Doctor Who IV - Everything Whovian - Would you like a jelly baby?

[Carabas]

Nah, she's in the core of the planet, not in the moon.

It doesn't really matter. She's software. You don't necessarily need local, physical access to the computer to download software. Especially not if it's a sentient computer that owes you a really big favour.

[Jim Kelly]

Watching Silence in the Library/Forest of the Dead again--I don't think there is any contradiction between this and The Husbands of River Song.

River asks for the Doctor's help by psychic paper, but she isn't anticipating that the Tenth Doctor is going to arrive. She probably thinks it will be Eleven or Twelve. So given this unexpected turn, she may have fooled herself into believing this is not the end of her life. Could just be a quirk of time. And we never really expect we are going to die--we all believe that we're somehow going to beat the odds.

But then I think at the end, when she sees that the Doctor is going to sacrifice himself, she finally realizes that this is in fact the end and she has to sacrifice herself for him--so her having some inkling of her death when she was at the Singing Towers of Darillium works with this plot. River now understands what she must do and that this is what she always would do.

I think Alex Kingston is a lot better actress than she's been given credit for. In her first two episodes as River, she's able to convey a sense that she has already gone through all the stories we have seen (now) that have brought her to this end.

If anyone's acting was a little off, it was Matt Smith's. While I liked him at the time, in hindsight, comparing him with other actors, a lot of his acting was lacking in subtlety and rather clownish. Capaldi is able to be quiet and use small gestures to show much deeper feeling.

Also, regarding how Forest of the Dead ends--and I probably posted this a few years ago--River takes care of (in addition to CAL--who is a clever girl) the brown-haired boy and the red-haired girl. I believe they are Rory and Amy--or reasonable facsimiles thereof. Not surprising as the Doctor probably loaded neural memories of them into the sonic screwdriver, as well.

[Cyke]

A refresher, including Durallium, the Singing Towers, and the Doctor's tears:



On a separate note, I hadn't noticed before how Ten briefly argues that time can be re-written, especially since that arrogance eventually lead to his breakdown in Waters of Mars.

(on a twisted note, I started to wonder, "What if the Singing Towers started humming the main theme to Fargo?")

[DT Winslow]

She's not in the Library though, strictly speaking.
She's in a computer that's on the Library's moon... or rather, is the Library's moon. No need to set foot inside the actual Library to retrieve her.

It doesn't really matter. She's software. You don't necessarily need local, physical access to the computer to download software. Especially not if it's a sentient computer that owes you a really big favour.

It kind of fights your original statement but whatever. You'd need planet access for the core, which I don't think the Vashta Narada would give.

[Jim Kelly]

In hindsight, instead of saving the people to her hard drive, CAL should have just saved them to the cloud. Then they could be accessed from anywhere. Maybe now that she's a clever girl, instead of a stupid girl (probably thanks to the addition of River's intelligence), CAL might send her memories from the hard drive up to the moon or to the cloud or to the stars or anywhere else. It's not like the Vashta Narada are going to feed on a carrier wave transmission from the core into outer space. They eat meat not data streams.

[Carabas]

It kind of fights your original statement but whatever. You'd need planet access for the core, which I don't think the Vashta Narada would give.

I'm not sure you do need planetary access. The Doctor Moon has obviously access to the core.
Anyway, this is not a hill I want to die on.

Honestly, I don't think the Vashta Narada are even that big a deal if you know in advance they're there and you can prep for them (as in bring serious heavy duty space suits and lots of flood lights).

And if you can land that TARDIS in the right spot, you're probably in and out before the critters even notice you're there.

[Jim Kelly]

It's not like the Doctor hasn't had time to prepare a plan.

[Xalfrea]

So how about the War Doctor's official version of the theme that he can call his own from Big Finish?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUIk2QHyPgA

[Matt]

Oh, I like that.
It seems to have ... grown out of the movie theme. Which, despite the movie being a horrid wretched thing, had an outstanding theme.

And TARDIS control room.

[SUPERECWFAN1]

So I'm watching some 5th Doctor shows and the one I am watching is "Enlightenment" . Where the Doctor encounters a race called "The Eternals". Where they basically compete for sport and use humans as pawns. There are good Eternals and bad ones in this serial. I won't give the entire deal away. But in watching you get the sense that one of the Eternals had feelings for Tegan and seemed to possibly want to get to know her more.

I wonder if there was a plan during the serial to possibly write Tegan out and have her go off with the Mariner (Eternal). Or if they decided that maybe they needed to keep 2 companions around and that introducing a new companion at the the near end of the 20th season would be too hard to do.

[Jim Kelly]

I think the reason the 5th Doctor tended to travel with more than one companion was that he was younger than any Doctor up to that point and relatively hot looking and viewers were likely to think that if he was just travelling with one of those young kids, there was some hanky-panky. But as long as there was more than one, they looked out for each other. Tegan was probably the one playing chaperone. And Turlough is the perfect wet blanket. But with Peri, you shouldn't come a knockin' when the TARDIS is a rockin'.

[Carabas]

I think the reason the 5th Doctor tended to travel with more than one companion was that he was younger than any Doctor up to that point and relatively hot looking and viewers were likely to think that if he was just travelling with one of those young kids, there was some hanky-panky. But as long as there was more than one, they looked out for each other. Tegan was probably the one playing chaperone. And Turlough is the perfect wet blanket. But with Peri, you shouldn't come a knockin' when the TARDIS is a rockin'.

I don't know. He inherited a bunch of them from Tom Baker.

[Jim Kelly]

99.9 % of everything I write on here is me regurgitating stuff I've read or heard elsewhere--but with my swiss cheese memory, I don't always remember where or remember it right. But the thing about the 5th and the worry that viewers would suspect naughty no-no's on the TARDIS is something I remember seeing somewhere (maybe in a commentary from the cast). Most of the youngsters were added right before the 4th regenerated and there's foreshaowing that the 4th is near his end.

On the other hand, I also remember reading (maybe here) that they had been thinking the 5th Doctor was going to be played by an older actor and they had it set up so he would be a fatherly or grandfatherly figure--and those scripts were written before Peter Davison was cast.

[Ragdoll]

I never liked River Song, but I really enjoyed this episode. Also, it is probably her last appearance thankfully.

I've been thinking about series 9 and have some new thoughts on it, sorry if others have floated these theories before. But when you do stop and think about it, some much darker stuff was going on than they explicitly addressed. What most of the audience missed but the Doctor realized was that Clara intentionally committed suicide. All season, she was taking riskier and riskier chances, and the Doctor kept commenting on how he was worried about her flippant attitude towards her own mortality. Even in Face The Raven, he told Clara's friend he was worried about her when she was hanging out of the TARDIS mid-flight. After Danny Pink died, combined with being a time traveler, she became detached from reality and went kind of crazy. And when she died, the Doctor realized he had driven a companion to suicide, hence him feeling he needed to bring her back, otherwise he would have her death on his hands for not getting her help when she was making clear cries for help/attention by recklessly risking her life. He messed up bad and owed her everything she got with that finale. The one downside is the Doctor won't remember it happened and he won't remember to watch out for his companions mental health in the future.

[Jim Kelly]

From what the Doctor says to River, I'm of the opinion that while he may not remember Clara entirely he's reconstructed enough of her in his mind to know her story and what happened to her. So I think he has learned that lesson.

One thing about watching The Husbands of River Song in the movie theatre (as I did yesterday)--they show a lot of teasers ahead of the movie and behind the scenes after the movie--and a lot of face time with Alex Kingston and her portrayal of River Song. So a body gets swept up in all that and almost feels like you're there with Alex Kingston on this journey. So by the end, I left feeling quite happy for the actress--as if she were a member of my extended family who had got the chance to go on a special adventure.