The official 2015 Doctor Who (with spoilers for aired episodes only) thread

[Umbran]

Yup, either that or he would have gone back to leave them there just prior to frying himself, the first time, after setting up all of the other breadcrumbs.

There is a problem with that - it takes energy to make the clothes in the teleporter, too. If he's in his skivvies when he fries (the first, or nth time, doesn't matter) where does the next doctor get his starting clothes? There's a few pounds of mass-energy not accounted for.

And, it is discussions like this which demonstrate why a single line of "magic" often doesn't do it!

 

[Ryujin]

There is a problem with that - it takes energy to make the clothes in the teleporter, too. If he's in his skivvies when he fries (the first, or nth time, doesn't matter) where does the next doctor get his starting clothes? There's a few pounds of mass-energy not accounted for.

And, it is discussions like this which demonstrate why a single line of "magic" often doesn't do it!

Since we didn't see his first pass through the loop that energy could have come from any piece of matter he took from a room, that would then be fried also. It wouldn't matter if it reset or didn't, with the room, as it would be missing by the first time that we saw it.

 

[delericho]

There is a problem with that - it takes energy to make the clothes in the teleporter, too. If he's in his skivvies when he fries (the first, or nth time, doesn't matter) where does the next doctor get his starting clothes? There's a few pounds of mass-energy not accounted for.

There is anyway - there's a skull left behind each time.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Many authors believe that. Many authors also write things that follow Sturgeon's Law: 90% of everything is crud.

In good writing - be it fantasy magic or science fiction superscience, you still have *rules*, even if they are implicit. The author sets expectations in the audience, and if you clumsily violate those expectations, you tend to create dissatisfaction in your audience. Sure, they could write a single line and wave it away, and then major science bloggers who normally laud the show will come down on it like they came down on, "Kill the Moon," for similar reasons: basic fixable laziness on the part of the writers and producers.

Correct me if I am wrong, but you seem to come from this from the assumption that if you find a way to give an audience an excuse to ignore something, then you're okay. I don't think the audience of Doctor Who is generally looking for reasons to ignore things. Many of them are looking for reasons to *think* about things. You won't satisfy them with poorly written one-liners.

I take this stuff on a case by case basis. My expectations with an Arthur C Clarke novel are very different from my expectations of a Star Wars movie or Doctor Who. Doctor Who has always kind of had it both ways. Sometimes it has these really clever, fully explained things, but other times its just "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow".

I think in an episode of Doctor Who like this, you will have minor things that are oversights or just not given much explanation, but the core concept was wonderful in my view. In Doctor Who, I can overlook stuff like what happened with the shirt, for the bigger picture that this episode creates.

 

[Morrus]

And then fried to ash when he uses himself to fuel the teleporter, or he'd have immediately known what was going on from the moment that he materialized.

Ah, yes. You're right!

 

[Umbran]

Sometimes it has these really clever, fully explained things, but other times its just "reverse the polarity of the neutron flow".

You see, I *loved* when the Doctor said that. That was a clever way to inform the audience of the expectations they should have for the moment. It only works the once, of course, but it did the job well.

I think in an episode of Doctor Who like this, you will have minor things that are oversights

How an *entire planet* hides in plain sight, however, would be hard to call a minor oversight.

 

[Umbran]

There is anyway - there's a skull left behind each time.

Quite true. And a bunch of ash as well. Hm...

And, the Doctor *eats* while there, every time. The thing then can't really be a closed loop.

Of course, the whole issue goes away as soon as you have it happening in a mindspace in the dial, rather than a real experience.

 

[Bedrockgames]

You see, I *loved* when the Doctor said that. That was a clever way to inform the audience of the expectations they should have for the moment. It only works the once, of course, but it did the job well.
.

But Doctor Who does stuff like that all the time.

 

[Ryujin]

Quite true. And a bunch of ash as well. Hm...

And, the Doctor *eats* while there, every time. The thing then can't really be a closed loop.

Of course, the whole issue goes away as soon as you have it happening in a mindspace in the dial, rather than a real experience.

It could well have been a real experience that occurred in a closed time loop, in a dimensionally transcendental space. That's the thing, when you're dealing with a race who commands both space and time. It could have taken a real 3+ billion years, in a real physical space, and he could have come out a objective 5 minutes after going in to a person outside the space.

 

[Morrus]

When does Gallifrey exist, anyway? In the future? The past? Is it outside time? Do they even think like that?