Doctor Who (2020) - spoilers!

[Son of the Serpent]

Just watched this week's offering. In many ways, perhaps it is a weak episode...

but the message at the end is important enough to carry it.

Thats a very sad saving grace.

What was the message at the tail end of, what i feel like you are implying was, an hour of boredom?

 

[Morrus]

I'm still trying to figure out how a life form that breathes oxygen and exhales carbon dioxide evolves to do the exact opposite. (Because of global warming, apparently.)

It's the other way round. Plants breathe CO2 (and water) and create glucose as food, with oxygen as a side-product.

 

[Umbran]

What was the message at the tail end of what i feel like you arr implying was an hour of boredom?

Oh, no, I was not bored watching the episode. It was weak for other reasons, but it didn't bore me.

The message:

Spoiler

 

[Umbran]

The concept of a vacation paradise you can only get to via teleporting from anywhere across the cosmos (which sounds like it would be pretty expensive and/or require a lot of power but can apparently happen merely by placing six coupons together) was pretty stupid.

With respect, long-range transmat/teleport was established in Doctor Who... back in the 1970s, I believe. And, the Doctor has a box bigger on the inside that goes anywhere in time and space, and you're worried about just moving people around?

I'm still trying to figure out how a life form that breathes oxygen and exhales carbon dioxide evolves to do the exact opposite. (Because of global warming, apparently.) So what exactly happened?

Um, Doctor Who isn't about telling you the exact history of its monsters, unless that history is plot relevant.

Be that as it may, it is important to note that "breathing" means different things for different organisms. For you and I, "breathing" is taking in an oxidizing agent that we then use to burn fuel. For plants, "breathing" is a process where they bring in the bulk of their building material (carbon) - plants build themselves out of thin air!

Chemically, carbon dioxide doesn't work as an oxidizing agent - it is already oxidized, obviously, thus the name. So, it must be that these creatures are acting more like plants - they are taking in carbon dioxide for the carbon, and they release the oxygen as a by-product.

And I really doubt anyone who's not already behind the "global warning is bad" message is going to have their opinion swayed by an episode of Doctor Who.

With respect, the show is talking about efforts to change how global society operates and a massive scale. That's not a thing you talk about once, and never mention again. That's a message that needs to be repeated, over and over, to keep people's mind on the target, even if they are on-board with the notion.

If you don't want to be given an occasional moral... Doctor Who really isn't the right show to watch.

 

[Son of the Serpent]

Oh, no, I was not bored watching the episode. It was weak for other reasons, but it didn't bore me.

The message:

Spoiler

Ah. Why was it weak?

 

[Morrus]

I found it a little clumsily preachy. Doctor Who is better when it shows (as it did earlier in the episode), rather than tells (as it did at the end).

 

[Son of the Serpent]

I found it a little clumsily preachy. Doctor Who is better when it shows (as it did earlier in the episode), rather than tells (as it did at the end).

I completely agree with that. Honestly i cant think of a context (entertainment or otherwise) that preachiness is not a complete turn off to me. I hate preachiness. If something is preachy keep it away from me.

 

[wicked cool]

it was beyond preachy. The preacher hit us over the head with a brick

 

[Son of the Serpent]

With respect, long-range transmat/teleport was established in Doctor Who... back in the 1970s, I believe. And, the Doctor has a box bigger on the inside that goes anywhere in time and space, and you're worried about just moving people around?



Um, Doctor Who isn't about telling you the exact history of its monsters, unless that history is plot relevant.

Be that as it may, it is important to note that "breathing" means different things for different organisms. For you and I, "breathing" is taking in an oxidizing agent that we then use to burn fuel. For plants, "breathing" is a process where they bring in the bulk of their building material (carbon) - plants build themselves out of thin air!

Chemically, carbon dioxide doesn't work as an oxidizing agent - it is already oxidized, obviously, thus the name. So, it must be that these creatures are acting more like plants - they are taking in carbon dioxide for the carbon, and they release the oxygen as a by-product.



With respect, the show is talking about efforts to change how global society operates and a massive scale. That's not a thing you talk about once, and never mention again. That's a message that needs to be repeated, over and over, to keep people's mind on the target, even if they are on-board with the notion.

If you don't want to be given an occasional moral... Doctor Who really isn't the right show to watch.

IME much more people at this point are likely to abandon the "global warming matters m'kay? Ship" from the message saturating their lives than are people likely to join that boat.

People dont like to be preached at. But that message is starting to get the cultural perception of being preachy by default. Kinda getting to the point where there is a tightrope to be walked because it was pushed too hard too fast.

People love dogma. They are deathly allergic to dogmatc saturation though. Success is not captured with a lead blanket.

 

[Umbran]

People love dogma. They are deathly allergic to dogmatc saturation though.

And that... is a dogma.

Believe what you want. I'm not going to argue it here.