Doctor Who 1.9/1.10 (5/5/06, 5/12/06) Empty Child/Doctor Dances (current-ep spoilers)

[sydbar]

I agree, the doctors sending them to their room was great, but i really loved the human doctor telling the woman that now had 2 legs that she may of miscounted the number of legs she had because of the war.

 

[Plane Sailing]

What's up with the balloons though? I imagine it was historicilally accurate but I have no idea why london would have all those blimp shaped ballons around during the bombings.

The barrage balloon was simply a bag of lighter-than-air gas attached to a steel cable anchored to the ground. The balloon could be raised or lowered to the desired altitude by means of a winch. Its purpose was ingenuous: to deny low-level airspace to enemy aircraft. This simple mission provided three major benefits: (1) it forced aircraft to higher altitudes, thereby decreasing surprise and bombing accuracy; (2) it enhanced ground-based air defenses and the ability of fighters to acquire targets,since intruding aircraft were limited in altitudes and direction: and (3) the cable presented a definite mental and material hazard to pilots.15 Many people think that a barrage balloon system was designed to snare aircraft like a spider web capturing unwary flies. Not so. Any airplanes caught in these aerial nets were a bonus; the real objective of the balloons was to deny low-altitude flight to the enemy. Mindful of these capabilities, the British saw the barrage balloon as a viable means to counter low-level attackers during the world wars.

...

With the capital securely covered, barrage balloons also flew at fleet anchorages and harbors in threatened areas. Although airfields also requested them during the early months of the war, the balloons were not available because of slow production and losses due to combat and bad weather. However, thanks to a new balloon plant, the barrage system had 2,368 balloons by the end of August 1940 and would maintain approximately 2,000 operational balloons until the end of the war.22

These numbers demonstrate the extent to which the British valued their balloons. They even formed Balloon Command, an independent command under the leadership of Air Marshal Sir E. Leslie Gossage, to control the 52 operational barrage balloon squadrons stationed across Great Britain.23 Eventually, this command consisted of 33,000 men.24 The amount of equipment and the number of personnel, however, tell only part of the story. Performance in combat is the principal indicator of a weapon system's success, and the balloons received a thorough test during World War II.

During the Battle of Britain and throughout the war, balloons proved their worth, time and again. Besides protecting strategic cities and ports, barrage balloons mounted in boats defended estuaries against mine-laying aircraft. A declassified wartime report assessed their performance: "Following the aerial sowing of mechanical mines, the reallocation of various units of the balloon barrage system to places like the Thames Estuary, and certain other channels, has resulted in effectively reducing the aerial mine sowing operations of the German Air Force."25 Barrage balloon cables also successfully frustrated German attempts to achieve surprise, low-level penetration at Dover.

The Dover incident deserves elaboration because it provided, in the words of Air Marshal Gossage, "a clear indication of their [the Germans'] respect for the British balloon barrage."26 In an attempt to clear the balloons from Dover, the Germans launched a major effort in late August 1940. They destroyed 40 balloons but lost six aircraft in the process. Much to the Germans' chagrin, 34 new balloons appeared the very next day. Air Marshal Gossage commented on the action: "The protective balloons still fly over Dover. The attack on the barrage has proved too costly. . . . In general, major attacks on balloon barrages have ceased, the enemy having realised that the game is not worth the candle. The fact, however, that he hoped to destroy our balloons is in itself proof of the utility of the barrage."27 During the height of the blitz, 102 aircraft struck cables, resulting in 66 crashed or forced landings.28

Source: Aerospace Power Journal - Summer 1989

Cheers

 

[Felon]

Great pair of episodes. Very reminiscent of the old Tom Baker episodes that combined elements of sci-fi, fantasy, and horror (that was back when angry mums started writing in to complain that Dr. Who wasn't fit for kids anymore).

Unfortunately, Tennant is not as good Eccleston IMO. Bit of a spas.

 

[glass]

What's up with the balloons though? I imagine it was historicilally accurate but I have no idea why london would have all those blimp shaped ballons around during the bombings.

They were to make life difficult for the bombers, IIRC.

EDIT: Oops. Shoulda read on a bit!


glass.

 

[Hand of Evil]

I have to say that I have been very impressed with the the show, the Empty Child was down right spooky, The Doctor Dances was very fun and along classic lines.

 

[Brown Jenkin]

For those in the UK who said just wait till Empty Child you were so right. At first I loved the new companion Rose and now Empty Child showed that the new series can be just as good as the old. This (both parts = 1 old episode) rank up in the top ten of all Doctor Who episodes for me.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

I really liked "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances" storyline. I was really pleased at the answer in the second episode to my biggest question from the first: what's up with the gas masks growing out of the faces? In the first episode, it seemed like the author came up with what he thought would be a cool visual, but didn't really have a good explanation in mind as to why that would have come about. The second episode explained everything nicely, though.

The nit-picker in me was not quite as happy with the explaination since a gas mask doesn't contain DNA, so why would reading the mother's DNA suddenly make the nano-genes understand that the gas mask didn't belong on everyone, when it wasn't in Jamie's DNA in the first place?

Anyway, its just a nit-pick, something I try not to do with Doctor Who. It was a cool, creepy visual that, combined with the airplane sounds kept evoking images of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" for me.

 

[Hand of Evil]

The nit-picker in me was not quite as happy with the explaination since a gas mask doesn't contain DNA, so why would reading the mother's DNA suddenly make the nano-genes understand that the gas mask didn't belong on everyone, when it wasn't in Jamie's DNA in the first place?

Anyway, its just a nit-pick, something I try not to do with Doctor Who. It was a cool, creepy visual that, combined with the airplane sounds kept evoking images of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" for me.

remember the kid was 'bombed', we do not know what he looked at when the nano-genes found him.

 

[Kesh]

The nit-picker in me was not quite as happy with the explaination since a gas mask doesn't contain DNA, so why would reading the mother's DNA suddenly make the nano-genes understand that the gas mask didn't belong on everyone, when it wasn't in Jamie's DNA in the first place?

Anyway, its just a nit-pick, something I try not to do with Doctor Who. It was a cool, creepy visual that, combined with the airplane sounds kept evoking images of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" for me.

The explanation in my head was that the nanogenes thought: "Hey, this is the mother? She resembles all the other people we've been 'correcting' since... oh. A-heh. Guys? We need to make a slight adjustment."

 

[MonsterMash]

I thought this was probably one of the high points of last season with a good plot and acting. They even managed to avoid getting the human doctor saying "I can't believe it"