# Doctor Who Series 7 **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 27, 2012, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859 "2012-08-27T21:04:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 9
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 6:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/161 "2012-09-11T18:16:34Z")
They could have been circling the solar system in a wide parking orbit, out in clear space, and waiting for the time to head home. ---
**Author:** ![BunnyTVS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BunnyTVS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BunnyTVS)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/162 "2012-09-11T23:07:17Z")
My totally irrelevant fanwank that just occured to me. [This is Rory’s dad when he was Rory’s age.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zOaiaV3ZHw) Same actor, plus he’s a stay-at-home family guy married to a far more adventurous woman. Rory didn’t fall far from the tree 😉 ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/163 "2012-09-11T23:23:50Z")
So was this _a_ Silurian ship or _the_ Silurian ship? I’m curious because back in season 5, when the Doctor met the Silurians on earth for the first time, he told those still on the ground that the Silurians were wiped out by humans. But, he met the earth Silurians before he came across Solomon and that ship. ---
**Author:** ![Kamino\_Neko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kamino_neko/32/34_2.png) [@Kamino\_Neko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kamino_Neko)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/164 "2012-09-11T23:33:13Z")
Also, interesting timeline note… When he’s talking to his dad about the trowel, Rory mentions he’s 30-something - can’t remember just what he said, just that he was not as much younger than me as he would have been in the last two seasons, given that we know from what we’ve seen of their history that he’s pretty close to the same age as Amy, who was born in '89, and that we know from references in her first episode that their home time period is the present (edit - well, was the present when they started adventuring - the last episode was obviously a couple years from now), so they should be either 23 or 24 at this point. The Doctor is really, _really_ increasing the time between his visits. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 11:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/165 "2012-09-11T23:35:16Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > What happened? Why were they still so (relatively) close to where they started? Did the Silurians forget to start the engines before they went into cryosleep? Presumably it was a relativistic orbit. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/166 "2012-09-11T23:38:37Z")
> [@BunnyTVS](#): > > My totally irrelevant fanwank that just occured to me. > [This is Rory’s dad when he was Rory’s age.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7zOaiaV3ZHw) > > Same actor, plus he’s a stay-at-home family guy married to a far more adventurous woman. Rory didn’t fall far from the tree 😉 [Unless this is him.](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR-ncR08CbY) In which case he’s had a more adventurous past than he’s letting on. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/167 "2012-09-11T23:43:21Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > So was this _a_ Silurian ship or _the_ Silurian ship? I’m curious because back in season 5, when the Doctor met the Silurians on earth for the first time, he told those still on the ground that the Silurians were wiped out by humans. > > But, he met the earth Silurians before he came across Solomon and that ship. The Doctor first met the Silurians [back in 1970,](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who_and_the_Silurians) when they were blown up by UNIT. Obviously that wasn’t _all_ the Silurians (others turned up later) but that’s what he was referring to. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2012, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/168 "2012-09-11T23:56:29Z")
> [@RandMcnally](#): > > So was this _a_ Silurian ship or _the_ Silurian ship? I’m curious because back in season 5, when the Doctor met the Silurians on earth for the first time, he told those still on the ground that the Silurians were wiped out by humans. That wasn’t the first time the Doctor had encountered the Silurians. The 3rd Doctor met them in 1970 and they popped up several times more during the original series. Humans were primitive ape-like creatures when the Silurians ruled the earth. They didn’t wipe out the Silurian civilization. The Silurians put themselves in hibernation to ride out a massive asteroid impact. However, while they slept the primitive apes took over the Earth. So most Silurian stories revolve around them wanting to reclaim a planet they feel has been stolen from them. This usually ends with the modern humans killing them off or sealing them back into their caves, hence the Doctor’s comment. ---
**Author:** ![RandMcnally](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b782af/32.png) [@RandMcnally](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RandMcnally)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/169 "2012-09-12T00:04:31Z")
Thanks for the history lesson. I’ve only seen all of the 11th Doctor, the 9th, and I am slowly making my way through the 10th. ---
**Author:** ![Waenara](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/50afbb/32.png) [@Waenara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waenara)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/170 "2012-09-12T02:35:31Z")
> [@Kamino\_Neko](#): > > Also, interesting timeline note… > > When he’s talking to his dad about the trowel, Rory mentions he’s 30-something - can’t remember just what he said, just that he was not as much younger than me as he would have been in the last two seasons, given that we know from what we’ve seen of their history that he’s pretty close to the same age as Amy, who was born in '89, and that we know from references in her first episode that their home time period is the present (edit - well, was the present when they started adventuring - the last episode was obviously a couple years from now), so they should be either 23 or 24 at this point. > > The Doctor is really, _really_ increasing the time between his visits. There’s been a quite a few times where Amy said in the show that it’s been a year, or ten months, or “all summer” whatever since the Doctor’s last visit. Also, there’s the time spent traveling during the episodes, and possibly there could be more that occur off-screen and weren’t mentioned in an episode. I’m no DW expert, but based on the [Amy Pond](http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/Amy_Pond) page on the TARDIS wiki, I’ve tried to make a timeline of her life from wherever Earth dates/years are listed for their “home period”. It seems like there was a large amount of time between _The Doctor, the Witch and the Wardrobe_ (the Doctor visits them for Christmas in 2013, and _Dinosaurs on a Spaceship_ in 2020). So in that episode Amy would have been 34 years old based on Earth dates. However, I would think that given all her time spent traveling, from her point of view she’d be older than 34 (e.g. there were quite a few episodes between when she left with the Doctor on the night before her wedding, and when she returned the “next day”). [ul][li]Amy was born in 1989[/li][li]She met the Eleventh Doctor in 1996[/li][li]She waited for him for 12 years; he returned in 2008[/li][li]The Doctor took two years to take the TARDIS to the moon to break in the new engines. Amy was engaged to be wed to Rory on 26 June 2010.[/li][li]They did a whole bunch of traveling in Series 5, ending with _The Pandorica Opens_ and _The Big Bang_ which re-set the universe with their wedding (no date given), would that have been in 2010?[/li][li]At the beginning of Series 6 in _The Impossible Astronaut_, Amy was pregnant and was kidnapped and replaced by a ganger. The picnic at Lake Silencio was on 22 April 2011.[/li][li]She was full-term pregnant in _The Almost People_, so that must have occurred eight or nine months after _The Impossible Astronaut_ from Amy’s traveling point of view.[/li][li]Amy and Rory waited “all summer” between _A Good Man Goes to War_ and _Let’s Kill Hitler_[/li][li]In the episode _Night Terrors_, they landed on Earth in 2011[/li][li]In _The God Complex_, the Doctor left them on Earth at a new house[/li][li]Amy became a model and worked long enough to become famous enough to sign autographs while out shopping[/li][li]In 2013, the Doctor joins them for Christmas dinner (in _The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe_). [**Added by me** : Was there a reference to 2013 in the episode? I don’t remember this][/li][li]In the _Pond Life_ mini-episodes, the Doctor continued traveling alone for several months, but checked in Amy and Rory periodically. During this time they got an Ood for a butler, had some marital troubles, Rory moved out.[/li][li]In _Asylum of the Daleks_, Amy and Rory have been having marital difficulties for long enough that Rory has just signed the divorce papers at the beginning of the episode. At the end of the episode they reconcile, and return to their house together.[/li][\*]In _Dinosaurs on a Spaceship_, when the TARDIs materializes around Amy, Rory and Rory’s dad in their living room, it’s 2020, ten months after their last adventure. [\*\*Added by me:\*\*I’m not sure where the writers of the wiki got 2020 from - was there a reference in the episode that I missed? In the episode Amy does mention that it’s been longer and longer between visits from the Doctor, and it seems like he’s weaning them off of him].[/ul] ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2012, 8:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/171 "2012-09-12T08:19:53Z")
> [@Waenara](#): > > \*\*Added by me:\*\*I’m not sure where the writers of the wiki got 2020 from - was there a reference in the episode that I missed? In the episode Amy does mention that it’s been longer and longer between visits from the Doctor, and it seems like he’s weaning them off of him].[/list] I’d guess they got 2020 from Rory saying that he’s 31 – that’s the only reference I can recall, and it does fit. ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/172 "2012-09-13T02:29:47Z")
A thought: Perhaps The Doctor is “weaning” the Ponds off him to avoid the feeling of abandonment the Sarah Jane felt. I get the feeling the we’ll see Amy and Rory grow older this season until they finally say to The Doctor, “No thanks,” then it’s off to the new companion. ---
**Author:** ![johny1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e36b37/32.png) [@johny1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johny1)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2012, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/173 "2012-09-13T12:37:34Z")
I also Enjoyed Doctor Who’s Seventh Season a lot. I Watch this Season Again & Again on Internet. Really it was so Entertaining. ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/174 "2012-09-15T22:09:41Z")
Fun episode in the old west. I wonder where they found a desert and old west set? Did they film in the U.S. again? ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/175 "2012-09-15T22:21:45Z")
Some speculation about flickering light bulbs. So far they’ve had close ups in every episode this season. [http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/doctor-who/22674/is-this-the-recurring-theme-of-doctor-who-series-7](http://www.denofgeek.com/tv/doctor-who/22674/is-this-the-recurring-theme-of-doctor-who-series-7) ---
**Author:** ![aceplace57](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/aceplace57/32/3500_2.png) [@aceplace57](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aceplace57)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/176 "2012-09-15T22:42:29Z")
That’s why it looked familiar. 😃 > [@aceplace57](#): > > Fun episode in the old west. I wonder where they found a desert and old west set? Did they film in the U.S. again? > [@](#): > > • A Town Called Mercy was filmed at the Desert Of Tabernas in Almeria, Spain, which also provided the location for A Fistful Of Dollars, and For A Few Dollars More. > **[Doctor Who: A Town Called Mercy – series 33, episode three](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/sep/15/doctor-who-town-called-mercy?newsfeed=true)** > > Dan Martin's series blog: This blockbusting movie homage was a proper western, complete with gunslinging, a noble sheriff and a High Noon moment ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 15, 2012, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/177 "2012-09-15T23:03:09Z")
I liked this episode. I liked it even better when it was called [“Knights of Cydonia”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Yc3HhSl1Q) and it had a guitar solo at the end. Seriously, though, pretty solid episode and I liked the Doctor’s internal struggle as he tries to come to grips with how to deal with a man who’s so much like himself. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/178 "2012-09-16T00:56:20Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > I liked this episode. > > I liked it even better when it was called [“Knights of Cydonia”](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3Yc3HhSl1Q) and it had a guitar solo at the end. Wow! Is that the same set and everything? That’s such a close similarity. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/179 "2012-09-16T02:19:38Z")
That was a pretty good MOTW episode. So now the Doctor is 1,200+ years old… does that mean he’s aged 300 years since Eccleston’s debut? ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2012, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859/180 "2012-09-16T02:31:46Z")
> [@JohnT](#): > > That was a pretty good MOTW episode. So now the Doctor is 1,200+ years old… does that mean he’s aged 300 years since Eccleston’s debut? He went from 907 to 1104 between when he left Amy and Rory near the end of series 6, and when he met up with them again at the finale. Presumably he picked up another 100 years between then and now - which would possibly make Eleven the longest-lived incarnation of the Doctor after One. [QUOTE=GuanoLad] Wow! Is that the same set and everything? That’s such a close similarity. [/QUOTE] Wikipedia informs me that KoC was filmed in Romania, whereas this episode was filmed in Spain. The resemblance is eerie, though, and it wouldn’t surprise me a bit if Moffat had been inspired by the video. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859.md?page=8) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/doctor-who-series-7/632859.md?page=10)