# Things I've learned from watching "Doctor Who" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 18, 2009, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061 "2009-11-18T20:12:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![fiddlesticks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fiddlesticks/32/18129_2.png) [@fiddlesticks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fiddlesticks)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/21 "2009-11-19T13:36:14Z")
Don’t blink. Don’t turn your back. Don’t look away. AND DON’T BLINK! ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/22 "2009-11-19T13:57:40Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > Well, they’ve actually addressed that on the show. The Tardis is equipped with a functioning “perception filter” (not to be confused with the busted chameleon circuit) that, reminiscent of Douglas Adams’ SEP device, works with the instinctive human desire not to see things we don’t understand. But people on the show have asked “What’s a police call box?” when their attention was drawn to it. On one of the _Sarah jane Adventures_ episodes she goes back to the 1950s (for unimportant dramatic reasons) and spots a police box. She rushes towards it thinking it’s the Doctor - nope, just a police box. With a policeman in it. Other things: You can dig a tunnel to the center of the Earth and empty the Thames down it with no lasting consequences. An exploding spaceship also killed off the dinosaurs. You can move the entire planet to some other part of the universe and back without causing the Earth to disintegrate, the Moon to wander off on its own or all life to freeze to death. Your crockery may rattle a little, however. ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/23 "2009-11-19T14:08:11Z")
> [@wolfman](#): > > Approximately 50-60% of all alien would be space overlords through out the Universe plotting to conquer it, base their schemes out of a London Warehouse or Laboratory. Or, more recently, a Cardiff warehouse or laboratory. (Since Torchwood is part of the Whoniverse…) ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/24 "2009-11-19T15:10:20Z")
> [@Intergalactic\_Gladiator](#): > > You can solve problems without fighting. Standing up to giant aliens, monsters, well equipped armies, and other nasties can be accomplished without superior firepower. However, if you get this seemingly harmless, unarmed, and slightly rumpled fellow sufficiently pissed off he’ll engineer a temporal xeno-genocide that will result in your entire species having never existed. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 3:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/25 "2009-11-19T15:20:57Z")
Most people agree that your first one is the best one. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/26 "2009-11-19T15:52:30Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > Most people agree that your first one is the best one. Are we referring here to William Hartnell or Rose? 🙂 (And I cannot recall where I first saw this posted but: the [Doctor’s Girls](http://mimi-na.deviantart.com/art/Doctor-s-Girls-46247500)) ---
**Author:** ![Don\_Draper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@Don\_Draper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Don_Draper)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/27 "2009-11-19T16:05:35Z")
High technological gadgets of the far future will look, as Rose succinctly put it, “so disco.” ---
**Author:** ![ianzin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ed655f/32.png) [@ianzin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ianzin)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/28 "2009-11-19T16:17:12Z")
A perilous situation is always completely un-fixable, with **no** way out, **no** solution, **no** escape, **no** hope of rescue, **no** way to avert the truly terrible fate that awaits us, them or someone or something. Until about six minutes from the end, when suddenly the way to stop it happening occurs to the Doctor or someone. In other words, everything is strictly impossible _until_ it suddenly becomes possible. ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/29 "2009-11-19T16:31:37Z")
1. (or whatever number we are on) Everyone (and pretty much everything) in the universe speaks English. I have tried using this rational on language instructors I have had, but it never seems to work. 2. Anyone who dresses really badly doesn’t necessarily have bad taste, they could just be from a different planet and different time (This so explains Elvis’ jumpsuits and Elton John in general). ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/30 "2009-11-19T17:06:49Z")
> [@TV\_time](#): > > 1. (or whatever number we are on) Everyone (and pretty much everything) in the universe speaks English. I have tried using this rational on language instructors I have had, but it never seems to work. Er, no. The TARDIS translates everything - it’s been mentioned (and riffed on) several times, including the \*Christmas Invasion \*where it stops working for a while and the Pompeii episode where Donna attempts to speak Latin to a Roman to see what will happen (she gets accused of speaking Celtic IIRC). ---
**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:** [November 19, 2009, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/31 "2009-11-19T17:15:06Z")
The TARDIS always transports the Doctor to a critical or cataclysmic point in time. If the Doctor sightsees on Mars, it will be on the day the mars colony blows up. I think they even discussed this in Doctor Who. There’s currents and eddies in time that the TARDIS locks on to. If you visit Shakespeare it will be on a critical day that the earth is nearly destroyed. Nifty plot device. lol ---
**Author:** ![johnspartan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a183cd/32.png) [@johnspartan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnspartan)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/32 "2009-11-19T17:17:33Z")
Something absolutely completely totally really universally eliminated forever is gone for at least four episodes. ---
**Author:** ![Todderbob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/33 "2009-11-19T17:24:08Z")
> [@johnspartan](#): > > Something absolutely completely totally really universally eliminated forever is gone for at least four episodes. And if it’s gone considerably longer than that, you should be very, **very** worried. ---
**Author:** ![Constant\_Reader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8edcca/32.png) [@Constant\_Reader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Constant_Reader)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/34 "2009-11-19T17:46:51Z")
Deadlock seals are bad news. ---
**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:** [November 19, 2009, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/35 "2009-11-19T17:55:00Z")
The current show’s TARDIS is nearly indestructible. The TARDIS for the early Doctor(s) was very undependable. It often malfunctioned and took the Doctor to the wrong place. ---
**Author:** ![Todderbob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e47774/32.png) [@Todderbob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Todderbob)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/36 "2009-11-19T18:33:21Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > The current show’s TARDIS is nearly indestructible. > > The TARDIS for the early Doctor(s) was very undependable. It often malfunctioned and took the Doctor to the wrong place. Even Atila the Hun’s army couldnt get through! :smack: ---
**Author:** ![Kal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9de053/32.png) [@Kal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kal)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/37 "2009-11-19T18:49:02Z")
Most alien planets look like a quarry. ---
**Author:** ![Nobody](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/94ad74/32.png) [@Nobody](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nobody)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/38 "2009-11-19T18:57:59Z")
> [@Kal](#): > > Most alien planets look like a quarry. Pssst…post 16 ---
**Author:** ![HPL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/3da27b/32.png) [@HPL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HPL)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 7:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/39 "2009-11-19T19:38:41Z")
Every time the Daleks or the Cybermen are eliminated forever, expect them to show up in massive numbers next season or in the season finale. Every Nuclear Weapon on Earth is secretly controlled by the UN or UNIT. Even North Koreas. As a Collary, the apperence of the UN being completely useless is just a very clever illusion. Every other alien race in the universe either wants to destory or conquer the earth. The ones that don’t need us to reproduce. Despite all of this, there are still people who don’t believe in aliens. Giant spaceships nearly destorying london on live TV notwithstanding. Despite having a Machine that can go anywhere in time and space, the Doctor spends a suspiciously large amount of time in present-ish day britian. No matter how far in the future you go, humans will always look the same(except for the ones that don’t look human) and technology won’t have advanced much. They will still be using diesel trucks at the end of the universe in a trillion years. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2009, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061/40 "2009-11-19T19:54:49Z")
Most of Earth is England. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/things-ive-learned-from-watching-doctor-who/518061.md?page=3)