Episode 126


RSS

Recommended Posts

The Doctor invites his friends to watch his death ("The Impossible Astronaut" / "Day of the Moon"), and then he visits a handful of pirates plagued by a siren ("The Curse of the Black Spot"). The guys also discuss the recently found Patrick Troughton episodes, and their plans to cover them on Bigger on the Inside. [ 1:22:14 || 39.7 MB ]

To listen, click here: http://www.earth-2.net/podcasts/biggerontheinside/episodes/bigger_126.mp3

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's too roundabout for me. It's worse than Doctor Five seeing Doctor Ten fix the problem in Time Crash; that was clever and somewhat cute. Here, if River doesn't mention Old Canton to the 900-year-old Doctor, they can't go on that adventure in DC to meet Young Canton, but the only way that could happen is if the 1100-year-old Doctor knew to invite Old Canton to his death because the 900-year-old Doctor met Young Canton thanks to River having seen something thanks to the 1100-year-old Doctor. Worse yet, River isn't born to tell The Doctor of Old Canton if they don't go to DC in the first place. See what I mean? It is clever and perfectly sums up the Doctor / River relationship, but it's way too complicated.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's too roundabout for me. It's worse than Doctor Five seeing Doctor Ten fix the problem in Time Crash; that was clever and somewhat cute. Here, if River doesn't mention Old Canton to the 900-year-old Doctor, they can't go on that adventure in DC to meet Young Canton, but the only way that could happen is if the 1100-year-old Doctor knew to invite Old Canton to his death because the 900-year-old Doctor met Young Canton thanks to River having seen something thanks to the 1100-year-old Doctor. Worse yet, River isn't born to tell The Doctor of Old Canton if they don't go to DC in the first place. See what I mean? It is clever and perfectly sums up the Doctor / River relationship, but it's way too complicated.

You're overthinking it. Those things don't happen sequentially; they happen simultaneously. It's a paradox, yes, but that's par for the course in Doctor Who.

Besides, that "end causes the beginning which causes the end" thing is the entire point of the story. The 1100-year-old Doctor's death kicks off the 900-year-old Doctor's adventure. It's not overly complicated, it's just that it's essentially like reading a book backwards (a concept which is later revisited literally in "The Angels Take Manhattan").

Link to comment
Share on other sites

About the Doctor giving the humans the ability to kill the silence on sight.

I never saw it as him wiping out another species. I took it more as, these things are deadly and humans have almost no defence against them as they forget them as soon as they turn away. So all the Doctor has done is level the playing field a bit. Giving humans a fighting chance. Just because they now have the subliminal sense to kill them on sight. Doesn't mean they will succeed in doing so every time.Therefore they wont be completely wiped out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

About the Doctor giving the humans the ability to kill the silence on sight.

I never saw it as him wiping out another species. I took it more as, these things are deadly and humans have almost no defence against them as they forget them as soon as they turn away. So all the Doctor has done is level the playing field a bit. Giving humans a fighting chance. Just because they now have the subliminal sense to kill them on sight. Doesn't mean they will succeed in doing so every time.Therefore they wont be completely wiped out.

That's sort of what I thought when I saw the episode, given that the Silence can evaporate people on sight. Just because I'm psychically ordered to kill, say, Sylvester Stallone on sight, chance are that that jacked up, plastified sexagenarian Rocky shell could still beat the shit out of me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

About the Doctor giving the humans the ability to kill the silence on sight.

I never saw it as him wiping out another species. I took it more as, these things are deadly and humans have almost no defence against them as they forget them as soon as they turn away. So all the Doctor has done is level the playing field a bit. Giving humans a fighting chance. Just because they now have the subliminal sense to kill them on sight. Doesn't mean they will succeed in doing so every time.Therefore they wont be completely wiped out.

That's sort of what I thought when I saw the episode, given that the Silence can evaporate people on sight. Just because I'm psychically ordered to kill, say, Sylvester Stallone on sight, chance are that that jacked up, plastified sexagenarian Rocky shell could still beat the shit out of me.

Exactly.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Silences should be able to avoid being killed if they stay away from the humans, so I saw it more as a way to keep the humans safe and warn off the Silences from messing with them than killing an entire species outright.

I could see that, but I wish Steven Moffat had been clear about it.

Also, welcome to the forums!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The Silences should be able to avoid being killed if they stay away from the humans, so I saw it more as a way to keep the humans safe and warn off the Silences from messing with them than killing an entire species outright.

I could see that, but I wish Steven Moffat had been clear about it.Also, welcome to the forums!

Agreed, and it would have made the Doctor look even more clever! Thank you for the welcome, this forum definitely looks like a place where many great minds have gathered :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hi, brand new forum member here, although I have been enjoying the podcasts by Dan and Mike since last winter.

Just saying how great it was to get 9 Doctor 2 episodes back, and I am almost through seeing them on I Tunes. Two excellent stories, although perhaps not quite on my shortlist for stories I wanted back.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm entirely cool with the Doctor doing something as questionable like this precisely because it's part of the arc that Moffat was setting up, with the Doctor's non-doctory actions being called into question. Hell, we're seeing the literal embodiment idea of that now with John Hurt.

Not to jump too far ahead, but there was a big furore about the Doctor's actions in "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship", towards the David Bradley character - I think there was even a Radio Times poll garnering viewers' reactions to the moral (or immoral) actions of the Doctor. So it will be interesting to see how that one compares.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.