I post threads like these far too often, so I apologise profusely for that.
I just always seem to have some sort of inane query after watching DW.

I was just wondering;
Do we know the relevance of the corrosive acid, and why they were sending it to the mainland anyway?
It may have been discussed at length on here already, I admittedly haven't checked all of the threads extensively.

I'm guessing it'll be significant in the next ep?

Thanks

I think it'll have something to do with finishing off the gangers

In the trailer of the next ep the doc and co all start choking on it though, so it might just be an annoying obstacle :P

Ahh okay.

I just wanted to make sure I didn't miss any explanation about it.
I usually somehow end up missing important plot points, ha.

The acid is why the gangers exist. They are used to regulate the acid. Why the acid is needed I'm not sure, I can't remember if it is explained or not but the importance of the acid is merely that it requires the existance of the gangers. Nothing more than that. The fact that it is being used as an obstacle just means that it has more than one plot use. But the main one is the existance of the gangers. Don't you pay attention to thee episodes?

There's no need to be rude about it; you just admitted yourself that besides the fact it's being used as a plot device, you don't know what purpose the acid serves in the story either. The OP was only asking if anyone did know if there was a further use to it that s/he missed the explanation to.

Didn't they say they were the Government's best kept secret or something? so why would the acid need such secrecy? maybe its revealed in the next ep.

Its just a plot device. The island needs a reason to exist, as do the gangers.

No, they said The Flesh was the worst kept secret.

The boss lady actually said "Meet the government's worse-kept secret; the Flesh"

She wasn't referring to the acid.

The acid is almost certain just something dangerous enough to justify using what are essential remote-controlled bodies as safety equipment (which all goes tits-up when the solar tsunami gives them independent life). It also gives an added threat to people and a way to get the Tardis to sink. In plot terms, it could probably have been a solar-power collector or an biological weaopons plant - just something nasty and suitably futuristic sounding.

I have to admit though, the thought crossed my mind that it's a pretty weird idea - I'm struggling to think of a use for enough acid to justify that setup. Mind you, it was funded by the military so it was never going to be particularly rational.

I think the reason for the acid will be explained further down the line.

The acid is almost definitely a Macguffin. It will more than likely have no further relevence after the obligatory obstacle usage (and dropping the TARDIS through the floor as seen in the Next Time trailer).

WTF?? I love reading these forums, mostly lurking, but I do post quite a bit in the music/soaps forums... and here is the main reason I steer clear of the Doctor Who ones... idiots who speak to people in a way that is totally unpleasant and uncalled for....

It's comical that you have the gall to question the OP's attention, when your post reads like you drop off mid sentence, wake up, then type a barely coherent couple of sentences...

Anyway... I've watched the episode 3 times now, and there is no explanation for the importance of the acid on the mainland and I think it's a perfectly valid question to ask, and have wondered myself if it going to serve as a MacGuffin, or whether it'll have a relevance to a different story at a later date.

Things like this, even if they aren't dealt with at the time, may provide later writers with opportunities to develop the plot device into something more complex. The Ood are a good example of this.

I posted a "theory" on the acid mining on http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1480539 - post 16 - please bear in mind though - it's just a joke.

Having said that, using the acid to dissolve rocks is not a silly or random suggestion - I deliberately kept a lot of "reality" in the thread and that was one such element. Hannibal - the bloke wot crossed the Alps on elephants - used vinegar - acetic acid - to dissolve rocks that were in his way.

As Agent ID said, such thing are often revisited later. With something like this, it may not have been written with any specific intention but some future story about mining or industrial production could refer back to it even if only in passing.

It might be worth makig a mental note of the company's name "Morpeth Jetson" too (the Morpeth part may just refer to the location of that monastery). DW has sometimes re-used such things - Magpie being a great example in recent years - orignally the small shop in "The Idiot's Lantern", it is now seen on shop-fronts and as a brand-name on TV screens in later episodes. Of course, the classic example of re-using an otherwise throw-away name has to be Torchwood -seemingly just the name of a house in Victorian Scotland but we now know it was setting up something much bigger.

Hannibal would have been a good ally against the Slitheen!

And yes, I'm afraid that's my only comment on the subject.

Even using it as the name of the house was a re-use - remember the references back in Series 1? The great Cobalt Pyramid being built on the ruins of the Torchwood Institute? And it was used before that - as a fake name to hide the production of Doctor Who.

The acid has already contributed quite a lot, We saw apparently someone die without anyone caring. We saw that the gangers don't die painlessly. The monastery has become a more dangerous place, with worse to come. The humans can't move around freely. The Doctor changed his shoes. The TARDIS is inaccessible. The gangers have the upper hand with the suits. Since the acid is nasty stuff, it;s probably for something nasty, so Morpeth Jetson is a nasty company also (like Halliburton)

Morpeth Jetson = The Jop Monster

I wasn't being rude - just blunt. And also it doesn't really matter what the acid is for in terms of plot, it allows the Gangers to exist that is the point. And acctually the OP's word were
implying that they weren't paying attention to realise that the acid just need to be used to explain the Gangers therefore not needing explaination itself. It doesn't matter what the reason the acid is for all that matters is that its there, requiring the Gangers and to get in the way. If your perdantic then you want a reason as to precisely what its for but in terms of plot you don't really need a reason and that was my point.

I'm not the only member of the forum who thought you were speaking rather more harshly than the OP's post required, so kindly don't just quote me as if I'm somehow being unreasonable.


Well, then, that's your interpretation. I quite plainly read the OP's words as meaning aside from the major plotpoint that the acid is needed in order to create a reason for the Gangers' existence, was there another purpose behind the fact that they were mining acid rather than, say, oil, petrol/fuel, or a rare and dangerous new compound? To quote some of the other members here, who seemed to interpret the OP's post in the same way:





Now, you may well be right in saying that the acid is only there to provide an explanation for the creation of the Gangers - that's not what I'm disputing; I also believe that's probably the only reason - but the way in which your post was written made it seem as if the OP was somehow stupid for considering there might be a further reason for it.

We shouldn't be completely ruling the idea out because it could come back to haunt us if the acid does get used in a future story.


Actually, if I was pedantic (), I'd pick up on your spelling and grammatical errors, but that's not the point here. I was merely pointing out that your post came across as slightly more sharp than perhaps you intended it to be. Like you said, it was blunt - but bluntness can easily be misinterpreted on a forum where you can't use the tone of someone's voice or see their face to comprehend their meaning fully.

I wasn't meaning to sound as if I thought your post unreasonable, and that is the disadvantage of internet communication.