A bunch of assorted stuff

[newnumber6]

Okay, there's these commercials for this movie called 'Nancy Drew', about some teen girl outcast who solves mysteries. Come on, can't anyone come up with any ideas other than ripping off Veronica Mars? ;) (Oh, hush, I know Drew came first, I'm just kidding, but the commercial does give me a bit of the same vibe, even though they're outcast for

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[newnumber6]

My problem is less about him using smell to decieve them as it is that it's described as 'olfactory ventriloquism', an elementary trick in many parts in the galaxy. That is, it's yet another magic trick he can do at will. One of my big beefs about this season in particular is the Magic Doctor, who can do all sorts of tricks at the whim of the plot. Radiation? Redirect it through his shoe. Survive freezing temperatures required to (temporarily) drive the alien out? No problem. Now 'Olfactory ventriloquism'. And that's not even counting the sonic screwdriver which itself is a magic item of endless versatility.

I prefer my heroes (unless they literally happen to be wizards or something), even if aliens, to have a few well-defined abilities of their own, and the rest they have to rely on their knowledge, rather than have the feeling that the writers can pull whatever they want out of the hat and describe it as 'oh, this is an elementary trick in some parts of the galaxy'. Like, for example, if he'd used his brains to divine a way to dose himself with something that smelled completely human, using TARDIS-tech or something (if he had access), that'd be fine. Or even if they used the explanation that 'the scent is the last thing to return, the time lord essence takes a while to seep out of your pores'. The fact that it's specifically an elementary trick that the Magic Doctor could do is what annoys me.

I want my doctor who're more like a human who happens to be brilliant and have two hearts, and yes, maybe some elementary 'timestream sensing' related abilities. Not a walking Deus Ex Machina. What next? "I thought you'd died?" "Died? What, just because I was in a vaccuum for 10 hours? No, that's silly. I learned to breathe space in the Andromeda Galaxy. Can't everybody?" Or "Don't worry, the ship's no longer in danger of blowing up!" "That's great Doctor, how did you?" "Oh, I just blew into the reactor a little. My breath can stop nuclear reactors from overloading. It's a Time Lord thing."

I'm reminded of the old campy Batman series where everythng was in his utility belt, no matter how silly. "Lucky I brought my Bat-Shark repellant!" "Good thing I had that Bat-Bomb-Defusing-Powder, or we would have been in trouble." (or the all time greatest, although not technically part of his utility belt, the time Batman was encased in concrete for an hour. "Holy suffocation Batman! You were in there for an hour, how did you survive?" "Easy chum, I HELD MY BREATH.")