Doctor Who/Headscratchers/Series 3: Difference between revisions

** [[Hey, ItsIt's That Guy!|Tried to overthrow her.]]

** 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--inpool—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.

** 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.

** 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?

** Perhaps scanning that thoroughly wastes valuable power that they don't have since their emergency temporal shift.

** 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.

** 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.

*** 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.

**** 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."

** I assumed she was going back to the TARDIS for all that kind of thing -- nothing—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?

*** 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.

**** 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 could't really fight this or risk John abandoning her. I think the residual awareness of the watch is established later with Yana 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.

**** 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.

*** 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.

***** 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.

*** It could also possibly be that the Angels are paranoid and have a small degree of control of being quantum-locked. In [[Doctor Who (TV)/Recap/S31 /E05 Flesh and Stone|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.

* Speaking of the Angels, that's a pretty unreliable way to [[Sealed Evil in Aa Can|trap them forever]]. A group of statues (evem 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 [[Paranoia Fuel]]).

*** 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.

*** 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.

** Even though this works it's not an easy fix. Try it now--opennow—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--andterrified—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.

*** Chose? When the Doctor apologized and explained that they needed him to wait around for a long to deliver a message to Sally, it sounded like they were kind of forcing him to stay because of the easter eggs and (possibly) Sally's information included her meeting the dying Billy in the hospital.

*** 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.

** My personal favorite mindcanon on that is that Sally's pictures are the beggining of the fall of the Aplans. The Doctor mentions in 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.

** And why would he do that? The ''[[Torchwood (TV)|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.

** Ah, that adds another layer to a theory [[Prime Evil|I]] have. 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--humanityhere—humanity, which the Doctor loves, becomes the enemy. My way of thinking is, the Doctor already knew what the paradox was--hellwas—hell, what the Master's ''whole plan'' was--andwas—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.

**** Not to mention, no one ever says that Jack is actually human-pure-human.

**** 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. It might have been a bit of a misunderstanding based on this.

** 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--whoparents—who are nearing old age--lostage—lost an entire year of their lives, just because they were still on the ship when time reversed.

*** 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.

* The Paradox Machine, based on Professor Doherty's understanding of Paradox, was unnecessary (other than as a [[Reset Button]] 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 Doherty's was describing a [[Grandfather Paradox]], 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.

** 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 anscestors 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.

*** He was in office for what, a day before the Toclofane 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.

** 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.

* I know that most viewers think President Winters was a major [[Jerkass]] ,<ref> (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)</ref>, 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 behavior 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.

** At the time he was written (and to an extent today, although from what I can tell not quite as much since [[George W. Bush]] handed over to [[Barack Obama]]), American politicians weren't very popular in Britain thanks to the overwhelming perception (which, however true it may be, [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|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 it's lead. It's probably something to do with that.

** A better question might be this: if President Winters had been any other nationality (but otherwise remained the same in terms of his behavior), would the character have been perceived any differently?