The Dr Who thread

[juice]

Welp... after lots of negativity about this series, this weekend's episode was actually halfway decent.

The surprising bit was the "family" scenes - pretty much all of the over-the-top caricaturing from the previous series is gone. Much better

The science was still impressively ropey (sonic screwdriver overuse, conservation of mass during transformations, where did his clothes go?), but a lot of that was down to time-slot restrictions and standard sci-fi expectations (like audio in space), so it's hard to be too harsh.

There's hope for the series yet!

[DutchLlama]

I thought that the main reason for getting rid of the Screwdriver was that it hindered writers' attempts to pad stories by imprisoning the Doctor in numerous places.

Well that's no problem as in a regular prison everything on your person is confiscated. If you have to hand in your shoelaces surely a weird looking pen type device would also be taken in.

[Dio]

I think one line that particularly offended was in Robot where it was used 'like a miniature sonic lance' to cut through a reinforced concrete door. A dangerous precedent to set for continuity purposes, that one.

[juice]

I think one line that particularly offended was in Robot where it was used 'like a miniature sonic lance' to cut through a reinforced concrete door. A dangerous precedent to set for continuity purposes, that one.

I've not seen Robot, but I think that's a reasonable idea: hit the right resonant frequency (and volume) and you should be able to vibrate most things into dust
</handwaving science>

Still, I'd expect it to take time, and carry risks with it (e.g. instant white-finger, audio backlash, drained battery) which'd make it something of a last-chance plan. Either way, it's certainly more believable than the current swiss-army abilities it currently has - the tricorder abilities this week triggered a medium-height raised eyebrow

Also, I was fully expecting the sonic screwdriver to be used to shatter the glass in the security door this week: spending time pratting about with the lock when a giant scorpion is chasing you seems a bit... well, bloody daft, really!

[HGFB]

I think one line that particularly offended was in Robot where it was used 'like a miniature sonic lance' to cut through a reinforced concrete door. A dangerous precedent to set for continuity purposes, that one.

I've not seen Robot, but I think that's a reasonable idea: hit the right resonant frequency (and volume) and you should be able to vibrate most things into dust
</handwaving science>

"I'm trying to resonate concrete here!"

RTD explains that with the 45 minute format there's a need for little things not to slow up the Doctor unless absolutely necessary. Which is why they brought back the sonic screwdriver. With your 4, 6 or 7 parters of yesteryear there was plenty of time to pad out your story with locked doors and prisons.

[juice]

"I'm trying to resonate concrete here!"

RTD explains that with the 45 minute format there's a need for little things not to slow up the Doctor unless absolutely necessary. Which is why they brought back the sonic screwdriver. With your 4, 6 or 7 parters of yesteryear there was plenty of time to pad out your story with locked doors and prisons.

Mmm - it'd be better to either not write the "little things" into the plot or find alternatives to the Sonic Screwdriver. As it stands, future plots are quite possibly going to have to resort to temporary amnesia or accidental loss of the SS, to inject tension into various dramatic situations.

If it weren't the BBC, I'd actually be tempted to say it's an attempt to do some product placement, but they aren't generally that gauche.

(on a related note, I should have gotten a photo at the car boot sale this weekend. It was in a field, and one of the stalls had some tarp down, on which was a huge army of remote-control K9s - a good 30 or so, formed up into ranks, with a pile of sonic screwdrivers behind them. A book stall the previous week had a lifesize wooden dalek, which I did get a photo of!)

[kalmar]

The show was worth it just for the "reversing the polarity" line.

Yes. Genius.

Mind explaining that one? It just seemed like rather lame scifi to me.

[HGFB]

The show was worth it just for the "reversing the polarity" line.

Yes. Genius.

Mind explaining that one? It just seemed like rather lame scifi to me.

The catchphrase most associated with the Third Doctor's era is probably "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow". The phrase was Pertwee's way of dealing with the technobabble that he was required to speak as the Doctor. He wanted something all purpose and easy to remember instead of myriad made-up dialogue, and Terrance Dicks provided him with the phrase.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_Doctor

[Dio]

Jon Pertwee's classic line when doing anything fiddly technical was "If I just reverse the polarity of the neutron flow..." Apparently it was the only technobabble line he could reliably master.

So old fart Dr.Who fans like me burst out laughing at the line which went something like. "Annoying it took me so long to reverse the polarity. <pause> Then again, it has been a while."

[kalmar]

Fair enough.. bit before my time innit

[HGFB]

I thought I'd throw this in to annoy Gravy

[Dio]

Fair enough.. bit before my time innit

Before mine too, but I've caught up since.

[Harlequin]

[...] The sneaky series three spoiler at the end was very funny

Bastard! I failed to notice that first time around.

The surprising bit was the "family" scenes - pretty much all of the over-the-top caricaturing from the previous series is gone. Much better

Middle-class families are so much more bearable, are they not?

The science was still impressively ropey (sonic screwdriver overuse, conservation of mass during transformations, where did his clothes go?), but a lot of that was down to time-slot restrictions and standard sci-fi expectations (like audio in space), so it's hard to be too harsh.

Science? In Doctor Who? What a terrible idea. They would have to acknowledge such things as neutrons having no polarity.

I thought that the main reason for getting rid of the Screwdriver was that it hindered writers' attempts to pad stories by imprisoning the Doctor in numerous places.

Well that's no problem as in a regular prison everything on your person is confiscated. If you have to hand in your shoelaces surely a weird looking pen type device would also be taken in.

Fortunately, hardly any of the places in which the Doctor has been imprisoned over the decades have been 'regular'.

Also, I was fully expecting the sonic screwdriver to be used to shatter the glass in the security door this week: spending time pratting about with the lock when a giant scorpion is chasing you seems a bit... well, bloody daft, really!

Martha did not know the setting for that.

[juice]

Also, I was fully expecting the sonic screwdriver to be used to shatter the glass in the security door this week: spending time pratting about with the lock when a giant scorpion is chasing you seems a bit... well, bloody daft, really!

Martha did not know the setting for that.

She didn't know any of the settings - the Doctor told her what to use

[Snakey]

The surprising bit was the "family" scenes - pretty much all of the over-the-top caricaturing from the previous series is gone. Much better

Middle-class families are so much more bearable, are they not?

See, this is the thing I didn't get. We were supposed to 'think differently' about the family after this episode - yet they really didn't do anything at all...