Doctor Who Series 37 Episode 5 - The Tsuranga Conundrum" Spoilers

[Crazedwraith]

Decent episode, actually saw it live for a change.

This Doc still seems to know less and be well... less competent. It's more grounded but it's little unfortunate.

A nice solution to the Conundrum but the description of the antimatter seems a bit off. Anti-matter is basically a high tech battery you wouldn't be generating it and using it for power on the same vessel, it would be against thermodynamics.

It was a nice speech though.

[Enigma]

I haven't seen the episode yet but I'm peeved that The Doctor has forgotten to fly the TARDIS smoothly.

[Crazedwraith]

Has the Doc ever consistently done that?

[ray245]

Has the Doc ever consistently done that?

When the plot dictates.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

The less competent thing is something I've noticed as a running theme throughout the series so far, I had hoped she'd get her shit together sooner. It doesn't help that the TARDIS has a mind of its own and is meant to be flown by a group of timelords all manning the controls simultaneously. I noticed that this time the Doctor faced a fair bit of resistance to taking charge as an outsider, and the guy doing it dies for his trouble.

I'm not sold on the 3/4 length trousers that the Doctor is wearing, I have to say.

I agree the antimatter thing doesn't make any sense, for one thing you need an energy source to generate the antimatter in the first place. As it is, it makes about as much sense as a water-fuelled car. In fact, it was specifically stated to produce positrons that interact with fuel that somehow produces heat and hence, thrust.

However, Wikipedia states the following:

While electron–positron reactions result in gamma ray photons, these are difficult to direct and use for thrust.

So whatever this exotic fuel is, must somehow turn gamma rays into kinetic energy as the positrons annihilate upon meeting the electrons in the fuel material.

It seems unusual for a ship that size to have so few escape pods (enough for just 10 people), as well as no command crew and just couple of medics. Its capacity and speed makes it a combination of ambulance and (very) small hospital ship, since it was stated that the Doc's crew had been on board for 4 days. I'm surprised none of the medics made a big deal out of how as a Time Lord, the Doctor had two hearts and was seemingly the last to regain consciousness.

What is staggering though is that a 'hospital ship' seemingly has no quarantine besides the self-destruct (that's triggered remotely). If there's something on board that needs to be kept from spreading, why would the autopilot continue on course to the Rhesus station? I know the ship was in an asteroid field for some reason, was it because the junkyard planet was in the middle of it and the detonation of the 'sonic mine' summoned the ship?

I wasn't 100% sure what the female Indian general was doing, though it seemed she was using some form of neural interface for piloting (something that apparently takes 12 years of training to master), perhaps something along the lines of what they use in Pacific Rim. She was suffering something called 'Pilot's heart', which requires 'adenaline inhibitors' to manage, and ultimately kills her.

The cynic in me saw the presence of a pregnant man (admittedly alien) as a product of SJW pressure- it certainly didn't actually contribute anything to the main story as far as I could see.

The energy-eating creature was dubious, being about a foot tall and supposedly unkillable, and instead of making a beeline for the antimatter drive wound up taking the scenic route was was lured by the equivalent of a block of C4.

[mr friendly guy]

I agree the antimatter thing doesn't make any sense, for one thing you need an energy source to generate the antimatter in the first place. As it is, it makes about as much sense as a water-fuelled car. In fact, it was specifically stated to produce positrons that interact with fuel that somehow produces heat and hence, thrust.

I would have thought thermodynamics would be a bigger problem to the antimatter drive, since they must use energy to make antimatter. The only advantage would be as a form of storage.

[Enigma]

Has the Doc ever consistently done that?

Capaldi's Doctor was able to consistently fly the TARDIS without any issues at all.

[Crazedwraith]

The less competent thing is something I've noticed as a running theme throughout the series so far, I had hoped s
I'm not sold on the 3/4 length trousers that the Doctor is wearing, I have to say.

While they do look stupid for myself I've never noticed them in an episode.

The cynic in me saw the presence of a pregnant man (admittedly alien) as a product of SJW pressure- it certainly didn't actually contribute anything to the main story as far as I could see.

Not the main plot but it served to illustrate and develop Ryan's character and his ongoing issues with his own dad.

[bilateralrope]

A member of a species with a week long pregnancy having to take a multi-day ambulance trip to a hospital for the birth. Sounds like they are deep in a galactic backwater.

[EnterpriseSovereign]

I agree the antimatter thing doesn't make any sense, for one thing you need an energy source to generate the antimatter in the first place. As it is, it makes about as much sense as a water-fuelled car. In fact, it was specifically stated to produce positrons that interact with fuel that somehow produces heat and hence, thrust.

I would have thought thermodynamics would be a bigger problem to the antimatter drive, since they must use energy to make antimatter. The only advantage would be as a form of storage.

Yes, ironically storage is the one problem they didn't need to worry about since the antimatter is consumed as it is created. They're using it as an energy carrier instead, which doesn't make sense at all; the thing violates conservation of energy since it seems to be a perpetual motion machine. Or it could be that the good Doctor is talking bollocks and no-one bothered to correct her!

Not the main plot but it served to illustrate and develop Ryan's character and his ongoing issues with his own dad.

Good catch, I forgot he had Dad issues. And at the age of 12 or 13 he found his Mum dead from a heart attack while washing the dishes.

A member of a species with a week long pregnancy having to take a multi-day ambulance trip to a hospital for the birth. Sounds like they are deep in a galactic backwater.

And said species only gives birth to their own gender. Which is a can of worms all by itself.

[Crazedwraith]

I agree the antimatter thing doesn't make any sense, for one thing you need an energy source to generate the antimatter in the first place. As it is, it makes about as much sense as a water-fuelled car. In fact, it was specifically stated to produce positrons that interact with fuel that somehow produces heat and hence, thrust.

I would have thought thermodynamics would be a bigger problem to the antimatter drive, since they must use energy to make antimatter. The only advantage would be as a form of storage.

Yes, ironically storage is the one problem they didn't need to worry about since the antimatter is consumed as it is created. They're using it as an energy carrier instead, which doesn't make sense at all; the thing violates conservation of energy since it seems to be a perpetual motion machine. Or it could be that the good Doctor is talking bollocks and no-one bothered to correct her!

Perhaps she was oversimplifying for Yaz and ended up with bollocks. The other people there, (the android guy?) wouldn't know enough about CERN from 46 centuries ago to catch it.

I'll just scratch it up under most writers are writers.

[Solauren]

Overall enjoyed the episode, accept with how the main drive reactor worked.

Of course, there could be WAY more to it then the Doctor said, and didn't want to freak out Yaz to much.

[bilateralrope]

And said species only gives birth to their own gender. Which is a can of worms all by itself.

Wasn't it males give birth to males, females give birth to females ?

Which is odd. Probably not the result of natural evolution. Though I'm not seeing any issues with it being a self-sustaining species.

[Bedlam]

And said species only gives birth to their own gender. Which is a can of worms all by itself.

Wasn't it males give birth to males, females give birth to females ?

Which is odd. Probably not the result of natural evolution. Though I'm not seeing any issues with it being a self-sustaining species.

The fact that the baby had to be cut out also suggests that they were engineered in some way.

Probably the weakest story of the season so far, if all they needed to do was chuck the thing out of the airlock why not stun it, wrap it in the blanket and kick it into the airlock rather than just down the corridor? Maybe feeding it meant it wouldn't come back but I don't think that was specifically mentioned.

[Crazedwraith]

It already caught up with them once. And the Doctor did mention the bomb would keep it fed.

[Broomstick]

I agree the antimatter thing doesn't make any sense, for one thing you need an energy source to generate the antimatter in the first place. As it is, it makes about as much sense as a water-fuelled car. In fact, it was specifically stated to produce positrons that interact with fuel that somehow produces heat and hence, thrust.

Actually, I could have done without that exposition entirely. I know people make fun of "wibbly-wobbly timey-whimey" but honestly it makes about as much sense. Why would someone from our time have any clue about propulsion systems 40+ centuries in the future? Would someone from the bronze age understand the the robots rambling around Mars? "It's like a dog sniffing around for stuff, but we built it instead of it being born" would be about as close as we could come to describing it in terms such a person could understand. Really, it only needed "it's like the iPhone version of CERN" and that would have got the job done. Less technobabble, please.

It seems unusual for a ship that size to have so few escape pods (enough for just 10 people), as well as no command crew and just couple of medics. Its capacity and speed makes it a combination of ambulance and (very) small hospital ship, since it was stated that the Doc's crew had been on board for 4 days. I'm surprised none of the medics made a big deal out of how as a Time Lord, the Doctor had two hearts and was seemingly the last to regain consciousness.

It's basically an ambulance. You have two medics to, as Astos put it, keep people alive until they got to a proper facility. As far as the Doctor being a Timelord - they probably see all sorts of aliens, to the point where a Time Lord is just another variation on the theme of life.

I wasn't 100% sure what the female Indian general was doing, though it seemed she was using some form of neural interface for piloting (something that apparently takes 12 years of training to master), perhaps something along the lines of what they use in Pacific Rim. She was suffering something called 'Pilot's heart', which requires 'adenaline inhibitors' to manage, and ultimately kills her.

I think that's about all we need to know - she's a pilot, she has a heart condition that can/will kill her, the medicine they've been using to keep her going has run out, and they need her to fly through asteroid field.

The cynic in me saw the presence of a pregnant man (admittedly alien) as a product of SJW pressure- it certainly didn't actually contribute anything to the main story as far as I could see.

"Pregnant male alien gives birth" has been done before, and better - I assume it was in there to further develop the arc around Ryan's dad issues.

[Broomstick]

And said species only gives birth to their own gender. Which is a can of worms all by itself.

Our planet has more than one species of lizard that does exactly that - they're all female and reproduce parthenogenically.

We don't get much information on how it all works, but if I had to throw an idea out there I'd say maybe the sex of the baby is determined by which parent carries the pregnancy? (Yoss did say girls gave birth to girls, implying there's more than one gender). The whole set up could be a product of genetic engineering.

Really, though, I don't see how you'd get a baby that size after just a week of pregnancy - that's outrageously fast development, not to mention how many calories it would require. There's another example of busted thermodynamics. Unless a "week" on Yoss's planet is like a "night on Darillium".

Which is why I don't think too hard while watching Doctor Who - it's more science fantasy than science.

I'm not terribly in love with the pacing this season. I do like the fact that in this episode the Doctor actually figures out what the Evil Alien wants - it's hungry and it wants to eat, it's (probably) not really malicious, just driven. She solves the primary problem by feeding it - which solves the secondary problem of the bomb on board.

Even so - I want less "tell" and more "show" from this season. The "show" is part of what made "Rosa" a strong episode. They didn't talk about racism and the Jim Crow society, they showed it.

[Eternal_Freedom]

It was...a solid episode. Kept me entertained which is it's primary purpose, some nice character work, some good speeches here and there (even if the physics is off - and seriously, you've got a multi-lived gender-swapping regenerating two-hearted time-travelling alien with a spaceship bigger on the inside and you worry about thermodynamics being mangled?) and an interesting take ont he "random alien boards spaceship."

As for the lifeboats thing, there were two medics and only three patient pods - with eight patients they did say they were at max capacity, so I'm fine with it.

[Parallax]

Has the Doc ever consistently done that?

Capaldi's Doctor was able to consistently fly the TARDIS without any issues at all.

The 7th Doctor never had any issues flying the TARDIS.