# {New Dr Who Season, UK pace} \[edited title\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 22, 2011, 12:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347 "2011-04-22T12:42:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 34
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/661 "2011-06-05T20:36:11Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > Seems to me that the TARDIS was reading AmyGanger as not pregnant but also picked up the very pregnant Amy’s control signal and wasn’t sure what to do. Could be that, or it could be that because of the link Amy’s body was doing some pregnancy things - say, hormonal stuff that would normally only happen during pregnancy. But then Amy’s body was scanning as non-pregnant. So, there you get the flip flop. Now, I know this is a show about time travel, so “continuity error” means less than it normally does. But think about this… On their wedding night, Rory and Amy are busy doing their consummating in the TARDIS. Amy gets pregnant. So, at some point she gets nabbed and replaced by The Bad Guys. So…why isn’t Amyganger pregnant? Assuming she’s an exact copy she should be. I assume that the obvious solution would be she was scanned, a copy grown, and then a swap. But still seems like a bit of a hole. This may seem like a dense question, but why does The Vatican of the Future want The Doctor destroyed? It seems to me that by focusing such effort on taking out a guy who is devoted to helping people pretty much screams out “WE’RE TOTALLY BAD GUYS!”. Even bad regimes pretend to not be so. > [@DSeid](#): > > ButHer being the girl in the spacesuit is in her own past. And her actions during the first episode are not consistent with knowing that she was that girl. I don’t get how they make this fit unless they cover it all over with “It gets timey wimey.” > I’m not gonna unbox first! Who says she retains her memory after regenerations? That’s the easiest explanation. That or she’s just a good actor and doesn’t want to let everyone know she’s in her own personal time loop. Assuming the Silents are in play we still don’t know what’s **actually** going on. Not big picture-wise. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/662 "2011-06-05T20:56:13Z")
Couple other things I thought of from reading the thread. First, The Doctor definitely didn’t know who Soldier Girl was. Saying it involved running is right up there with him guessing that he’d told her to trust him. He’ll run into her in his future and end up feeling guilty as hell. Second, The Headless Monks didn’t let them go, they ran out of Monks. The Doctor brought a pretty formidable bunch of folks with him on purpose. Like an old DM once said, ‘They had to run out of elves eventually’. Third, I’ve seen enough from Moffat to know that he doesn’t waste a lot of screen time. While the two gay clerics might have been just something to humanize the soldiers, I think it’ll be more than that. Either the creation process for the Monks will be important (“Please insert your head into the guillotine box. Thank you!”), or maybe one of those guys will be important. Fourth, wondering how the Monks work and function without heads is silly, of course. This is Doctor Who after all. Consider it indistinguishable from magic. However, I did notice during the ‘conversion’ scene that thinks seemed to be directed by some disembodied voice. So, I’m going to guess something computerized like the Papal Mainframe is steering them. So, they’re just robots. Finally, why was there a Silurian running around in London 1888? -Joe ---
**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:** [June 5, 2011, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/663 "2011-06-05T21:07:46Z")
Shouldn’t River have regenerated after _Forest of the Dead_? Perhaps she did. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/664 "2011-06-05T21:17:41Z")
> [@GuanoLad](#): > > Shouldn’t River have regenerated after _Forest of the Dead_? Perhaps she did. Perhaps she did. Perhaps she has a very limited number. All sorts of perhapses. I’m thinking she regenerated. Hell, is it possible some of her encounters with Smith Doctor (hell, I just got that! I was thinking it was a reference to Tennant’s always using Smith as an alias!) have actually been after her ‘death’. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Alan\_Smithee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/2acd7d/32.png) [@Alan\_Smithee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alan_Smithee)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/665 "2011-06-05T21:34:51Z")
He’s been using the alias John Smith since at least the Third Doctor, I think. Maybe the Second. ---
**Author:** ![WotNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@WotNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WotNot)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/666 "2011-06-05T21:41:42Z")
> [@AlsoNamedBort](#): > > My biggest question about River now is > > If she’s born to 21st Century parents, why is she living in the 51st Century? Did she just decide to Time Travel there, or is she really 3000 years old? Don’t forget that she’s working in the 51st century as an _archaeologist_ –she’s very likely the foremost authority on 20th century artefacts.😉 > [@Merijeek](#): > > This may seem like a dense question, but why does The Vatican of the Future want The Doctor destroyed? It seems to me that by focusing such effort on taking out a guy who is devoted to helping people pretty much screams out “WE’RE TOTALLY BAD GUYS!”. Even bad regimes pretend to not be so. It’s a matter of perspective, though, isn’t it? Yes, from his point of view, he’s helping people – but he destroys armies, shatters economies, destroys civilizations and explodes the occasional planet to do it. And boasts about it. He’s a fucking menace. > [@GuanoLad](#): > > Shouldn’t River have regenerated after _Forest of the Dead_? Perhaps she did. The reason she handcuffed the Doctor and took his place was that he wouldn’t survive or regenerate. If he couldn’t neither could she. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/667 "2011-06-05T22:07:17Z")
> [@Alan\_Smithee](#): > > He’s been using the alias John Smith since at least the Third Doctor, I think. Maybe the Second. Right, but when he said it (or was it DoctorGanger?), I think it was meant to be a “Matt Smith” joke. -Joe ---
**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:** [June 5, 2011, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/668 "2011-06-05T22:56:19Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > So how/why does the\* bassinet\* say River Song on it? The prayer leaf is one thing. And isn’t her telling him that a spoiler? The bassinet _doesn’t_ say River Song. The writing on the bassinet won’t translate because it’s Old Galifreyan. Only the prayer leaf translates. And I have to assume that if River is telling everyone, it’s because her diary says that’s the way it happened. So it may be a spoiler, but it’s an official spoiler. > [@Wile\_E](#): > > I did but it’s been speculated on a lot by others. > > So can anyone remind me where we would have seen the female soldier that met The Doctor when she was a girl in the Gamma Forests? Is it an episode from a previous Doctor or am I just totally blanking on a recent episode? I think that’s in the future. There’s still that prediction about the River being the way out of the Forest. The thing I want to know is when Amy was snatched. If they don’t make that clear at some point, it’s going to ‘itch like bugses.’ ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/669 "2011-06-05T23:09:54Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > The Headless Monks have to be the most bizarre invention on Doctor Who. Yet for most of the time they were people wearing brown cloaks with laser swords. Oooh, I wonder where that idea came from. Talking of which: Amy trapped in a white curved room with big windows was straight out of Empire Strike Back Personally I thought it was an improvement but it was hard not to improve on what has been a very, very poor series. Highly derivative and sorry, but the Doctor calling in all his mates and favours was surely pretty much what he did in “The End of Time”. A mere one and a half series ago. A lack of originality is not something I usually associate with Dr Who. ---
**Author:** ![DSeid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dseid/32/20194_2.png) [@DSeid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSeid)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/670 "2011-06-05T23:34:20Z")
[QUOTE=Yllaria] The bassinet _doesn’t_ say River Song. The writing on the bassinet won’t translate because it’s Old Galifreyan. Only the prayer leaf translates. And I have to assume that if River is telling everyone, it’s because her diary says that’s the way it happened. So it may be a spoiler, but it’s an official spoiler. [/quote] But it was when The Doctor read it _there_ that he knew. ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2011, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/671 "2011-06-05T23:41:05Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > The thing I want to know is when Amy was snatched. If they don’t make that clear at some point, it’s going to ‘itch like bugses.’ In AGMGTW the Doctor speculates it was “before America”, which would imply during that two month gap between when Rory and Amy left the TARDIS and then subsequently received the “TARDIS blue” envelopes inviting them to the Doctor’s death. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/672 "2011-06-06T00:42:44Z")
> [@DSeid](#): > > But it was when The Doctor read it _there_ that he knew. No, that was just a camera trick. The camera focused on the Gallifreyan writing to make us \*think \*that’s what he was looking at, but what The Doctor really saw was the prayer leaf sitting in the bassinet, that’s when he realized who River Song was. Presumably the name on the bassinet is The Doctor’s. (I guess that also answers the question of how River knew his name during “Forest of the Dead.” She has mentioned she can read Gallifreyan.) I too started laughing when I saw the title for the next episode. How completely random! Though I can’t really see how they can go from this into a regular episode with a new storyline. I doubt Amy & Rory will be up for a trip to the Second World War when their baby is missing. I was a bit confused with all the former baddies coming back to help The Doctor. Why would the Cybermen, Judoon, Silurians and the Sontarans have debts to pay to the Doctor? Didn’t he kill most of those guys the last time they were seen? :dubious: ---
**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:** [June 6, 2011, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/673 "2011-06-06T00:54:21Z")
I didn’t care much for “angry Amy” at the end. I thought she was going to punch the Doctor. Then she pulls a gun and points it at River. First episode she tries to shoot a kid in a spacesuit. Doesn’t seem like traveling with the Doctor taught her much. It really bothered me that she lost faith at the end. The Doctor raised an army to save her sorry ass. Nearly got slugged or spat on for his trouble. The baby is still out there somewhere still needing a rescue. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/674 "2011-06-06T00:54:52Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > I was a bit confused with all the former baddies coming back to help The Doctor. Why would the Cybermen, Judoon, Silurians and the Sontarans have debts to pay to the Doctor? Didn’t he kill most of those guys the last time they were seen? :dubious: Not really. The Cybermen were quite clearly a “I just blew up most of your fleet. Give me my information or I blow up the rest.” The Judoon are the muscle of the Shadow Proclamation. The Doctor has been on the same side of them plenty of times. Silurians, he brokered a peace that kept them and humanity from going at it rather messily. The Sontarans…this one I’m not so sure about. Only time we’ve seen them in NuWho he wiped them out. > [@aceplace57](#): > > I didn’t care much for “angry Amy” at the end. I thought she was going to punch the Doctor. Then she pulls a gun and points it at River. People go crazy over their kids. Look at the poster above who can’t even handle watching shows like this where something unpleasant happens to a child. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Broomstick](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/broomstick/32/246_2.png) [@Broomstick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Broomstick)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/675 "2011-06-06T00:56:39Z")
Seems to me there was only ONE Sontaran, and that one was doing penance for some unspecified Horrible Thing. ---
**Author:** ![amanset](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8dc957/32.png) [@amanset](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amanset)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/676 "2011-06-06T01:04:48Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > I didn’t care much for “angry Amy” at the end. I thought she was going to punch the Doctor. Then she pulls a gun and points it at River. > > First episode she tries to shoot a kid in a spacesuit. > > Doesn’t seem like traveling with the Doctor taught her much. > > It really bothered me that she lost faith at the end. The Doctor raised an army to save her sorry ass. Nearly got slugged or spat on for his trouble. The baby is still out there somewhere still needing a rescue. Hormones. She’s just had a kid. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/677 "2011-06-06T01:19:52Z")
> [@amanset](#): > > Hormones. She’s just had a kid. Sorry, darling. Testicles. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/678 "2011-06-06T06:21:10Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Then she pulls a gun and points it at River. Well, River’s teasing schtick is annoying at the best of times. I think we can forgive Amy for not wanting to put up with it during a legitimate crisis. ---
**Author:** ![Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/half_man_half_wit/32/21766_2.png) [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Half_Man_Half_Wit)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/679 "2011-06-06T07:37:13Z")
So was the Silurian in the 19th century something we’re supposed to know the backstory to? In any case, she was awesome from the introduction – “Jack the Ripper has ripped his last prostitute.” – “How did you find him?” – “A bit chewy and stringy. I won’t be needing dinner…” ---
**Author:** ![Shakester](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shakester/32/437_2.png) [@Shakester](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shakester)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2011, 9:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347/680 "2011-06-06T09:13:04Z")
> [@Half\_Man\_Half\_Wit](#): > > So was the Silurian in the 19th century something we’re supposed to know the backstory to? In any case, she was awesome from the introduction – “Jack the Ripper has ripped his last prostitute.” – “How did you find him?” – “A bit chewy and stringy. I won’t be needing dinner…” [SPOILER]The later comment about meeting the Doc under Victorian London **is** the backstory. All the backstory you need, anyway. Personally, my favourite bit was when she said to Jenny “I don’t know what you see in me” then slapped down a guy across the room with a metres-long prehensile tongue. [/SPOILER] [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347.md?page=33) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-dr-who-season-uk-pace-edited-title/579347.md?page=35)