I wouldn't put it quite like that, I'd say it's the writer making it up as he/she goes along, but that's a fine old Who tradition that's been the case for 50 years.
I agree. Too often in Doctor Who, explanations which don't make much sense are clearly shoehorned in at the last minute.
Prime examples I can think of are the Doctor's hand in Series 4 and the "Numskulls" machine in Series 6. It is obvious that these were never originally intended to resolve their series' respective arcs. Otherwise, more reference would have been made to them during the course of the series.
I agree. Too often in Doctor Who, explanations which don't make much sense are clearly shoehorned in at the last minute.
Prime examples I can think of are the Doctor's hand in Series 4 and the "Numskulls" machine in Series 6. It is obvious that these were never originally intended to resolve their series' respective arcs. Otherwise, more reference would have been made to them during the course of the series.
Yes. Cos bringing something up repeatedly for no apparent reason would be great writing.
Sure, I don't think RTD had specifically planned for the Doc's metawotsit when the Sicorax chopped his hand off way back in the Christmas Invasion. But he kept it around, via Torchwood and beyond, so that's it's reappearance didn't feel 'shoehorned' into anything.
And the whole point of not banging on about the Teslecta was so that it wouldn't be so obvious that who 'died' on the beach.
Yes. Cos bringing something up repeatedly for no apparent reason would be great writing.
Sure, I don't think RTD had specifically planned for the Doc's metawotsit when the Sicorax chopped his hand off way back in the Christmas Invasion. But he kept it around, via Torchwood and beyond, so that's it's reappearance didn't feel 'shoehorned' into anything.
And the whole point of not banging on about the Teslecta was so that it wouldn't be so obvious that who 'died' on the beach.
If the hand had been brought up earlier in Season 4, I would have bought it. To only bring it up again in the second-last episode of that season tells me it was a last minute thought.
The Teselecta thing had too many plotholes - how on Earth did it simulate the Doctor's regeneration energy when shot? This shows that this too was thought of only at the last minute as a resolution.
Having The Tardis go and save The Doctor in such a way does kind of set up a precedent. From now on whenever The Doctor is in peril in future episodes will we now see The Tardis shoot off and save the day?
Things like this do tend to ask the question 'Well if it did it then why doesn't it do it again?'
Much like having The Tardis invisible in the 'Astronaut' two parter, why not have it land cloaked all the time, could save a lot of hassle in the long run.
If the hand had been brought up earlier in Season 4, I would have bought it. To only bring it up again in the second-last episode of that season tells me it was a last minute thought.
The Teselecta thing had too many plotholes - how on Earth did it simulate the Doctor's regeneration energy when shot? This shows that this too was thought of only at the last minute as a resolution.
Really? Having the hand be brought along specifically by Harkness so the Doctor then has it back allowed the plot to happen. It was most likely the other way round...
Also, the teselecta showed many different abilities, not least creating moving parts, and removable objects (the bike and cowboy hat). And it was being piloted by a technical genius. How would it not be able to produce fake regeneration energy, as it only appears to be lights? It would be inconcievable that it couldn't?
I don't see your argument. Had you pointed to The Power of Three... That was a very quick botch-job of an ending, using the ultimate no-no of the sonic, too. But instead you pick on two examples of plot-seeding! Baffling...
The Teselecta thing had too many plotholes - how on Earth did it simulate the Doctor's regeneration energy when shot? This shows that this too was thought of only at the last minute as a resolution.
That doesn't even make sense. It's not like they filmed the first few episodes and then sat down and started writing the script to the later ones - they all have to be planned out at the same time.
It seems to me that, until the Doctor's Wife, the TARDIS was pretending to be non-sentient. It had to reveal itself in that episode so now, having done so, it is free to manifest its hologram or perform actions of its own accord without having to worry about giving away its secret.
The Tardis has always had a bit of a mind of its own. Since the Doctors Wife it's gotten a bit more sentient. I think there's definitely 2 parts to it- a 'machine' part and another part which is like some kind of artificial intelligence, or some living energy type thing. The Doc has had a lot of time to tinker since the Doctor's Wife episode, so it's not surprising some things have been expanded upon.
We also know the Tardis is always having some part or other break down. It is a VERY old machine you know and bits of it don't always work. Also, when some bits are fixed, sometimes that breaks other bits. As the Doctor has been on his own more or less for a couple of hundred years or something now, I'd think one of the things he'd concentrate on fixing most would be the remote control/autopilot features. There's been episodes in the past few years, as well as from classic Who where Tardis fubnctions have been explored. He's made the doors open and close with a button, fixed/broke/fixed/broke the chameleon circuit, had to fix something or other in the zero room because of decay due to entropy. Doc3 was 'trapped' for years on Earth, tinkering with the Tardis for a lot of it, because the Timelords had kind of banished him there. The Master ripped stuff out of the Tardis for his own ends fairly recently too. It's not that surprising it can go wrong sometimes ( like going to the wrong pole automatically).
What's wrong with the Hand- nothing wrong with the hand I can see?
What's wrong with the Tesselecta? A machine that can alter it's form and make you see what it wants you to see. Can't it show you something which looks like regeneration energy coming out of it. The thing can time travel for blimey's sake.
Hmpf! The Smith!Eleventh Doctor and Ganger Cleaves keeping the rest of Team TARDIS and her other passengers safe in Series 6 seemed much, much longer than the TARDIS trips to the Pocketverse.
have to stop you there -- the HADS has been around since 1968 at least, so is a throwback to the past rather than a lame excuse.
Throwback or not, it was still used as a get-out-clause. It'd be the same if we were watching Cold War and out of nowhere K9 popped up to save the day. It'd be logically possible, but utterly implausible.
All the same, I had no problem with it myself really. It must be hard getting rid of the TARDIS in creative ways every story.
Having The Tardis go and save The Doctor in such a way does kind of set up a precedent. From now on whenever The Doctor is in peril in future episodes will we now see The Tardis shoot off and save the day?
Things like this do tend to ask the question 'Well if it did it then why doesn't it do it again?'
Much like having The Tardis invisible in the 'Astronaut' two parter, why not have it land cloaked all the time, could save a lot of hassle in the long run.
There's quite a lot going on cribbed from the Sixties, isn't there? The invisible Tardis is straight out of "The Invasion".
I loved The Invasion when I got it on DVD - the Cosgrove Hall animated episodes are great when it comes to The Doctor and Zoe - they just didn't get Jamie quite as well, I thought.
I hate to be the one to say this,but another bizarre addition to the Whoniverse in 2010 fits with this. The TARDIS engines turn off when no one is inside. Maybe in his case the TARDIS has no choice and can only fly anywhere with someone inside.
Although I do think this is careless writing and I hope the self flying TARDIS does not reoccur.
Yet last week she took off by herself with no one inside.
I just wish the Tardis was an 'ordinary' Time & Space machine like it was originally made in the 60's!
This whole thing stemmed from Jon Pertwee calling it "Her" and "She" and saying to Jo Grant that it's a "Living time-machine".
It's gone from mad to silly now as far as I'm concerned. Next thing we know - the Tardis will be having a love affair with an alien spacecraft! (Roll-on "Red Dwarf 11 & Relative Dimensions" :cool::cool:)
As I suggested earlier, we didn't see how the TARDIS started moving. Most likely Clara started it. But as we already know he gives little lessons to his travelling partners, and he specifically told her not to touch anything (implying she may have already been shown stuff), why would we necessarily need to see it?
And she is a genius, as we saw in the 'Bells of Saint John's' episode when she hacked into a computer system that the Doctor couldn't.
I just wish the Tardis was an 'ordinary' Time & Space machine like it was originally made in the 60's!
This whole thing stemmed from Jon Pertwee calling it "Her" and "She" and saying to Jo Grant that it's a "Living time-machine".
It's gone from mad to silly now as far as I'm concerned. Next thing we know - the Tardis will be having a love affair with an alien spacecraft! (Roll-on "Red Dwarf 11 & Relative Dimensions" :cool::cool:)
Actually it stems from The Edge of Destruction, where the TARDIS "warns" the Doctor Ian Barbara and Susan that something is wrong by opening/ closing the doors at specific intervals etc...
Actually it stems from The Edge of Destruction, where the TARDIS "warns" the Doctor Ian Barbara and Susan that something is wrong by opening/ closing the doors at specific intervals etc...
Isn't that the third ever story? So to all intents and purposes the viewers were informed that the Tardis was sentient from almost the very beginning.
If the hand had been brought up earlier in Season 4, I would have bought it. To only bring it up again in the second-last episode of that season tells me it was a last minute thought.
The Teselecta thing had too many plotholes - how on Earth did it simulate the Doctor's regeneration energy when shot? This shows that this too was thought of only at the last minute as a resolution.
The hand was key to "The Doctor's Daughter" wasn't it? And by that virtue, the previous cliffhanger too. Jack brought it back at the end of S3. I call that forward planning!
She went from not even knowing how wi-fi works, to being able to trace, and hack into the webcams of the people working against her and the Doctor, take their pictures, upload them to various websites that look for people, find their profiles, and find out where they worked.
All in less than five minutes.
To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if she managed to figure out how to fly the TARDIS, to some extent, just by watching the Doctor do it.
She went from not even knowing how wi-fi works, to being able to trace, and hack into the webcams of the people working against her and the Doctor, take their pictures, upload them to various websites that look for people, find their profiles, and find out where they worked.
All in less than five minutes.
To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if she managed to figure out how to fly the TARDIS, to some extent, just by watching the Doctor do it.
Yes, and it makes the Doctor's admonishment to her to not touch anything all the more plausible if you think of it like that!
She went from not even knowing how wi-fi works, to being able to trace, and hack into the webcams of the people working against her and the Doctor, take their pictures, upload them to various websites that look for people, find their profiles, and find out where they worked.
All in less than five minutes.
To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if she managed to figure out how to fly the TARDIS, to some extent, just by watching the Doctor do it.
Those abilities were a by-product of her mind having been temporarily absorbed into the computer system, which was made quite clear at the time.
I don't think there's any reason to think that she still has those abilities now.
Comments
I agree. Too often in Doctor Who, explanations which don't make much sense are clearly shoehorned in at the last minute.
Prime examples I can think of are the Doctor's hand in Series 4 and the "Numskulls" machine in Series 6. It is obvious that these were never originally intended to resolve their series' respective arcs. Otherwise, more reference would have been made to them during the course of the series.
Sure, I don't think RTD had specifically planned for the Doc's metawotsit when the Sicorax chopped his hand off way back in the Christmas Invasion. But he kept it around, via Torchwood and beyond, so that's it's reappearance didn't feel 'shoehorned' into anything.
And the whole point of not banging on about the Teslecta was so that it wouldn't be so obvious that who 'died' on the beach.
If the hand had been brought up earlier in Season 4, I would have bought it. To only bring it up again in the second-last episode of that season tells me it was a last minute thought.
The Teselecta thing had too many plotholes - how on Earth did it simulate the Doctor's regeneration energy when shot? This shows that this too was thought of only at the last minute as a resolution.
Things like this do tend to ask the question 'Well if it did it then why doesn't it do it again?'
Much like having The Tardis invisible in the 'Astronaut' two parter, why not have it land cloaked all the time, could save a lot of hassle in the long run.
Really? Having the hand be brought along specifically by Harkness so the Doctor then has it back allowed the plot to happen. It was most likely the other way round...
Also, the teselecta showed many different abilities, not least creating moving parts, and removable objects (the bike and cowboy hat). And it was being piloted by a technical genius. How would it not be able to produce fake regeneration energy, as it only appears to be lights? It would be inconcievable that it couldn't?
I don't see your argument. Had you pointed to The Power of Three... That was a very quick botch-job of an ending, using the ultimate no-no of the sonic, too. But instead you pick on two examples of plot-seeding! Baffling...
That doesn't even make sense. It's not like they filmed the first few episodes and then sat down and started writing the script to the later ones - they all have to be planned out at the same time.
We also know the Tardis is always having some part or other break down. It is a VERY old machine you know and bits of it don't always work. Also, when some bits are fixed, sometimes that breaks other bits. As the Doctor has been on his own more or less for a couple of hundred years or something now, I'd think one of the things he'd concentrate on fixing most would be the remote control/autopilot features. There's been episodes in the past few years, as well as from classic Who where Tardis fubnctions have been explored. He's made the doors open and close with a button, fixed/broke/fixed/broke the chameleon circuit, had to fix something or other in the zero room because of decay due to entropy. Doc3 was 'trapped' for years on Earth, tinkering with the Tardis for a lot of it, because the Timelords had kind of banished him there. The Master ripped stuff out of the Tardis for his own ends fairly recently too. It's not that surprising it can go wrong sometimes ( like going to the wrong pole automatically).
What's wrong with the Hand- nothing wrong with the hand I can see?
What's wrong with the Tesselecta? A machine that can alter it's form and make you see what it wants you to see. Can't it show you something which looks like regeneration energy coming out of it. The thing can time travel for blimey's sake.
Throwback or not, it was still used as a get-out-clause. It'd be the same if we were watching Cold War and out of nowhere K9 popped up to save the day. It'd be logically possible, but utterly implausible.
All the same, I had no problem with it myself really. It must be hard getting rid of the TARDIS in creative ways every story.
There's quite a lot going on cribbed from the Sixties, isn't there? The invisible Tardis is straight out of "The Invasion".
Yet last week she took off by herself with no one inside.
This whole thing stemmed from Jon Pertwee calling it "Her" and "She" and saying to Jo Grant that it's a "Living time-machine".
It's gone from mad to silly now as far as I'm concerned. Next thing we know - the Tardis will be having a love affair with an alien spacecraft! (Roll-on "Red Dwarf 11 & Relative Dimensions" :cool::cool:)
And she is a genius, as we saw in the 'Bells of Saint John's' episode when she hacked into a computer system that the Doctor couldn't.
Actually it stems from The Edge of Destruction, where the TARDIS "warns" the Doctor Ian Barbara and Susan that something is wrong by opening/ closing the doors at specific intervals etc...
Isn't that the third ever story? So to all intents and purposes the viewers were informed that the Tardis was sentient from almost the very beginning.
The hand was key to "The Doctor's Daughter" wasn't it? And by that virtue, the previous cliffhanger too. Jack brought it back at the end of S3. I call that forward planning!
When was that?
Quite true... I'd forgotten that!
She went from not even knowing how wi-fi works, to being able to trace, and hack into the webcams of the people working against her and the Doctor, take their pictures, upload them to various websites that look for people, find their profiles, and find out where they worked.
All in less than five minutes.
To be honest, I wouldn't be surprised if she managed to figure out how to fly the TARDIS, to some extent, just by watching the Doctor do it.
Yes, and it makes the Doctor's admonishment to her to not touch anything all the more plausible if you think of it like that!
I don't think there's any reason to think that she still has those abilities now.
It took flight from the submarine and ended up at the South Pole because the Doctor had switched on the Hostile Action Deplacement System.