Doctor Who

Pretty long if they had an accurate representation of not only the Tardis, but also of the Doctor's Sonic Shades (enough for the sim Doctor to be able to use them to send a message to the real one).

Then again, considering how much they must know about the real Doctor by now, they might be mostly ready for him.

One possible explanation for Veritas is that it was put there explicitly to test the people smart enough to figure out the simulation aspect.

Judging from the way the alien monk acts in the white house, I'd say they're well past the point where they're just running a simulation of what would happen in a direct attack, in fact now they're after any data they can get, even pain.

I'm pretty sure you couldn't convince Trump that he was part of a simulation. You might convince him that he was the only real person and everything else only existed in his head, though....

edited 22nd May '17 8:03:19 AM by Robbery

He'd probably stop at like two numbers and give up.

Someone I know was complaining that the president in the episode was clearly not Trump. Eh, while there's a couple really obvious references to Obama, there's at least one president (maybe, the guy constantly referred to himself as the "President-Elect") who's different from our world, so the idea that the current president is different isn't that bad. Also, you know, a string of at least three UK prime ministers who are different from our world as well.

god can you imagine the kind of reaction this episode would get (probably from the actual president) if the suicide president was visibly trump

Knowing how Trump is he'd probably try to ban Doctor Who from the US.

Let him try. Let him oh-so-fucking-hilariously miss the part where the show would be complimenting his intelligence. Let the courts ass-whoop with the physical first amendment.

edited 22nd May '17 8:19:55 PM by TheAirman

I imagine something like this:

"Please, you think I'd commit suicide? I wouldn't commit suicide. Know what I would do? I'd show those aliens what it means to mess with America!"

"But you couldn't! You'd just be an A.I. in a virtual world! You'd have no way to fight them!"

"...Yeah, well, I wouldn't let them into the country to begin with! That's not what President Obama would do. President Obama would just let them waltz right in. I'm not President Obama, I wouldn't let them waltz right in, folks."

I feel worse for having typed that.

Well, he's not wrong that Obama would let them waltz in. That's kind of the point, isn't it? Aliens that can't invade without Earth's consent.

On the other hand, he's definitely wrong that he can stop an alien invasion. Stopping alien invasions isn't really a thing that Earth in general does.

The closest anyone ever came is Torchwood blowing up a retreating space ship after the Doctor told them what for.

I just realized who wrote it... The Doctor writes it in the real world and drops it off before the aliens begin their project. That means it is a part of the starting conditions for the simulation. It still eventually gets decoded in the real world, but since the number thing doesn't work there nothing comes of it.

We've already had one Bootstrap Paradox with 12, so why not another?

I've heard that the president not being Trump was deliberate to show it's not all as it seems, and that the next episode will apparently reference Trump.

WHY?

Same reason Batman The Brave And The Bold referenced Obama and Transformers referenced Dubya.

edited 24th May '17 6:44:10 PM by Eagal

As someone who was in a lot of abusive relationships, all the good words on consent are making me emotional.

Bill is having really poor luck with dating that girl.

Edit:

Well shit. That backfired hard.

edited 27th May '17 7:02:27 PM by HandsomeRob

While Clara will always be the worst Companion, Bill sure as Hell shot up to No. 2 pretty damn fast.

edited 27th May '17 7:34:01 PM by SilentColossus

Honestly, I think a lot of past companions would have made the same choice.

edited 27th May '17 7:29:24 PM by KarkatTheDalek

Agreed.

Hell, we've literally seen what happens when the Doctor isn't around to save the day...twice.

Bill's logic is that losing him would mean the next threat would dance all over their faces, so save him now so he can find a way to kick their asses anyway and then the next dude, and the next dude and the next dude.

The Doctor really helps that along with his whole "Well, I'm the only chance you've got" attitude. The second it looks like he can't actually help, of-effin-course the companions are going to turn to the next best option.

Yeah. That's true.

Both Bill and Clara are amazing companions.

My mom and I were actually talking the other day about Bill vs Clara. We both prefer Bill. A lot. It was a pretty interesting discussion. We ended up using the metaphor of co-workers to figure out how we felt about the two of them.

We came to the conclusion that Clara feels kind of like she could be a coworker. She's perfectly nice, but you aren't really all that interested in her as a person. Not in a negative way, you just don't really care, because she isn't super inviting. She seems like someone who compartmentalizes her life very carefully. (Which the show absolutely backs up.) She seems like she wouldn't really give much room for friendship.

Bill, on the other hand, seems like someone you could hang out with. She seems warm and friendly and inviting and someone where you would actually care about her outside of work. Ask her if she's okay and actually pay attention to the answer beyond common courtesy. If you got an extra concert ticket, you would think of asking her if she wanted to come.

This isn't to say that Clara's bad at all, she just doesn't really click as a character to me. I just don't really care about her as a character. But I do care about Bill as a character, and that's the important thing to me.

I like Bill more but that's mostly because I prefer the way Clara was portrayed during 11's run rather than her portrayal during 12's which makes up the majority of her appearances. Honestly if Clara's portrayal during series eight and nine was the same as her portrayal during series seven I would like her more than Bill.

Honestly, I didn't give a whit about Clara before Series 8, because before Series 8, she was as dull as dishwater. It was only during Series 8 that she became an actual fleshed out and interesting character, and while she was flawed as all hell, the show knew she was flawed, (she and Twelve both,) and the show was fascinating as all hell to watch.