Right, this E-mail is about Dr.Who - so, B5 fans take cover! (Not you,
Luke!)
The scene everyone's going on about in The Five Doctors involves a thing
like a chess board, except it's 10 by 10 instead of 8 by 8, and when one
reaches the fifth row ("half-way" says Doctor no.1, except it's not
quite that far - did Mr.Dicks not realise it would be a 10x10 board?)
and steps on the wrong square, everything on the board gets zapped
(although Cyberman bodies just lying there don't set it off again). The
Master says it's something to do with the value Pi, which is quoted by
the Doc as 3.14159265. However, there is no way that the Master steps
on the 3rd square of the 1st row, the 1st of the next, the 4th of the
next or anything like that, so obviously there is another factor
involved. In the book, Terrance Dicks has the Doc quote the first few
hundred digits of Pi - "the safe route changes with each journey", as
the Master says, so the right combination of squares moves down the
endless list of Pi values each time. Fortunately for our heroes, very
few people had ever crossed the board successfully!
Can anyone quote Pi beyond 3.141592654? Just out of interest, you
understand... (that's if any mathmeticians are still reading...)
Now, with regards to the ongoing discussion of Rassilon etc., surely
"the other" *was* the Doctor in Remembrance of the Daleks? That was my
impression of events, anyway. But here's my theory of certain events...
The Doctor ages at the same rate as Gallifrey - in other words, whenever
he returns there, it's as long after he last left as it seemed to him.
Ie. if he left and travelled for 2 years, righting wrongs, and suddenly
got recalled to Gallifrey to sort out corruption in the chancellery, it
would be 2 years after he left. This is the same principle they use
with "San Dimas Time" in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (which, let's
face it, is a total rip-off - travelling through time in a phone box
indeed!).
However, the Doctor isn't old enough for all this to be "ancient legend"
and also to have been around at the time naturally! Since only a couple
of years after we meet him (even taking into account "Missing
Adventures", it can't be more than 10 years for all the 1st Doctor's
adventures), he's 450 (in Tomb of the Cybermen)! 450 years isn't quite
"ancient" on Earth, and we're talking about a far more advanced race
here, so it's probably thousands of years in the past, as travel in the
4th dimension is a game for children (apparently). In The Trial of a
Time Lord, he says something about "ten million years of absolute power"
(hopefully not referring to Sky Movies showing that Clint Eastwood film
ad nauseum), and in Genesis of the Daleks, a Time Lord mentions that
they had mastered matter transporters when "the Universe was less than
half its present size", which the physicists will confirm was a very,
VERY long time ago! Thus, if the Doctor was around at the creation of
time travel, he must have gone there himself to interfere beneficially.
I still think he is "the other", as once again he vanishes into the
background with no-one quite knowing who he was or where he came from...
but one thing is for certain: he is NOT Rassilon! That's just a daft
idea, since the 2nd Doctor only knows of him by legend in The Five
Doctors. Next, someone will be saying that the Doctor is ALL Time Lords
at some point in his life!
However, it is possible that the Master might also be the Meddling Monk
- although the Missing Adventure "The Dark Path" puts the mockers on
that idea... suggestions, anyone? I like Cwej's idea of the Master's
history not being the same as the Doctor's (ie. encountering him in a
different order to the stories) - that's something the script writers
would never have allowed for more than one story, it's too complicated
for the dads who stayed after the football pools just to see Leela in
that skimpy costume!
Finally, something someone mentioned before: the battle between the
Doctor and Morbius. For those who haven't seen it, they're battling
mentally, and whoever is losing has their earlier regenerations shown on
the screen between them (it's similar to how many lives you have left in
a computer game) - the point being that we go back through the Doctor's
regenerations, past William Hartnell... and through two (or three?)
others! This is where the confusion lies - it can't possibly be earlier
regenerations, unless an awful lot of stories are wrong (The Three
Doctors, for one!). The Discontinuity Guide (the Dr.Who version of the
far less sarcastic Star Trek Nit-Picker's Guide) suggests that they are
younger versions of the 1st Doctor (perhaps, though, rather than
regenerating, he got rejuvenated by the gadgets seen in Mawdryn Undead,
and these count as "lives" in this game), or else they are phantom pasts
created by the Doctor (ie. he's cheating!). Or, Morbius was losing and
didn't know it (though we didn't go back through the Doctor's
regenerations and then through Morbius's). I don't know, I'm afraid -
all I know is, the Doctor is NOT Rassilon, for a whole host of reasons
I've quoted already! Even if these were earlier regenerations we've
never heard about, what about the Doctor's age being only 750 at this
point? Not quite ten million years, is it? Gahhh!!!!
I have said enough for now. My next E-mails will return to the subject
of faster-than-light travel, h-okay? After this, even I'm starting to
feel like the word "anorak" is suitable, and I detest that term!
(Football fans who know everything about their team aren't called
anoraks, are they? Oh no, football is a MAN's game, whereas sci-fi is
for wimps!)
David "Ten minutes in a computer centre disc drive, that's what it takes
to be really corrupted!" Chilard
Luke!)
The scene everyone's going on about in The Five Doctors involves a thing
like a chess board, except it's 10 by 10 instead of 8 by 8, and when one
reaches the fifth row ("half-way" says Doctor no.1, except it's not
quite that far - did Mr.Dicks not realise it would be a 10x10 board?)
and steps on the wrong square, everything on the board gets zapped
(although Cyberman bodies just lying there don't set it off again). The
Master says it's something to do with the value Pi, which is quoted by
the Doc as 3.14159265. However, there is no way that the Master steps
on the 3rd square of the 1st row, the 1st of the next, the 4th of the
next or anything like that, so obviously there is another factor
involved. In the book, Terrance Dicks has the Doc quote the first few
hundred digits of Pi - "the safe route changes with each journey", as
the Master says, so the right combination of squares moves down the
endless list of Pi values each time. Fortunately for our heroes, very
few people had ever crossed the board successfully!
Can anyone quote Pi beyond 3.141592654? Just out of interest, you
understand... (that's if any mathmeticians are still reading...)
Now, with regards to the ongoing discussion of Rassilon etc., surely
"the other" *was* the Doctor in Remembrance of the Daleks? That was my
impression of events, anyway. But here's my theory of certain events...
The Doctor ages at the same rate as Gallifrey - in other words, whenever
he returns there, it's as long after he last left as it seemed to him.
Ie. if he left and travelled for 2 years, righting wrongs, and suddenly
got recalled to Gallifrey to sort out corruption in the chancellery, it
would be 2 years after he left. This is the same principle they use
with "San Dimas Time" in Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (which, let's
face it, is a total rip-off - travelling through time in a phone box
indeed!).
However, the Doctor isn't old enough for all this to be "ancient legend"
and also to have been around at the time naturally! Since only a couple
of years after we meet him (even taking into account "Missing
Adventures", it can't be more than 10 years for all the 1st Doctor's
adventures), he's 450 (in Tomb of the Cybermen)! 450 years isn't quite
"ancient" on Earth, and we're talking about a far more advanced race
here, so it's probably thousands of years in the past, as travel in the
4th dimension is a game for children (apparently). In The Trial of a
Time Lord, he says something about "ten million years of absolute power"
(hopefully not referring to Sky Movies showing that Clint Eastwood film
ad nauseum), and in Genesis of the Daleks, a Time Lord mentions that
they had mastered matter transporters when "the Universe was less than
half its present size", which the physicists will confirm was a very,
VERY long time ago! Thus, if the Doctor was around at the creation of
time travel, he must have gone there himself to interfere beneficially.
I still think he is "the other", as once again he vanishes into the
background with no-one quite knowing who he was or where he came from...
but one thing is for certain: he is NOT Rassilon! That's just a daft
idea, since the 2nd Doctor only knows of him by legend in The Five
Doctors. Next, someone will be saying that the Doctor is ALL Time Lords
at some point in his life!
However, it is possible that the Master might also be the Meddling Monk
- although the Missing Adventure "The Dark Path" puts the mockers on
that idea... suggestions, anyone? I like Cwej's idea of the Master's
history not being the same as the Doctor's (ie. encountering him in a
different order to the stories) - that's something the script writers
would never have allowed for more than one story, it's too complicated
for the dads who stayed after the football pools just to see Leela in
that skimpy costume!
Finally, something someone mentioned before: the battle between the
Doctor and Morbius. For those who haven't seen it, they're battling
mentally, and whoever is losing has their earlier regenerations shown on
the screen between them (it's similar to how many lives you have left in
a computer game) - the point being that we go back through the Doctor's
regenerations, past William Hartnell... and through two (or three?)
others! This is where the confusion lies - it can't possibly be earlier
regenerations, unless an awful lot of stories are wrong (The Three
Doctors, for one!). The Discontinuity Guide (the Dr.Who version of the
far less sarcastic Star Trek Nit-Picker's Guide) suggests that they are
younger versions of the 1st Doctor (perhaps, though, rather than
regenerating, he got rejuvenated by the gadgets seen in Mawdryn Undead,
and these count as "lives" in this game), or else they are phantom pasts
created by the Doctor (ie. he's cheating!). Or, Morbius was losing and
didn't know it (though we didn't go back through the Doctor's
regenerations and then through Morbius's). I don't know, I'm afraid -
all I know is, the Doctor is NOT Rassilon, for a whole host of reasons
I've quoted already! Even if these were earlier regenerations we've
never heard about, what about the Doctor's age being only 750 at this
point? Not quite ten million years, is it? Gahhh!!!!
I have said enough for now. My next E-mails will return to the subject
of faster-than-light travel, h-okay? After this, even I'm starting to
feel like the word "anorak" is suitable, and I detest that term!
(Football fans who know everything about their team aren't called
anoraks, are they? Oh no, football is a MAN's game, whereas sci-fi is
for wimps!)
David "Ten minutes in a computer centre disc drive, that's what it takes
to be really corrupted!" Chilard