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It'll make sense if you turn it that way and squint.
The Confidential of Forest of the Dead just had me crying tears of laughter.
They were talking about the sonic screwdriver, and how the screwdriver does EVERYTHING - except the really useful things. It's what I love so much about the Doctor Who 'verse. I think that Doctor Who is the one 'verse that actually makes the most use of the fact that it's fiction. The beauty of fiction is that anything can happen. And I don't mean just anything, but anything.
All of you guys who write fic - I bet you know this situation. You're at point A in your plot, and you need to get to point B, but there's this huge obstacle C in the way, which is just annoying! Because fussing with C will hold up your whole plot, it will be boring, no-one will want to read it, but if you leave it out, the plot is not gonna make sense anymore.
Shows that are set in the here and now obviously can't use devices like the sonic screwdriver to get annoying plot obstacles out of the way. But even some science fiction shows still try to stick very much to the laws we know - physical laws, rational laws, whatever. Not so Doctor Who, and I think that's because it's a show that's not written from a human point of view. Or, yes, it's written from a human PoV - the companion's PoV, mostly - but it's a human taking a peek into a universe that's utterly different to what they know: the Doctor's universe.
Anything is game in the Doctor's universe. There's always a sort of reversed logic going on - not 'I know that the sonic screwdriver can do anything except zap Daleks into non-funtion', but 'I'm observing that the Doctor is not using his screwdriver to fight the Daleks, so that's apparently one of the things it can't do'.
It's all a huge mystery. You never know what to expect. The Doctor's universe is completely unpredictable, and because it's a fictional universe, it's unpredictable in a highly entertaining way - it'd be just boring, after all, if the Doctor could just wave his screwdriver around and all the Daleks would short-circuit. On the other hand, it would be just boring to watch the Doctor again and again spending long minutes trying to get access to some place - which can be easily avoided if he's just able to whip out his psychic paper and be 'John Smith, certified window inspector'.
In Doctor Who, it's never the question if something can be done, it's just a question of how it can be done. And the show usually goes with the most entertaining way of doing it, and it makes a sport out of making completely cracked concepts work out, just because it can. And that's one of the things I love so much about it.
They were talking about the sonic screwdriver, and how the screwdriver does EVERYTHING - except the really useful things. It's what I love so much about the Doctor Who 'verse. I think that Doctor Who is the one 'verse that actually makes the most use of the fact that it's fiction. The beauty of fiction is that anything can happen. And I don't mean just anything, but anything.
All of you guys who write fic - I bet you know this situation. You're at point A in your plot, and you need to get to point B, but there's this huge obstacle C in the way, which is just annoying! Because fussing with C will hold up your whole plot, it will be boring, no-one will want to read it, but if you leave it out, the plot is not gonna make sense anymore.
Shows that are set in the here and now obviously can't use devices like the sonic screwdriver to get annoying plot obstacles out of the way. But even some science fiction shows still try to stick very much to the laws we know - physical laws, rational laws, whatever. Not so Doctor Who, and I think that's because it's a show that's not written from a human point of view. Or, yes, it's written from a human PoV - the companion's PoV, mostly - but it's a human taking a peek into a universe that's utterly different to what they know: the Doctor's universe.
Anything is game in the Doctor's universe. There's always a sort of reversed logic going on - not 'I know that the sonic screwdriver can do anything except zap Daleks into non-funtion', but 'I'm observing that the Doctor is not using his screwdriver to fight the Daleks, so that's apparently one of the things it can't do'.
It's all a huge mystery. You never know what to expect. The Doctor's universe is completely unpredictable, and because it's a fictional universe, it's unpredictable in a highly entertaining way - it'd be just boring, after all, if the Doctor could just wave his screwdriver around and all the Daleks would short-circuit. On the other hand, it would be just boring to watch the Doctor again and again spending long minutes trying to get access to some place - which can be easily avoided if he's just able to whip out his psychic paper and be 'John Smith, certified window inspector'.
In Doctor Who, it's never the question if something can be done, it's just a question of how it can be done. And the show usually goes with the most entertaining way of doing it, and it makes a sport out of making completely cracked concepts work out, just because it can. And that's one of the things I love so much about it.
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They were talking about the sonic screwdriver, and how the screwdriver does EVERYTHING
Was John Barrowman there? *snork*
'I know that the sonic screwdriver can do anything except zap Daleks into non-funtion', but 'I'm observing that the Doctor is not using his screwdriver to fight the Daleks, so that's apparently one of the things it can't do'.
Funny, I never thought of that before. Umm...special anti-sonic Teflon? And if you want the Doctor not to get in -- "Oops, I left the psychic paper in the TARDIS!" (Another thing the writers are good at, quick excuses :) )
In Doctor Who, it's never the question if something can be done, it's just a question of how it can be done.
I love that too. It's a good way of looking at life :)
"The person who says "it can't be done" is interrupted by the person who is doing it."
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