Visit the official Doctor Who website

Visit the official Doctor Who website
Look to the future

Asylum seekers...

Asylum seekers...
Refuge of the Daleks

Doctor Who picture resource

Doctor Who picture resource
Roam the space lanes!

Explore the Doctor Who classic series website

Explore the Doctor Who classic series website
Step back in time

Infiltrate The Hub of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood

Infiltrate The Hub of Doctor Who spin-off Torchwood
Armed and extremely dangerous

Investigate The Sarah Jane Adventures

Investigate The Sarah Jane Adventures
Fearless in the face of adversity

Call on Dani’s House

Call on Dani’s House
Harmer’s a charmer

Intercept the UFO fabsite

Intercept the UFO fabsite
Defending the Earth against alien invaders!

Uncover the secrets of the Dollhouse

Uncover the secrets of the Dollhouse
Programmable agent Echo exposed!

Hell’s belles

Hell’s belles
Naughty but nice

Love Exposure

Love Exposure
Flash photography!

Primeval portal

Primeval portal
Dressed to kill or damsels in distress?

Charmed, to be sure!

Charmed, to be sure!
The witches of San Francisco

Take on t.A.T.u.

Take on t.A.T.u.
All the way from Moscow

Proceed to the Luther website

Proceed to the Luther website
John and Jenny discuss their next move

DCI Banks is on the case

DCI Banks is on the case
You can bet on it!

On The Grid with Spooks

On The Grid with Spooks
Secret agents of Section D

Bridge to Hustle

Bridge to Hustle
Shady characters

Life on Ashes To Ashes

Life on Ashes To Ashes
Coppers with a chequered past

Claire’s no Exile

Claire’s no Exile
Goose steps

Vexed is back on the beat!

Vexed is back on the beat!
Mismatched DI Armstrong and bright fast-tracker Georgina Dixon

Medium, both super and natural

Medium, both super and natural
Open the door to your dreams

Who’s that girl? (350-picture Slideshow)

Tuesday 22 May 2007

Sun Probe


“Doctor Who” has no internal logic! In “42”, Francine Jones remarks upon the fact that she has received three calls from her daughter in one day, the implication being that she’s usually lucky to hear from her at all. Yet, it was established right at the beginning of this series that the Jones family are always on the phone to one another! Martha’s Mum could only feel this way if a great deal of time has elapsed, between the end of the events of “The Lazarus Experiment” and the start of the deep space epic that is “42”, during which the Doctor’s new companion hasn’t phoned home at all. Up to the beginning of “The Lazarus Experiment”, despite experiencing four adventures over five episodes, we know Martha has only been away from home for about twelve hours. Her life during this period has therefore been greatly elongated compared with the passage of time on Earth. All of a sudden, in the latest story, it seems that new rules apply. From her mother’s remark, it can now be assumed that time is running concurrently between home and abroad! To be even more precise than Chris Chibnall’s script, Francine has actually received three calls in the space of three-quarters of an hour!!

Then, there’s the space freighter’s illogical computer in “42”. During the countdown to “impact” with the Sun, it periodically tells us how long is left before (total!) destruction, not on the minute or half-minute, as you might expect, but at all sorts of random times probably when best-needed to punctuate the drama! “Impact” is impossible, of course, a Sun being a gaseous body!! In “The End of the World”, two years ago, a great deal was made of having Sun shields on the space station as part of a plot device putting characters in peril. Protection from extreme light and heat no longer seems to be an issue as the Doctor, minutes from zero-time, opens an airlock to operate a fail-safe device situated on the outside of the spaceship!!! There are also twenty-nine password-sealed doors between the bridge and the engine room. I would like to know what idiot designed this vehicle? And, why are human beings possessed or killed for what the Captain has done when they’re all about to die anyway? Even dafter, I actually enjoyed this nonsense!! I must have disengaged my brain for the duration as it is all well-and-good being true to the emotion of a piece but not when it defies commonsense!!!

4 comments:

Steve said...

Yeah I thought the host of passworded doors was a mite stupid too. "Yeah, lets put as many obstacles between the engine room and the cockpit - it'll spice up any emergency!" It was only a freight ship for Heaven's sake!

But think of the baby oil!

Old Cheeser said...

Yep, there were some inconsistencies in there for sure. The door-password thing was an obvious plot contrivance meant to up the dramatic ante, but was rather daft - if the the passwords were set by crew members who were no longer working on the ship, how were the existing crew they meant to know what they were?!

I didn't think it was a bad episode by any means but for me it's the worst of the season so far - quite average. In spite of the fact that it was all about a ship plunging into the sun, the characters didn't seem that panicked about it atall! Bit of a poor man's "Alien" really and Michelle Collins wasn't tough enough as the ship's captain.

The Dr got a chance to shine though - brainstorming lots of solutions to the problem of the ship and fighting off the "infection" of the sun.

I'm looking forward to Human Nature/Family of Blood much more - here's hoping...

doppelganger said...

The slow, silent 'I'll Save You' bit was quite moving though wasn't it...

TimeWarden said...

It's not new to "Doctor Who", of course, to have to pass a quiz before being able to resolve a situation. "The Celestial Toymaker", "The Mind Robber", "Death to the Daleks", "Pyramids of Mars" and "The Five Doctors", to name one from each era, all require the solving of puzzles before getting to the heart of the problem!

I agree that "42" is a poor man's "Alien" but didn't think it the worst of the season. Of the remaining six, the episode I'm most looking forward to is Steven Moffat's "Blink".

The "I'll save you" sequence was moving, made all the more effective by the removal of any incidental music. I also found the Captain's "I love you" to her possessed husband, just moments before their deaths, very tender.