Radio Free Skaro #331 – Fond Ponds Long Gone
< This week sees the Three Who Rule in rest mode after five weeks of exhilarating new Doctor Who episodes, and before they begin inviting a few of their friends, old and new, to join them for the next few weeks of podcasting whimsy. As such, much waffling occurs as topics veer from Doctor Who (thankfully) to Red Dwarf to Robocop to 1988 (or is it 1987?) and the contemporary career trajectory of a young Alan Rickman. After your three hosts settle down, though, a thorough and indepth discussion takes place regarding the recently departed Ponds and their place in Who history. We do hope you enjoy listening. |
| Show Notes:
– The Angels Take Manhattan…appreciation index! |
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Doctor Who: Radio Free Skaro 
I’m listening to the podcast as I’m writing this but as dumb as the idea of an Angel statue of Liberty is the statue itself is not actually very big. The base is as large as the statue. It’s not tiny, by any means, but 46 meters (according to Wikipedia) isn’t exactly huge compared to your average downtown Manhattan building. The one believable aspect of the whole concept is probably the height of the statue in relation to the building. Actually, based on the number of floors seen in the establishing shot and the apparent ceiling height in the interior shots I’d guess the statue of Liberty might have to stand on something to reach high enough to comfortably menace Rory and Amy from above at the end.
River’s shown as a child, regenerating in New York.
And one up on her mother, River/Melody is also shown as a baby.
In fact, we’re in on her conception, birth, and final moments.
Her whole life from cot to library.
Don’t the Robcop TV Show either.
Don’t *Watch* the Robcop TV show either
James brings up the question of the cot – but though we see Melody/River has some knowledge of the cot, or some connection to it, we haven’t actually seen her in it – and the clear implication (clear to me, anyway) is that she was. Wasn’t there some reference to her being raised in the TARDIS? (I assume that’s when the Doctor taught her to fly the thing: indirectly, by her observing him.) And the sing-song rhyme in one of the series six episodes (“Night Terrors,” perhaps?) contains the line, “He cradled and he rocked her” – again, who? The only logical candidate, it seems, is River.
To me, in tandem with the regeneration we saw Melody undergoing in “Day of the Moon,” this is a HUGE untold gap in River’s story. My crazy theory is that somehow Melody turns out to be Susan Foreman, unbeknownst to either of them (i.e, either River of the First Doctor). With the Golden Anniversary coming up, I don’t know how he’d do it, but I wouldn’t put it past Moffat to “set up” “An Unearthly Child.” Maybe the Doctor tries to visit the Ponds in early-20th century New York and ends up in mid-20th century London instead, thanks to the time craziness established in “Angels Take Manhattan.” Maybe it’s even connected to Trenzalore somehow, and this is why the question can’t be asked – it does something wonky to the Doctor’s personal timeline.
We’ve seen another actor playing the First Doctor before, after all, in “The Five Doctors.” So there’s precedent…
I dunno, but I am stuck on this idea that we need to see Melody as a baby in the TARDIS in the Doctor’s cradle/cot; and it doesn’t seem a far step from there to him either accepting her as his granddaughter without knowing who she really is, or passing her off as his granddaughter to avoid the long story. After all, rule # 1 is, “The Doctor lies…”
Robocop 2 is a masterclass compared to Robocop 3!
JLC’s appearance in Asylum of the Daleks should have no tie-in to the Christmas special or the new series. The Doctor never actually saw her. The character we saw on screen was the Dalek’s self-delusional image of itself. The only connection the Doctor might make is a similarity in voice, assuming both characters use the same accent/dialect/etc. So, the whole episode was a red herring in and of itself.