Impotence of the Daleks

[Jason Thompson]

I like the ending of Pyramids of Mars. Contrary to what Si Hart says. It relies on an established scientific fact (time of radio waves sent to Mars)

Which unfortunately it gets woefully wrong. Mars is considerably more than two light-minutes from Earth. At its closest approach it is about twice that far, and can be up to twenty-five light minutes away.

This is my bugbear about this and any other series: if you're going to put real science in, at least get it right.

[Pip Madeley]

Up to twenty-five minutes? The Jason Thompson version of "Pyramids" sounds really exciting

[Andrew Curnow]

Although this is getting way off topic, the reason that the ending of Pyramids doesn't work (for me anyway) is the very lack of 'foreshadowing' that is part of Jason's argument. Yes, the travelling of radio waves is a scientific fact (regardless of the show's getting the time wrong) but not only does the observation come out of nowhere, so does the Doctor's time control unit - nothing in the preceding 95 minutes has in any way led up to the finale, and I think that's why it fails. It feels so totally arbitrary and disconnected to the story that it smacks of last minute desperation and just 'feels' wrong.

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Although it has been established in the previous 13 years that the Doctor posesses a highly advanced time machine, which would presumably by its very nature contain some sort of time control unit

[Zbigniev Hamson]

No, agreed, it's not a defence as such - it's just that sometimes I get the impression people are claiming the new series falls short when compared to the benchmark of a perfect classic series that, in reality, never existed.

I'd have to say here that it seems you are reading things into what people say which they aren't necessarily saying. I think it's perfectly acceptable to criticise something a new episode does, even if there are previous such occasions in the old series, simply for the fact that it IS a new episode and we have just seen it etc. Doing that, but not criticising the old series at the same time, doesn't mean that you think everything in the old series is perfect. For example, I think that The Celestial Toymaker is one of the worst things to have ever come out of a TV studio, but I think it's perfectly reasonable not to bring that fact up all the time when I'm talking about the latest series of Doctor Who

[Jason Thompson]

Up to twenty-five minutes? The Jason Thompson version of "Pyramids" sounds really exciting

As I said in other threads, if the real science doesn't suit the storytelling requirementsthen make something up.