Episode 89


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Regarding the half-human thing...

Although you can dismiss McGann's "I'm half-human... on my mother's side!" as a flippant off-the-cuff one-liner, the Master`s statement: "The Doctor's half-human!" is trickier to explain...

However, he says it with obvious surprise and given their long history together it is extremely unlikely that he would have not come across this before. Also the Eye Of Harmony can only be opened by a human eye, which is clearly bonkers for Time Lord technology.

So, it seems to be hinting that the 8th Doctor IS indeed half-human... but that previous Doctors weren't!

Now, the Master clearly changes species to become the CGI Snake Thing. And much later, in 'Human Nature' we are shown a Chameleon Arch device which turns the 10th Doctor into a human. Before it is used, Martha asks: "Does it hurt?" and the Doctor replies: "Oh yeah. It hurt!"... using the past tense... i.e. he has used it before...

The 7th Doctor dies having heart surgery, being operated on by Grace and the 8th Doctor says that the anaesthetic hindered the regeneration process.

So how about this: when the 7th Doctor dies, a trace of Grace's DNA contaminates his heart. He regenerates (eventually) and becomes half-human (his flip comment about 'my mother's side' actually refers to Grace!). The TARDIS then reconfigures to the half-human 8th Doctor, so the Eye will open for him, but not a pure Time Lord. After the adventure is over the 8th Doctor uses the Chameleon Arch (which hurts!) to become a pure Time Lord again...

It`s the best I can do with such unpromising material! :)

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Honestly, Andrew, I think that's as good a way around it as we're ever going to get. Realistically, from a Word of God Canon perspective, we have two choices: grit our teeth and accept it as canon or (and this is what we've done so far) do our best to ignore it. That's really all we can do. RTD went out of his way to state that a Time Lord/human hybrid was impossible in "Journey's End", so there you go. Everything else can be explained away with one of a thousand different theories, all of them equally valid.

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Have to agree that it is best to pretend it never happened. Just hope I can do the same about the idea that Amy and Rory could parent a timelord just by getting "romantic" in the tardis.

Weirdly enough, I have less of a problem with this than I do with the "half-human on my mother's side" thing.

"Half-human..." came out of nowhere - it's the Doctor, who's *never* indicated that he was at all human, ever, not once, in the history of the show, suddenly revealing something to a total stranger. Granted, maybe it explains why he loves Earth so much, but it just plain doesn't make sense. I could get really nerdy and say "if he's half-human, then how did William Hartnell know it was 'far from being all over' - surely he'd be afraid that he wouldn't regenerate - but mostly it's because it goes against the grain of the show. If there's one thing we KNOW, as viewers, it's that the Doctor is an alien. Whether that means he's a mysterious figure, like he was early on, or whether that means he's a Time-Lord-From-Gallifrey... he's an alien. We thought we knew that, and now here's some stupid American show (made in Canada, of course) telling us he isn't. Bleh.

Rory and Amy making a Time Baby with a Time Head, however... one thing we learned this past season - and this was a recurring theme, if you paid attention - is that the Doctor doesn't know everything, least of all about the TARDIS. For whatever reason, the mere fact that Matt Smith was acting surprised at that moment makes it okay with me. Don't know why.

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If it had gone to series, there's an amusing detail on the TARDIS console destination panel (the design drawings for which are printed in Gary Russell's book), which means the show might have been somewhat restricted in the times and places it could visit.

The wooden destination tumbler has a choice of six options: 'Argolis' , 'Calufrax', 'Gallifrey', 'Earth', 'Manussa' and 'Sarn'...

Similarly, the only years available are '5725.1', '5725.2', '5725.3', '1998', '1999' and '2000'.

The only dates available are from December 29th to January 3 inclusive.

So if you wanted to visit Tara (and why not, it's a lovely planet!) on 15th March 2008, you'd be buggered!

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