Doctor Who S34E10: "In the Forest of the Night" (Spoilers)

[Enigma]

I'd accept the 'last of my species' thing as him meaning 'last of my species currently available for consultation', especially as this incarnation of the Doctor still seems to be a bit confused (well even more confused than nuWho doctors were before). The guy not only needs driving lessons for the TARDIS, he needs to be reminded that humans usually have names.

He knows how to pilot the TARDIS. In fact, he does it a lot better than the previous three Doctors.

[SpottedKitty]

I'm beginning to wonder if the Promised Land Lady is actually an older version of Clara that went insane.

What do you mean, "went"...?

I'd say we definitely have a leading contender for "silliest episode since the restart". There's just so much I could list...

[Havok]

Magically appearing sister - They said she had been missing for a YEAR... in a fucking bush outside the house ?

Is that what you get from this?

Last of your species - Gallifrey is safe and waiting for the Doctor to bring them back so fuck you very much for not only ignoring that epic plot point continuity but putting two rounds in it's head for no reason so we can play more of that old song melodrama garbage.

And he is supposed to bring them back how? The last "crack" closed when they gave him new regenerations. Also, how the fuck do you know he doesn't spend his free time doing just that?

This is my planet too ? - Wow.... just wow. This is the same season that had the Doctor bail in 'Kill the Moon'.

And that, numbnuts, is why he said it to Clara the way he did. He was making a point that he listened to her and understood. It's called character and relationship growth.

Really, when you can understand basic character development you can complain about the rest.

And CLEARLY they weren't fucking regular trees. They were made up of the little sparkly things, which they actually show dispersing and turning back into at the end of the show. Why everyone is expecting them to act like regular trees is beyond me, especially as they go out of their way to show: Regular Trees, Not Regular Trees.

You all expect to be treated like these super intelligent, clever viewers and bemoan having shit explained to you in exposition, yet when they don't OMG SO STUPID PLOT HOLES!

The only things that really stand out as bad, is that there is no way people won't remember the forest as it was recorded on all the news channels and on everyone's phones. I get the idea of forgetting, but not in this instance simply because of the physical evidence of it everyone created plus the things like fallen statues.
And just the girl at the end being so creepy. I think it would have been better if they ran up and hugged her instead of her just giving the Hayden Christiansen Anakin Skywalker smile from the ROTJ then cut to the credits.

[jwl]

Pretty sure in the episode they said they'd brought all the remaining nukes with them.

The world only has 100 nukes? The tech seems to have regressed more than I thought it had.

[Eternal_Freedom]

I would imagine it wasn't because of tech regressing but disarmament agreements. Of course, it may be that those 100 were all they had immediately available and ready to go. There were probably more in storage that couldn't be readied in time.

[DaveJB]

Or the other nukes in the world's arsenal were all small, kiloton-level devices which likely wouldn't have done jack against whatever was disrupting the moon.

[FaxModem1]

So what's next? Can Doctor Who have the sun be the weeping tears of a demon that just needs a hug? How about that oxygen is actually the creation of butterflies for plants to eat so we can learn about cooperation? Just how stupid are we supposed to allow Doctor Who to get so that they can have positive messages?

So, I just needed to wait a few episodes for this to happen.

[Enigma]

You guys are arguing over science in Doctor Who, a show in which a guy that has a box, who somehow manages to not only swallow up a star but create his own Eye of Harmony. This inside a Timelord's version of a civilian spacecraft.

Do we really need to nitpick shit like this?

[dragon]

You guys are arguing over science in Doctor Who, a show in which a guy that has a box, who somehow manages to not only swallow up a star but create his own Eye of Harmony. This inside a Timelord's version of a civilian spacecraft.

Do we really need to nitpick shit like this?

yes after all what else are we going to do

[DaveJB]

You guys are arguing over science in Doctor Who, a show in which a guy that has a box, who somehow manages to not only swallow up a star but create his own Eye of Harmony. This inside a Timelord's version of a civilian spacecraft.

Do we really need to nitpick shit like this?

It's one thing when an episode gives us science that, while bad, requires you to do further research to find out exactly what the problem was, and ultimately doesn't have much bearing on the episode's resolution, as was the case with Kill the Moon. It's another thing entirely when the episode's resolution not only hinges on science that anyone with a high-school level of education could point out is wrong, but is inadvertently disproved by the episode itself (removing oxygen from the atmosphere stops things from burning, and adding tons more oxygen... also stops things from burning, apparently)!

Though I will grant the episode that what they went with wasn't as stupid as what I initially thought they were going to do - namely, have the trees temporarily convert Earth's atmosphere entirely into carbon dioxide, then allow the solar flare to hit Earth and harmlessly pass over it without even scorching anything, before restoring the oxygen in time to prevent everyone from suffocating.

[InsaneTD]

See, that would at least work in theory. Or even, the trees were pumping carbon dioxide out into the upper atmosphere and oxygen down low for animal life.

[Batman]

I'm reasonably certain the main problem with a solar flare this intense isn't it setting stuff on fire but the massive increase in radiation. Which the CO2 wouldn't do beans about.

[SpottedKitty]

I'm reasonably certain the main problem with a solar flare this intense isn't it setting stuff on fire but the massive increase in radiation. Which the CO2 wouldn't do beans about.

There was so much else wrong with the science I forgot about this.

A good point, it might even have reached the levels expected from a nearby (within a few hundred light years) supernova; definitely something that would ruin any biosphere's day. Even normal really powerful flares, the sort we get every decade or so, are enough to endanger the electronics on satellites. This mega-flare should have affected anyone in a high-flying plane.

[jwl]

I'm reasonably certain the main problem with a solar flare this intense isn't it setting stuff on fire but the massive increase in radiation. Which the CO2 wouldn't do beans about.

Wasn't it that the momentum of the flare would have ripped the crust of the planet off?

[DaveJB]

I don't know that a solar flare would carry enough mass to do that to the Earth. But the planet's had problems with solar flares before in the Doctor Who universe, and apparently didn't suffer any structural damage then, so it's at least consistent with the show's history. Of course, that begs the question as to why the trees didn't save the Earth on those occasions, though to be honest I'm just glad that they didn't further pile on the environmental angle by saying that all trees on Earth had been destroyed by then, hence why they couldn't save the planet.

And yeah, a pure carbon dioxide atmosphere would prevent things on the planet's surface combusting, but everything would still be barbecued real good n' crispy through other mechanisms.

[SpottedKitty]

Wasn't it that the momentum of the flare would have ripped the crust of the planet off?

Not nearly enough momentum to do that — even a supernova (which our titchy little sun could never do anyway) only has a pretty good chance of doing structural damage to the planet. Monster flares would damage the upper atmosphere, which wouldn't directly kill anyone immediately, but it would definitely do cruel and unusual things to any moderately advanced technological civilization. Unshielded electronics in satellites, planes, and even on the ground would be in danger of being fried extra-crispy.

Note that this isn't all speculation and guesstimates, as anyone living in eastern Canada in 1989 could tell you — a big storm jumped up and down on the power grid there and caused widespread blackouts.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Thats a good point about satellites. Soemthing that big and deadly should have nicely fucked up anything on the Earth's day-side. And yet apparently we're all fine and can still communicate and navigate and stuff, no sweat.

[jwl]

Wasn't it that the momentum of the flare would have ripped the crust of the planet off?

Not nearly enough momentum to do that — even a supernova (which our titchy little sun could never do anyway) only has a pretty good chance of doing structural damage to the planet. Monster flares would damage the upper atmosphere, which wouldn't directly kill anyone immediately, but it would definitely do cruel and unusual things to any moderately advanced technological civilization. Unshielded electronics in satellites, planes, and even on the ground would be in danger of being fried extra-crispy.

Note that this isn't all speculation and guesstimates, as anyone living in eastern Canada in 1989 could tell you — a big storm jumped up and down on the power grid there and caused widespread blackouts.

I'm talking in-story here.

[InsaneTD]

I want to know why the doctor didn't just put the TARDIS between the planet and the sun to shield the earth. Various sci-fi have down that in the past and those sci-fis don't have a ship as powerful as the TARDIS.

[NecronLord]

Because it can't spread its shield that far, I assume.

[Batman]

It doesn't need to. All it has got to do is get close enough to the sun to deflect the flare around Earth.

[InsaneTD]

Plus it can control it's exterior size. Though if that's tied a hundred percent into the chameleon circuit, it might not be fully able too anymore.

[2000AD]

You guys are arguing over science in Doctor Who, a show in which a guy that has a box, who somehow manages to not only swallow up a star but create his own Eye of Harmony. This inside a Timelord's version of a civilian spacecraft.

Do we really need to nitpick shit like this?

Thing is they don't try and explain the TARDIS with current science, it's Clarke's 3rd law in effect, sufficiently advanced tech to be indistinguishable from magic. That's fine, it's bigger on the inside because it's super tech we can't even comprehend.

But when they try and use current science badly then it's stupid and gets called out. They could've just gone "shiny happy tree pixies put up a psionic field that blocked the flare" or "they're using a [techno mumbo jumbo bullshit] shield way ahead of anything on Earth" and it would've been ok because we accept the magic time traveling box, but instead they went with some total BS about increased levels of oxygen somehow protecting the planet (haven't rewatched, think that's what it was) which we know would do jack shit to a solar flare.

[NecronLord]

It doesn't need to. All it has got to do is get close enough to the sun to deflect the flare around Earth.

Flares are big at source, too.

Say the forcefield can spread out one mile across. You'd not even see it as a pixel in this image.

The thing in Stargate was fucktarded too because it assumed solar flares are small enough to be easily deflected. They're not, they're vast. Let alone a Coronal Mass Ejection.

[Starglider]

Awful awful writing, mediocre acting although to be fair, the actors were probably finding it as hard to suspend disbelief for this utter nonsense as the viewers. It's a real shame that the series keeps coming up with striking visual concepts, but then squanders them on horrible nonsensical story. The writing for this season has definitely abandoned all pretense of 'science fiction' for 'modern fantasy', but they can't even stay self-consistent the way good contemporary fantasy does.