Doctor Who S5E9 "Cold Blood" Spoilers

[Setesh]

That leaves the Silurians which was a bit lopsided in the telling, because the moderate Silurian had been killed leaving the extremists in charge who tried to wipe out humans with a biological weapon. I sure hope that was in a deleted scene in some shit.

Actually this makes sense, the extremist didn't kill the moderate leader until after the Doctor had left to stop the Brigadier. So as far as he knew a peace treaty was around the corner. The coup happens literally minutes before the Brigadier starts blowing the place up.

[Gramzamber]

It seems that in the world according to the Doctor, humans aren't allowed to fight against anything or defend themselves in any way. If they do then they are clearly unenlightened and immature.

Uh, in the real world humans aren't allowed to kill prisoners of war either. Unless you are the Taliban or AQ, in which case those organisations like to do it in front of video cameras. And it was stupid to kill the prisoner because thats what she wants as the catalyst to start a war.

I wasn't referring to that, and yes killing the prisoner was a moronic thing to do.
On the other hand painting Ambrose as solely responsible for there being no unity is retarded because of the dumbass general. Also, humans are painted as the bad guys even though we have rules against, you know, restraining and experimenting on live sapient beings against their will and the Silurians evidentally don't, and Mr. vivisectionist children experimenter is supposed to be a good guy.

If you are referring to the drill which would have cut off their air pockets, we run into two problems.
1. as it stands it was quite a disproportionate response, given that it threatened much higher numbers of Silurians (which most were hibernating and we have no freaking idea how many of them supported the actions of their military) vs the few humans involved in this episode.

2. The Doctor most probably realised it wouldn't work because he warned them not to try and bluff the Silurians. That seems believable given what a few of them awake managed to achieve in the previous episode, and the Doctor only managed to hold them off because they had a Silurian hostage, which is currently now dead. In other words you end up pissing them off with little gain, especially given that the Silurians called the human bluff, in like under a minute.

The Doctor's belief that he can do things with non lethal weapons (when he told Ambrose not to bring the lethal stuff) in the previous episode got irritating because you might still need weapons in case Plan A fails. However I don't think that attitude actually applies to this episode.

I was more referring to the Doctor's moronic recounting of previous human/Silurian encounters as "hurf hurf humans attacked and killed" along with his general pissyness about guns, yes.

As for the drill, it was a unilateral response, yes. But given it was just a bunch of civilians being threatened by a general who was out of her mind and they know they've killed someone important to her it's understandable. Of course the general was just that stupid that even that threat didn't make her back off.
Mind you the Doctor's response to the drill was actually reasonable, as in "Oh no you didn't... okay well let's figure out how to stop it." and not the stupid "silly unpeaceful humans you'll have to wait 1000 years to be ready to co-exist with these peaceful, innocent, warmongering, death ray shooting, vivisectioning Silurians!" that permeated the rest of the episode.

[PREDATOR490]

The fault of that entire situation rests with the Doctor.

Huh?

What a fucking surprise the woman who is losing members of her family to the Silurians ends up getting pissed off.

No one was surprised she was pissed off. Or else the Doctor wouldn't try to reassure her.

No, the Doctor saw her bringing in weapons and it dosent take a genius to figure out she is going to be emotionally distraught. What does the Doctor do ?
He leaves her with the weapons and dosent check to make sure she isnt going to take one ANYWAY... oh look thats exactly what she did. Then we have the loss of her son...
That should have instantly sent up red lights about having her guard the hostage.

Its even more hilarious the script goes out and CONDEMNS her for this action and she accepts it.

It condemned her for killing the Silurian and giving ammunition to the extremists, as opposed to condemning her for simply being pissed off. Its not unreasonable that she accepts it because at that point the plot had made everything better and the Doctor and crew was no longer held hostage but in a position to negotiate. It was a "oh fuck what have I done moment." At that point in time and at the end of the episode, how many members of her family actually did die? None, but they had already killed their hostage.

This is the same type of logic why we debate not killing some of these terrorists after trial to try and avoid making them martyrs and giving propaganda for their cause. It may not necessarily be the correct answer, however its quite a bit more complicated that you make it out.

The plot in this thing is so artifical at doing a U-turn its not even funny.
Part 1 paints the Silurians as being vicious villains with 'Evil' Doctor about to disect live humans
Part 2 paints the silurians as being all good natured with Doctor being so helpful

Yeah, lets make the woman the bad guy by having the plot literally do a U turn to cover her in the worst possible light. I have no issue condemning her for what she did but the way everyone seems to turn and treat her like shit because suddenly the Silurians are 'noble and peaceful' is bullshit.

I'm sorry but thats just bullshit. The correct response was to go to the Doctor and beat the living shit out of him for being a hypocritical sanctimonus dick.

How is he a hypocrite when his companion also disappeared in the previous episode yet he didn't suggest that the prisoner should be killed.

The Doctor expects the woman to be 'better than this' but we have seen before the Doctor completely lose it to the point of doing something stupid. The woman did not mean to kill the Silurian, torture perhaps but not kill. However, rather than even attempt to hear her out... they just automatically condemn her as if she just killed the Silurian on purpose.
Noone attempts to ask HOW it happened or why... they just automatically jump to 'Your ruined everything with your BAD, EVIL DEED'

The military commander - She was bringing out her army anyway but lets just blame it all on the mother cause she isnt the 'best of humanity'

Thats funny, I could have sworn he blamed the mother for killing the prisoner and nothing else. But whatever.

No, the Doctor goes apeshit and everyone is condemning this lady as if she is responsible for wrecking the entire negotiation and proving humanity is 'super evil'. Instead we see that the negotiation was already condemned to failure because Mr. Military commander was set to raise an army and kill them all.
Sure, the woman did something wrong but for fuck sake, the folks here are acting like the Silurians are the innocent victims. However the woman is apparantly the one that gets hit with the 'shame on you' bullshit.

How the hell was she supposed to be transported down ?

I don't know, maybe the same way they captured her. Freezing her with the fire extinguisher then restraining her and wait for her to thaw due to some biological babble with her being cold blooded.

Bullshit, the Doctor calls them and tells them to bring her down. No mention of fire extinguisher or HOW they are meant to do so. The Doctor dosent even inquire about how the Silurian is... logically he should have either A) Asked about her or B) had the leader Silurian TALK to her so she wont struggle.

As soon as they released her its likely she will either attempt to kill the humans as she indicated she would or end up getting killed in the process.

Fire extinguisher. Previous episode. Remember that scene.

Yeah, the Doctor expects them to subdue her when he could get the Silurian guy to talk to her and avoid unneeded violence. Nevermind, that in subduing the Silurian she might end up getting injured or end up killing someone. It's not like she injected venom into someone and made it obvious she would kill the humans.
Oh no, just tell them to bring her down and expect them to be able to do so on their own and that nothing could go wrong.
Prime demonstration of the artifical nature of the episode just so we can have the scene where woman gets condemned and the Doctor goes apeshit over the 'surprise revelation'.

Oh no, instead the script has the woman kill the Silurian after being provoked... yet somehow the woman is at fault and the scourge of humanity ?

She was undoubtedly provoked. However I am pretty sure we don't kill our prisoners of war just because they taunt us. I am also pretty sure the best way to avoid it is not to actually enter her cell giving that she was sort or praying or something when Ambrose entered.

So she was at fault for killing the prisoner in scene like the tragedies, which was well done. However she didn't derail negotiations, because the Doctor convinced the leader to help them at the end, in other words he bought the Doctor's argument. The negotiations were derailed by the Silurian general who was stopped when the Silurian leader helped the Doctor.

An emotionally disturbed woman who has lost her son, had her father injected with venom and generally had her life fucked up confronts the thing responsible. What she did was obviously a mistake but the fault lies with the Doctor for not seeing what bad idea it was to leave such a person in a position to make that mistake.
First he leaves her alone with weapons and next he leaves the humans unattended all of whom have suffered because of these creatures. Is it really a surprise that SOMEONE in that group might actually hurt the hostage ?

Especially when that hostage is obviously going to WANT one of them to hurt her and provoke them into doing so.

I am absolutly disgusted at the Doctor's attitude in this situation.

Why? Because he realised it wasn't just one human vs that Silurian, but there would be more casualties if both sides went to war?

I am disgusted at the Doctor's cavalier attitude giving the stakes of whats going on. The Doctor may be eccentric but this episode makes him look like a fucking maniac AND a retard. Leaving a volatile hostage in the hands of humans that are under pressure and may not be able to handle it, putting the negotiations of the planet in the hands of two random humans that do not have the authority to do so.

I'm sorry but even the Doctor cannot be so goddamn stupid not to realise that the rest of the world MIGHT not be too happy with this situation and that any agreement reached may very well end up getting nuked when the REAL negotiaters arrive on the scene. It's not like this world has had incidents of aliens launching massive attacks to wipe out all life, stealing children or that in the past human miltaries have engaged the Silurians despite any negotiation.

Not to mention his hilarious retelling of the previous encounters with the Silurians. Do you REALLY think its a good idea to go mentioning them when its obviously going to inflame the already volatile situation ?

Lying might not be too helpful, especially if there was a peace treaty they would eventually find out about it.

He dosent have to lie, he just has to keep his fucking mouth shut or at the very least give a PROPER account. No, lets recount it in a way that makes HUMANS look like the bad guys... what a great idea.

Additionally, the Doctor knows that humans have ended up killing the Silurians in the past yet he STILL left the humans in charge of the hostage. What a fucking moron.

Because all humans are soooo alike. Did you miss the scene when the Grandfather, the one who thought he was actually dying refused to kill the Silurian after her taunts?

If humans are so different there is no way the reactions of the CURRENT SIX humans will reflect the reactions of the entire planet. Sure, the grandfather didnt do shit, UNIT or other military organisations on the other hand are more than likely to nuke the Silurians at the first chance they get.
Something the Doctor should obviously know but its pretty clear from this episode the entire thing is contrived to the point that the negotation was never going to be a viable option because the plot never intended it to work.

Oh no, instead the Doctor decides that the entire planet will accept the verdict of Amy Pond and whatsherface...
Like I said, what a fucking moron.

[PREDATOR490]

Vivisectionist Lizard pissed me off. "I don't kill the children... I just suspend their higher brain functions and watch them age" - what? This is a good thing? WHAT?

Its also hilarious that it admits that he and his line have been doing it for what: 300 Years ?
How many goddamn children and people have they been taking and disecting over that period ?

The reality of the situation is that as soon as that information came to light I expect UNIT and the world would nuke the Silurians. Not a good idea to mention you have been experimenting on CHILDREN after the events of Children of Earth. Even if those events are around 10 years later I imagine the governments and population would not be receptive to the Silurian experiments.

I find this episode's attempts to do an about face on Silurians as bad guys hilarious in the fact it just dosent work and it makes the Doctor look like a retard for thinking Earth is just going accept any deal made by a Kissagram and Drill operator.
Is the Doctor that thick that he expects these two people to just magically phone up the White House etc. and say. "Hey we made a deal with these cool aliens, here are the terms" or are we to believe the Doctor is going to spend months - years as a mediator between the Silurians and Earth and use his awesome 'I am a Timelord, do as I say" routine to anyone who disagrees ?

That said, I wouldnt be surprised if we see those suspended folks later. Seemed a bit foreshadowy for them to be around for a later appearance. If the Doctor is that adamant about getting a peace between the Silurians and Humans, he should just jump to the point when they come out and conduct the negotiations immediately. Of course we wont do that because the Doctor would rather fuck around with Amy some more.

[Gramzamber]

I'll also point out that the grandfather was willing to help the Silurian escape if she agreed to help cure him.
He didn't because she, like her sister, was a fucking moron. But the point is there were TWO people the Doctor left with the prisoner that had the motive and ability to compromise the entire situation.

[NecronLord]

Incidentally, when captive-lizard died, was anyone else's first thought "so, Silurians are vulnerable to electricity, my species will find this information most interesting!"

I find this episode's attempts to do an about face on Silurians as bad guys hilarious

Silurians were never pure bad guys. Or at least, never meant to be. They always manage to come off as it though.

[Shroom Man 777]

This episode makes me supersads. And I guess there's a reason why no one's even bothered to add a poll in this thread.

[TC Pilot]

Is the Doctor that thick that he expects these two people to just magically phone up the White House etc. and say. "Hey we made a deal with these cool aliens, here are the terms" or are we to believe the Doctor is going to spend months - years as a mediator between the Silurians and Earth and use his awesome 'I am a Timelord, do as I say" routine to anyone who disagrees ?

Personally, I just operate under the assumption that the Doctor knows what he's doing the whole time, so the whole negotiation thing was nothing more than a time-killer, since he knew the three he left on the surface would kill the prisoner. Thus, the last three episodes have been nothing more than an intricate plan to get Rory out of the way.

[Drooling Iguana]

Personally, I just operate under the assumption that the Doctor knows what he's doing the whole time, so the whole negotiation thing was nothing more than a time-killer, since he knew the three he left on the surface would kill the prisoner. Thus, the last three episodes have been nothing more than an intricate plan to get Rory out of the way.

Plus he manages to get the Silurians out of the way by conning them into emerging from their tunnels just as the Earth is being bombarded by solar flares. The Seventh Doctor would be proud.

[Gramzamber]

Plus he manages to get the Silurians out of the way by conning them into emerging from their tunnels just as the Earth is being bombarded by solar flares. The Seventh Doctor would be proud.

That or the writer didn't bother to read up on episodes in the same bloody season.
And people are praising this hack!

[Straha]

Two more things that are pissing me off:

1. The Sonic Screwdriver. It needs to go. It's become a magic wand. The Doctor wants to find people? Use the Sonic Screwdriver to scan for them. The Doctor is surrounded by enemies? The Screwdriver can blow up their weapons. The Doctor needs to take a shit? The Screwdriver can preform a painless five second enema. The Doctor wants to lock a door about which he knows nothing? Screwdriver. Hack a computer to make it so a drill blows up (which the Silurians didn't do for no reason at all)? Screwdriver. Does the Doctor want to do something Doctor like? Screwdriver. I had hoped for better, but it's not working. Good writers don't use it except to make the show mildly more convenient. (Amy's Choice, for instance), but bad writers (Chibnall I'm looking at you) use it as a cop-out from... everything, and the audience knows this. No matter what situation he gets into you know the Doctor is going to get out of it, by the screwdriver. This leads to the writers seeing a lack of excitement or tension, so they compensate by making the situation in the next episode even MORE extreme, making the solution all the more predictable. If the screwdriver was chucked I think we'd have more believable, better written and more impactful stories and less fucking excuses.

2. The crack in time. It kills people and erases them from time, except if they're time travelers. Except if Rory disappears, then everyone forgets him unless they really really try to remember him. Except for the Doctor, he doesn't even beat an eyelash about it. Speaking of, the Crack in time erases people from time if it touches them, but the Doctor can shove his hand into it and fist it to his heart's content and come out juts fine. If Rory dies near it, though, then for no reason it reaches out to erase Rory, and only Rory, from time. This is getting to be worse than the damn bees.

[TC Pilot]

Part of me keeps wanting to think they're just messing around at this point. The "crack in the wall" is their way of magically not needing to do any of their homework anymore (re: Granzamber's point). It just seems like too much of a RTD finale and just overall too ridiculous with the villains, Rory's death, and so forth.

Or maybe they really have gone completely off the deep end.

[Stark]

2. The crack in time. It kills people and erases them from time, except if they're time travelers. Except if Rory disappears, then everyone forgets him unless they really really try to remember him.

This shit is really a problem. Someone irrevocable happens that is fixed by the very laws of reality with no possible way to subdue.

Oh, unless THE POWER OF LOVE means it isn't at all. It's been four, five years of this now.

[Straha]

If there are more episodes like this I might join you in the 'no longer watching Doctor Who' camp.

This one was just such a god awful turd, and what's worse is that I can't blame it all on Chibby because some of the worst of these points were certainly ordered from above. Like "Rory has to die by Crack in Time, and there has to be a shred of the Tardis in the crack."

Fuck this show if it stays that pants on head retarded.

[Gramzamber]

They could've done it like "psycho lizard lady fires at the Doctor, Doctor dodges and stumbles into the crack, Rory saves him but gets pulled into the crack, Doctor finds the piece of shrapnel that got thrown out of the crack in the chaos."

I mean it's not great but anything's better than "crack eats Rory but doesn't do dick to the Doctor who stuck his arm in it."

[Ford Prefect]

1. The Sonic Screwdriver. It needs to go.

Remember when they actually blew it up in a Fifth Doctor serial? They did it precisely because they though it could be too convenient for the Doctor to solve problems - remember the bomb in Earthshock? In that case the Doctor and Adric needed to get out a full on toolkit and perform a delicate operation to disarm it - I can imagine the same scene being played out in the new series with the whole thing solved by waving the Sonic Screwdriver at it.

[Stark]

It's actually sad that the writers' overuse of it lead to increasingly retarded things (like everyone and their dog having a 'deadbolt seal' instead of just closing their doors with something you can't open with fine manipulation) being added, instead of the screwdriver being kept under control or destroyed.

Somehow in S1 even using it to hack computers and break walls was fine because it was used for a) plot non-critical stuff (like money) or b) shown obvious limits (like being unable to make a hole in a wall). Now it's just ROFFLE DO ANYTHING.

Even the S1 control of the TARDIS is basically nothing (Time Lord keyless entry) but now it's a fucking tricorder.

[Shroom Man 777]

It's really sad. I know Moffat can do better than this, but why are we getting sub-S1 stuff, damn it? I mean, shit, RTD's first run was way better than this. The fucking farting aliens were even better!

[Ilya Muromets]

Just because a director can write something considered really good doesn't preclude him from shitting out genuine turds, nor does it mitigate the inherent crappiness of a turd already shit out by a writer under him.

[Shroom Man 777]

I am supersads.

[NecronLord]

You know what really got me about the sonic-screwdriver overuse here? The bit where he turned the shield off.

He was standing at the control panel. He could have just pushed the 'off' button.

Similarly, this episode also limited the Doctor's technology far more than it should have in other directions, too. The Silurian shield would have stopped the TARDIS; what? The logical place to hide would be the TARDIS. Hell, it would have been much more visually interesting to show us a TARDIS containment cell rather than having lizard girl chained up (I don't want to know what bondage games that vicar must have been playing) in the basement of a Church.

Of course, if they wanted to use the Church, how hard would it be to say the TARDIS was outside the shield?

[Shroom Man 777]

And the aliens can drill through twenty nine million kilometers through the Earth's core, and somehow staying in the Church is some kind of protection? What?

[PREDATOR490]

They couldnt have the TARDIS outside the shield because it had to get sucked down with Doctor and Drill lady inside. Of course, it would have made sense if the TARDIS was outside and they got sucked down via another means but yeah... another example of stupidity from the Doctor.

[mr friendly guy]

No, the Doctor saw her bringing in weapons and it dosent take a genius to figure out she is going to be emotionally distraught. What does the Doctor do ?
He leaves her with the weapons and dosent check to make sure she isnt going to take one ANYWAY... oh look thats exactly what she did. Then we have the loss of her son...
That should have instantly sent up red lights about having her guard the hostage.

Well what exactly can he do? With no outside help to call in, if he was to rely on the humans there. The Doctor is a genius, not the God Emperor of Dune.

The plot in this thing is so artifical at doing a U-turn its not even funny.
Part 1 paints the Silurians as being vicious villains with 'Evil' Doctor about to disect live humans
Part 2 paints the silurians as being all good natured with Doctor being so helpful

With the exception of Warriors of the Deep, generally the Silurians were divided into those who were moderate and those who were extremists. The division might not be in equal numbers (actually since most of them were asleep we have no idea of the breakdown in views). However your U turn seems to consist of the Doctor meets the "bad" (extremists) Silurians first and then meets the moderates later. The Silurian doctor doing a U turn is artificial. The part you are complaining about (ie the U turn as applied to the whole race) is not artificial. In fact it would look stupid if all Silurians were all just blood thirsty like Reshak. Its like all Klingons are warriors or something.

In any event I don't see what this has to do with the point I was replying to.

Yeah, lets make the woman the bad guy by having the plot literally do a U turn to cover her in the worst possible light.

Lets be fair, the plot (up to that point) turned out exactly as the Doctor had hoped it would, ie they would negotiate and are willing to change hostages. So lets not go into claims the plot took an about turn because the Doctor had managed to overcome difficulties to get in the position he said he would.

I have no issue condemning her for what she did but the way everyone seems to turn and treat her like shit because suddenly the Silurians are 'noble and peaceful' is bullshit.

The Silurian he was trying to negotiate with clearly is.

The Doctor expects the woman to be 'better than this' but we have seen before the Doctor completely lose it to the point of doing something stupid.

No offense, but the Doctor goes through much more than this woman in his adventures. If we compare the same stressful event, clearly he didn't lose it while she did. While the Doctor does try to kill things he isn't trying to uh hum negotiate with, I don't remember him ever stooping to torture, even in "Dalek" when he was trying to kill the weaken Dalek.

The woman did not mean to kill the Silurian, torture perhaps but not kill. However, rather than even attempt to hear her out... they just automatically condemn her as if she just killed the Silurian on purpose.
Noone attempts to ask HOW it happened or why... they just automatically jump to 'Your ruined everything with your BAD, EVIL DEED'

So you dislike the Doctor not because you disagreed with his conclusion (that what she did was stupid), but because he just assumed (correctly) that she did a stupid thing without asking to confirm.

No, the Doctor goes apeshit and everyone is condemning this lady as if she is responsible for wrecking the entire negotiation and proving humanity is 'super evil'. Instead we see that the negotiation was already condemned to failure because Mr. Military commander was set to raise an army and kill them all.

You do realise at that point the Doctor could not have known Reshtak was waking up the other soldiers to plan her coup right? She only came after he they had bought the dead Silurian in. If he started saying something like "don't worry, Mr Military commander is bringing her army in anyway and ruin things," people would be jumping down at this plot hole asking how he knew and why didn't he do something about it, if he knew.

So from he had observed she nearly did ruin things, but he managed to convince head Silurian guy to help them in the end anyway.

Sure, the woman did something wrong but for fuck sake, the folks here are acting like the Silurians are the innocent victims. However the woman is apparantly the one that gets hit with the 'shame on you' bullshit.

Huh? I got the feeling folks are acting more like "oh shit, war might break out / they will now kill our hostages," but thats just me.

Bullshit, the Doctor calls them and tells them to bring her down. No mention of fire extinguisher or HOW they are meant to do so. The Doctor dosent even inquire about how the Silurian is... logically he should have either A) Asked about her or B) had the leader Silurian TALK to her so she wont struggle.

If they felt they would have a problem bring the Silurian in they could have asked. Moreover Rory did see the Doctor used the fire extinguisher. Unless you think Rory is such a moron that he can't figure out what work before might work again, then really pointing out the Doctor didn't tell him the freaking obvious is bullshit.

You can idiot proof a plan only so much, but there eventually comes a point when its simply the people are idiots as opposed to your plan didn't take into account every possibility. And just for the record I expected the humans to be smart enough to ask what to do, or Rory smart enough to use the fire extinguisher again. The reason they didn't ask was because the prisoner was already dead.

Yeah, the Doctor expects them to subdue her when he could get the Silurian guy to talk to her and avoid unneeded violence.

You asked how the Doctor could possibly expected them to subdue her if she proved difficult, I provided the answer.

Nevermind, that in subduing the Silurian she might end up getting injured or end up killing someone. It's not like she injected venom into someone and made it obvious she would kill the humans.

Well if you are going to play it this way, then I can just say having the Silurian guy talk to her is really silly when they can use the fire extinguisher because its not like the militaristic Silurians don't ignore the old leader guy in favour of the General chick, especially when the prisoner is clearly a fanatic.

Oh no, just tell them to bring her down and expect them to be able to do so on their own and that nothing could go wrong.
Prime demonstration of the artifical nature of the episode just so we can have the scene where woman gets condemned and the Doctor goes apeshit over the 'surprise revelation'.

You might have a point if they killed her while bringing her down. Too bad it happened before the Doctor even told them "we can now exchange hostages."

An emotionally disturbed woman who has lost her son, had her father injected with venom and generally had her life fucked up confronts the thing responsible. What she did was obviously a mistake but the fault lies with the Doctor for not seeing what bad idea it was to leave such a person in a position to make that mistake.
First he leaves her alone with weapons and next he leaves the humans unattended all of whom have suffered because of these creatures. Is it really a surprise that SOMEONE in that group might actually hurt the hostage ?

Especially when that hostage is obviously going to WANT one of them to hurt her and provoke them into doing so.

So which non-human person should he leave the hostage with. The Doctor has always had to to make do with the people he encounters in his adventures, because he can't split himself into two (well except in the Invisible Enemy, Journey's End, but they were special cases). If he had UNIT on hand and he didn't use them and chose these civillians instead, you might have a point. However he had to make do with those he has, of which only one woman failed to do what he asked, and that was after a lot of provocation.

But your point seems to revolve around the Doctor should somehow be able to anticipate all possible stupid actions and come up with an idiot proof plan. Short of suggesting they lock themselves up because he can't trust them, I don't see how else she would have NOT confronted the prisoner. Its not like she can't just pick up some other weapon or a piece of wood and beat the prisoner to death who would have let them do it because she wanted to die.

I am disgusted at the Doctor's cavalier attitude giving the stakes of whats going on. The Doctor may be eccentric but this episode makes him look like a fucking maniac AND a retard. Leaving a volatile hostage in the hands of humans that are under pressure and may not be able to handle it, putting the negotiations of the planet in the hands of two random humans that do not have the authority to do so.

I'm sorry but even the Doctor cannot be so goddamn stupid not to realise that the rest of the world MIGHT not be too happy with this situation and that any agreement reached may very well end up getting nuked when the REAL negotiaters arrive on the scene. It's not like this world has had incidents of aliens launching massive attacks to wipe out all life, stealing children or that in the past human miltaries have engaged the Silurians despite any negotiation.

Oh so thats whats bothering you. That negotiations move forward one small step at a time. First exchange hostages. Then get the Silurians believing that humans in general might do a deal by using humans to suss out what humanity wants out of the deal. Obviously the next step would be to get human governments on side, but the idea was to stop the Silurians attacking and bring them to the negotiating table, which was happening while Leader guy was still in charge.

He dosent have to lie, he just has to keep his fucking mouth shut or at the very least give a PROPER account. No, lets recount it in a way that makes HUMANS look like the bad guys... what a great idea.

Like I said, if his plan had come to fruition and a peace treaty signed, they would have found out even if he kept his mouth shut. And when you are trying to negotiate from a position of weakness it doesn't pay to dick around with your captors by refusing to answer a question.

If humans are so different there is no way the reactions of the CURRENT SIX humans will reflect the reactions of the entire planet.

No, but if the Silurians are now willing to sit down and talk, thats half the job done already.

Something the Doctor should obviously know but its pretty clear from this episode the entire thing is contrived to the point that the negotation was never going to be a viable option because the plot never intended it to work.

The Doctor doesn't have the power to break the fourth wall.

[Eternal_Freedom]

God damn sonic screwdriver. I thought, I really hoped that when it exploded in "Eleventh Hour" we wouldn't see it again. And that the show would be better for it. But no, we get an even more fluky "magic wand"

Hell, if the Doctor ever gets in bed with a female, he probably wont even do anything, he'll just wave the sonic screwdriver in the general direction of the female genitals