Smith and Jones

[parma_violets]

Well, the third year of the new Doctor von Wer began last night, and I think we're all starting to notice the signs that the BBC is gearing up for thirteen more episodes. There's the broad stuff, like the Radio Times cover, or the astonishing fact that, on Saturday morning, the new series of Doctor Who was the lead story on BBC News 24 - Auntie

Comments

[matt_inthe_hat]

Writing with a respect to science? I think not. Not after she says that the poor oxygen level doesn't affect her because she's got adrenaline, and that CPR is a magic bullet (forgive the phrase) in bringing people back to life. I couldn't stand the fact that a sci-fi show was contradicting science.

[parma_violets]

You can probably fanwank the CPR thing a little more, too, because we don't really know what Anne Reid's Straw Of Death did to the Doctor. I mean, it was fairly obviously meant to draw off some of his blood, but how, and by what method, and why he didn't turn grey like Dr. Ironic Nomenclature earlier on - these things we don't know. It was probably shot that way to minimise the gore quotient for early evening television, but still.

My excitement over Martha Jones being a scientist is about more than just science, because obviously I don't know enough about science to work out when they're making it up, unless they do something utterly preposterous like a man shaking radiation out of his shoe. I just really, desperately want a return to the days when the Doctor and his friends won because they were cleverer than anyone else, rather than the more Magic Beans-centred approach they've had recently.

[baron_scarpia]

True enough, I suppose. But that's counter-balanced a little by two parts that seem plausible enough to me- first that there has to be oxygen outside the hospital because the hospital cannot be airtight and yet no vacuum's appeared, and second that since all the available oxygen is trapped within the forcefield there has to be a limited supply of it. Whether it really would run out that quickly, I have no idea.

I must confess that I don't push too hard against sci-fi that gets science wrong, as long as it's not obviously or gratuitously wrong. However I'm aware that it's a very personal criterion and my science education isn't the best.

[gileswl]

I've grown more forgiving of the abuse of science in (usually film/television) sf as late. Now it's mainly the sloppiness of the writing that bothers me: excusing plot holes in that manner, even if it does make sense, just serves to draw attention to them and the contrivance of their solution. Would it really have been so hard for Martha Jones to be a bit out of breath?

And why was there a dial in the hospital indicating atmospheric oxygen?