h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Something has been bothering me about a comment I think Mr Dreadful made, about Dr Who operating in a parallel near future universe. Is this just an assumption that Mr Dreadful has made or has this been referenced in Dr Who before?

One of the problems with this is that although the Doctor has said the Tardis can't visit alternative dimensions, it has in fact done so. Therefore according to the idea that the Doctor operates in a parallel near future universe he has on occasions jumped to other near parallel universes, which would conceivably mean he could jump to our near parallel universe. If that occurred what would happen to Mr Dreadful's notion of what constitutes fiction?

Note to self: I need to occupy my mind more constructively.....

How much knowledge did Russian scientists have of western music? A good question.
In 1988 Paul McCartney (Paul McCartney appeared in Doctor Who episode 'The Chase' so I'm not going too , honest ) released an album in the USSR entitled 'Choba B CCCP' for his Russian fans, who had been smuggling in Beatles music since the 60s.
So many copies of it kept being smuggled out of the USSR back into the western world that in 1991 he released it in the US and UK too.

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I thought the episode was shaping up well until they found a jacket for Clara to wear.

The Tardis and screwdriver are both tools of infinite power that can be used to end an episode when the script runs out of ideas, so putting them both out of action early on was a good sign. The whole story of the episode was hardly novel; based on some essentially benign race of aliens that becomes quite willing to end life on Earth (all life in the universe, etc) as a result of something that some life form said about their Mother.

The tension was standard Alien fare and achieved by exactly the same means. The cinematography (or whatever the small screen equivalent is) was a copy of the first Alien movie: Enclosed, claustrophobic space, strobe lights, slippery and fast alien on the loose. Even the way in which the suit opened had strong Alien egg nostalgia.

Submarines make terrible sets if accurate, there has to be room for the Doctor to run down corridors full of cameras and sound men; I'm very happy to ignore any inaccuracies there. The submarine crew seemed to be a weak element and unconvincing apart from bits of the scientist and the "stupid boy" who started the chaos with a gas torch.

Clara still seems a bit alien to me; not a normal child of Earth. "That's what we do" she said and, yes, it is. Maybe I've spent too long in my youth in Michael Moorcock's multiverse, heavily populated as it is with Eternal Champions and their side-kicks of destiny.

Is it me, or was the scientist saying "Courage, my dear" reminiscent of Pat Troughton?


Geggs

"...who had been smuggling in Beatles music since the 60s."

There's the rub, for me. Not only does the scientist guy have reasonably up-to-date knowledge of the European/American pop scene, he has no compunction about displaying it openly in a high-security setting. I can believe that several of the crew might have a cassette or two hidden amongst their personal effects, but would any of them really display it so blatantly? Even if there is no commissar or party official/enforcer aboard, surely he ought to have been at least a little afraid of one of the crew dutifully shopping him. Is his expertise really so incredibly valuable that he is exempted from all the usual controls?

Tolerance of the eccentricities of a dotty professor is a standard fictional device, I thought.

Plus, has anyone considered that the Soviet government already knew that it was an alien rather than a 'mammoth'?

And yes, Lusus, the parallel near-future thing is actually a thing rather than me just speculating.

Though of all groups of people likely to have been exposed to foreign music I'd guess people serving upon active naval vessels are gonna be high on the list.

Growing up in Plymouth we often had foreign sailors in town.

FB

Would it really have been so bad for a Soviet scientist or even a submariner to listen to Western pop? As was mentioned earlier here, some groups did perform in Russia during the Cold War.

Having said that, the scientists love of New Romantic music was a tad bizarre.

>>>>Though of all groups of people likely to have been exposed to foreign music I'd guess people serving upon active naval vessels are gonna be high on the list.
>>>>Growing up in Plymouth we often had foreign sailors in town.

Not that many Russians though... Just had a check, during the cold war period only three soviet warships made port-calls in the UK (each time to Portsmouth)... 1 in 1956, one in 1976 and one in 1990... I was lucky enough to have been around when the last one called... And even in 1990, when the Cold War was just about over, any Russian sailors you saw around town were in large groups, accompanied by a 'political officer' sheepdog. - My guess is that during the 1956 & 1976 visits the 'common sailors' wouldn't have even been allowed off the ship.

With missile subs things were even stricter... they had political officers onboard who outranked the captain and the boats themselves were kept on a very tight leash....

With US/UK boats, the captain would be given a map before he left, with a couple of areas of the ocean marked out on it - and his only instruction would be to go and hide himself somewhere in one of these areas - even the navy top brass and politicians didn't know where he was.

With russian boats the top brass knew exactly where they were - they went out for far shorter patrols and they were kept within areas much closer to the Russian coastline, behind a screen of surface ships and attack submarines.

Back on subject - thought that episode was ruddy brilliant!

I got a real soft spot for the episodes where the Companion is exposed to the big picture: the birth and death of the Earth or of the universe. Means I really like episodes like The End of the World or Utopia that most people seem to find mediocre. It's always lovely how the Doctor can say the right thing: Clara talking about being ghosts and everything ending and he shows her that not everything ends. Life-affirming stuff like that is why I enjoy sci-fi.

To me this episode felt more like one from a previous series. I have to say this series just isn't gelling for me, I'm not sure I like the blockbuster a week idea. They're not bad, far from it, they just seem shallow and not really drawing me in. This episode drew me in. I enjoyed the mysterious haunting set up and then the leap to sci-fi proper, it was cool. The TARDIS/Clara stuff was good (I liked Clara calling the TARDIS a moody cow) and in general there were a lot of good one liners.

Really enjoying Clara: JLC just has something about her delivery that makes me smile.

Yes. Much better. Liked it.

I've never been much convinced by ghosts. Or rather, by the terror they are supposed to inspire. Ghost stories seem to get to a certain point and then it's "So what did the ghosts *do* to them?" Nobody seems to be able to properly explain why they routinely pose a *threat*.
Having said that, they weren't really pushing the threat angle in this episode, so I'm happy. In general though, this episode fits into the pattern of many recent episodes for me: okay, but with a few brilliant moments.

I agree: Clara is working out well and really settling in and making the role her own.

The story is always a bit of a let down when you know that, as it is Doctor Who, it isn't going to be a ghost.

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I don't mind that, because the enjoyment partly comes from finding out what it *really* is.

So the nearest person to Clara that the Tardis has in her database looks just like Clara. I wonder if Clara is a fixed-point, but not in time.

I enjoyed the episode; good acting, good atmosphere. Nice to be reminded that the Dr finds Clara fascinating enough to get him out of bed in the morning - his glee at finding the monster was well done too.

I thought that was just the Tardis being snarky: "Someone you admire" was the gist of what she said about why it chose that image.

And there I was thinking that the TARDIS couldn't tell the companions apart...

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This Center of the Tardis episode seemed like it had some really shoddy writing. I was not amused.

Oh dear - not that good then?