No it wasn't! It was based almost entirely upon Einstein's theories, and there was almost no mention of the Doctor except for the utterly pointless inserts.
I have an interest in all things scientific and I'm already familiar with relativity, but it just seemed like a last-minute fill-in show with celebs and a tenuous WHO link.

Glad I'm not the only one to enjoy it then. I was beginning to despair, reading this thread!

I appreciate science, quantum mechanics and relativity aren't to everyone's liking, but there's some very harsh comments being thrown in here

I saw a similar programme a year or two ago done by Brian Cox and loved it, so was expecting something similar, and I wan't disappointed. Add in the fun bits with the Doctor meeting someone who might have a slight chance of understanding some of the ridiculousness he hurls at us all made it very enjoyable to me.

Plus, I got a better understanding of curving space/time to travel backwards, which was nice

Friggin missed it! Does anyone know when it will be repeated or is it just going to be on Iplayer now?

I don't think it was ever meant to be about the Doctor. It was meant to be a scientific show based around concepts that are used in Doctor Who, such as time travel and alien life.

Nothing wrong with using a show like this to help bring more people and kids especially in to the world of science. A huge amount of the scientific discoveries in the world nowadays have happened because of kids watching shows like Star Trek, Doctor Who and more. Who knows what someone might come up with after finding that first spark of imagination and science from watching these shows? Isn't that what the Doctor was talking about at the end of the show?

The inserts came before the theory and facts, then another insert and so on...

Well exactly.

Learnt nothing new except for the capabilities in the future of telescopes (yes I read textbooks for fun too). Thought it was very basic and I am sure some children will understand it. The only difficult bit was the mathematical bit involving electromagnetic waves but you don't need to understand the maths to enjoy the lecture or even understand the main points of it. The people complaining about the difficulty are probably in the minority. Too be honest I thought it was a bit boring because I learnt nothing new.

And I agree with the person talking about Jim Al- Khalili's documentaries.

Also I would like to emphasise this was a science programme with a doctor who theme and it made it clear in the title.

Yes, but it wasn't *based around* the Doctor, as Joe-Zel claimed. It didn't need the Doctor inserts to make its point and probably would have been better without them.

It was exploring the sci-fi themes in the show to see if they can be applied to real world physics.

Such as?

Where did he claim it was based around the Doctor specifically ? He did say it was based around Doctor Who

The inserts were the points raised, without them, how would the programme have made sense ?

No I didn't. I said it was based around the programme Doctor Who, not the character himself.

If you're that bothered about it having a Doctor Who connection then why tune into a show titled "The Science of Doctor Who"?


Time travel and alien life?

I settled down to watch it because I thought it might be about the quirky devices that pop up in Dr Who, and the pseudo-science behind them. I wasn't expecting a low-rent Christmas Lecture.

Time travel and alien life aren't exclusively 'sci-fi themes', they are serious subjects under research. The Dr who bits were totally unnecessary. The gravity-well effects of black holes is a long-held theory and the curving of space & time have been discussed for years. No need to put the Doc in there at all, except maybe to keep the kiddie-appeal up.

No point being grown up, if you can't be childish.

I don't give a monkeys how tenuous the Doctor Who link may have been. That was an excellent piece of television. Enjoyed every minute.
Fun and informative, first class presentation by Professor Cox.

I'd rather have this "low-rent Christmas lecture" every week than the lowbrow nonsense we actually get.

Top notch.

I never said they were exclusively sci-fi. That's my point, they were showing the real world application of these ideas from the show for the Doctor Who audience who, you guessed it, consists of a lot of children.

It's not the shows fault you were expecting something completely different to what it was. A lecture is exactly what I thought the show would be as it was advertised as one.

I celebrated whilst this program was on by dancing and skipping around the coffee table. I am now thinking of doing this during the 50th

It's being repeated on Friday 22nd November at 23:05 on BBC2.

Really dont get what some people's problems were with this.

it was science, Dr who based as expected. Ok it may not have been exactly what some people may have interpreted from the blurb but so what?


i love the Christmas lecture feel, which coxy explained perfectly because of the Farady connection and the Matt Smith bits were amusing and appropriate. OH has a far more scinece based education than me but managed to enjoy it for what it was, i found it a bit taxing at times but very interesting, 18 art student year old daughter who "doesn't do science" and went off Dr who when DT left stayed and watched the whole thing.

Ratings were 2.6m/12.1% share.

For the completionists, Brian Cox's previous lecture was watched by 2.4m.

I watched this out of curiosity and though there were some interesting points and subjects in there, listening to someone talking constantly sort of started to grate after 30 minutes. I do think think it was interesting what what was being talked about but I don't think hearing it in lecture form really appeals to me.

I think in some form of documentary form would have suited me better but that was the nature of the programme.

And no point turning 50 if your friends (Brian was in The Power of Three, after all) don't celebrate with you.

Loved the Lecture format. I don't make a date for all the Christmas Lectures but watched last night in full once I was home from a supper out; as Brian started with the premise of wanting to be able to visit Faraday's time, it was an appropriate way of explaining the science.

I really enjoyed it. I'm always fascinated by the physics of time and relativity and I learnt a few new things as well (never really knew what an event horizon was before). The clips of the Doctor were great fun too.

I was a little disappointed that there was no talk of wormholes. The idea of curving space time round on itself is not one I've ever heard before in the context of possible time travel. Worm holes are the usual basis of the theories for time travel: the idea of a fifth dimension (or whatever number you want to use) beyond the four we can experience, with wormholes being tunnels through that dimension, effectively outside of space/time, that can be used to navigate between points in space/time. I believe wormholes are what the Vortex in Doctor Who is supposed to represent and is much more consistent with the way the TARDIS travels than the theory presented in this lecture.

Manipulation of additional dimensions is also the basis of the dimensionally transcendental interior of the TARDIS, so that could have been linked in too.

I guess they only had so much time, though...

I really enjoyed it... huge congrats all round for a very well explained lecture delieverd with fun