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Doctor Who

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Vortex manipulatorA more primitive form of time-travel technology, a vortex manipulator allows the user to travel through time by minimally controllable (and apparently uncomfortable) "hops" through the Time Vortex. The technology is compact enough to be worn on one's person easily, such as the wrist-mounted device in the possession of Jack Harkness, which he obtained during his stint as a Time Agent. The Family of Blood also had one capable of moving a small spaceship. When Jack notes that such technology means the Doctor is not the only person capable of travelling through time, the Doctor disdainfully compares the "space hopper" vortex manipulator to his "sports car" TARDIS. The device also allows travel through space by harnessing the energies of wormholes (such as the Cardiff Rift), as demonstrated by Captain John Hart and Gray in series 2 of Torchwood. As seen in "The Sound of Drums", the Manipulator can also be programmed to teleport its operator (and anyone hanging on) from place to place once the Doctor has used his sonic screwdriver to jump-start it. The Doctor disables Jack's manipulator at the end of "Last of the Time Lords", but Jack figures out how to re-enable it (or at least restore its teleport function) in "The Stolen Earth". In the last episode of the 2008 series "Journey's End" the Doctor once again disables Jack's vortex manipulator with his sonic screwdriver. In the final episode of "Children of Earth", it is revealed that the Vortex Manipulator (or at least Jack's) is indestructible, capable of surviving an explosion that destroyed the Torchwood Three building. In "The Pandorica Opens," River Song gets a vortex manipulator from a black market dealer in order to meet up with the Doctor, the dialogue suggests the manipulator is still on the disembodied hand of a Time Agent. River is able to use it to travel wherever she wants with no apparent problems. Later, the manipulator ends up in the hands of the Doctor who uses it to travel back in time and have the Auton copy of Rory Williams free himself trapped in the Pandorica. As the TARDIS is destroyed, the Doctor uses it to teleport through time, travelling to 1996 to meet up with the resurrected Amy Pond then using it to travel back in time to set the events in motion by giving Rory the screwdriver and leaving young Amy the notes that led her to the Pandorica. After learning River is still alive and is trapped in a time loop in the destroyed TARDIS (an emergency protocol to protect anyone inside), the Doctor is able to teleport into the TARDIS and rescue her. The Doctor later uses the manipulator to travel back in time 12 minutes to trick a Dalek and then pilot the Pandorica into the heart of the TARDIS explosion. After he is brought back from being erased from existence, the Doctor returns the manipulator to River who uses it to teleport away, presumably back to her own time.
 
MMmmmmmm that's not confusing at all...is it? :D
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Graham Norton screens ABC2, 9.30pm Thursday; repeated ABC1 Sat 10.20pm; and again ABC2 10.50pm Sunday.
Currently this and Downton Abbey are my favourite shows.
 
nutmeg, I'm sorry to have to be the one to tell you this, but last week's was the "mid-season" finale, the other half won't be until September. This is the first year they've tried this format (not the ABC, the UK have to wait too), I'm not sure I like it.
 
Hmmm. That's annoying. I wasted alot of energy this week looking forward to tonight's episode.

Oh well, I probably need to rewatch the season so far. Some of it has been pretty full on - not sure I took everything in.

Still annoying though.
 
I did the same, got all excited then was crushed with disappointment when I remembered that it wasn't on last night! :(
 
The Doctor has become In this incarnation so legendary and fearful that he merely mention his name and armies run. But yes it's odd. I have no issue with this...

River Song said all this in the Library episodes and yet no one had an issue with this. He was the man that could click his fingers and that TARDIS doors would open.

Yet suddenly this has become a problem according to thw writers and so they created the eyepatch lady and the army of clerics. Set them against the Doctor....

I don't like this current direction because I have no problem with him becoming a legend..

But some people see this as that he only has to appear on a planet and then utter his name, and everyone runs and panics ready to sign peace treaties, or just give up their evil ways... Making it far too easy to defeat the bad guy of the week....
 
I've only really gotten into the "new" Dr who, from David Tennant onwards. The Dr who before scared the bejezus outta me :o After one of the season finales, the one were the Master did whatever it was to the Dr that made him age super fast & Martha & co were on earth spreading the story of the Dr & they all had to think at the same time & then he was saved I thought "what crap!! cop out ending!" and I came on here and said so too. Then someone replied (sorry I forget who it was) that, that is what Dr Who is all about. The power of uniting people, good triumphing over evil etc.

And I get it now. It does always have to make sense, and an easy solution to save the Dr is ok too. I just take it as it comes & try not to over think it. It is a TV show for entertainment, not to start a rules book on space travel.

Having said all that, I am really, really enjoying this season. It is scaring me & suprising me and I LOVE IT. I'm not going to let the fact that I just don't understand all of the whats & the whys to get in the way!!
 
That's a great attitude coops, and it fills me with joy when a relatively new viewer like yourself "gets" it.
I'm an old skool fan, having loved it since the mid seventies. It makes me so proud of the show when it continues to appeal to new people while still sticking to the same principles. At it's most basic form it is good trumphing over evil, or ordinary versus the extraordinary, and it's about hope and getting everything out of life that you possibly can. Pretty good for just a TV show.
 
That's a great attitude coops, and it fills me with joy when a relatively new viewer like yourself "gets" it.
I'm an old skool fan, having loved it since the mid seventies. It makes me so proud of the show when it continues to appeal to new people while still sticking to the same principles. At it's most basic form it is good trumphing over evil, or ordinary versus the extraordinary, and it's about hope and getting everything out of life that you possibly can. Pretty good for just a TV show.


But it's still fun to discuss....... So what did you make of the last episode? What do you think of eyepatch lady and her "bitter war" with the Doctor? Why is she so upset by him? Thoughts and opinions make for discussion.
 
But it's still fun to discuss....... So what did you make of the last episode? What do you think of eyepatch lady and her "bitter war" with the Doctor? Why is she so upset by him? Thoughts and opinions make for discussion.

it's GREAT fun to discuss, I never get tired of it.

I think that Madame Kovarian is fabulous, I love this current story arc. We don't know for sure that she's actually bad, she may have her own reasons for wanting to protect the baby. Surely if she was evil she'd just kill it, or Amy, or both.

I'm glad we know now why Rory is "Rory Pond" - because the baby needed to be a Pond to make the connection with River. Melody Williams wouldn't work.

Remember in the first episode this season, when they all arrived in America, the Doctor called them The Ponds, Pond One and Pond Two? I loved that.
 
it's GREAT fun to discuss, I never get tired of it.

I think that Madame Kovarian is fabulous, I love this current story arc. We don't know for sure that she's actually bad, she may have her own reasons for wanting to protect the baby. Surely if she was evil she'd just kill it, or Amy, or both.

I'm glad we know now why Rory is "Rory Pond" - because the baby needed to be a Pond to make the connection with River. Melody Williams wouldn't work.

Remember in the first episode this season, when they all arrived in America, the Doctor called them The Ponds, Pond One and Pond Two? I loved that.

And somehow Rory became this badass legend known as "the last centurion"
 
But it's still fun to discuss....... So what did you make of the last episode? What do you think of eyepatch lady and her "bitter war" with the Doctor? Why is she so upset by him? Thoughts and opinions make for discussion.

MMMMMmmm Is eyepatch lady the Doctor's Mum ? :D
 
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