# Dr. Who 05/12: The Doctor Dances ...Every week I am enjoying this show more. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 13, 2006, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-who-05-12-the-doctor-dances-every-week-i-am-enjoying-this-show-more/356586 "2006-05-13T02:34:09Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-who-05-12-the-doctor-dances-every-week-i-am-enjoying-this-show-more/356586/21 "2006-05-16T04:25:47Z")
[QUOTE=Nonsuch] My **Doctor Who Book of Lists** asserts that nobody dies in these stories: Inside the Spaceship; The Celestial Toymaker; The Savages; Fury from the Deep; The Mind Robber; Castrovalva (“Well, nobody real dies”); Four to Doomsday; and Snakedance. Two people who very definitely die in “Hand of Fear” are Dr. Carter and Driscoll. [/QUOTE] I’d debate some of those. Inside the spaceship - agreed. Celestial toymaker - don’t know the story very well, but doesn’t the Toymaker destroy those who lose his games? I think there was someone killed during a game of musical chairs, wasn’t there? Savages, Fury - don’t know those at all. Mind Robber - Weren’t the inhabitants of the Land Of fiction supposedly real people once? And they were destroyed along with the Land, weren’t they? Castrovalva - Doesn’t The Master shoot lightning bolts from his TARDIS that kills some people at the Radio Telescope? Or was that the previous episode? Anyway, the people of Castovalva were alive, even if artificial. Four To Doomsday - weren’t some of the Robots "killed, " I think Enlightenment and Persuasion didn’t survive. Again, they were artificial but still arguably alive. Snakedance - The Mara dies. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-who-05-12-the-doctor-dances-every-week-i-am-enjoying-this-show-more/356586/22 "2006-05-16T05:57:32Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] “Who says I’m not red bike when you were twelve.” Great line. Great ep overall, even if I did figure out the nanogene thing about ten minutes in. I was grinning like a dork by the end. [/QUOTE] I think it’s more properly stated as “Who says I’m not? …red bike when you were twelve…” ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 7:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-who-05-12-the-doctor-dances-every-week-i-am-enjoying-this-show-more/356586/23 "2006-05-16T07:18:36Z")
I tried to get my GF to watch it but she got scared off just by the commercial/trailer of this episode… Anyway, is Dr. Konstantine (sp?) supposed to be an actual historical figure? Should I be embarrassed for not knowing who he is? Also, why did the Doctor tell Jack to take away the bomb instead of just holding it in stasis for a couple more miniutes, then dropping it on the medical transport? ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-who-05-12-the-doctor-dances-every-week-i-am-enjoying-this-show-more/356586/24 "2006-05-16T09:29:20Z")
BTW, If you think _this_ episode is good, just wait til you see _The Girl In The Fireplace._ Best episode ever. Of course, you’ll have to wait about a year for that one. Over here, we had it a couple of weeks ago. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-who-05-12-the-doctor-dances-every-week-i-am-enjoying-this-show-more/356586/25 "2006-05-16T17:29:46Z")
I’ve taken to watching “Stargate SG-1” so I don’t miss the 9:00 show. [QUOTE=scr4] Also, why did the Doctor tell Jack to take away the bomb instead of just holding it in stasis for a couple more miniutes, then dropping it on the medical transport? [/QUOTE] I’m guessing the transport’s self destruct is a much smaller explosion. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-who-05-12-the-doctor-dances-every-week-i-am-enjoying-this-show-more/356586/26 "2006-05-16T17:53:18Z")
[QUOTE=Lute Skywatcher] I’ve taken to watching “Stargate SG-1” so I don’t miss the 9:00 show.I’m guessing the transport’s self destruct is a much smaller explosion. [/QUOTE] Perhaps he felt the need to tie up the loose time ends. ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 6:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-who-05-12-the-doctor-dances-every-week-i-am-enjoying-this-show-more/356586/27 "2006-05-16T18:10:06Z")
[QUOTE=OpalCat] I think it’s more properly stated as “Who says I’m not? …red bike when you were twelve…” [/QUOTE] It’s stated in the ep IIRC with no pause between the two clauses, which is a good deal of what made it funny IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![OpalCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/8edcca/32.png) [@OpalCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OpalCat)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-who-05-12-the-doctor-dances-every-week-i-am-enjoying-this-show-more/356586/28 "2006-05-16T18:14:28Z")
[QUOTE=Otto] It’s stated in the ep IIRC with no pause between the two clauses, which is a good deal of what made it funny IMHO. [/QUOTE] No there is no pause, but there is an inflection, and I believe my transcription more accurately reflects the meaning and the tone, whereas the other one makes it sound like the doctor is saying he is not a red bike, which is not the way it came across when he said it. Perhaps more accurately still would be “Who says I’m not (red-bike-when-you-were-twelve)” ---
**Author:** ![the\_Lady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bb73d2/32.png) [@the\_Lady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/the_Lady)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-who-05-12-the-doctor-dances-every-week-i-am-enjoying-this-show-more/356586/29 "2006-05-16T20:35:13Z")
I so love that little scene. ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_Wright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@Steve\_Wright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_Wright)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2006, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-who-05-12-the-doctor-dances-every-week-i-am-enjoying-this-show-more/356586/30 "2006-05-16T21:20:14Z")
[QUOTE=Peter Morris] I’d debate some of those. Inside the spaceship - agreed. Celestial toymaker - don’t know the story very well, but doesn’t the Toymaker destroy those who lose his games? I think there was someone killed during a game of musical chairs, wasn’t there? Savages, Fury - don’t know those at all. Mind Robber - Weren’t the inhabitants of the Land Of fiction supposedly real people once? And they were destroyed along with the Land, weren’t they? Castrovalva - Doesn’t The Master shoot lightning bolts from his TARDIS that kills some people at the Radio Telescope? Or was that the previous episode? Anyway, the people of Castovalva were alive, even if artificial. Four To Doomsday - weren’t some of the Robots "killed, " I think Enlightenment and Persuasion didn’t survive. Again, they were artificial but still arguably alive. Snakedance - The Mara dies. [/QUOTE] “The Celestial Toymaker” has several victims of the Toymaker’s deadly games (the only one we get to see, in the one surviving episode, is Cyril the nasty schoolboy getting electrocuted). But, arguably, they’re not real people, just constructs of the Toymaker’s imagination. The same, presumably, applies to “Castrovalva” (the mayhem at the radio telescope is in the previous story, “Logopolis”). There’s nothing in “The Mind Robber” to imply the fictional characters are anything but fictional - the only “real” person there, apart from the regular cast, is the guy who’s had his brain slaved to the master computer, and he’s not killed, they take him with them. On the other hand, the master computer is destroyed. (Though not the land of fiction itself. I think. But, then, the whole story could be a dream sequence or a hallucination of some kind … ) If you argue that the computer was “alive”, I guess the same would hold for the robots in “Four To Doomsday” … I’m not so sure about “Snakedance”, though - _can_ the Mara be permanently destroyed? Everything I’ve got (including the audio versions) referring to “The Savages” (late William Hartnell story) and “Fury from the Deep” (middle-ish Patrick Troughton period) confirms that nobody dies in these stories - even some people thought dead in an accident in “Fury from the Deep” turn out to be OK in the end. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dr-who-05-12-the-doctor-dances-every-week-i-am-enjoying-this-show-more/356586.md?page=1)