Doctor Who 10x07

[kindkit]

I don't normally care much about plot holes, but this episode felt like about ten plot holes loosely stitched together. Why did the biohazard lab have, apparently, no containment technology (it vents contamination directly into the air, seriously?) and no protocols for what to do if something goes wrong? Why did a scientist, even a hungover scientist, take samples of dangerous material with his bare hands? How is blowing up the lab supposed to sterilize it, as opposed to releasing millions of deadly bacteria--because the heat of the explosion isn't going to get them all--into the world?

Why does the aliens' actual plan seem to have nothing to do with their simulations? How could any simulation have predicted "One scientist's glasses get broken on the same morning that her hungover colleague makes a bad typo"?

Why did the military types instantly believe the future visions they knew were only simulations? And why did they think they could consent for the world without consulting their governments? (And since when does the Secretary General of the UN have actual power, anyway?)

Why is the Doctor the President of the World??????

Why is Bill's consent supposedly valid, when she's acting out of love for the Doctor but everything the aliens have said suggests that consent has to be given from love of them? And when it's clear that she's also thinking strategically? And since when does Bill feel quite that strongly about the Doctor anyway? They've only been friends for a brief time--it's true that she's seen him save worlds, but that brings us back to strategic thinking.

*sigh*

I will give the episode some points for including a character with a disability, played by an actor with a disability, when the disability is not, so far at least, a plot point. However, I fear I am not being too cynical in thinking that this may be a defensive move on Moffat and co.'s part, considering it happens in the very same episode in which the main character's temporary disability, a major plot point, is at least temporarily cured. There may just possibly be some attempt here at deflecting criticism before it happens.

Comments

[sebastienne]

The "President of Earth" thing has some continuity with previous episodes... but everything else that you say is spot on.

And even if the explosion *had* destroyed all the bacteria inside the lab, there's still the small matter of nobody going through any kind of decontamination on their way out of the lab...

And why did Bill think this was a good idea? (The only thing I can think of is that she's doing a Martha Jones in Last of the Time Lords and this is going to turn out to have been part of the plan all along.. otherwise it's just too ridiculous.)

[kindkit]

The "President of Earth" thing has some continuity with previous episodes

Ah, okay. I hadn't watched Who for a while until I started rewatching this season.

You're so right about Bill. She's never been prone to doing unwise things because of her emotions. In the very first episode she was able to stay rational even when mind-melded to someone she had been falling in love with--she was able to pull back and make the choice to protect herself. She wouldn't put the world in thrall just to save the Doctor's life. (I can think of at least one reason she might have strategically chosen to do it, which is that there's no reason to think the monks wouldn't have tried again with a new plan and the earth would need the Doctor's help. But if that was what she was thinking, she should've turned to dust like the others.)

[vilakins]

[nods to all of that] the whole lab thing was just so stupid, though I did like how they isolated the lab. I dunno, maybe they can't detect whether the love is for them or the Doctor, the only explanation I can think of. The whole thing was full of plot holes.

Plus, what did the simDoctor email himself: a recording of the whole sim experience? Otherwise how would he know about Penny, and the Pope in Bill's bedroom?

[kindkit]

I could have tolerated all the plot holes much better if they'd been surrounded by a story that worked emotionally and intellectually. But everything was just too quick, with stuff happening just because the writers wanted it to, and (in the case of Bill's decision to surrender the world to save the Doctor's life) too out of character.

[vilakins]

There were huge holes in the previous ep too, explainable only if someone outside the sim, or an opposing monk, had hacked the sim to make the random numbers the same for each complexly realised person - and to insert the Extremis text in the first place.

Also this time they said they ran the sim from the dawn of history, but it only makes sense if it was a recent sim with currently existing people. The sims did have choices, so starting further back would result in a completely different world.