying to get a little payback for all the trouble he caused them. Plus, they're sadistic. Do they need a reason to be sadistic? I thought that was why it was sadistic. |
| 159 | ** They hoped that he would willingly change back into a Time Lord if people he cares about were threatened. Also, Son of Mine stated that if his heart were to break, the Doctor might come back. |
| 160 | * A very minor point, but Martha is trapped for at least a month in 1913 in "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood", yet her hair remains clearly straightened. How come it stayed like that? Was she keeping straighteners in the TARDIS and going back just to use them? Had she had her hair chemically relaxed, and, if so, how come no-one asks her about it? As far as I'm aware, there weren't really any ways of straightening hair back then that were ''that'' effective. |
| 161 | ** Best I can come up with: Women in the 1970's would use basic clothing irons to straighten their hair (to get that super straight, flat hair like Cher), and irons go back to ancient times (originally they were flat pieces of metal you could heat in a fire). Even if Martha wasn't alive in the 70's, she would eventually realize that one could straighten their hair this way, especially if she doesn't like the look of her hair not straightened (which she probably doesn't, since it's been straightened in the first place), or if the people she works for feel that it looks improper. So it's not hard to believe that she would find some way to straighten it. As far as anybody asking about it, she could simply say that she straightens it frequently because it's easier to manage. |
| 162 | ** I assumed she was going back to the TARDIS for all that kind of thing — no reason to live like an Edwardian if you don't have to. And what would the residents of that school/village know about caring for black hair? |
| 163 | ** Chemical relaxers go back to the 1800's, though they contained nasty chemicals like lye. |
| 164 | ** Maybe she had a weave? |
| 165 | * How does Latimer's explanation of "the watch was waiting for you" override the fact that he straight-up stole from the Doctor? |
| 166 | ** The watch deliberately had a perception filter so John Smith wouldn't open it prematurely. He almost certainly wouldn't have noticed its vanishing as it's just a dusty old fob-watch with weird squiggles on the back. |
| 167 | * If the Doctor wanted to keep the watch safe, is there any reason they couldn't just leave it on the TARDIS? It would have stopped some stupid kid from running off with it. |
| 168 | ** The TARDIS was hidden, and to be properly hidden it had to remain some distance away so that no one would find it by accident. The Doctor wanted the watch to be close by, in case some emergency came up and he needed it immediately. Apparently he didn't think there was much risk it would be stolen. Though on that note, he should've just given the watch to ''Martha'', and then she could just carry it around all the time. But apparently they decided against that option, or they just didn't think of it. |
| 169 | *** One theory I've heard is that John Smith had enough residual awareness that he knew that the watch was his and not Martha's, so even if he just sort of left it in his room, he wouldn't let Martha keep it. And depending on how nice the watch was, it might have been too good for someone to believe a maid like Martha owned it. |
| 170 | *** Uhh, no, it's not a particularly nice watch, it's just a dusty old fob-watch. And Martha would hardly keep it out in the open. ([--Also, residual awareness...what.--[) |
| 171 | *** The Doctor told Martha that he should have just enough residual awareness to "let Martha in" and have her be someone that John Smith knows and has no problem accompanying him. If he saw it before Martha could hide it someplace or caught her having it at some point in the two months Martha had been working there (and given how important it was, Martha was probably going to keep it with her) then his residual awareness of the watch could make him identify it as his and reclaim it. Martha couldn't really fight this or risk John abandoning her. The residual awareness of the watch is established later with Professor Yana in "Utopia," as there is little reason he'd always keep a watch he thinks doesn't even work with him at all times without some sort of prompting. That the watch ''might'' have been too nice for Martha (but you say it isn't) was really only secondary. It could be a complete piece of trash but if John identified it as ''his'' piece of trash then he'd confiscate it from Martha. |
| 172 | *** Regardless of how nice or un-nice the watch was, Martha couldn't have kept it. Women didn't have pocket watches at that time, and Martha, being a servant, and a black servant at that, definitely wouldn't have one. She would have no safe place to keep it, and if she were found with it she would be accused of stealing it. |
| 173 | * Once John Smith becomes the Doctor again, he dispatches the Family of Blood pretty easily. Why didn't he try doing that in the first place? He could've just skipped the whole hiding thing and used that tactic from the end: Use some AppliedPhlebotinum to mask his scent, pretend he's just a human now and the watch is the Doctor, offer to surrender the watch, and then hit some buttons to make their ship explode. If he'd tried that ''in the first place'', nobody would have died. |
| 174 | ** We can only presume that he didn't have the opportunity, or didn't think of that particular plan. Also they mention that he was being kind; perhaps he thought it was better to let the Family of Blood live a few more months rather than killing them immediately. |
| 175 | *** He doesn't ''want'' to use his wits to defeat them in this case, since using his wits to defeat them in this case means doing some incredibly horrible things to them. What he was being kind with was that the Doctor was giving the Family of Blood a chance to give up and die on their own. Because they kept pursuing him, taking over bodies and refusing to back down, once it was time for the Doctor to return to normal, the Doctor had full right to punish them as he wished. Thus, him being kind was a way for them to avoid the inevitable punishment. It's only after they've well and truly ticked him off that he goes all-out on them. |
| 176 | *** No, it doesn't go quite like that... First he uses his wits to defeat them, and only ''after'' that does he subject them to a FateWorseThanDeath. If he'd not been pissed off, he could've simply defeated them and then handed them over to the Shadow Proclamation (or some comparable authority) to be imprisoned. |
| 177 | *** We don't see what the Family were doing before the episode starts. From the looks of it, they had already crossed the line when they started pursuing the Doctor (They are sadists after all, and we see one of their ray-gun blasts, so they must have killed and possessed somebody at that point in order to shoot at him.) The Doctor knew they would need a severe punishment, but was too afraid of himself and what he'd do to mete it out their and then. |
| 178 | *** No one said he had to kill them; just capture them using the same technique he eventually used at the end. |
| 179 | *** Without all that mess with the Family seeing him as a human, they probably wouldn't believe that he either was human or was the Doctor and had his essence in the watch. And the Doctor hadn't intended for them to be found. If his plan had worked then no one would have died, either. He also couldn't anticipate that John Smith wouldn't listen to Martha or that Tim would take the watch. |
| 180 | *** To be fair, Nurse Redfern/Joan [[WhatTheHellHero calls him out]] on ''exactly that point'' by the end of the episode. |
| 181 | *** That accusation of Joan's makes no sense. “Answer me this. Just one question, that’s all. If the Doctor had never visited us… if he’d never chosen this place on a whim, would anybody here have died?" I realize she doesn't know the whole story, but 1) the Doctor didn’t choose the place himself at all, the TARDIS did, and 2) it certainly wasn’t on a whim. He hoped, perhaps naively, that hiding would avoid any deaths at all, except for the natural deaths of the Family. And the look in his eyes when Joan fires that question at him just hurts. She doesn’t know it, but this is a man who can always find some way to blame himself for anything that goes wrong in his general vicinity. He didn’t need her help beating himself up over what happened, and he certainly didn’t need Monday morning quarterbacking from someone who doesn’t even have half of the details. Before anyone points it out, I know this is her reaction to his unfair suggestion that she travel with him. The way he handles that is… well, it shows off his abysmal relationship skills better than almost anything else we see in season 3. I’m not sure what he thought would happen if she went with him, or how it would make up for her losing the man she loved, but it was badly done.\ |
| 182 | The worst part about this is that the fandom has assimilated it. There seems to be a universal understanding that the Doctor was wrong to hide, which is not true. It was misguided, yes, but it was a decision made on the fly (not on a whim) with very little time to consider all the options, and it was made with the genuine hope that if he hid away for a few months, the Family would let it go and die off. There’s nothing wrong about wanting to find a solution to the problem that would end in no deaths. |
| 183 | *** Also on the table is how much one assumes the Doctor thought through his decision, and the possible outcomes he imagined. Watching the flashbacks, he probably had no time to sit down and weigh pros and cons, especially not when what he’s been told about the chameleon arch is that it will perfectly disguise a Time Lord. Just that would have been enough to suggest that using the arch to hide would mean no one had to die. He had no reason to doubt the plan would work, so why would he take precious time to consider what might happen if it didn’t work? And having his mercy exploited does not mean choosing to show mercy was the wrong choice. The responsibility for all the deaths still lays at the feet of the Family of Blood, who chose to hunt him down despite being given the option to let it go. |
| 184 | |
| 185 | ** The Doctor’s unique brand of mercy is, “Never take down the bad guys without giving them a chance to back down first.” It starts all the way back in "Rose" when he tells Rose that he can’t just wipe out the Nestene Consciousness without giving them a chance first. By the time they meet the Dalek in Van Statten's museum, that ideal has been repeated to Rose so many times that she’s shocked by the Doctor’s absolutely merciless approach to the Dalek. In "Parting of the Ways", he chooses to be a coward over killing everyone on Earth in the process of wiping out the Daleks, even though he knows humanity will be harvested by the Daleks if he doesn’t stop them.\ |
| 186 | Ten might be a “no second chances” kind of man, but he still gives that first chance, almost every time–often along with a warning that this is their one chance. And he often waits to find out exactly how bad the Evil Plan is before deciding how severely he’ll deal with the villain/monster. (An example being "The Fires of Pompeii" when he looks for confirmation that the whole planet is at stake) |
| 187 | *** Then in Eleven’s run, there’s "A Town Called Mercy," which is an entire episode about why it’s important for powerful people to show mercy. They weren’t even trying to bury the lede. The outcry from fans against the Doctor tricking the missiles to latch onto Solomon’s ship in “Dinosaurs on a Spaceship” derives directly from the fact that it is not a merciful act. (Although, like everyone else, Solomon was given a chance.) |
| 188 | *** For the Doctor, mercy is viewed as a necessary control upon his otherwise scary power. When Madame Kovarian mocks him about the rules a good man has, he says good men don’t need rules, and this is not the time to find out why he has so many. The Doctor keeps mercy as his first option precisely because if he did not, he would be a tyrant without equal. Think about what he told Jack when they talked about Rose taking in the vortex–if a Time Lord did that, they’d become a vengeful god. He’s very aware of his power and of the constant temptation to allow that power to corrupt, and so he clothes himself in mercy instead. |
| 189 | |
| 190 | |
| 191 | * When does the Doctor record the instructional video for Martha? It seems like he uses the Chameleon Arch almost immediately after they return to the TARDIS and he realizes that he has to go into hiding. |
| 192 | ** They had time to discuss the details, so maybe he took the time offscreen to record the video before he used it. |
| 193 | ** It could be a 'psychic' thing as a result of using the Chameleon Arch; the Doctor's consciousness records and leaves the message on the TARDIS for Martha as he's in the process of undergoing the Chameleon Arch. |
| 194 | * The Doctor wraps up Father of Mine in chains forged from the heart of a dying star. How does that make him immortal? |
| 195 | ** He gave FOM immortality ''first'', and ''then'' wrapped him up in the chains as punishment. True immortality, in ''Doctor Who'', is a curse, not a blessing. |
| 196 | *** So, how did he just give him immortality? I guess using the same magic that lets him hide something inside of "every mirror ever created"? |
| 197 | *** Same way that Time Lords can give themselves regenerative powers, manipulate black holes to create time travel, can move planets across the universe, and various other hyper-powerful things like that — vague Time Lordy super-science. We don't learn how he did it because we don't need to know the precise details of how he did it, and if they did tell us it would just be some nonsensical technobabble anyway. |
| 198 | *** So if the Doctor can make anyone immortal, why does he angst in "School Reunion" about how he has to leave companions behind all the time before they outlive him? |
| 199 | *** Because of the aforementioned "in ''Doctor Who'' immortality is a curse, not a blessing" thing. He doesn't ''want'' to force immortality on people he loves, especially not for purely self-serving motives like alleviating his own loneliness, because he knows full well how much it sucks. He's making the Family of Blood immortal as part of a ''punishment'', after all. |
| 200 | *** If the Doctor can make people immortal, truly who wants to live forever immortality is a curse immortal, then what the hell was Borosa worried about in "The Five Doctors"? |
| 201 | * Why did the Doctor pick a time and place to hide that would be so awful to Martha? It seems needlessly cruel, and more than a little short-sighted (handicapping the person who is supposed to protect you). WhatTheHellHero |
| 202 | ** He's clearly on the run from the Family when he makes the decision to hide using the Chameleon Arch; it's possible the Doctor didn't have the luxury of choice (since if he had the liberty to pick and choose he probably wouldn't have been in such a hurry to begin with) and just picked the most suitable and quickest-to-reach place at the time. Not to mention that he's clearly going to for low-key, obscure and out-of-the way; in the rush, he probably just didn't consider the possible consequences for Martha. A bit careless and thoughtless of him, certainly, but he's not exactly immune to mind-slips and he's hardly doing it just to spite Martha like you're suggesting; he kind of has urgent matters on his plate at the time, it's not entirely unforgivable that he might not have considered the situation from all angles. Plus, while it's clearly not a very fun experience for Martha, it's also not exactly hell-on-Earth for her either; they could have went somewhere better, but equally there's much worse places they could have wound up as well. |
| 203 | ** Didn't the Doctor say that the TARDIS would take care of the time and place? He probably had no idea where they would end up. It's really not fair to blame him for it. |
| 204 | ** The Doctor wasn't being intentionally cruel, but the episode rather ruthlessly deconstructs the nostalgic view of the Edwardian gentry as well as the Doctor's relationship with his companions and with humanity generally. John Smith's insultingly paternalistic and often callous attitude towards Martha somewhat mirrors the Doctor's attitudes towards his human companions at its least sympathetic, and he never really acknowledges what he puts her through. |
| 205 | ** I really side-eye the situations the writers chose to put Martha in. I understand “Human Nature” was based on a novel that was set in 1914. But the writers did little to make that an easier situation for their black companion. I don’t blame the Doctor for that, because the Doctor wasn’t actually there. He was in the watch. The Doctor also didn’t choose the time or place they ended up–the TARDIS did that. |
| 206 | ** Another reason, from a writing standpoint, for setting the story in 1913, was so there would be no room for ambiguity over how intimate John Smith's relationship with Nurse Redfern was. Not that people didn't have premarital and extramarital sex in 1913, but considering she at least would have lost her job, it would be much much less likely. So they could do a whole romance with affection that stretched out over 2 months, and no one would wonder if they slept together. Plus romance in period pieces is automatically more romantic. |
| 207 | * Why did the Family just sit there and let the Doctor place a FateWorseThanDeath on them? They didn't seem noticeably injured from the explosion, and The Doctor didn't appear to have any means of restraining them when he walked up to him in his TranquilFury state. What stopped them from just getting back up and beating him senseless while he was too busy [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall glaring at the camera]]? |
| 208 | ** Because all the stuff from a normal episode with the Doctor outsmarting, tricking, and trapping a baddie happened during or just before the narration. The two-parter is basically set up for a regular episode that happens off-screen. You just have to take it on faith that they tried that, failed, and got beaten just after that scene cut and before the punishment montage. |
| 209 | *** It is more likely that [[FaceDeathWithDignity they knew that they had already lost]] because the Doctor had just destroyed their ship. |
| 210 | ** They killed at least 10 people (the four bodies they took over as hosts, plus the veteran at the dance, the MC at the dance, Mr. Philips, Mr. Rocastle, Lucy Cartwright's parents, and probably a handful more directly that we didn't see, plus any injuries/fatalities when they blasted the town). That was the worst abuse of the Doctor's mercy. Plus, the poetic justice of letting them have exactly what they'd been after fits the overall theme of the season, "a longer life isn't necessarily a better one." |
| 211 | [[/folder]] |
| 212 | |
| 213 | [[folder:"Blink"]] |
| 214 | * Given in the Series 6 premiere "The Impossible Astronaut"/"Day of the Moon" that the Eleventh Doctor and company brought up the Silent's "You should kill us all on sight" broadcast in July 1969, how early were the Tenth Doctor, Martha, and Billy Shipton dropped by the Angels before that? |
| 215 | ** The Doctor explicitly says it's before the Moon landing, ergo, before the Silence's message. |
| 216 | * After watching "Blink", one can't help but wonder how the Weeping Angels, a race who cannot look at or touch each other, do... er... what's necessary to make more Weeping Angels. |
| 217 | ** "[[LieBackAndThinkOfEngland Just close your eyes and think of England.]]" |
| 218 | ** Explained in "The Time of Angels". Whatever takes the image of an angel becomes an Angel. So statue carving, photographs, and recordings can all become angels. This makes them the only family in the universe to reproduce via photo album. |
| 219 | *** Except the angels in ''this'' episode apparently don't have that power, because Sally hands over pictures of the angels at the end and none of them come to life. (See below) |
| 220 | *** Just because the Angels ''can'' use an image of them to come to life doesn't mean that they ''have'' to. For instance, when there was an Angel in Amy's mind it didn't ''have'' to convince her her hand was stone or to count down, but it chose to to mess with her. The video feed coming to life and even the one in Amy doing so had a purpose: the Angel whose image it was was trying to kill them all so that it and its fellows could feed on the energy the ship gave off in peace. The pictures Sally gave may have been the ones to steal the TARDIS or, in a stable time loop, become the Angels in the episode. If they didn't then that's because the Angels had already sent the Doctor and Martha to the past and fed on their lost days so there was no need to come alive and do anything. |
| 221 | *** Or that its an intentional choice by an Angel to infuse enough energy into an image for it to become a new angel. Like the Doctor said, these Blink Angels were starving, just barely scavenging enough to survive. If that's true, maybe they didn't have enough energy to "impregnate" the images to let them come alive, and the Doctor knew that. After all, an egg *can* become a chicken, but you still have to fertilize it first. |
| 222 | ** There's no indication that Weeping Angels reproduce by having sex, or even that they reproduce. I think they definitely can see in the dark. The Angel put the bulb out, so the light must have come on again when they were neutralized. |
| 223 | ** Terrestrial fish and frogs manage to reproduce without touching. So do most plants and trees, for that matter. Pollen is just plant sperm, after all. Maybe the Angels pollinate? |
| 224 | ** They're described as "creatures of the abstract", so they may simply be non-biological things like the Eternals and simply not reproduce. |
| 225 | * How does the basement in "Blink" go from pitch black with a flickering bulb to filled with eternal MagicCaveLighting? [[AWizardDidIt The Doctor?]] But then why is ''Nightingale'' so confident they're trapped forever? |
| 226 | ** This isn't actually said in the show, but I like to think that the Weeping Angels can see perfectly in the dark. Otherwise, how would they know where to go when they start going towards the two main characters as the light bulb is flickering? Weeping Angels bumping into each other and tripping over wouldn't be very dramatic, would it? Though that still doesn't explain how Nightingale was so confident, as she definitely didn't know this for sure... |
| 227 | *** Of course! The light going off was just so the humans couldn't see them. Makes perfect sense. |
| 228 | *** Except, if the Angels could see in the dark, then they would have been looking at each other while they were advancing on Sparrow and Nightingale. |
| 229 | *** No, they'd just be risking sight of one another. And since they all had a focal point they were looking at (Sparrow and Nightingale) the risk would be small. It's possible one of them briefly glimpsed another in the dark, turning them to stone again. But if so the audience wouldn't see it anyway and it'd likely only last an instant. Probably the weeping angel equivalent of stepping on someone's toes. |
| 230 | * Sledgehammer anyone? |
| 231 | ** Speaking of sledgehammers, I'm pretty darn sure you ''can'' kill a stone... |
| 232 | *** [[FridgeBrilliance No, you can't. A stone has no life to take, it's an inanimate object.]] The minute you look away, however, they cease to be stone and resume being actual life forms, which can presumably [[PullingThemselvesTogether repair themselves.]] |
| 233 | ** I don't even think they turn to stone. They are likely in a complete state of inertia — literally nothing can affect them. For all we know, Weeping Angels are a strange type of sentient particle. [[EldritchAbomination It would fit with their weirdness.]] |
| 234 | * Half the time, nobody was looking at the Angels at all, yet they were still statues. For example, in the scene with Billy, the angels and the TARDIS, he has his back turned to all but the one at which he was looking. Why didn't the OTHER Angels just sneak up and zap him? Then, of course, there's the bit where the Angels are rocking the TARDIS and the light's flickering. Sally and what's-his-face are in the TARDIS, remember? Nobody else is there. The only people looking at the angels is, well... us. Or the cameramen. |
| 235 | ** That's the point — the audience is watching, therefore the Angels are statues as long as we can see them. It's kind of an interactive episode in that way. |
| 236 | *** Agree. This is revealed in the closing monologue, when the Doctor gives us the same speech while images flash of several famous statues in real life. Steven Moffat enjoys ParanoiaFuel as well as NightmareFuel. |
| 237 | *** It's made even more obvious when you look at the scene when Sally examines the statues in the house. If you watch carefully, the statues move whilst Sally is between them and the camera. |
| 238 | ** Maybe it's not so simple as that. Maybe looking at an angel forces it to stay still, but just because you're ''not'' looking at it doesn't necessarily mean it can move. Maybe there are other restrictions on movement, like angels can only move a certain distance before they need to "rest" for a couple minutes, or whatever. |
| 239 | *** It could also possibly be that the Angels are paranoid and have a small degree of control of being quantum-locked. In [[Recap/DoctorWhoS31E5FleshAndStone series 5]] Amy had to walk through a portion of a forest on the Byzantium with angels with her eyes shut. They didn't move because they thought she could see them. |
| 240 | ** In "Blink", at least, the angels pretty definitively treat the camera as an "observer". They only move when they're not visible to either the characters or to the Camera. Moving their hands only when Sally passes between them and the camera during the scene where she gets the key is one example. A much more obvious one is when they're rocking the TARDIS, with Sally and whats-his-face inside it, back and forth. The light continues to blink on and off, and the TARDIS only moves while the light is off. You can kind of see the TARDIS moving, because you can still see the back-lit windows and "Police Box" text. But when the light blinks on, they STILL freeze solid into stone. There's a TARDIS side between each angel and everything else with eyes; quite literally the only thing present that could "lock" them when the light comes on is the camera. |
| 241 | * Speaking of the Angels, that's a pretty unreliable way to [[SealedEvilInACan trap them forever]]. A group of statues (even ugly statues) standing in a circle, not connected or even touching. And it's not like they're in an underground cavern, they're in a freaking impound lot. Even if nobody decides to move the statues (sell them off as a set or one by one), the first time that light goes out those angels are going to not be seen. (It could be another level of Steve Moffat induced Main/ParanoiaFuel). |
| 242 | ** If you've played "The Lonely Assassins", this is what happens. Despite Larry and Sally's best efforts, Wester Drumlins is sold, and the new owner disturbs the Angels. The player comes across Larry's lost phone, which leads to the beginning of the game. A phone, might I add, containing pictures of the Angels. The player needs to work with UNIT and Osgood to stop the Angels before they become more powerful than they were before. |
| 243 | ** This could be WMG, but who's to say that the Doctor didn't go back to Wester Drumlins after getting his TARDIS back in 1969 and drop off The Lonely Assassins in a black hole or in the perma-day of a planet tidally locked to its star? |
| 244 | *** This is assuming that these highly dangerous, capable, and nigh unstoppable assassins don't have the basic power of seeing in the dark. And they weren't in an impound lot, they were in the basement of the creepy house no one went to that's had all those disappearances. That should keep people away for a while and maybe the Doctor puts a perception filter on them to keep people from moving them. |
| 245 | ** Not to mention, these Angels are nowhere near as bad as their Season 5 counterparts. The Doctor generally serves [[FateWorseThanDeath those kinds of defeats]] for those that really deserve it. |
| 246 | *** Since the Doctor calls the Angels psychopaths even in "Blink", he probably still thinks the tamer version deserves it. And even if he doesn't, since there really is no other way of dealing with them besides trapping them, I think he'd do it anyway. |
| 247 | * If the angels can kill someone by touching them ''and'' absorb their potential energy — Why did they try to hit Sally with a ''friggin' stone?!'' |
| 248 | ** This one's been answered both by WordOfGod and over the forums. If you could be rendered immovable by someone ''looking'' at you, maybe you would want to, I don't know ''knock them unconscious?'' |
| 249 | *** Except they move at lightning speed. It took that one near Larry half a second to move right next to him. She had her back to the camera (and presumably to the Weeping Angel) for a good 2 or 3 minutes. |
| 250 | *** It's also been established since — mostly in "The Time of Angels" — that the angels are seriously a bunch of assholes. As far as I can tell, they threw a rock at her because it would freak her out, and that's ''fun''. |
| 251 | * Did it occur to ''nobody'' who was facing the angels to close one eye at a time? |
| 252 | ** Wait, doesn't your line of vision change if you're looking through one eye, and then switch? Maybe there's a blind spot between the two exchanges which would have an effect... |
| 253 | ** Amy Pond tries this in series five. It appears to work. |
| 254 | ** Even though this works it's not an easy fix. Try it now — open one eye, then the other and keep alternating over and over without reflexively blinking ''once.'' Now imagine you're doing this while your life is in danger and you're terrified — and just for sadism's sake, maybe there's a slight breeze or a tiny bit of dust in the air. (Most of the action took place in a very old house, after all.) It's hard to keep up for long. |
| 255 | ** Creator/ColinBaker actually gave precisely that solution in one of his first Tweets. |
| 256 | *** Except it's not a clear solution. See above. |
| 257 | ** I was wondering why they didn't take turns. Sally runs around looking for an exit while whats-his-name stares down the angel. He should really ask Sally to come back and stare at the angel for a couple seconds so he has a chance to blink and rest his eyes. They could trade off like this for awhile, if they just coordinated. |
| 258 | * Okay... so the Weeping Angels send the Doctor and Martha Jones back to 1969. ''Why only 1969?'' If the Weeping Angels feed off a person's potential life energy, then based on the Doctor's incredibly long lifespan, they should have been able to send them back a ''lot'' further! |
| 259 | ** Maybe they were trying to send back Martha and the Doctor got in their way, sending him back to 69 in Martha's place. Then, since she had no protection, they got her. Either that or it's 69 or nothing. |
| 260 | ** I was under the impression each angel sends someone back X amount of years. Each angel has their own amount of years they can't personally change. When Doc and Martha meet Billy they say "probably the same one that got us" meaning the one that sends you back 38 years. It was another angel sent Kathy 100 or so years. |
| 261 | *** Indeed. It might have something to do with the angel's age or power level. In any case, there's no evidence that the angels ''choose'' how far back to send you. Maybe 1969 was just the best they could do under the circumstances. |
| 262 | *** More or less confirmed in "The Angels Take Manhattan" when [[spoiler:Rory gets sent back in time by an angel, and Amy lets the angel send her back as well, and they arrive at the same point.]] |
| 263 | ** Alternatively, they can only feed on time energy when that person dies in their own timeline. Kathy Nightingale lived up to 1987, which was around the time she was born and Billy Shipton died the day after he was sent back in time. Martha Jones might've survived past 2008, but over half her life would've been lived before then. |
| 264 | * Shouldn't the present have an older Doctor and Martha, having lived from 1969 via TheSlowPath? |
| 265 | ** No, because they got the TARDIS back with Sally's help. |
| 266 | ** I mean in the preceding timeline, "before" the TARDIS gets sent back. |
| 267 | ** No. ''Because they got the TARDIS back.'' |
| 268 | ** Preceding timeline? The only way the entire plot works is if there's a stable time loop in effect. |
| 269 | *** No because ''they'' got to leave, but Billy ''had'' to stay in 1969. The Doctor apologized and explained that Billy would have to take the slow path back because Sally's information says she will meet the dying Billy in the hospital, and in order to ensure that it happens as Sally describes it, Billy will have to go into publishing and publish the Easter Egg on the 17 specific [=DVD=]s. |
| 270 | *** They do a similar thing in "The Time of Angels", where [[spoiler:River left a message for the Doctor knowing he'd see it in a museum in the future and save her]] |
| 271 | * In "The Time of Angels", it's said that anything that carries the image of the angel will become an angel. So what happened to all those pictures Sally Sparrow took of the Angels during "Blink"? |
| 272 | ** They stole the TARDIS? |
| 273 | ** They were the angels in the episode. Stable time loop, see? |
| 274 | *** But the episode after we find out that anything that holds the image of an angel itself becomes an angel we learn that there was no real angel in Amy's mind. It was a threat as long as the real angel existed (and so if that angel hadn't fallen in the crack she probably would have been done for) but if there was no real angel that the pictures were based on then the pictures couldn't have come alive. The angels we meet in the episode were probably just naturally there. They had been causing problems for years before the Doctor gets his hands on the pictures which is why Sally investigated in the first place. |
| 275 | ** I just figured that there are multiple subspecies of angels. So the angels we meet in "The Time of Angels" just like to kill people, but the angels in "Blink" like to send people back in time. Similarly, the angels in Time of the Angels have the special power of "that which takes the image of an angel itself becomes an angel", but the angels in Blink don't have that power. |
| 276 | ** My personal favorite mindcanon on that is that Sally's pictures are the beginning of the fall of the Aplans. The Doctor mentions in "The Time of Angels" that he had met their architect, that they were nice, etc. So, when he was there, some of them — most of them — leave to conquer the planet (why didn't they take the TARDIS? Surely something/someone stopped them doing so. Even a mice would be enough), and latter TADÁ! - A whole maze of angels. |
| 277 | *** No need for a mouse to keep them from manifesting in the TARDIS, because ''the TARDIS herself'' watches her own interior. They couldn't move out of the pictures until the Doctor brought them out of the TARDIS because they couldn't move at all there. |
| 278 | * How did that Angel ever leave the garden? Presumably out there there would always be an insect or ''something'' that constantly happened to be looking it it? |
| 279 | ** See, that's where this whole thing falls apart because at any given moment, there are many millions of dust mites and other tiny insects teeming on every surface imaginable. But you know, willing suspension of disbelief and whatnot. |
| 280 | *** Maybe it only works on sentients. Which makes me imagine an angel in a staring contest with a cat. |
| 281 | *** Maybe you just have to be able to see it as a Weeping Angel. Dust mites don't have the sight to detect that its a Weeping Angel, and it would just be observing a big, grey blob. |
| 282 | * In one of the webisodes, Jack himself raised the question of how the Angels would deal with his immortality. He can just ''live'' his way to the point where he was sent into the past. Heck, he might even be able to stop them, causing a paradox. |
| 283 | ** And why would he do that? The ''Series/{{Torchwood}}'' episode "Exit Wounds" shows that Jack's unwilling to meddle in his personal timeline. Plus, they'd still feed off of his lifespan, even if it's not all of it. |
| 284 | ** I imagine that the Weeping Angels would: |
| 285 | *** a) Keep milking Jack's immortality for all its worth, transporting him over and over again until [[TimeAbyss Jack makes the Face of Boe look like a mayfly]]. |
| 286 | *** b) Send Jack to before the universe and hope even his immortality doesn't protect him from its destruction |
| 287 | *** c) Not bother because he's immortal |
| 288 | *** d) [[TooSpicyForYogSothoth The immortality overwhelms them, and they explode.]] |
| 289 | * At the end of "Blink" when the angels all view each other, Sally and Larry are in the way blocking the sight of some of the angels so couldn't that mean they could move? At first I thought they saw a part and maybe as long as one part was being viewed the whole body was quantum locked but in Angels in Manhattan when Amy sees the angel behind rory the angel moves the arm behind Rory that Amy cant see. |
| 290 | ** I could be wrong, but I think Sally and Larry were sort of crouched down so the Angels could see each other over their heads. Also, didn't Amy blink? |
| 291 | ** Yes, Sally and Larry had crouched down under the TARDIS console's overhang before the time machine vanished from around them. |
| 292 | * Why ''can't'' Billy go back to the present with the TARDIS? The initial implication seemed to be that the reason he had to stay behind was to pass The Doctor's message on to Sally in the present. What was to stop him from pulling a ''Back to the Future'' and sending her a letter somehow? |
| 293 | ** Billy needs to stay behind to put the Easter Egg on the [=DVDs=] because the information in Sally's envelope says that's what he will do. To do anything else would tear a hole in the fabric of space and time and destroy two-thirds of the universe. |
| 294 | ** Kathy'd already ''tried'' the ''Back to the Future'' approach with her grandson's photos and letter, and Sally didn't believe it. She'd needed to actually ''meet'' the aged Billy to accept what he had to say. |
| 295 | * Where on earth are UNIT and Torchwood in this episode? If you listen back to the Easter egg you can basically grasp what the doctor's saying, and the Easter egg was all over the internet. I know the doctor was very careful never to mention Sally Sparrow or Wester Drumlins, but there can't be that many abandoned houses in the middle of London where people disappear. Also, someone must have traced the Easter Egg back to Billy, who was probably reported missing in the area. |
| 296 | ** The Easter egg wasn't exactly "all over the internet", it seemed to be more Nerd-Culture, very obscure, but it serves its purpose by getting Nightingale's attention, sending him and Sparrow to the house, etc. Also keep in mind that UNIT at least is unfamiliar with this Doctor's face, and Torchwood might not have had the capabilities to mass scan the internet for weird stuff back then. Present day, Torchwood is much smaller, and not too concerned with capturing the Doctor anymore. |
| 297 | ** Or one or both organizations ''did'' notice the Easter Egg, and perhaps even track down its source and question Old Billy about it. But the Doctor hadn't told Billy much about what was going on, the recording was too cryptic for them to puzzle out, and they didn't want to mess up the StableTimeLoop which might be in effect anyway. |
| 298 | * Also, how did the police find the TARDIS in the first place? Perception filter, remember? |
| 299 | ** The perception filter is clearly not all-powerful or overwhelming; otherwise, no one would ever notice the TARDIS ever. The Doctor himself acknowledges that it works more by distracting people from thinking about the TARDIS rather than making it completely invisible to them (explaining moments like Caecilius mistaking it for art in "The Fires of Pompeii"), and that some people are capable of seeing past it. It's probably something which works better in particular situations; someone who is minding their own business on a busy city street where people are bustling around is probably more likely to succumb to the perception filter around the TARDIS than someone investigating a creepy basement in an old house which is part of an active crime scene, where it would stick out more as unusual. |
| 300 | ** Plus, having the word "Police" displayed so prominently at the top of the TARDIS may have worked ''against'' the perception filter in this particular case. It presumably isn't as easy for the filter to convince someone that they don't want to know about the object it's concealing if that object is visually screaming that it '''is''' a thing of importance to the people who are looking for it. |
| 301 | ** Presumably the perception filter works a bit like this: you walk into a place with the TARDIS in it. The perception filter kicks in. However, since part of blending in means preventing people from bumping into it (it ''is'' still, well, a large blue box, you'd definitely notice it if you walked into it, which would defeat the purpose of blending in), the filter is not strong enough to prevent you from completely failing to identify it as being there it. So you notice there's a large blue box in the corner, but the filter works to prevent you from really focussing on or thinking too much about it. If you're just walking past on your way to somewhere else, you just ignore it. If, however, you spend a lot of time in that room, then the filter is gradually weakening as you take in more of your surroundings -- including the TARDIS. Eventually, it starts to stick out a bit more. And as noted above, presumably the filter is strongest in situations where the object the TARDIS is masquerading as is expected to be; sure, police boxes aren't common these days, but there are still one or two dotted about the place which never got taken down, and there are still some strange things on streets that have kind of lingered around, so you're less likely to think about it. But if it's in a room in a house, then that's not where you'd expect to find a phone box, so the filter would wear off quicker; you might initially mistake it for a cabinet or something, but the longer you spent in that room, the quicker you'd realise that it wasn't something that was supposed to be there. And if you're an investigator trained to observe things that stand out, in a room that you're specifically investigating as a crime scene, then the filter will wear off even quicker. |
| 302 | * A lot of people argue that the angels are weak in this episode, and yet they jump across he street in the time it takes Sally to blink. If they really were fast, faster than we'd believe, then Billy should really have been zapped many times, and Sally would have been zapped back when she went with Kathy. In fact, there must have been police here at some point. How did they make it out? Or what if they didn't? But wouldn't this attract a lot more attention if police officers had vanished? In fact, looking at all the cars in the lock up, I'm surprised it hasn't been sealed off or demolished by now! |
| 303 | ** Remember that the Angels aren't just looking to nom people in this episode: they've been trying to get access to the interior of the TARDIS. They were following Sally around, not hunting her, because they deduced she was getting messages from the past and were hoping those messages would guide her to wherever the police had moved the TARDIS. Plus, they couldn't afford to send her to the past once she had the key — something they probably couldn't use themselves, given how Sexy is presumably on guard against such creatures' intrusion — on her person: if they ''had'' touched her, she'd have had decades in which to hide or lose the thing. It was everyone ''around'' her that was in danger up until the final confrontation, not Sally herself. |
| 304 | * I always found Billy's fate to be a bit weird once I started thinking about it a bit more. 38 years isn't too long a time frame, yet he's on death's door when we see him again. Worse, when I looked into it, the actor was only 21 when the episode came out, so assuming Billy's the same age, he shouldn't even be in his 60's yet... |
| 305 | ** Living for 38 years knowing ''the exact day he was going to die'' can't have been good for Billy mentally. |
| 306 | ** This is likely just UnderageCasting. The actor was in his early twenties, but the character was presumably supposed to be a bit older. In Britain, you have to be 18 to join the police, and then you have a two year probationary period, during which you will certainly not be able to be promoted to a detective like Billy was; a 21-year-old detective is practically unheard of, even if he's a junior detective constable. Billy is likely supposed to be somewhere between his mid twenties/early thirties, which would place him in his early-to-mid sixties when he finally caught up with the time period. |
| 307 | ** Also... Old Billy is clearly suffering from a terminal illness when we meet him. Terminal illnesses, sadly, do not always have the kindness or courtesy to wait until the patient has reached a grand old age before developing. There are plenty of cancers and other conditions which could have cut his life short even before reaching his sixties. And whatever it is, Billy also may not have had access to more advanced medical breakthroughs living in a time before his own. |
| 308 | * So, I may be missing something obvious here, and if so, apologies. But if the Angels had the TARDIS key, why couldn't they just open up the Ship themselves? Was the TARDIS herself perhaps locking them out? |
| 309 | ** I always assumed it was a case of they only recently found the key, after the TARDIS had already been moved from the house to the impound. So before they could even attempt to find the TARDIS and use the key, Sally took it from them. |
| 310 | [[/folder]] |
| 311 | |
| 312 | [[folder:"Utopia"/"The Sound of Drums"/"Last of the Time Lords"]] |
| 313 | * Staying with that time period for a second, can any fellow tropers give me a good explanation for this tossing of the IdiotBall: In "The Sound of Drums", the Doctor states directly that they can't destroy the Paradox Machine before it activates due to the fact that the Doctor's not sure of what the paradox will actually be, and that the cure may be worse than the disease. At that point, they saunter off to the bridge of the ''Valiant'' to try to stop the Master. Uh, excuse me? Don't you have a guy who, like, knows what the Paradox Machine is ("Is that what I think it is?"), and who, like, knows how to use weapons, and, like, can't die? Plan A: the Doctor and Martha head up to the bridge to try to stop the Master. If Plan A fails and the paradox activates, go to Plan B: Jack blasts the living hell out of the Paradox Machine after it goes critical. If Plan B fails, Jack is still free to try to do what he can. If Plan B succeeds, the paradox is broken, and the cost is one severely-damaged TARDIS and a dead President, the Master gets arrested and thrown in a Colorado supermax. Yes, Jack wasn't armed at the time. No problem. They had enough time for Jack to mug a guard, grab his weapon, and get back to the TARDIS. The Doctor's not this stupid. Martha's not this stupid. Jack's not this stupid. And yet none of them could think of doing this? |
| 314 | ** If Plan B fails, the Doctor could be killed. "Turn Left" tells us what happens next. This is generally regarded as a bad thing. |
| 315 | *** Hell, given that at this point we don't have a damn clue what the paradox is, destroying the paradox machine could blow up the planet. You know what happens in "Bad Wolf" if there's no Earth? NOTHING. So much for Jack as a failsafe. |
| 316 | *** I'm not convinced. We know that paradoxes in general are dangerous and unnatural (see "Father's Day"), and this one in particular is being engineered by the Master, so it probably doesn't have a benign purpose. It should be safe to assume that it would be better to stop the paradox from happening. What really scratched my head further was that the Doctor said he couldn't dismantle the Paradox Machine without knowing what it did (which I actually took to mean that he needed to know the precise nature of the paradox in order to safely deactivate the machine), and yet when time came, it turned out the way to dismantle a Paradox Machine is to fire haphazardly at it until it blows up. Either way, it's a big gaping flaw in the plot. |
| 317 | *** The Doctor knows The Master better than the others, so probably knows that the Master is Xanatos-y enough that it could have been a trap, wherein destroying the paradox machine haphazardly could've played into his hands. The Doctor could have just been more worried about that happening than about whether the paradox or not the paradox would be better for everyone. |
| 318 | *** I never really saw the problem with this; he didn't want to take a chance causing even more serious damage, and by the time he worked out what the Paradox Machine was for, it was too late for anyone to do anything about it. One year later, when they ''can'' do something about it, it happens to be the sort of problem that MoreDakka can fix. Lucky for them. |
| 319 | *** I see it being that the Doctor knows the Master, and the Master knows about the Time War. The Paradox Machine actually protecting the planet is actually exactly what I'd do in his position. The Doctor destroys it, and in turn wipes out the Earth. Not only besting him, but making him directly responsible for the genocide of his people, and the destruction of his favorite planet. |
| 320 | *** Indeed, for all the Doctor knows, the Master ''already destroyed the Earth'', then used the Paradox Machine to undo that event, just to ensure the Doctor would have to choose between leaving his beloved TARDIS in permanent agony or wiping out his pet world. |
| 321 | ** Ah, that adds another layer of irony. Namely, that the whole thing is the Master's colossal practical joke on the Doctor. It's a sick joke, too... the Doctor saves a whole bunch of people at the end of the universe, and the Master uses those people for his own ends. The phrase, "You're your own worst enemy" comes to mind here — humanity, which the Doctor loves, becomes the enemy. My way of thinking is, the Doctor already knew what the paradox was — hell, what the Master's ''whole plan'' was — and had come up with a way of turning the whole joke back on the Master. It's what the Doctor does best: he allows his foes to have a moment of victory only to pull the rug from under their feet at the best (or worst, depending on your point of view) possible moment. |
| 322 | * Fairly minor, but why didn't Martha take anyone with her when she teleported to escape from the Master at the end of "The Sound of Drums"? |
| 323 | ** I can't remember the episode really well, but I suspect she didn't know how. Or at least, how to do so without walking over to someone, which would be grounds for being shot at. |
| 324 | *** "Didn't know how" is a poor explanation, because by this point Martha has already seen that all you need to do is touch someone who's teleporting, and you teleport right along with them. There doesn't seem to be anything complicated about that. |
| 325 | ** Martha was only able to escape from the Master's ship because she was wearing the Perception Filter, to prevent her from being seen. The perception filter can only work on one person at a time. |
| 326 | *** Wait, what happened to Jack's filter? And why does it matter anyway, when the Master isn't affected by the filter and he clearly identifies all three of them? If the Master's awareness of Martha doesn't stop her escape (I think the Master was distracted by his own gloating at the time), then why couldn't Martha take someone with her? |
| 327 | *** As someone else noted above, the only person she's close enough to touch without moving is the Doctor. And by this point, the Doctor's probably made it clear he's not going anywhere. If she makes a sudden movement or it looks like she's obviously going to make a break for it, the Master's guards would see past the perception filter and shoot her and the person she was trying to rescue. Staying still and teleporting out of there by herself is probably the safest option. |
| 328 | *** Jack was dead on the other side of the room. Anyone else would be more trouble than it was worth. Plot-wise, Jack wasn't interesting, for it wouldn't take him as much effort as it took her AND it wouldn't be as dangerous.[[note]] Of course, if she ''had'' rescued Jack, then he would have been able to bring Torchwood Three along for the ride. And as we see in ''Children of the Earth'' and ''Miracle Day'', they work best when their backs are up against the wall.[[/note]] It's important for the hero(ine) to take the lonely path in order to achieve something. The Master wouldn't track her down as crazily as he'd track the Doctor down, and probably even The Doctor has a harder time to hide from him than her, because again, they know each other way too well. |
| 329 | * Here's one. If Cassandra was the last of the "Pure blood" humans as of the death of the earth 5 billion years in the future in "The End of the World", then who the hell are all of those humans on the "Utopia" planet 100 trillion years in the future? |
| 330 | ** There are the cured "New Humans" in "New Earth"; presumably, they are the ones seen in "Gridlock". |
| 331 | ** Not being "pureblood" doesn't mean that the humans of the future don't look humanoid, share 'human' characteristics or aren't almost entirely 'human' as we understand it, except with a bit of alien / non-human DNA swimming around the gene pool; they just aren't 'pure' by her standards. Cassandra is a pretty fanatical bigot, after all. |
| 332 | ** As for the humans in "Utopia", it's mentioned by the Doctor that human evolution keeps coming back to the standard humanoid template after they experiment with different forms over the millennia. Quite how realistic that actually ''is'', however, is a discussion for another day. |
| 333 | *** I prefer to think that it has something to do with panspermia (possibly perpetrated by the Time Lords, given that they're HumanAliens who are also sufficiently old as a species to carry it out). |
| 334 | *** The way I see it, the humans that come later are just retro. By about five billion years in the future, humans were split into two camps: those who wanted to keep the human genome pure, which eventually dwindled in numbers, leaving only Cassandra, and those who didn't, and who spread themselves out among the stars and mongrelized humanity; but when we reach year 100-Trillion, fashions change and everyone suddenly wanted pure humans again and decide to bring back Homo Sapiens Classic. Presumably, they had records of the human gene pool from the era to reproduce them properly, and so just revived the pure human race. |
| 335 | *** Said humans may also want to recognize that they're people. After eons of evolution, [[StarfishAlien our descendants would be utterly alien]], and could easily forget their origins. Staying human was a good way to do this. |
| 336 | *** It could also be the case that, in the long run, humans just tend to be more ''comfortable'' as corporeal carbon-based life forms that look like Time Lords. That's the kind of body our species' fundamental personality-traits evolved to inhabit, so living as cyborgs or gas-clouds or computer programs or whatever may simply lose its appeal after a few years or generations, sending us back to our roots. Which is an interesting way of subverting conventional scifi's {{Transhuman}} expectations. |
| 337 | ** I always assumed that there were still others out there at least as pure as Cassandra (and probably a good deal more "natural" in appearance), they just didn't have the opportunity, or, hell, the motivation, to challenge her. Assuming there's anything to the Jack => FoB thing (which I accept some people will reject wholly), he's got a better claim — he was born long before she was, in a time that probably had seen much less interbreeding and genetic engineering than the year 5 million. On the other hand, is that really a fight that any rational person would want to pick? |
| 338 | *** You've never heard of Captain Jack "flirts with insects" Harkness, have you? On the contrary, the Ninth Doctor has stated that by Jack's time humanity ''danced'' with all sorts of alien life. I think ''Torchwood'' established genetically enhanced pheromones too. |
| 339 | *** Not to mention, no one ever says that Jack is actually human-pure-human. |
| 340 | *** ''Series/TorchwoodMiracleDay'' seems to strongly imply it, given that the immortality-giving Miracle works on humans and not lifeforms like insects (the regular type, not the Chantho type). |
| 341 | * What exactly is the US president-''elect'' doing in command, anyway? In ''our'' universe, the position "president-elect" comes with no formal power to do anything but become president come January. |
| 342 | ** I've always assumed Rusty thought that the American President's full title was "president-elect" and just goofed up. |
| 343 | *** This is in fact the case. He has held his hands up and admitted that he thought "President-Elect" was the full formal title of the position. |
| 344 | ** Simply put, RTD didn't care. All it takes is a couple of seconds researching the Executive Branch of the US government to figure out that a president-elect is not the one in power. |
| 345 | *** It's not that he didn't care; he was simply wrong. Yes, if he'd checked he would have found that out but he didn't think he needed to. |
| 346 | ** Everybody else in the story — the Doctor, the Master, UNIT, and newsreaders on both sides of the Atlantic — calls him the President. The only person who says 'President Elect' is the guy himself, and it seems plausible that in the excitement of making first contact he flubbed the line scripted as 'elected President'. |
| 347 | *** Remember that the 'Whoniverse' is distinct from our own and there may be political differences. For example, it's insinuated that the Prime Minister of the UK is directly elected ("Vote Saxon"), the United Nations has a ''lot'' more authority, especially with regards to nuclear weapons, and it's suggested that the Queen has some executive authority (she supposedly orders the closing down of Torchwood 1); it's entirely possible that in the Whoniverse United States, the President-elect has some political powers or even assumes de facto power on his election. |
| 348 | *** I thought that The Master was running as an independent. His party became major because of the cabinet members abandoning their party for the Master's. ("As soon as you saw the vote swinging MY way you abandoned your parties and you jumped on the Saxon bandwagon!") |
| 349 | *** When Barack Obama was elected, people abroad seem to have thought that he would take over ''immediately'' instead of having to wait two-and-a-half months for his inauguration. It's possible the writers in other countries ''simply didn't know'' that there's a delay between getting elected and actually assuming office. |
| 350 | *** Related to the above, in the United Kingdom, as soon as the election's over the new Prime Minister essentially takes over immediately (as in, they move into Downing Street, pick the Cabinet and start getting to work); although there's a bit of a transitional period between the opening of the new parliament for obvious reasons, for the leader there's no real 'lame duck' period like in American politics.[[note]]And for Americans, that 'lame duck' season was even worse before World War II, where you elected a President in November and he didn't take office until the following ''March''[[/note]] It might have been a bit of a misunderstanding based on this. |
| 351 | * So...at the end of "Last of the Time Lords", the Doctor explains that those aboard the ''Valiant'' can still remember the events of the Year That Never Was, because they were "in the eye of the storm". Does this mean that the year still ''literally'' happened for them? (It sure ''looks'' that way: everyone on the bridge of the Valiant is still wearing the same clothing as before, Jack is still battered and filthy, and Lucy still has the black eye the Master gave her.) |
| 352 | ** Yes, that's right. It's why Martha leaves at the end of that story, because her family are traumatized by the events and need to be looked after. |
| 353 | ** That just proves that her family ''remembers'' the events of that time period, despite its having been erased from history. What I'm asking is, are all the people standing on the bridge of the ''Valiant'' a year older now? It's not such a big deal for the Doctor or for Jack (both of whom are practically immortal), but it means that Martha's parents — who are nearing old age — lost an entire year of their lives, just because they were still on the ship when time reversed. |
| 354 | *** They didn't ''lose'' an entire year of their lives, they spent it working for the Master. It was a horrible way to spend a year but they did live through it. |
| 355 | ** It's a horrible ordeal, but it's not like they're Wilf or Mr. Copper's age. |
| 356 | ** Indeed: unless they're supposed to be significantly older than the actors, Clive's about 50 and Francine's in her mid-40s. Neither of them exactly has one foot in the grave. |
| 357 | *** Actually, Martha has gotten ''more'' than a year older, given the amount of time that she spent traveling with the Doctor. |
| 358 | ** I assumed time reverted for them too, they just retained the memory of the entire year. |
| 359 | *** Indeed, it is suggested in several later episodes dealing with alternate timelines ("Turn Left", "The Wedding of River Song") that the events of an erased timeline are only "real" to those who remember them. (The quote from Martha's mother when she tries to shoot the Master also seems to support this: "[A]ll those..things, they still happened because of him. I saw them.") |
| 360 | * Remember at the end of "The Sound of Drums", when the Master switches on the Paradox Machine, the bridge was quite full of people. Regardless of how they died in the Year that Never Was, when the Doctor hits the ResetButton, the only people on the bridge are the people who were there when the paradox was broken, in the "Eye of the Storm". What happened to the rest of the people? Did they just stop existing? |
| 361 | ** And what about the men with Jack whom the Toclafane presumably blasted? Did they stay dead or did they get revived to pre-Master's-reign status? |
| 362 | ** Presumably the "eye of the storm" refers to the entire ''Valiant'', not just the bridge; the year resets itself round the ''Valiant'', so everyone who was ''on'' the ''Valiant'' regardless of who remembers it. Likewise, everyone who died on the ''Valiant'' remains dead when the year resets itself. |
| 363 | * Back in "Last of the Time Lords", why weren't the people in the Eye of the Storm suddenly the duplicates of a them who lived a different year? |
| 364 | ** Because they're immune to the effects of time reversing around them. Hence, they're in the 'eye of the storm'. |
| 365 | * The Paradox Machine, based on Professor Docherty's understanding of Paradox, was unnecessary (other than as a ResetButton for resolving the plot). We are frequently reminded that history is always being re-written, with Cybermen in 19th century London and such. At first glance, it appears that Professor Docherty's was describing a GrandfatherParadox, when the situation is nothing of the sort. The Toclafane, humankind's future descendants, did not "travel back in to slaughter their ancestors". Well they did, but not to the degree she means. The Master wanted a race of slaves, not a planet of corpses. The Toclafane enslaved humanity, they didn't make a concentrated effort to wipe them, though they easily could have. They killed just 10% of humanity and enslaved the rest. So long as just a few humans survived the Toclafane holocaust to have descendants to reach the year 100 trillion and become the Toclafane, no paradox has occurred. |
| 366 | ** And how an where exactly would they have fled from the bloody ''Toclafane''? It's not like early 21st century humanity has any spacecraft of their own. |
| 367 | ** Complicating things is the fact that the Master's long-term goal extended far beyond earth. He wanted to begin a program of universal conquest. Remember that by the time Cassandra comes around the human race has long since begun breeding with compatible alien races. By the time the Toclafane came around, they probably had ancestors all over the universe. On one hand, this makes their decimation of the human population seem even more inconsequential to their descent. But on the other hand, it means the Master likely had the long term goal of killing plenty more of their ancestors. |
| 368 | ** Think how much history would be altered if you stopped one individual from being born. Given enough time, and that small difference can become quite large. Now, make that one person ''600 million'', and that period of time '''100 trillion years.''' Even if the Master only ruled for a year, humanity would be changed in such a way it would generate a paradox. |
| 369 | ** Plus, this assumes that the 10% decimated in the Toclafane's first attack were the ''only'' humans killed over the course of that year, which is, let's face it, a bit naive. They wiped out ''the whole of Japan'' at one point; that in itself has ''got'' to have an effect. |
| 370 | ** It's not just the descendants of those murdered humans who are wiped out; also wiped out are humanity's peaceful interactions with other alien races, new technology and cultural movements that led to people meeting, falling in love, and starting families. In other words, they haven't just killed Hitler; they've prevented his parents from ever meeting, and killed his wife's grandfather. Now, if the perpetrators were an alien race from a planet so far off that they never had any sort of contact with Earth, they could probably get away with it. But there's at least a good portion of the Toclafane who can trace their ancestry to 10% killed; thus, paradox. |
| 371 | * Why does the Master feel the need to become Prime Minister? The Toclafane were going to come to Earth in any case, and he just could've taken over then. Why go to all that work? Also, how was he not deposed after he killed his entire cabinet? At that point he was still just the Prime Minister, and it was obvious that he was just going about killing people. How did no one call the police? |
| 372 | ** I think the first question can simply be answered: he's the Master, though I think it probably had something to do with attempting to gain trust on the Archangel satellites. On the cabinet front, the conversation when Vivian Rook is trying to talk to Lucy establishes that that was covered up by them "going into seclusion". |
| 373 | *** He was in office for what, a day before the Toclafane appeared and he took over. It wouldn't have been hard to hide the cabinet's deaths for a few hours, especially in light of the new and exciting alien contact. |
| 374 | *** It's the principle of diminishing returns, but enhanced by the Archangel Network. Once the Master made everyone in Great Britain love and adore him, then he could do anything and people would go along with it. Then, when people finally twig on to him, it's too late. |
| 375 | ** By becoming Prime Minister, the Master is able to put himself in a position where the entire world is watching when the invasion starts. That should provide the following benefits: |
| 376 | *** It enhances his telepathic suggestion against fighting back with a single, massive display of force. The people of the world will know what is going on and exactly how screwed they are. |
| 377 | *** People will know it is the Master that is now in charge of the world. When this guy shows up and starts giving orders, they will know they must obey him because he is the one that is controlling these strange spheres. |
| 378 | *** It strokes the Master's overlarge ego. |
| 379 | ** One more reason: it lets him rub it in the faces of all those British UNIT members who'd foiled his plans that he'd suckered the whole UK ''again''. |
| 380 | * Why would the Master decide to kill the other ministers if they helped him win and rise to power? Is it just because the Master is cruel, or to punish the ministers? |
| 381 | ** Because they're obstacles to his plan. They're supposed to keep him in check and they'd be strongly opposed to everything he was doing to bring in the Toclafane. |
| 382 | * How come Martha has never heard of the ''Valiant''? It does not seem particularly secret and it would actually be really hard to keep secret, being a flying fortress and all. But Martha, who comes from the same period of time, is amazed by the very idea of a flying aircraft carrier. The master mentioned he helped design the ''Valiant'', which means its less than 18 months old at the time of the time of drums. Martha however left during the election campaign, when it is doubtful the master would have worked on the ''Valiant''. |
| 383 | ** Well maybe this is the ''Valiant'''s maiden voyage, and it was secret during its construction. That might not explain everything, but it helps. |
| 384 | ** Possibly she's heard of it, but only as a normal aircraft carrier. No reason the British Navy can't keep some of its vessels' attributes a military secret, especially if those attributes were late additions thanks to an up-and-coming politician's fresh idea. |
| 385 | * During "The Empty Child" after becoming separated from the Doctor, Jack informs Rose that he can locate him by scanning for alien tech — cue to ten minutes later and Jack's wrist device has accurately and efficiently led them straight to the hospital. So why the hell didn't Jack (using his now fully working wrist device) scan for Time Lord technology, lock onto the Master's laser screwdriver or the stolen TARDIS and ''teleport'' himself, Martha and the Doctor straight to his position? |
| 386 | ** At what point? For what purpose? I don't recall the device scanning specifically for Gallifreyan tech, just alien tech, and in a city where Torchwood One once stood which has had no less than four alien invasion attempts, plus the Slitheen encounter, in the preceding three years, it would probably lead to a lot of false leads. |
| 387 | ** Plus, finding the Master isn't exactly the problem; they learn exactly who and where the Master is within seconds of returning to the twenty-first century. The problem is that the Master has installed himself as the ''Prime Minister of Great Britain''; you think it's going to be easy for three people teleporting out of nowhere to get people to accept their word over the Prime Minister's in that situation? Particularly when the Prime Minister's been subtly mind-controlling them? If they'd had time, what they'd do is have to build a case using good old paperwork. |
| 388 | * So there's a satellite-based telepathic field used to subtly control people. But apparently, if billions of people all think the same word at the same time, they can use that telepathic field to... give the Doctor superpowers. Specifically, he gets the superpowers of (1) undoing his rapid aging, (2) hovering, (3) telekinesis (he knocks the Master's screwdriver away), and (4) immunity to weapons. Was any of this at all pre-established? Has their ever been a time at which people simply thought about the Doctor, and he gained any sort of special ability as a result? |
| 389 | ** THEY aren't using the telepathic field to do anything. The Doctor has had a whole year to figure out how to manipulate the field so that when everyone's focusing on him he has extra powers. On normal occasions, every single person could be thinking about the Doctor and nothing would happen because normally the entire planet is not connected via a telepathic field. |
| 390 | *** But still, has their even been an occasion where the Doctor used telepathic fields to give himself extra powers? Is that something the Doctor can do? When the Master came back via watch, that concept had been established in "Human Nature". But when the Doctor gets superpowers via telepathic field, that just came out of the blue, unless maybe it was established back in the old Doctor Who stuff I haven't seen. Hence my question: was this sort of thing pre-established? |
| 391 | *** Well, no, the telepathic field thing never came up in the old series, but the Doctor has always been superintelligent. He somehow figured all along that he could tap into this telepathic field and upend the Master's, ''ahem'', master plan. It was all a matter of getting himself and his comrades in the right place. HOWEVER, "The Curse of Fenric" has an indirect answer to this problem: it's not the WORD "Doctor", but the ideas and emotions associated with the word that Martha gave to the few remaining people on the planet. In "[=TCoF=]", the Seventh Doctor says "it's not the cross [that can defeat vampires] but the faith behind it." In that case it's a psionic ''barrier'', but the Doctor has rejigged the effect slightly. |
| 392 | *** Also, it does have a bit of foreshadowing, if not in the form of a telepathic field. Namely, the power of words was established in "The Shakespeare Code", where the word "expelliarmus" defeated the Carrionites. |
| 393 | ** Basically, [[AWizardDidIt a Time Lord did it.]] |
| 394 | * I know that most viewers think President Winters was a major JerkAss [[note]](and that he was deliberately written that way such as a stab at American politicians — especially since he's the only victim of the Toclafane who ''remains'' dead after time reverses)[[/note]], but was he really ''that'' bad? Aside from being rude and standoffish to the Master and trying to take control of the situation (which other characters have been ''praised'' for doing), we don't see him do anything especially obnoxious; his behaviour is ''unwise'', perhaps, but it doesn't exactly scream "Jerk Ass". And he can't really be blamed for the Toclafane invasion, which would have happened ''regardless'' of how he reacted to the situation. |
| 395 | ** One does briefly see him taking the operation from Saxon himself to making it a UNIT based operation, i.e. the right thing. Later you do see him in the background telling people his seal of office must be on the paperwork, not the UNs. It's a bit of give and take. |
| 396 | ** At the time he was written (and to an extent today, although from what I can tell not quite as much since UsefulNotes/GeorgeWBush handed over to UsefulNotes/BarackObama), American politicians weren't very popular in Britain thanks to the overwhelming perception (which, however true it may be, is probably something we don't need to go into too much) that the 'Special Relationship' between America and the UK consisted primarily of America bullying the UK into doing what it wanted and following its lead. It's probably something to do with that. |
| 397 | ** A better question might be this: if President Winters had been any other nationality (but otherwise remained the same in terms of his behaviour), would the character have been perceived any differently? |
| 398 | ** Small point; he's not the ''only'' victim of the Toclafane to stay dead; I seem to recall a bunch of people disappeared from the Valiant between "The Sound of Drums" and "Last of the Time Lords". Since those inside the ship were not affected by the time reversal, they'd still be dead (I can't see what else could have happened to them). Even if I'm wrong on that, there's still the journalist who was killed earlier. Just because it's noted that he's not come back, it doesn't mean there aren't others who are still dead. |
| 399 | * If Lucy hadn't shot the Master, what crimes from the Year That Never Was could he be charged with? I also have a hard time imagining that there wouldn't be some jurisdictional fight between the UK and US governments over who gets to imprison him. |
| 400 | ** He would have been charged with coordinating the assassination of the President of the United States. Besides, the Doctor planned on imprisoning the Master in his TARDIS, so even if the UK and US were to fight over who tries and imprisons him, they have no way to actually get the man since he's already imprisoned in a different dimension, and there most likely would be a cover-up for the Master's disappearance that wouldn't arouse suspicion. |
| 401 | *** Seems more likely that UNIT would take custody of the Master, as they're accustomed to handling people of his nature. They'd then keep him in a cell in the Tower of London until his regenerations ran out. |
| 402 | * So, the Master uses his screwdriver to age the Doctor by 100 years. It would've made sense if the Doctor were human. But the Doctor is a Time Lord and shouldn't have aged that visibly. To compare, during series 6, we see the Eleventh Doctor age from 900 to 1100, but he still looks young. |
| 403 | ** Perhaps the Eleventh Doctor simply ages better than the Tenth Doctor? |
| 404 | ** Keep in mind, though, that the Master is aging the Doctor while ''also'' inhibiting his regenerative abilities at the same time — it's possible that the Doctor remaining youthful-looking despite living (from a human perspective) a phenomenal amount of time is connected to the fact that his cells are able to regenerate? |
| 405 | ** I think that the Master was ageing the Doctor to what he'd look like as a human. |
| 406 | ** I believe that the First Doctor was meant to be around 400-450 before he died of old age and yet William Hartnell was only in his late fifties. That would imply that Time Lords age roughly 15-20 years for every 100 that a human does assuming that the Doctor's physical age was the same as Bill. This seems to be backed up in "The Time of the Doctor" when Eleven is an old man by the end of the adventure. Of course, it is compounded by the fact that the Doctor's lifestyle is far more hectic and dangerous than the standard ''dusty old Senator'' that was your average Time Lord, so his body is probably under a considerable amount of strain. |
| 407 | * What possible in-universe reason is there for the Yana-You Are Not Alone connection? Dismissing pure coincidence (which it probably isn't, given how the episode took care to point it out so clearly), I can think of three broad explanations: 1) The Master deliberately picked the name to match that acronym. Why would he do that? 2) The Face of Boe was aware of the name, and decided to give the Doctor an incredibly vague hint towards the Master's identity. How did it know that? Why not tell about it more directly? 3) The connection is due to a third factor, such as some superior force directing events to make such connections. If you go with that explanation, well, anything goes. |
| 408 | ** Considering who the Face of Boe is, he probably did do it deliberately, knowing he couldn't give any more of a hint because the Doctor didn't know about Yana until he learnt about the watch. Maybe the Doctor even told him what to say, to keep the timeline together. It was awfully convenient that the letters could be used in that way — there can't be many names which you could make an appropriate statement out of — but it's just about believable. There wasn't really a need for it though, we'd have got the point. |
| 409 | ** Conversely, if Yana is a backronym, it's entirely in-character for the Master to give himself a name like that. As the Professor, he no longer recalled that he ''was'' "the Master", so he couldn't call himself "Professor Maestro" or whatever Delgado might've come up with. He can, however, be influenced by his own subconscious impressions of another life, same as John Smith could write stories about a time-traveler in a blue box. And "You are not alone" applies to ''him'' as much as to the Doctor: a reminder that there's somebody very scary who hears drums buried in his own head. |
| 410 | ** Bear in mind, not only was Boe dying at that point and didn't have a lot of time left, but also if he'd said "the Master is in human form on Malcassairo in the year 100 trillion," the Doctor probably would've dropped Martha off on Earth in safety and raced off to confront the Master. Which, either way, means Jack wouldn't have gotten involved, which means (assuming Jack is Boe) that Boe wouldn't have learned about it in the first place. |
| 411 | ** Plus, we know that there '''is''' a superior force manipulating events--Dalek Caan. |
| 412 | * Why didn't the Facility Guards just kill the cannibals on sight? If they could shoot at their feet, what stopped them from just killing them and potentially making life easier for any remaining stragglers? To say nothing of discouraging them from trying to break in. |
| 413 | ** Who's to say they normally don't? They might have just missed, or not had the time to line up kill shots ''and'' get everyone to safety at that particular moment. |
| 414 | ** The guards expect to be going to Utopia, a place where everything is perfect. To those among them who've seen their own loved ones devolve into Futurekind, "perfect" may include having a ''cure'' for that degeneration, which they're holding out hope might someday be used to restore the cannibals to normal. |
| 415 | * The Doctor's stated reason for not being able to undo the changes to the TARDIS until he knew what the paradox machine was for in The Sound of Drums was "Touch the wrong bit, blow up the solar system." So far, so reasonable. But then Jack deals with the machine by shooting the central column/console in the denouement of The Last of the Time Lords. What happened there? |
| 416 | ** Probably just the Doctor being overly cautious. |
| 417 | ** At that point he also didn't know exactly what the Master was going to use the Paradox Machine for. Smashing it to pieces without knowing what it was going to do could have have worse results in the long run. |
| 418 | * What's the point of destroying the paradox machine? The paradox machine had to have affected the timeline from the point of its creation to the literal end of the universe. Logically, destroying the machine would do nothing since the past paradox machine is still working. |
| 419 | ** As I see it the Paradox Machine is essentially the time-travel equivalent of a rubber band that's been over-stretched between two points. As long as it's stretched, those two points are connected, but it's a very tenuous connection. Stretch it too far, the more tenuous the connection becomes, and once someone comes along and cuts it, not only are those two points no longer connected, but the rubber band snaps back violently. So destroying the Paradox Machine at any point retroactively erases any effect it had from the point it was switched on. Perhaps not strictly logical, but then, it's called a ''Paradox'' Machine, the fact that it defies logic is right there in the name. |
| 420 | * The Master reveals that he bankrolled Professor Lazarus' experiment in order to use the same techniques in reverse on the Doctor. But why did he need to do this? He's a [[SufficientlyAdvancedAlien Time Lord]]; they are more than capable of pulling of this feat already, as genetic manipulation and changing your age are second nature to them. It just seems a bit of a weak way to tie the story arc together. |
| 421 | ** Actually, this part makes a lot of sense, especially when you consider the Master of the Classic Era. First of all, the Master has always been obsessed with extending his own life; if you think the Doctor goes through a lot of regenerations, stop and consider that the Master was on his ''thirteenth'' body (i.e. last,) when the Doctor was on his ''third''. Over the course of the Classic Era, the Master [[GrandTheftMe possessed two people]], assassinated the President of Gallifrey in order to steal himself a new set of regenerations, tried to get himself a set of regenerations from the tomb of Rassilon by assisting/sabotaging the Doctor in the Death Zone of Gallifrey, and about a dozen other crazy schemes spanning across galaxies. Some genius fellow on Earth has found a way to extend life? Sure, fund him! Why not? It seems that the Master funded Lazarus for this purpose, and the weaponization of the technology was just a handy secondary use. |
| 422 | *** I understand ''why'' he wanted the technology, what I don't understand is why he needed a human to provide it for him. Something like that is surely child's play to a Time Lord? |
| 423 | *** The ability to expand one's lifespan is one of those abilities that was hidden and shrouded in secrecy after it was discovered — and with good reason! If the expanded universe is to be believed, the Time Lords created their own ability to regenerate, but cut themselves off at 12 regenerations (13 lives) on purpose. Even if this is not true and regeneration is a simple biological quirk, the ability to escape death completely is one of those things that ''just doesn't exist in the Whoniverse.'' There are plenty of things that are within easy reach for a Time Lord that seem fantastic to us — Time travel and space travel, in particular. But keep in mind that all races in the Whoniverse who have any sort of expanded lifespan are almost considered equals to the Time Lords — the Sisterhood of Karn, the Great Vampires, just as examples. Think of it this way: humans have created a vaccine for polio, chicken pox, and measles, thereby saving millions of lives. But now we're concerned about cancer and AIDS. To a physician from the 18th century, it would seem amazing that we can cure such diseases so easily, and it would seem surprising to him that we suffer any health problems at all. |
| 424 | ** It's also worth bearing in mind that the Master doesn't exactly have the full breadth of Time Lord technology available to him; all he's got is a locked-down rickety old TARDIS who probably fights him any way she can and whatever he can Macgyver himself. |
| 425 | ** Humans know how to create automobiles. So why do you buy a car instead of just building one yourself? Simple: you don't know how. You might know how an internal combustion engine works in theory, you might have the skills to repair one if it's broken, but you almost certainly don't know how to build one from scratch. And even if you did, you don't have the materials, the equipment, the machining skills, etc. Just because a particular species has developed a technology doesn't mean every member of that species is intimately familiar with that technology. And even if the Master did happen to be an expert on this kind of technology, he doesn't have access to the materials and equipment to produce what he needed, at least prior to his takeover of Britan. He could feasibly use his position as minister of defense to obtain or create them, but then people might start wondering why the minister of defense is buying advanced metamaterials for a personal garage project, or why he's contracting a lab to develop and manufacture some strange alien device - so he would have needed to setup a shell company or fake identity of some sort anyway, to avoid unwanted suspicion. This in mind, using Lazarus was probably just the most convenient option. |
| 426 | * So when Martha races over to her parents' house with the Doctor and Jack, she stops just in time to see her parents being arrested. Miss Dexter orders the police to open fire on them, and they retreat as the police begin shooting. Big question is, why don't the police give chase to them? The Master has branded them as terrorists, so it would make sense for the police to immediately give chase as soon as Martha flees. |
| 427 | ** That wasn't the conventional Metropolitan Police. That's the Master's own forces, whose only job appears to literally just be to manipulate Francine and spy on Martha. Besides, they look like they only had enough people to arrest the rest of the Joneses, but not give chase. The Master branded the Doctor and co as terrorists ''after'' they evaded the trap, so the argument for them to give chase immediately due to that does not work. They ''would'' however, be able to call in Martha's car's plate number and then the Master could use London's extensive CCTV network to send the police to wherever they were. |
| 428 | * In "Utopia", Yana/Master had programmed his chameleon circuit to return his memory and turn him back into a Time Lord only when a TARDIS arrives, so that he can use it to travel back in time... But how can he be so sure a TARDIS would ever end up where he is? If none had ever come there, wouldn't Yana have died of old age? |
| 429 | ** Doesn't seem like that. Seems like his human memories only started breaking down when he received external stimuli, the same way John Smith's did. Otherwise, yeah, he would've died of old age. The Master's always been a bit of a DeathSeeker, so it's unsurprising. Plus he was desperately running away from the War. |
| 430 | * When Martha told "every single person on Earth" about the Doctor and to think of his name, does that include uncontacted tribes? Did she tell the Sentinelese people about the Doctor? |
| 431 | ** Maybe uncontacted tribes make up such a small proportion of the human population that their lack of knowledge of the Doctor has no effect. |
| 432 | ** Hyperbole. Babies, people in comas, as well as those with various mental and neurological conditions, couldn’t have done much, if anything. They are part of "every single person on Earth", so again it points to hyperbole. |
| 433 | ** Also, since the Master took over the planet, most likely he would've made sure that ''everyone'' was lumped together in big groups to work for him. |
| 434 | [[/folder]] |
| 435 | |
| 436 | %%% |
| 437 | %%The Infinite Quest |
| 438 | %%% |
| 439 |
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