Series 7 - Remaining Questions

[FlyingBeastie]

Well... that FBI bloke was chasing everyone down. Or do you mean something else?

Yeah, but it was never explained why. Especially since Nixon was all like, "Oh hey- wassup guys! These random people? Yeah, they're with me" when he went to NASA.

Like, what was the point of the fake shootings and killings and locking themselves up in the Dwarf Star box (where did they get the Dwarf Star stuff from? Is a box made of Dwarf Star more secure and stronger than the TARDIS?)

That's what I'm referring to. There was a lot of running about for no real reason (reminds me of that scene from an episode of AbFab where they're all running around and the one guy says, "Why are we running?" and the other bloke goes, "Oh, I dunno I'm just caught up in the drama!)

[Zbigniev Hamson]

Why didn't you say "why" instead of "who" then?

[FlyingBeastie]

Why didn't you say "why" instead of "who" then?

Because, in the end, it really does come back to "who gave the order"/"who are they running from" in the big picture sense.

[Andrew Curnow]

Yes, that one's still puzzling me. Until Nixon popped up in that second episode, I assumed they were doing it to make the President think they were captured/on the run, but clearly it wasn't to fool him.

[Perry Vale]

Nixon didn't know who he could trust, that was why he brought in Canton Delaware III from outside the FBI.

[Andrew Curnow]

I still don't really 'get' why the subterfuge at the start of part 2 (and in the 3 months between parts 1 & 2)?

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

I still don't really 'get' why the subterfuge at the start of part 2 (and in the 3 months between parts 1 & 2)?

I think I might have to watch Day of the Moon again and to be honest I'm not sure I can be bothered at this stage. I enjoyed Let's Kill Hitler more than A Good Man Goes To War but I suspect there are more answers to come...

Rule No. 1 Steven Moffat Lies

Rule No. 2 We still know nothing (apparently)

I'm sure the final episode will clarify things which at the moment have been causing somewhat heated discussions elsewhere.

[Si Hunt]

I just watched "The Big Bang" and although it's basically just an exercise in tying knots, there are surprisingly few questions unanswered, the only ones really being:

(1) Why was Earth the last/only planet not destroyed with the Universe?
(2) When the Universe was re-booted, how did River survive and remember the Doctor? (come to think of it, if people can be brought back by remembering - and how exactly does this work? - then Amy didn't need to remember him. Shouldn't he have popped back into existence when River remembered him?)
(3) Why was the TARDIS blowing up to start with and what was that brick wall all about?

Si.

[Rob McCow]

(3) Why was the TARDIS blowing up to start with and what was that brick wall all about?

That's the main one for me. Who was manipulating the TARDIS and said 'Silence Will Fall!' when the monitor cracked?

The rest of the questions I reckon have the answer 'for plot convenience'. Indeed, the first one about the Earth surviving was kind of answered in the episode with the line 'it's the eye of the storm'. Whether that's a good explanation or not is another matter, but we'll have to take his word for it unless someone wants to blow up the Universe as a test.

[Perry Vale]

I would say that they're mostly not unanswered, as such, but open to interpretaion...

(1) Why was Earth the last/only planet not destroyed with the Universe?

Earth was at the centre of it, the 'eye of the storm'. It's mentioned somewhere in the dialogue, and it's why little Amelia eventually vanishes as 'it' continues to expand through space and time.

(2) When the Universe was re-booted, how did River survive and remember the Doctor? (come to think of it, if people can be brought back by remembering - and how exactly does this work? - then Amy didn't need to remember him. Shouldn't he have popped back into existence when River remembered him?)

I don't think it was explicitly shown that River remembers the Doctor at all, she just feels compelled to take her empty Tardis blue notebook to her mother's wedding. She survives because, as in point 1, she had been at the eye of the storm with Amy and Rory when it rebooted.

(3) Why was the TARDIS blowing up to start with and what was that brick wall all about?

Why it was blowing is probably the only point that hasn't been covered clearly. The brick wall I assumed was the Tardis defence systems as it was blowing up (to contain the explosion).

[Si Hunt]

But WHY was Earth at the eye of the storm? Bit lucky wasn't it?

Si.

[Perry Vale]

Because the crack had been in Amy's room since she was a little child.

And that's where the Tardis was exploding.

[Rob McCow]

The brick wall I assumed was the Tardis defence systems as it was blowing up (to contain the explosion).

Nice guess, but a brick wall is hardly the best defence as a stellar cosmological explosion? Though I suppose it would be as good as any - i.e. no good at all.

[Perry Vale]

And where was it stated in the episode that it was a brick wall, hmm?

[SiHart]

Myabe it was the same bricks as in Invasion of Time?

[Jason Thompson]

I always thought the whole point of that wall (don't recall seeing any bricks, so I thought it was just a rock face) outside the TARDIS door was that whatever/whoever caused it to go off course deliberately materialised it inside or hard up against something solid to stop the occupant from leaving, since the TARDIS, according to the Doctor, powers down if it is empty and he seemed to think that River leaving the TARDIS would cause it to shut down and not explode.

[Perry Vale]

But then he gets River out...

[egdcltd]

I seem to recall something being said about the TARDIS control room being sealed off and put into a loop to protect the occupants in a disaster. Wouldn't be a terribly effective seal if you could just stroll out the doors.

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

Well it's definitely a rock-face but unless I've not been paying attention this evening it hasn't been completely explained why the TARDIS exploded. I wonder if it has something to with the agenda of the Silence movement (who based on the voice River heard in the TARDIS are more than just the beings known as Silents) and the mysterious Question.

[Dirk Gently]

(who based on the voice River heard in the TARDIS are more than just the beings known as Silents)

The Silence aren't a race, The Silence is a religious order. Or so I'm lead to believe.
Can't remember which story that was from now.

[Andrew Curnow]

So as we head into the finale, I have a few other questions, which hopefully will get answered:

Based on tonight's ending, Madame K wasn't involved in planting "Mels" in Leadworth some years prior to Let's Kill Hitler. So how did she get there?

Likewise, how did the young Melody get inside the spacesuit?

Why does the Doctor know that 'now' is the time for him to die? I get that he's got the date from the Teselecta databank, but that's the date it happens, not when in his life. It's a bit like Tennant's Doctor having decided he was about to die, based on a very vague semi-prophecy mentioned in passing at the end of Planet of the Dead, it seems to have come out of nowhere?

And most importantly, did Moffat do some kind of "eyepatch anecdote gag" during filming of the finale?

[Richard Brinck-Johnsen]

So as we head into the finale, I have a few other questions, which hopefully will get answered:

Based on tonight's ending, Madame K wasn't involved in planting "Mels" in Leadworth some years prior to Let's Kill Hitler. So how did she get there?

Likewise, how did the young Melody get inside the spacesuit?

Why does the Doctor know that 'now' is the time for him to die? I get that he's got the date from the Teselecta databank, but that's the date it happens, not when in his life. It's a bit like Tennant's Doctor having decided he was about to die, based on a very vague semi-prophecy mentioned in passing at the end of Planet of the Dead, it seems to have come out of nowhere?

And most importantly, did Moffat do some kind of "eyepatch anecdote gag" during filming of the finale?

Madam Kovarian admitted that she'd used Silents to wipe part of Melody's memory so that she wouldn't remember her. It seems a logical to conclude from this that prior to regenerating into Mels as a toddler she had very few memories of her first incarnation childhood. I'm pretty sure therefore that Madam K / The Silence Movement must've been responsible for the 30 year discrepancy between the end of Day of the Moon and the Leadworth sequence.
Also as the older Doctor was something like 200 years older than when he was travelling with Amy and Rory presumably he must've read in the databank what his exact age at death would be.
The Tenth Doctor assumed it was his time because the Ood sent him a psychic message. He effectively sealed his own fate by attempting to delay the inevitable whereas if he'd come as soon as Ood Sigma first appeared he might've been able to prevent the Master's resurrection.

[Rob McCow]

Now we have a bonus question!

It looks like the Alex Kingston River Song is in the spacesuit at Lake Silencio, based on the end of Closing Time.

However - I thought it was the little girl River Song in the spacesuit! Why the switch?

[Andrew Curnow]

One might also wonder, for water, why a spacesuit at all rather than, say, some kind of diving equipment!!

[Perry Vale]

However - I thought it was the little girl River Song in the spacesuit! Why the switch?

No switch, you just thought wrong.