The Dr Who thread

Stevo · Post by **Stevo** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 2:14 pm 0

ummmm.......
It is a TV show........Not science

SimonB · Post by **SimonB** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 2:19 pm 0

Just had a thought on why the soldiers joined in the applause last week - they aren't soldiers as such. Just Torchwood employees who do security. Thus infused with the Torchwood ethos not army mindset.

After all, given that no PM between 1871 and Harriet Jones knew about the place they must have been funded away from "defense" - my guess is directly from the Monarch/civil list. Now do you feel however much it costs us to keep the quenn happy each year is worth it?

arron · Post by **arron** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 2:21 pm 0

Stevo wrote:ummmm.......
It is a TV show........Not science

That is as maybe..but if you write something that doesn't make sense to most of the people watching because it isn't internally consistant, then it's not a good television show is it?

Imagine that you had a scene where in one shot you had a table, and then the next shot the table had gone and people in the scene walked through it, and then in the next shot it was back so people sat down at it and had a cup of tea. Now although this might be deliberate, it would very odd if the characters didn't even respond to the table appearing and disappearing and the audience would be confused too.

This isn't science, this is narrative continuity, in the same way that ensuring that characters and props don't change from shot to shot is visual continuity. It's about making television that works, rather than crap that doesn't.

GeeZa · Post by **GeeZa** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 2:23 pm 0

That was excellent entertainment, I think RTD does the more emotional sci-fi better than anyone when he gets it right. The zapping of Rose's family to a parallel Universe that cannot be accessed was a masterstroke. The Norwegian beach scene at the end was powerful and just kept itself on the right side of cheese.

The Daleks were nasty little shits weren't they? The Cybermen though I thought were douchebags. Tennent seems to me growing into the role very gradually as I think this last episode was his best so far. Bodes well for the next season and I'm hoping we get to see a healthy mix of old-school baddies with interesting new ones. I'd like to see the Zygons back.

HGFB · Post by **HGFB** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 2:26 pm 0

arron wrote:
Stevo wrote:ummmm.......
It is a TV show........Not science
That is as maybe..but if you write something that doesn't make sense to most of the people watching because it isn't internally consistant, then it's not a good television show is it?

I think your argument breaks down at the bolded point. We haven't been most of the audience since 1986.

anon76235 · Post by **anon76235** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 3:19 pm 0

Army of Goats

Matrixxx · Post by **Matrixxx** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 3:39 pm 0

I watched the full 6 part Genesis of the Dalek's last night just to get a grounding on where they came from; not seen that since it was first shown on tv. Nice to trot down memory lane. the original dalek's don't look that bad tbh, I expected far worse.

And I still like Tom Baker. Fancy that, 6 full episodes with absolutley no tardis in them

wasn't expecting that. The incubator room looked fun, wonder how the emporer came about ? and what about the thals and the muto's did they get turned to dalek's too ?

Amazing that Skaro was basicly a planet of SS soldiers ! unifroms, arm signals, everything !

I have a vague memory of seeing davros in a cellar with the doctor... but, he died on skaro at the end of the 6 parter - hows that work then ?

HGFB · Post by **HGFB** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 3:40 pm 0

Matrixxx wrote:I have a vague memory of seeing davros in a cellar with the doctor... but, he died on skaro at the end of the 6 parter - hows that work then ?

He didn't actually die. Watch Destiny of the Daleks next.

merman · Post by **merman** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 3:43 pm 0

The TARDIS was strapped down wasn't it, when they were transporting it? Maybe Torchwood has alien cargo straps as well as the big black antigrav handles

Matrixxx · Post by **Matrixxx** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 3:44 pm 0

HGFB wrote:
Matrixxx wrote:I have a vague memory of seeing davros in a cellar with the doctor... but, he died on skaro at the end of the 6 parter - hows that work then ?
He didn't actually die. Watch Destiny of the Daleks next.

Will do, cheers

Governmentyard · Post by **Governmentyard** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 6:21 pm 0

All the plotholes that relate to quantum mechanics can be explained thus: The Doctor has obviously got an innate sense for such scientific stuff, and the experience and education to back it up plus Other's genetic data, etc... so the intricacies of all the stuff that happens is so great that there's not ever really time or scope for a full explanation, distilled from the wealth of knowledge and understanding in his head, to a puny human head. So he uses a few crude (by Gallifreyan standards) terms such as void to explain things, and any one term may apply to a number of similar but discreet phenomena, so voids might work one way in one series and what he describes as a void somewhere down the line is in most practical senses similar enough to warrant the reuse of the term. It's only some younger bint demanding explanations at an inconvenient time anyway, so why bother going into any more detail than they need?

Therefore lack of consistency is born out of pragmatism and Russel T Davies is off the hook.

zip accident · Post by **zip accident** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 6:45 pm 0

goatboy wrote:

bint

Odd, I thought that word was from india. Apparently, not so:

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

pogo · Post by **pogo** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 6:58 pm 0

Re plot holes etc. I think the recent review of the 1st series box set at Scifi.com:

http://www.scifi.com/sfw/screen/sfw13094.html

has it about right

The closing two-parter ... storyline is pretty much the only one in the season to resolve itself with pseudoscientific hand-wavingâ€”a regular failing of certain other SF shows from American shoresâ€”the emotions driving the story remain paramount.

The series just finished is even less handwavey if e.g. you are prepared to accept the idea of parallel universes, something well grounded in science (much more so then time travel).

Darkflame · Post by **Darkflame** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:39 pm 0

DutchLlama wrote:
Darkflame wrote:
Flabio wrote:
Bog wrote:Last two episodes.

Firefly Grade.
Steady on, I wouldn't go quite that far myself...
As far as acting, script, directing and effects go...No where near.

As far as sci-fi goes, yes
Well I would reverse that. The acting, script and directing were spot-on. But Doctor Who was never hard sci-fi, it was always more sci-fi fantasy.

How is firefly more sci-fi though?
There is no sci-fi in Firefly really, almost all the plots could be directly transposed to another genre.

Dr Who's plots are normally heavily requiring sci-fi.

Flabio · Post by **Flabio** » Mon Jul 10, 2006 7:41 pm 0

Joss Whedon sort of mentions that in one of the commentaries. To the people aboard the Serenity living in that universe it isn't sci-fi, it's just reality. Something a lot of shows set in the future forget.