no reason at all, just that given SUCH a huge jump forwards (last year's Xmas special was two years after the previous episode for them - don't think we got a specific year in Pond Life or Asylum) it's possible
Indian Space Agency was in 2367
― ┐(´ー`)┌ (sic), Sunday, 16 September 2012 11:47 (twelve years ago) link
No, we don't know whether these are in order or not. The only thing we can say for sure is that Rory says he's 31 in last week's epsiode which means the Amy and Rory that are picked up for that episode are from 2020 (which is coincidentally the same year as the other NuWho Silurian story). I reserve the right to mention this date again in two weeks when the series ends. I didn't see or hear anything in this which suggests when these Ponds are collected, or even which Ponds (see also Two Ponds theory to explain last season's timelines).
I'm quite enjoying this series' structure - 'Doctor turns up, discovers problem, solves it, buggers off' is very much more my type of thing as I really couldn't give a shit about series arcs (or, in fact, even the notion of series finale epics) - but the scripts have just been average at best. Next week looks like it has lots of promise but I don't hold out much hope for the finale in two weeks as I think the concept is overplayed. (See? I worked hard to make that sentence absolutely spoiler-free)
― passive-aggressive display name (aldo), Sunday, 16 September 2012 11:56 (twelve years ago) link
I thought Indian Space Agency was concurrent with Ponds which might be why I didn't take that in. Not that that would make much sense if supposed to be now/present world & Indian space Agency was leading world power.
― Stevolende, Sunday, 16 September 2012 11:58 (twelve years ago) link
Actually, it explains Amy's "this isn't how we roll" comment if she hasn't lived last week's episode yet.
― passive-aggressive display name (aldo), Sunday, 16 September 2012 12:05 (twelve years ago) link
apart from the Ponds' age, the Doctor says he's 1200 years old now. he was 900-something at the time of The Impossible Astronaut.
― Roz, Sunday, 16 September 2012 13:59 (twelve years ago) link
The Doctor's age is not that reliable tbh, it varied massively through the 'classic' series and I don't think has even been consistent in NuWho.
― passive-aggressive display name (aldo), Sunday, 16 September 2012 14:06 (twelve years ago) link
I didn't mind that ep. Enjoyed Ben Browder as Sheriff (Farscape nerd reporting for duty) ... found myself humming the High Noon theme by the end for no good reason. Bit dark, bit silly. Not bad!
Calling the horse "Susan" gave me major lols
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 16 September 2012 14:15 (twelve years ago) link
Moffatt deliberately makes the Doctor's age unreliable, bcz the Doctor himself has no way of actually measuring it
― ┐(´ー`)┌ (sic), Sunday, 16 September 2012 14:20 (twelve years ago) link
Rather enjoyed this one. Less hyperactive than usual.
― I wish to incorporate disco into my small business (chap), Sunday, 16 September 2012 16:41 (twelve years ago) link
Boring moral dilemmas are boring.
― ledge, Sunday, 16 September 2012 19:16 (twelve years ago) link
Interestingly, have just watched elsewhere a comparison of the opening titles this season and they've been getting darker each episode. Some other things to note are flickering lights, and we know what they indicate in NuWho...
http://youtu.be/gNaLVAHXJzk
Other things from every episode are eggs (first episode self explanatory, second episode features dinosaur eggs, third has a spaceship shaped like one) combined with choosing to use the word "terminate". "Eggs" "terminate". Well, the Doctor has been getting more ruthless and killing people since he took his anti-dalekisation bracelet off. He's also been mistaken for a medical doctor in both - was he in the dalek episode? Maybe by Oswin?
― passive-aggressive display name (aldo), Monday, 17 September 2012 14:34 (twelve years ago) link
Might that not just be what happens when you introduce yourself as "The Doctor" and people haven't already heard of you?
― Andrew Farrell, Monday, 17 September 2012 14:37 (twelve years ago) link
I like the general theme of "self-contained stories where Amy and Rory question whether they want to keep doing this but see what happens to the Doctor when they don't" that they have going
I am semi hoping that they meet the new companion when they leave and that knowing the Doctor will be traveling with a humanizing influence allows them to feel better about turning to their own lives but that's really the sentimental fan in me talking; I'm also kind of hoping they both blow up
― wtf where's my chapbook (DJP), Monday, 17 September 2012 14:38 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/2012/sep/15/doctor-who-karen-gillan-arthur-darvill?INTCMP=SRCH
http://www.guardian.co.uk/tv-and-radio/tvandradioblog/2012/sep/15/doctor-who-town-called-mercy?INTCMP=SRCH
― Stevolende, Monday, 17 September 2012 15:35 (twelve years ago) link
oh the theme is clearly the dr's xmas list, mentioned in eps 2 and 3
― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Monday, 17 September 2012 19:30 (twelve years ago) link
http://imageshack.us/a/img651/9366/f3vjy2xuiu6r0tnqspedzq2.jpg
― Frobisher the (Viceroy), Saturday, 22 September 2012 20:19 (twelve years ago) link
that is terrible
I want one
― cake-like Lady Gaga (DJP), Saturday, 22 September 2012 20:45 (twelve years ago) link
So, the "I'm 31" comment is explained - it isn't from 2020, they have spent 10 extra years alive in the same time frame due to travelling. Just so we're clear, that means they are 31 when their friends are 21 and their friends HAVE NOT NOTICED they are 50% older. A couple of years I could have understood, but 10? Also Amy says she is working as a travel writer - what happened to modelling? Did she just suddenly give it up when they decided to stay together after AotD? (Although suddenly being 30 overnight might be a good reason, equally though given how famous she was supposed to be would that just not put her on the front covers of papers or at least have them sniffing round for a story wondering why she had miraculously aged that badly?)
I guess I quite liked it but it just felt like another telling of The Lodger. Steven Berkoff horrendously underused and seemed to have turned up in a spare Darth Vader costume (including the panel on the back of his head). Was anybody keeping a clock on how long the people who had died were dead before they were magicked back to life? Long enough for oxygen starvation to the brain? And why were people being kidnapped from the hospital anyway? What was the little girl robot actually for?
― passive-aggressive display name (aldo), Saturday, 22 September 2012 21:44 (twelve years ago) link
Chris Chibnall never fails to disappoint. So many loose ends. And I'm thoroughly confused as to primarily WHY previous seasons have ran in "real time" for the most part - modern-looking Earth = present time Earth (with some exceptions), but now we're in 2020? I'd say its setting us up for some big missing-time subplot, but hopefully its not just left as is.
― Frobisher the (Viceroy), Saturday, 22 September 2012 21:59 (twelve years ago) link
It explained the 31 thing but not as you have it - all the references from Rory's colleague to his being away for months suggests that the Doctor didn't always return them to the point where they left off. It's been established that the Tardis isn't always reliable - and neither the is the Doctor's own timekeeping. But when he wants to get it right he does. So I suppose that what was 10 years in the Ponds' life was maybe half that in earth time? This also allows for all the off-screen adventures they have. The Doctor enables Amy's travel writing career for one. Then you have all the stories in the novels etc, although whether they're canon or not is moot.
― Poor.Old.Tired.Horse. (Stew), Saturday, 22 September 2012 22:04 (twelve years ago) link
No, we're not now in 2020. We're in 2016 or thereabouts I think (and the season finale next week is clearly dated as 2018 in a newspaper apparently) as the last series took place over about 2 years and a year passes in this episode alone. But Amy & Rory are several years older than they're supposed to be - Amy says ten years have passed for them since the 'current day' events of The Eleventh Hour but "not that long has passed on Earth".
― passive-aggressive display name (aldo), Saturday, 22 September 2012 22:10 (twelve years ago) link
Except Amy says he does always return them to the same point and this is made explicit by Mark Williams asking how long The Doctor took them away for "this time" despite the fact all they've done is walked from one room to another. Also the Doctor doesn't enable Amy's travel writing - he asks what she does (for the first time, apparently) and is surprised to find she's a travel writer. I would guess having been a world famous model enables being a travel writer far more than a man in a blue box who you describe yourself as having no interface with your 'real' life, or which your job is a part.
― passive-aggressive display name (aldo), Saturday, 22 September 2012 22:14 (twelve years ago) link
Also, Brian Cox and The Apprentice in 2020? Really?
On a sadder Whovian note, Kate Lethbridge-Stewart looks about the right age if it's around 2015.
― passive-aggressive display name (aldo), Saturday, 22 September 2012 22:22 (twelve years ago) link
Ok I see, we're just moving around the not-to-distant future then. Amy's "it's been 10 years" comment through me but then I realized she meant time on earth plus adventure time, which could easily be 10 years. No wonder the Doctor has no idea how old he really is.
― Frobisher the (Viceroy), Saturday, 22 September 2012 22:26 (twelve years ago) link
*threw me
love the hell out of that episode. I spotted a load of annoyances and loose ends too, but who cares, it was a pond episode, it was about the ponds, and it was heaps of fun
― Autumn Almanac, Saturday, 22 September 2012 22:29 (twelve years ago) link
I like to imagine that once in a while they can have some fun and everyone stops panicking about timey-wimey and just enjoys it
― Autumn Almanac, Saturday, 22 September 2012 22:32 (twelve years ago) link
I liked this... didn't make much sense time-wise though. Even better would be a Dragon's Den segment where some guy is trying to sell them something stupid like cube-cozies, with Duncan Bannatyne saying something like, "We all have thees cubes, and we all know they don't do anything. This is an absolutely idiotic product, it won't sell and I'm stupider for seeing it. I'm out!"
― Frobisher the (Viceroy), Saturday, 22 September 2012 22:33 (twelve years ago) link
I bet cube-cozy patterns/completed units are already up on ravelry and etsy, though. :(
― Frobisher the (Viceroy), Saturday, 22 September 2012 22:38 (twelve years ago) link
I liked that a lot, even if the end was a bit quickly set up. I don't know what they've been feeding Chibnall this year, but it's working.
I would guess having been a world famous model
To be fair, all we know is she's a model who was used in an ad for a perfume. There's no reason to think she's famous. The girl who asked for her autograph last series did it when there was a big poster of her face nearby.
― computers are the new "cool tool" (James Morrison), Sunday, 23 September 2012 01:29 (eleven years ago) link
that was fun and silly
― cake-like Lady Gaga (DJP), Sunday, 23 September 2012 02:01 (eleven years ago) link
wondering what the deal with the ppl who blew up on the ship was
Amy & Rory supposedly got them all off the ship
Also Amy says she is working as a travel writer - what happened to modelling? Did she just suddenly give it up when they decided to stay together after AotD?
In the other Chibbers ep they discuss how she's dropped several jobs
This was totally a Rusty tribute ep - giant run-around with lots of bits that frustratingly don't make any sense along the way, an ending that contradicts the rest of the episode's set-up, the entire world being menaced as explained through news TV, celeb TV cameos, knife-turns into ~touching~ emotional moments in the middle of the world-threatening action, etc.
Except that Murray Gold was turned down lower than in any episode this year! And wasn't flogging the same three themes over and over that I noticed.
― ┐(´ー`)┌ (sic), Sunday, 23 September 2012 02:24 (eleven years ago) link
they could easily have thrown in a hand-wave about extended exposure to TARDIS energy making people appear to age slower. it would also cover how amazing Sarah Jane looked in School Reunion! :D
― ┐(´ー`)┌ (sic), Sunday, 23 September 2012 02:26 (eleven years ago) link
the brig tribute was lovely
― Autumn Almanac, Sunday, 23 September 2012 02:42 (eleven years ago) link
surprised Kate was made canon
― cake-like Lady Gaga (DJP), Sunday, 23 September 2012 02:47 (eleven years ago) link
oh yeah, that was another Rusty-esque thing (though tbf prob just inherently Chibnall to fanwank furiously)
on the timeframe: it seemed REALLY dumb to very specifically name Dragon's Den and Wii (not even Wii U!) and Youtube and Flickr for something set in the future.
― ┐(´ー`)┌ (sic), Sunday, 23 September 2012 03:04 (eleven years ago) link
2015 definitely seems too soon btw - S5 is set (for Amy and Rory's "home" time) in early 2010.
The beginning of S6 is in early 2011 (with Amy having been abducted by the Silence by September 2010, before she would have HAD to have realised she was pregnant - their "honeymoon" has to have taken many months of home time but fewer of their own experience, as she was knocked up on 26/6/10 but was still a long way off giving birth by 22/4/11).
They have months of adventures and months of being left at home AFTER April during S6, but even if we allow that they got dropped off in The God Complex during 2011, and that Wedding Of River Song took place SHORTLY afterwards, then December 2013 is the EARLIEST that Doctor/Widow/Wardrobe takes place: it's been two years since Wedding, and they have to have had at least two Christmasses in that time, for setting a place to have become a tradition.
Pond Life then presumably takes place during several months of 2014 - I'd rather give a whole extra year to allow the marriage to break down by Asylum Of The Daleks, but it doesn't look like Chibnall and Moffatt have. Anyway, assuming Asylum is 2014, we've then had another two years AT LEAST of off-screen adventures, to allow for verbal references and Amy to go through a few jobs and then settle into travel writing, and then another year just in this episode.
So I reckon we're up to 2017 by the end of Power Of Three, if not 2018.
This is all top-of-the-head though, can someone fact-check me?
― ┐(´ー`)┌ (sic), Sunday, 23 September 2012 03:14 (eleven years ago) link
no, I cannot
― cake-like Lady Gaga (DJP), Sunday, 23 September 2012 03:43 (eleven years ago) link
I'm waiting for the updated Time Almanac to make sense of the Pond's timeline... lol.
― Frobisher the (Viceroy), Sunday, 23 September 2012 03:46 (eleven years ago) link
I honestly can't keep the timeline straight at all so I'm just not going to reckon with it til I have to, plotwise
― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 23 September 2012 04:21 (eleven years ago) link
it's dead easy to ignore (I didn't even consider it until I hit the nerdweb)
― Autumn Almanac, Sunday, 23 September 2012 05:05 (eleven years ago) link
This was totally a Rusty tribute ep
Yes! I even wondered part way through whether he'd come back as a guest writer.
You know I'm sure people who own a wii U in a few years time will still refer to it as a wii, much the same way 360 owners still call it "the xbox" now. And I doubt youtube and flickr are going anywhere soon.
― JimD, Sunday, 23 September 2012 07:27 (eleven years ago) link
I don't think I disagree with yr timings sic, I just pulled 2016 out of my arse because if you were only 18 months dislocated from reality I can't see why you'd whine about it in 40% of the serials unless you were a vain, self-obsessed, oh wait.
― passive-aggressive display name (aldo), Sunday, 23 September 2012 09:38 (eleven years ago) link
I've spent a lot of time living in different towns or even countries from my main groups of friends and don't get to see them all that often and when we see each other that fact constantly bobs up in conversation, unintentionally: the realisation that I haven't been there for something, or that I need to be updated about something, or just the way I see someone again and we have to "catch up" before we can have a normal conversation. And it is fucking wearying. It's the result of choices I've made and I'm okay with that, but the fact that I miss stuff still matters to me and can make me sad, and i am going to mention it, because i'm a human being who has conversations with other human beings about what is going on in my life.
Also, given that this is a television series, the characters Amy and Rory are mentioning this a lot because it is a narrative setup for the bit of the plot in which - SPOILERS - they stop travelling with the doctor.
― paleopolice (c sharp major), Sunday, 23 September 2012 10:35 (eleven years ago) link
I would agree if stopping travelling with the Doctor is their choice but Moffatt has described it as "heartbreaking" which doesn't imply it's just a "we decided to stop" conclusion to their story - I mean Rory died multiple times and it still wasn't enough to put Amy off - plus also Brian's "what happens to the people that travel with you Doctor, are they always all right?" "No, Adric died but we all cheered" came from the CLANG school of foreshadowing.
― passive-aggressive display name (aldo), Sunday, 23 September 2012 11:20 (eleven years ago) link
Ok yeah, on that basis my prediction for next week is amy dies rory lives doctor dies too and regenerates into jenna louise coleman.
― JimD, Sunday, 23 September 2012 11:46 (eleven years ago) link
I would agree if stopping travelling with the Doctor is their choice but Moffatt has described it as "heartbreaking" which doesn't imply it's just a "we decided to stop" conclusion to their story
it's almost as if they're allowed to use several methods of foreshadowing/reminding us that everyone knows they're going to stop travelling with the doctor because of press releases etc.
OR
it's almost as if: they and the doctor decide to stop after thinking about it for a while, rory's dad convinces them to continue, and then something ~heartbreaking~ happens and if they'd just stopped when they decided to they would be ok right now.
― paleopolice (c sharp major), Sunday, 23 September 2012 12:19 (eleven years ago) link
I think you're crediting the writing too much, but I can see where you're going.
― passive-aggressive display name (aldo), Sunday, 23 September 2012 12:55 (eleven years ago) link
(apologies if this has been posted numerous times)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sK8GdRSzQJ0
― Britain's Obtusest Shepherd (Alan), Sunday, 23 September 2012 13:30 (eleven years ago) link