The Reality Bomb (And Other Doctor Who "Science")

[Khas]

When I first saw the Reality Bomb, I thought that Davros had just invented the ultimate doomsday weapon. But when I listened closer, I immediately thought of several real-life things that would survive. Here's what they are:

Black Holes: Not made of atoms, and don't need electromagnetism to survive, so they'd escape.

Neutron Stars: Made of electrically neutral neutrons. Davros said that it worked by cancelling electrical forces, so naturally, these wouldn't be affected.

Anything made of neutronium: See neutron star.

Dark Matter: Only feels gravity, no other forces. And if some scientists are right, and there are dark matter life-forms, they'd survive.

Dark Energy

Space and Time

So it turns out that the reality bomb isn't as thorough as Davros would have thought. But now we turn to the gross misunderstandings of science in Doctor Who. And believe me, there are some that make the mistakes in other sci-fi (Star Trek's not the only one with these problems)pale in comparison, and that would make any scientist cringe.

The Slitheen.
Those creatures of living calcium from planet Supercalifragilisticexpialidotious. LIVING CALCIUM!?!?!?!? Where the hell did the writers go to school? How the fuck does calcium become alive? Anyone with a high-school level knowledge of chemistry knows that calcium is a highly reactive alkaline earth metal that combusts when it hits water. And considring the fact that there's all this water vapor in Earth's atmosphere, this was as moronic a move as making the aliens from Signs vulnerable to water. It pains me to say it, but Berman and Braga have a better understanding of chemistry than that!!!

Anti-plastic
I'm sorry, but I could just NOT take that seriously. I just COULDN'T. It would be understandable if Douglas Adams had written the episode, but he didn't. I thought Doctor Who was supposed to be serious sci-fi, not a kid's show. Sure, there were the Cult of Skaro episodes, which were great, but half the time, I can take Metroid and Star Fox more seriously than Doctor Who!

More on this later...

[Mr. Oragahn]

Doctor Who doesn't strike me as serious. What do you mean?

[Khas]

Well, it's just that on a few other forums I've been to, the sci-fi fans there treated Doctor Who like it was a serious show, but to be honest, it feels like someone tried to make Hitchhiker's Guide a serious show. And all the deus ex machinas in it kind of take away credibility. You CAN'T tell me that the way they defeated the Daleks and destroyed the Reality Bomb wasn't a deus ex. There are a few others throughout the series, but I'm just too tired to list them right now.

[Mike DiCenso]

I think one of the long standing flaws of Doctor Who, most in particular the new seasons; the Doctor himself pulls out some new Deus ex Machina out of his ass when the going gets rough in the same way as in TNG, DS9, and VOY they use technobabble to solve a problem rather than actually deal with it. Cornered by the new and improved super-Daleks? No problem! We'll give the TARDIS a new kick-ass supernatural god-like power! Need another problem solved? Well, guess what? The Doctor now has a new aspect of his past added to him that gives him a new Time Lord uber-power that has even other Time Lords baffled!
-Mike

[Mr. Oragahn]

Oh that smells like the awful Power Creep syndrome.

[PunkMaister]

That reality bomb had to the mother of all wanks! And I thought the Death Star was wasteful, holy mackerel!

[Khas]

There's really only so much wank I can take before it becomes childish. DW has passed this mark.

[PunkMaister]

There's really only so much wank I can take before it becomes childish. DW has passed this mark.

Truth be told I love the franchise but the Wanking has gone beyond overboard. Maybe is a British thing? Since they lost their empire they are trying to make up for it with the wanking in the show?

[Mike DiCenso]

You may actually have something there in that the Time Lords in DW and the Imperium of Man in WH40K have some parallels to the British Empire at it's height.
-Mike

[Khas]

Yeah, I think PunkMaister has a point. And DW and WH40K aren't the only ones with a wank-tastic approach. (See Culture). It's because of these wankfests that I generally steer clear of British Sci-Fi (Unless it's a parody like Red Dwarf or Hitchhiker's Guide.)

Edit: Or things by Alastair Reynolds. Pushing Ice was pretty awesome.

[Mike DiCenso]

Oh if you don't mind the dark nature of it's story, Blake's 7 is a great series. Not near as much wanking of the technology.
-Mike

[Khas]

Whoops. Forgot about the original Firefly.

[The Dude]

Guys, it's only wank if it's obviously out of place in it's own universe. So things like the Sun Crusher, ummm....Nova Bombs in Andromeda, Abaddon the Complete Failure's Planetkiller (WH40K) would all be good examples.

WH40K is actually one of the few franchises with minimal wank. ST would seem to be another, as I don't recall anything of hand that reaches the level of ridiculousness of the Sun Crusher.

[Mr. Oragahn]

Novas and near-c MACs in Halo, planet buster in the movie version of Starship Troopers, perhaps the planet cracker in Dune.
At some point I'd have put Stargate there but the writers have gone through so much of ridiculous dei ex machinis now that I stopped counting.

[The Dude]

Wait, ST had a planet buster?