30.05: The Poison Sky

[ctg]

The one thing that the "epic" flame did, was that it stopped the cars from smoking.

[Marauder77]

Yeah I noticed that as well... All the atmos units seemed to go off line after the fireball.

But as for the fireball itself, was it a mix of endoterm and exoterm chemical reactions the heat output might not have been that high. so the Valiant and the skyscraper would survive. As the Doctor wouldn't want to kill off humanity by using up all our oxygen I'm sure it wasn't a normal flame but rather a "flamelike visual reaction".

(And yes, even with no major heat the expansion of the atmosphere during the reaction would blow apart a vessel like the control-ship.)

As for Unit, nice to see them strike back with competence! But the best moment was when the Doctor crawled out of the teleporter, Martha cuddles up to him for comfort, while Donna gives him a slap for scaring everybody. Nice representation of the two companions different personalities.

[PTeppic]

The Chrysler building was mid-shot in the city-scape, which does seem to put it in New York...

I suspect it's either library footage, or stock footage they shot for "Daleks in Manhattan".

I don't think Donna didn't tell her Mum anything, she just said "nothing" and moved on and her mum didn't notice.

[Raalix]

I loved it - even better than last week and I look forward to the next Helen Raynor script.

Top five favourite moments are...
5 - Donna alone on a Sontaran vessel - she can totally hold her own and is slowly becoming my favourite companion since the new series began.
4 - The many references to previous episodes - the brigadier, are you my mummy, the Rutans etc
3 - Christopher Ryan as General Staal - acting of the highest quality, particularly since he was hiding behind the prosthetic
2 - Sylvia and the axe - she keeps a bloody axe by the front door! Definitely not a woman to cross!
1 - The cliffhanger ending - I wasn’t expecting another cliffhanger. Having said that, I do have my doubts about next week’s ep. The Doctor’s Daughter could be a very dodgy road to go down. I hope it doesn’t become too soap-opera ish!


Even though I really enjoyed it - there were also many things I
didn’t like. Here’s my top five worst elements of the show.

5 - Fire burning the smoke - it would have absorbed the oxygen in the air as well. They did something similar in an episode of Star Trek where an atmosphere had too be neutralised. They didn’t use fire there, they used some sort of counteracting radiation which was harmless to the inhabitants.
4 - Martha as an evil clone - I mentioned in the Sontaran Stratagem thread that her portrayal as a clone wasn’t quite right and it got worse in this episode.
3 - The Doctor knew all along that Martha was a clone - cheap, unimaginative and easy.
2 - Luke Rattigan didn’t die how I wanted him to. He was an annoying little and I was looking forward to a death that he deserved. Not redemption and martyrdom.
1 - Wilf was left behind again! Please give him one TARDIS trip!

[PTeppic]

Could it really be called fire - I know it was pretty much called that, but surely it was more of a chemical reaction than traditional flames?

[ctg]

Originally Posted by PTeppic

Could it really be called fire - I know it was pretty much called that, but surely it was more of a chemical reaction than traditional flames?

Fire is a chemical reaction, you even have a formula for that. Check out your old chem books.

[thaddeus6th]

Very much enjoyed this episode as well.

However, like others, I wanted the annoying Rattigan to end up getting shot or some other grisly end.


Spoilers regarding the daughter:


Apparently Peter Davison had a daughter during his time as the Doctor.

Further, William Hartnell travelled with Susan, who called him grandfather.

Hope they don't mess it up, but the Nurse (as I shall name the Doctor's daughter) looked delightful.

[Rane Longfox]

Just to sort out this "fire" thing.

The Doctor calibrated the atmospheric converter so that it only affected the Sontaran clone gas. While this is a somewhat unlikely piece of technology, it's quite a step more realistic than say, a time-travelling police box, or a field to disable guns by expanding the bullets.
I'm assuming that they have at least traces of this gas floating around the Sontaran ship also, though well below human-toxic levels, hence why they could blow up the ship with same piece of equipment.


So no, it was not normal oxygen-burning fire.

[Ursa major]

Admit it, Rane, you're only defending the effect because you (based on your avatar) are a copy of Garfield made of that very same flame.


By the way, wasn't the device the Doctor used meant to be used on another world in order to create an Earth-like atmosphere? Why would this need to be safe for anything living in the original atmosphere? (After all, the "leader" was quite prepared to kill 6 billion humans - he wouldn't be that bothered if he destroyed another ecosystem, would he?)

[Lenny]

Originally Posted by Ursa major

By the way, wasn't the device the Doctor used meant to be used on another world in order to create an Earth-like atmosphere?

Wellll... Rattigan thought that was the reason for it, but when he got back on the Sontaran ship and told General Tiny that his students wouldn't come, the General let it slip that they'd all have been used for target practice, and that the new world was just a lie to get Rattigan to help.

[Ursa major]

But that doesn't mean the device wasn't meant to work at all, Lenny, just that it wasn't going to be used in reality. (And, in fact, it did work.)

[Rane Longfox]

Urm, the Doctor recalibrated it - he'd pretty good with electronics, I heard

[thaddeus6th]

Did he reverse the polarity?

Jon Pertwee's universal answer for everything

Tennant's seems to be saying he's 'so sorry'.

[Ursa major]

Originally Posted by Rane Longfox

Urm, the Doctor recalibrated it - he'd pretty good with electronics, I heard

So you reckon he chipped in to the final design, eh?

[PTeppic]

Originally Posted by thaddeus6th

Tennant's seems to be saying he's 'so sorry'.

Says it someone, at least once, in every episode. Ecclestone did as well, from memory, though maybe not as much.