Douglas Adams Continuum (DAC)

high time i posted a thread for an upcoming ep! sooo much looking forward to it. i will, however, only get to see it on sunday, and that only if everything works out fast enough. we´ll see (indeed).

so, what´ll happen? i guess dodging the futurekind and getting back to earth will be the least of our heroes´ worries. but then...? very probably, the master has a dastardly plan up his sleeve. i wonder: does he know about the time war? by now he must have gotten his bearings and feel (like the doctor), that there are no other time lords left, that gallifrey is gone, that things have changed forever. apparently this doesn´t stop him or makes him reconsider his motivation. now i wonder: is he connected with all this somehow? how did he survive anyway? (and not only the time war) do you think this will be tackled or will they just let it slip away, so as not to confuse new viewers too much? i think the writers can betrusted enough to at least point us in some direction, because so far they´ve done a stellar job of marrying old and new viewers´ expectations...

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"The human gene pool needs more lifeguards!
Either that or stronger chlorination...." (Pitbull)

Well previously the Master was the pseudo-leader of the Daleks so I am hoping....

(But I won't look) and don't tell me !

really? think so?

frankly, i hope the daleks stay out of this for once. let the master have all the limelight! i´m hoping for a nice and tense psychological battle between him and the doctor!

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"The human gene pool needs more lifeguards!
Either that or stronger chlorination...." (Pitbull)

Well I have no idea but this series has been so great up to now whatever happens I'm sure it will be good so I just want to sit back behind the sofa and let it all happen.

nicely put ... even more so because we´ve had our (apparently now traditional) luke-warm two-parter already, and the finale has so far always been great or even fantastic (see POTW).
i think we take for granted that the doctor and martha survive, but at what cost?

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"The human gene pool needs more lifeguards!
Either that or stronger chlorination...." (Pitbull)

I wonder if the room (with the sliding door) where Jacobi spent most of the last episode, is going to turn out to be his Tardis? Perhaps it's not working at the moment, so that's why he stole the Doctor's.


Q: So how do they escape?

A: The Doc slaps Captain Jack's time wrsitband thingy into the mix, wires it up to something in that room, and hey presto they are off to rendezvous with Mr Saxon back on Earth....?


Just a theory based on the fact that when we first saw Jacobi and 'blue' last week, I immediately assumed it was a ramshackle Tardis interior as per the old Dalek movies, furnished with props akin to the 1996 McGann move - the horn gramophone, armchair etc....

Hmm...

I have a feeling that the Doctor will find the Masters TARDIS and use that to follow him, although as it had been specifically mentioned that Jack's gadget was knackered, will we see another Sonic cop-out - hope not,

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I'm going to start a new company. It's going to be called 'Easy McApple.' The revenue stream will be based on betting who will sue me first...

Due to the move, I hadn't been able to keep up with the series for the last three episodes. I still was able to access them, I just couldn't watch them. I did this morning.

I've just finished watching Utopia.

Wow. I'm speechless. I'm screaming. The series has never, ever done this to me before. Not even the original did this to me. I've never been absolutely gobsmacked as I am now. Blown away, I think, is the proper term. The Valeyard is just a mere whitlin' compared to how this season has evolved. And I have to admit that Jacoby's Master, brief though it was, was nearly on par with Delgado, himself.

Onward to The Sound of Drums, then.

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This has been another random act of nonsense.

Well two words spring to mind and no need for spoilers.

Fucking brilliant.

I'd shove an "absolutely" in front of that sentence

Stunning stuff. Is it really all over next week?

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I'm going to start a new company. It's going to be called 'Easy McApple.' The revenue stream will be based on betting who will sue me first...

And a soundbite from Eric Roberts on Confidential!!!

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I'm going to start a new company. It's going to be called 'Easy McApple.' The revenue stream will be based on betting who will sue me first...

From Human Nature onwards this series has been just stellar!

[spoil]We saw Gallifrey!

Cloudbase from Captain Scarlet!

And just what are the Toclofane?

What a cliffhanger!
[/spoil]

Do you hear that drumming?

A bit slow, honestly. But it is setting up for a nice finish, hopefully. I expect Mrs. Saxon is getting some nasty comeuppance.

And there's at least one person who didn't like it.

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This has been another random act of nonsense.

Is it me? Or does anybody else think the emphsis of the writing has shifted slightly in favour of the more mature audience!

I'm loving it!Apart from Q.I, I think this is the only TV programme that I make a concious effort to watch!

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love is a wet spot on the mattress of my life! Tracy Lundgren

after our performance a bunch of little kids were in awe of the size of my bassoon. Appogg

Poor Laurence seems to be having a bit of a breakdown. He has in the past had some interesting things to say but recently seems to be falling apart.

I can't believe that we are already approaching the end of this year's season. I want more of that awesome stuff!!!

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Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
(Douglas Adams, "Last Chance to See")

Not just one. Most of the IMDB board has already declared it to be typical bad RTD writing, and they have convinced themselves that everything from him is awful, and always will be awful.


Well, anyway. Good episode. The season started out slow, even subpar, but it has been excellent since Human Nature.

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Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.

-H.L. Mencken


[url]http://www.madmanoz.blogspot.com[/url]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!

*whew*
no, not *whew*.
i´m not calm at all.

what an ep! and people didn´t like it? how snobbish is that? and gonz: "a bit slow?" how cool are you?

i won´t dwell on it.

i thought it was brilliant. terribly tense feeling the whole time. the master is a wonderful villain - oh my god, i´m so scared of him - he really seems to be able to beat the doctor. he´s completely mad, right?

[spoil]i was screaming two times, real loudly: right near the end, when jack wants to teleport himself and martha out of there i was "yes!!! don´t think about it, get out there NOW!" - and at the very end. then i was more like "NOOO! they can´t stop there!"

i absolutely agree, btw, didn´t feel like kid´s stuff at all.

there were so many nice things in it - the bashing of the good old "the usa has the monopol for first contact", the casual killing of mr. president, jack´s unshaken devotion for the doctor, the doctor reminiscing about gallifrey ...
one of the best scenes, in my mind, was the first phone call between the doctor and the master. great interaction there. even i, who´s had next to no history with the master, could feel the dimension of this reunion.

now i wonder: who are the toclafane? there must be some sort of secret behind them - are they really an alien race or something the master has created? (i only pray it´s not the daleks again!!!) why did the master age the doctor? just because he could and thought it would be a nice revenge and a good way to incapacitate him (so that he can gloat in peace and quiet)? or is there another reason? what exactly does the paradox machine do? what kind of paradox are we talking about? what can martha possibly hope to achieve, alone on earth? why didn´t she flee with jack - did he stay behin don purpose or did she have no choice?
questions and more questions ...[/spoil]

can´t somebody teleport me to next sunday?

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"The human gene pool needs more lifeguards!
Either that or stronger chlorination...." (Pitbull)

....a most excellent episode!...Can't wait for next week....though I'm sad it'll be the last episode of the season.

I thought it was quite excellent. I don't understand the gent who thought
it was boring at all as I found myslef completely engrossed, start to finish,
and was left drooling for the conclusion. Really, the last five episodes have
been utterly superb and, though there was a definite lull in the shows just
prior to Human Nature, looks like things will finish up on a real high note.

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Steal Compass. Drive North. Disappear.

twitter: @kensocrates

any, any ideas about the "toclafane"? i can´t help wracking my brains about it, i´m sure there´s some hint hidden in the name itself, it sounds just so awkward and unusual. anybody else has this feeling?

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"The human gene pool needs more lifeguards!
Either that or stronger chlorination...." (Pitbull)

They remind me of what I always imagined Colin looked like.

added thought: didn´t the master mention something like how he and the doctor know the name "toclafane" from way back at gallifrey? did they make it up together or something? sorry, i didn´t understand all of the dialogue very well ... so it could be just the master´s private joke .. which would mean they are not a proper alien race. but they behaved as if they needed a new home or someting, bit like the gelth. and can it really be a coincidence that there are 6 billion of them (roughly one for each human)?

*edit* more added thoughts: didn´t the master say if the doctor knew who the toclafane are, it would break his hearts? now what could that be? i have a nasty feeling that there could be a close connection to the time lords. plus, the sky openning up reminded me of the void. so, chances are it´s something hidden in the void. daleks already emerged from there. cybermen used it to pass over to our world and got sucked back in. who knows what else has survevived in there? and: will we ever find out about utopia? methinks it was a bit too big to be just a throw-away plot device in the first part ...

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"The human gene pool needs more lifeguards!
Either that or stronger chlorination...." (Pitbull)

I think the Master picked a name from Gallifreyan mythology (like calling them trolls or gremlins of bogeymen) to disguise what they really are.

My first thought was that they have something to do with the Utopia. Perhaps Utopia was a trap (or simply a well-meaning but ghastly experiment in survival) and the last humans were encased in these metal spheres. I'm not sure if the maths works out (think we were told there were 6 billion toclafane) as I don't know how many humans were on that rocket bound for Utopia.

Another idea that seems quite popular is that they have something to do with the Time Lords. Perhaps the Time Lord children who look into the vortex and go mad are imprisoned in the spheres by the Time Lords (they seem to favour imprisonment over death). They do sort of sound child-like (but with adult voices). Of course it doesn't account for their impressive weaponry. Perhaps during the Time War they were adapted to be a weapon to rival the daleks. But then why are they still around?

I'm inclined to think the real reason is something along the lines of the second idea. I think RTD will probably return to the story of Utopia next series (similar to the way he returned to Cassandra and New Earth).

I would think the Doctor would recognize them, then.

I also don't think it's the folks from the Utopia rocket as 6-billion people on a rocket ship has next to no hope of being possible, science fiction or not.

I can't help but think the similarity in voice to the Gelth is a red herring but I think that's what they are. The machines are their vehicle into this world and they no longer need physical bodies to sustain them. Didn't the Gelth number in the billions?

If anything, at least we have the potential for a Dalek-free finale.

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This has been another random act of nonsense.

Yes indeed. I loved their appearence in Army of Ghosts and Doomsday but it would quickly get very boring if they turned up in every finale.

Apparently when the first new series was being written they didn't know if they'd get the rights to use the daleks and RTD was quoted as saying: "And I can confirm we have created a new enemy for the Doctor which will keep viewers on the edge of their seats"
Many are now speculating that the toclaphane are what was designed originally as Dalek replacement but were shelved when the dalek rights were agreed.

i wonder: what exactly is the master´s role? he certainly seems to be in control - but since he´s hearing the drums himself (and uses them to maniupulate the earth population), maybe he´s being manipulated himself? now does this sound like a certain time-travelling society we know? just think about it: the end is near - and they call in their two rogue sons. one to end the war for good, one to ensure their survival, against all odds... even if it means they´ll cancel out another race (the humans) in the process.
i think this would be a revelation enough to break the doctor´s hearts - but also it could be an angle for him to get to the master, since i can´t believe that the master likes to be anybody´s servant, least of all to the time lords.

so: i figure the call to utopia could have been a giant trap, set up by the desperate time lords at the end of time, to lure in the species that seems to be best at survival ... and then somehow tie their own survival to them.

only i´m not sure about the numbers: i was under the impression that the time lords were never that many - so that leaves us with 6 billion entities inside mysterious metal spheres ... and i refuse to believe that it´s a coincidence that this number equals earth´s population.

so - gah! will the doctor be forced to make a decision between his own people and his favourite people?

and i can´t help trying to solve the toclafane mystery. i´ve dropped the anagram idea - there doesn´t seem to be anything there. plus, it would be somewhat lame to have the same solution twice over. but i wonder if it could be something like an inscription that´s been damaged over time and people end up reading "toclafane" when it actually was something else ... but it´s really hard to find out for me, it´s like doing a crossword puzzle in a different language ...

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"The human gene pool needs more lifeguards!
Either that or stronger chlorination...." (Pitbull)

RTD likes to use anagrams but I couldn't find anything spectacularly relevant.

Fatal Once perhaps... or A flat cone.... Or perhaps there are some missing letters which would reveal things?

But isn’t this the extra fun part that has gone out of Doctor Who, I remember at school talking about last Saturday's Dr Who episode, and what might happen next even pretending to be the monsters or the Doctor at playtime. But with the move to the one episode format although it does make it easier to sell in the modern world it is a shame that the communal part of it all has faded away.

Of course in those days there was still a fair amount of Tardis’s still about so you had a constant reminder.


Ooh another thing the Master's chosen name, King Harold was King of the Saxons killed at the battle of Hastings.

Are you sure he wasn't talking about the Slytheen?

Seriously, though, that's an intriguing idea. No reason why, if they were supposed to be so good, why they can't be used. Although, I would think, at some point, they would start to turn on the Master.

Speaking of, that is my only real complaint about this episode. I thought Simm's Master paled in comparison to Jacoby. Instead of sinister, we get post-modern menacing.

Although, it is amusing to think that all of the destruction and chaos he created is directly from him looking into the Total Perspective Vortex.

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This has been another random act of nonsense.

and what about some big revelation about jack? and what about the face of boe, there seems to be some reason to speculate it´s connected as well ...?


btw, i´ve found a possible solution to the toclafane riddle - but it´s very flimsy. proceed at your own risk.

[spoil] TOCLAFANE = FACEOFBOE. really, it works (a bit). try writing down toclafane in edgy letters, like it was written in electronic calculator font or spelled with matches. then add some lines to the toclafane letters, like so: add a horizontal dash to the "T" and it becomes an "F", the "C" becomes an "E" and so on ...
only hitches are the first "O" (which needs to turn into an "A") and the first "A" (which needs to turn into an "O").
well, i said it was flimsy, right?[/spoil]

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"The human gene pool needs more lifeguards!
Either that or stronger chlorination...." (Pitbull)

oooh, nice find, iain! and i completely agree - the longer running stories make for spectacular fun while waiting for the solution. i really hope this first three-parter is only the beginning of longer stories coming back as the rule, not the exception. now they´ve won back a trusty audience, maybe they feel confident enough ... made by geeks for geeks, remember?

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"The human gene pool needs more lifeguards!
Either that or stronger chlorination...." (Pitbull)

sorry for going on, but i really think that there are many, many things in this story that need discussing!
now my thoughts have reached mrs. saxon. what´s the deal with her? the more i think about it, the less i think it´s likely she´s just an ordinary human being, just the token first wife.
because if she was - why does the master still bother with her? (the only reason could be that he´s honestly smitten - and i somehow doubt that.)
also - she doesn´t seem bothered at all that hubby´s plan suddenly involves killing off ten percent of the human race. if she was just his dupe, i would have expected something like "oh no! but you promised me it would be alright! etc."

so: she´s either hypnotized - and if she is, why isn´t she toast yet? (maybe we´ll come to this.)
or she´s something/someone else entirely. something/someone that´s taken the form of this woman, who, contrary to the master, obviously did exist on earth beforehand.

*edit*
question to the experts: would the master taking a shine to someone (as in "falling for a woman" or even bothering with one) be out of character? has he had companions/lovers? (the answer could be another hint to the true colours of mrs. saxon.)

*yet another edit*
though i must say, the concept of an evil companion is a rather intriguing one - some sort of "dark rose/martha", so to speak - a chance for a parallel showdown?

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"The human gene pool needs more lifeguards!
Either that or stronger chlorination...." (Pitbull)

Unofficially, there have been two instances where the Master either had companions or near loves. In the MA story, The Dark Path, the Master (pre-Master, actually, as he is going by the name Koschei) has a companion name Ailla. Only, she's not really a companion but a spy sent to keep tabs on him. It's a passable story and sets up the Delgado Master

In the BF audio, Master, he develops feelings for a woman named Jacqueline Schaeffer. That ends badly.

Searching my dusty databanks, I can't recall in the series proper of the Master actually falling in love. And I don't think this is love. He's using Mrs. Saxon for his own purposes, and probably more ways than one. I fully expect she meets a nasty end at his hands.

Whether he's remorseful or not is another question.

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This has been another random act of nonsense.

My take on Mrs Saxon is that she would, in any other circumstances, be utterly unremarkable. She's lived a priveliged and sheltered life and isn't that bright. She has a strong sense of entitlement and little else. The universe is all about her.

Normally she'd be harmless, if a little irritating, but in the same way that the Doctor brings out the best in those with potential, the Master is bringing out the worst in those with the potential for evil.

Mrs. Saxon is Paris Hilton?!?!

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This has been another random act of nonsense.

What a terrifying thought!

interesting point. you see, i think this way would be much more interesting than the obvious "oh, she´s hypnotized/drugged" game. at first i suspected she´d meet a nasty end (most probably at the hand of hubby dearest) rather sooner than later, but now i´m not so sure. i´d like to see the idea of an evil side-kick further developped ... but maybe she´ll turn out to be something else, something connected to the spheres and their plan for the earth ...?

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"The human gene pool needs more lifeguards!
Either that or stronger chlorination...." (Pitbull)

Did anybody notice how the Master looked disturbingly much like Tony Blair sometimes. Or was I the only one, who throught that.

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Every normal man must be tempted at times to spit on his hands, hoist the black flag, and begin to slit throats.

-H.L. Mencken


[url]http://www.madmanoz.blogspot.com[/url]

Absolutely , in fact I was waiting for Harold to call Mrs. Saxon Ma Cherie.

Tish! That's French!

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This has been another random act of nonsense.

Not necessarily!


or even

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Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.
(Douglas Adams, "Last Chance to See")

rewatched it last night and i´m glad i did. "the phone call" is still high on my "best scenes" list. i also understood some details better. i´m still not sure if i got this right, but judging from the reaction of the doctor, he knows the "toclafane" only as time-tot bogeymen, they are not a real alien race that he knows of, right?
i´ve also established that the master really had no idea how the time war ended but that he ran long before the showdown. which pretty much rules out any connection of time lords and the toclafane plan. it´s also interesting to note that the master is somewhat shocked at the revelation that gallifrey is gone - but contrary to the doctor he doesn´t seem to mind being the last time lord. he´s also much more fascinated by the double genocide which ended the time war and which gave the doctor so much sorrow and self-doubt. those two work brilliantly as adversaries, i feel, and i hope they don´t kill the master off for good any time soon. let him end beaten and on the run, so that he can come back as the doctor´s nemesis ...

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"The human gene pool needs more lifeguards!
Either that or stronger chlorination...." (Pitbull)