Bloody rounding errors!

Tenth overall for the day, second for the ABC, third for dramas.

Time-shift tallies vary so obviously by type of show, so I’ll take a look at the top 20 shows of April 21 to illustrate that (I threw out an ABC news update, as it was clearly affected by shows either side of it).

On average, the news programs got a bump of 0.5% from time-shifters. The footy got 1%. ‘Sixty Minutes’ got 4%. The lifestyle shows got 6%. But the two comedies got a 19% bump in their viewers from time-shifters, and the dramas averaged 21%.

This rating is still only for the five big metropolitan areas (Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth), not for the country as a whole.

It certainly makes it a bit harder to claim Occam’s Razor is supporting the order I’ve suggested. But three reasons I still like the above theory are that:

1) it’s a MUCH better overall story; and

2) ‘P.S.’ screws with the series dating badly, given it gives a authoritative “mid-sixties” age for the Williams child, who at the latest was born in 1946.

2) ‘P.S.’ is shallow and obvious, contributing little, and more importantly is almost identical to the scene in ‘Blink’. Especially for that last reason, I find it hard to believe it was ever even close to being filmed, as claimed.

So I prefer to think ‘P.S.’ doesn’t exist!

He’s not supposed to cross his own timeline but he actually does it all the time. Where exactly do you draw the line anyway? Fair enough he shouldn’t interact directly with his own self – unless it’s in an anniversary year – but he’s a time traveller after all, why shouldn’t he pop back for a mop occasionally?

That said, I enjoy a good standalone story as much as a convoluted story arc. (And I’m still waiting to find out who the Timelady was in ‘The End of Time’ by the way.) If the chronology of S7 pt1 proves to be all wibbly-wobbly I’ll be very impressed but if it’s entirely linear it still works for me.

Thanks also to Dave Kitchen for articulating the same disappointment that I feel in every magic wand moment. The sonic screwdriver should just be a tool among the Doctor’s formidable arsenal not a lazy way of solving every problem. I’m starting to understand why John Nathan Turner got rid of it back in the 1980s.

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Well, your theory certain contains enough evidence for me not to dismiss it out of hand, however, here’s a couple of reasons why I remain unconvinced.

[Before hand though, I do have to admit to not having seen much of ‘Pond Life’ – I watched one episode, and promptly put in it the “life’s too short” box.]

Firstly, the series has generally has a rule (either written, or fictional) that the Dr has his adventures “in order”. The show is called “Doctor Who” after all, and we see things from his perspective. It was also made very clear in the series that crossing a personal time stream was not a good thing… it freaks the Time Lords out in The Three Doctors, and Borusa is using forbidden technology to facilitate it in The Five Doctors. Even in The Two Doctors it was, whilst clearly an accident, shown as something to be avoided.

The series has also had a rule that we see characters in a linear order. It’s long been speculated that part of this is a ‘Time Lord thing’ – the Doctor, Master, Rani etc always encounter each other (and Gallifrey) in a linear order. When this didn’t occur with River Song, it really was a big deal.

All that said though, this could be rebutted with a comment that post-The Time War, those rules have changed?

My other reason is that Moffat has never been a subtle writer. In the last couple of seasons, big plot twists have consistently been unveiled with all the subtlety of an elephant dancing on a piano singing “I am a clever plot twist”. This has been Moffat’s style as far back as (the brilliant) series ‘Press Gang’, where revelations were dealt with very heavy-handedly (which in fairness added to the effective tone of that series, that was after all about adolescence).

I therefore find it hard to think he’d put in such a convoluted twist to the season, and NOT have a massive pay off in some form.

And I’d also be a little disappointed – I’ve quite enjoyed this season as just being fun, simple stories… the only real let down has been that the endings have been a little TOO simple (the magic wand ending to The Power of Three being the worst offender). I’d therefore be a little miffed to think the show runner may have put a lot of effort into a twist like you describe, but have neglected detail and depth to the actual storylines.

But as I said at the start, there’s enough evidence to not dismiss out of hand – more thought it required!

(And I look forward to your study of season 25, based on Ace having the earring she finds in Greatest Show In The Galaxy was already in the preceding story, Silver Nemesis!)

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