We don't know who the *character* is, but it's apparently Anne Robinson

I am puzzled as to why so many people are complaining about the background music and the sound mix. It is perfect on my set-up. The dialogue is crisp and clear, and the music just seems to fill in where needed. I guess that the sound mix suits some set-ups, but not others.

MF

I think the reality TV element of the organisation would be intrinsic to the people of Earth.

Throughout the series so far, there has been subtle digs at humans by the Doctor, calling them chip eaters who just watch TV and eat baked beans etc. RTD appears to be attacking the consumer element of society in this series, and I believe that it's the selfish side of us that takes us to a point where we are a brainwashed mass of zombies so that war can be waged without too much of a fuss.

I think the reality TV angle is symbolic of what human nature reacts to in this day and age, so I think it would be more likley that the reality TV thing is something that is started on earth.

The aliens who watched the end of the world in episode 2 were probably mostly beings evolved from human beings. Cassandra was obviously, but with Jabe and the Forest of Cheem being descended from humans the hint was there that we are the ancestors of most aliens.
Cassandra referred to the descendants of humans as mongrels. She said they go by names such as digi-humans, and proto-humans.
Gallifreyans could well be descendants of humans. Van Statton wanted to patent the technology of humans using 2 hearts when he saw the Doctor's X-Ray.

Okay... my turn!

If there's an alien called the Face of Boe, and they're all bankers, does that mean the Bank of England survives into the future?

Why did Adam seem so happy when he walked off with the Tardis key? Am assuming the Doctor knew about his phone calls home from looking at Rose's phone when she got it back.

Is "the woman the Doctor thought was dead" who reappears later Suki?

I voted VG - it's very like a McCoy story, though. Mind you, I though The Unquiet Dead reminded me of a Tom Baker story, so what would I know? Hope Pegg makes a comeback, though they've had good actors on in the past who never made it past one story.

Later,
Gary

Yes, you don't get much more sinister than a 1984 society.
And it looks very much that this series so far is leading up to that.
It was hinted at in the last episode where Van Statton literally owned the internet and hired and fired presidents at at will.
In last night's episode it went even further by using brainwashing as a theme.

I remember that "Year of the Sex Olympics" being repeated a few years ago, but I didn't get to see it all.
If the writer of that was extending things to a scary consequence in the future, and providing a personal commentary on society then, then it's fair to imagine that Russell T Davies may also do something similar.

I don't think so.

The Gallifreyans invented time travel in 10,000,000 BC. I'm not sure how humans would evolve into Gallifreyans and travel back in time before they could invent time travel.

In 10,000,000 BC Omega blew up a star to create the supernova which acts as a power source for Gallifreyan time travel. At the same time Rassilon captures the nucleus of a black hole creating the eye of harmony.

Unless there is some way round this almighty paradox, I would say that humans and gallifreyans are distinctly seperate.

Hi all

Just catching up on the thread before I add my "proper" post.

I don't know if this has been mentioned, but did anyone else catch The Editor saying "he is your master", or something similar?
Last edited by Mark. : 07-05-2005 at 23:52

Yeah, but I'm pretty sure it's not what you're eluding to.

Very true It was just a thought

And I do agree that RTD is having a dig at the consumer society and the modern world in that through TV and other forms of mass media that we are being turned into "Brainwashed Zombies" so we will be unaware or simply not care what the powers that be do.

Again, when watching I instantly thought of "The Power Of Nightmares." RTD certainly has a cutting way of highlighting the things that are going on in the modern world !

The sound is perfect on my set up as well (Freeview box connected via PC tuner card outputted through 5.1 surround) and I havn't noticed the sound levels being too high to hear the dialogue.

Apparently, from what I've heard she's going to be called

I'm not joking either.

Flat as in doesn't make you feel any emotions.
If you feel flat, you don't feel either happy, or sad, or exicted, or angry, or anything.

If a character, or an episode appears flat to somebody, it just doesn't really evoke any emotions in them and tends to be boring.

My wondering/wandering thoughts about this Ep:-

When The Doctor and Rose brought Adam home at the end, I'm presuming it was the year 2012 - which was the year Adam was working for VanStatten. Now, admittedly it's only 7 years in the future for us, but I got the impression the art dept. had forgotten as I saw no evidence of anything even vaguely 2012-ish, and that answerphone looked very 2005

Poor Billie's acne seems to be getting worse.

The whole 'he's your boyfriend', 'he's dumped', hand holding in lift scenario was a bit odd, I felt.

BadWolf TV - Another addition to my view that these references are not all connected, just a bit of fun till we get to Ep. 12

Seeing The Face Of Bo on tv made me think that they are just re-using old props to save cash rather than any particular theories about immortality/time travel. Oh, and I also thought that all the aliens on Ep.2 were from that time and not time travellers. How many time travelling races are there supposed to be anyway? If they WERE all time travellers then I hope royalties were paid to Douglas Adams' Estate as the whole thing smacked too much of The Restaurant at the End of the Universe as it was and that would take it over the edge...

The Editor is dead - or is he? Is this another addition to the growing roster of possible deaths leading to potential returns? So far nothing has been followed up from Ep to Ep (except the vague bad wolf and time war natch), which could mean that Ep. 12 'Bad Wolf' is just The Doctor and Rose having a cup of tea while The Doctor explains for 42 minutes how it all ties together.

This leads to Rose deciding that the whole universe must be insane and decides on a 'Parting of the Ways'. CE turns to the camera and says 'I'll get my coat" whereupon it turns out that not only is Doctor Who actually a TV show, but it's performed in front of a live audience.

Well... MX is something to do with email accounts, isn't it? A table (TBL) or email accounts, and nothing more sinister than that?

I like the 'Want to fly like Daleks" guess, though!

Gary

I'd actually forgotten all about the title today until you just brought it up again.
It wasn't really obvious really was it?

If I had to guess, then I'd say that the subject matter in the show, dealing with direct feeding of news and propaganda to humans, is part of an overall plan that comes to fruition over a period of time in the future.

Not necessarily, I mean I have many things in my house that I've had for years, and if they still work, why change them?

Who's to say that decor in 2012 wouldn't be similar to today's?

Humans could go back in time, leave settlers on some planet, leave them behind there, then the settlers can then become Gallifreyans who develop Time Travel in Earth's past.

Hehe... that's reaching a bit.

That would also have humans developing Time Travel before the Gallifreyans..... who then forget it until they evolve into Gallifreyans, who then reinvent it.

*Waits for the paradox to destroy the universe*

I thought that "The Power of Nightmares" was an excellent documentary.
One of the best I've ever seen I'd say.
Unfortunately I only went and missed part 3, the final part didn't I?

It's 'available'... I'm sure a google search would show it up. For review purposes only, ofcourse!

I have to agree with that. I don't think it's quite the crux of the whole story arc that's being made out, especially after that "invent an enemy" line tonight.


I may be wrong but I'm sure only 2 races have real time travel technology... the TimeLords and the Daleks. The Sontarans stole it from one or other I believe, but that's three at most. The Cybermen also used it in the comic strips but that's not canon.

I thought that the Cybermen had it in Earthshock, but they couldn't control it properly?

****** Re-run of tonights episode about to start on BBC3 now in case you wanna check and se what you may or may not have missed!*****

It was indeed a excellent documentary It certainly opened my eyes on many things. I knew that the media does and always has "influenced" what we think and believe, but that highlighted it to scary proportions

Oh no, that sucks I know that it was repeated recently but I'm not sure if or when it will be again.

The repeat of tonight's episode is starting NOW on BBC3 if anyone is interested