Brian Cox. Stephen Fry. Those people who correct plot-holes in any film or show on TV. To some we are the lifeblood of the internet, providing endless reserves of irritation and high horses to climb upon, but we see our devotion to facts as carrying out a valuable service: battling against the all too casual vandalism of science.
Doctor Who has always been a show full of engaging storylines but it’s also one which often summons forth the inner-pedant in some science geeks: much as we love the programme, there are some gratuitous abuses of physics we simply can’t allow to pass without comment. And by comment we mean the shaking of fists and litres of beverages wasted thanks to indignant snorting.
So, which scientific ideas in Doctor Who are possible and which ones are the sign of a script gone mad?
Impossible Concept #5: The Gelth
Shrieking ghosts with a love for possession, murder and universal domination – what’s not to like? Unfortunately thanks to gases seeking equilibrium there simply can’t be anything there to like in the first place. Like any other dead animal, humans go through the unpleasant process of producing gases as they decay, so the gaseous forms of the Gelth would simply have no way of entering an area which is already under high pressure. While these creatures lack any scientific plausibility compared to the fate of real-life corpses, they more than make up for that by saving us from the alternative of the only TV show possibly more gruesome than Gillian McKeith’s latest poo-sifting outing. When we consider that, their huge entertainment value is simply an added bonus.
Possible Concept #5: Weeping Angels
Prepare yourself for a quick bit of quantum physics here. You might want to join me in grabbing a coffee if it’s getting late.
We have billions and billions of atoms in our bodies and, by extension, an even higher number of electrons. These electrons are one of a few fundamental particles have a really bizarre property known as wave-particle duality, meaning that they display both wave and particle behaviors in certain circumstances.
One particular wave behaviour they can display is interference which can make the electron appear as if it is in two places at once, but this can only occur when nobody is observing it. Think about it: we can force a subatomic particle to behave as a particle just by looking at it. That’s pretty amazing, right?
What does all of this have to do with the Weeping Angels? When nobody is observing them their quantum state is changed and their electrons could potentially be free to move as waves, so some of the particles in a normally innocent-looking statue could theoretically move silently through the room as a wave until someone halts this process by looking at it again. Who ever said science couldn’t be completely terrifying to someone remembering the observer effect in a dark hallway at 2am?
We are currently seeking Doctor Who contributors on WhatCulture. To find out more about the perks of being a Doctor Who contributor, click here.
12 Comments
If there was time travel why havent they come back? Im sure youd get 1 rogue come back and change the future for themselves.
Maybe it’s like Bender’s Big Score where everything tends to resolve itself through comedy deaths and explosions. What else could’ve happened to this guy? http://crave.cnet.co.uk/gadgets/man-arrested-at-large-hadron-collider-claims-hes-from-the-future-49305387/
Jimmy Carr’s reply to being asked what advice he’d give to his younger self:
“Don’t worry about ANYTHING. One day you’ll have a time machine.”
Well, the concept of “before time” does imply that there was a “universe” before time began. However, they never did actually say it was OUR universe. There very well could be a version of a universe that was before ours in the space ours is now taking up and he was an inhabitant of that universe. I would assume that if the stories about God and the like are true, then they have to exist outside our understanding of the universe. Therefore, the ability to exist “before time” is allowed. I believe he did also say “Before Light and Time and Space and Matter” so that would also support the idea that it would be before our understanding of what the universe is. Because space is supposed to be ever expanding and if there is an edge, what’s beyond it? Well, what if it’s just the previous universe? What if scientists in that version had come up with an explosion so powerful, they created a universe? Well, I say scientists because that’s our word for it. It’s the simplified idea for what it means to use logic, experiment and discover. For all we know, we’re a couple chemicals on a Petri dish. That doesn’t explain anything, but I’m just trying to point out that we don’t know what’s before or beyond our universe so we can’t actually say that there is definitively no “before time”. Overall, a very good read tho.
Actually, the statement that nothing could come before the Big Bang has a major flaw in it, because the Big Bang, though almost universaly accepted, is still just another unproven theory. On top of that, certain parts of it seem to be in direct opposition to things which have even wider acceptance, like the Theory of Relativity. Without getting into deep scientific and philosophical discussions, just ponder this: If there was nothing before the Big Bang, exactly what was it that exploded and where did the spark come from that set off the powder keg?
The big Doctor Who theme this didn’t tackle: Bigger on the Inside technology. Is that possible? If so, how?
“Contrary to the jokes of several supporting characters, the screwdriver is utterly useless for putting up any shelves.”
Well, “utterly useless” is a strong term… I mean, if you duct tape an actual screwdriver to the sonic one, you’d have these shelves up within a heartbeat…
One comment: The “space whale” is a creature specifically from outside earth. It’s not truly a whale, it’s a space creature, designed to live and fly in space. It’s possible it survives on interstellar gases and cometary debris.
Well i’d say Who is a good enough story to warrant willing suspension of disbelief. and, anyway, ‘impossible’ just means ‘unexplained’ doesn’t it?
I agree with TheDarthHomer. It’s about time the “Timelord” technology of things being bigger on the inside is proved/disproved.
A well-intentioned article and, let’s face it, Doctor Who has never been about accurate science, or even accurate history; it’s always been about entertainment. The guy who started it all held the opinion that they should never let science get in the way of a good story. Having said that, it really is fun to discuss the hidden gems and flaws of Doctor Who. I would be a little hesitant though, to use the term “impossible”. I once argued (as this author did) that neutrons are neutral and have no polarity to reverse. I was directed to a rather involved scientific article that explained how collections of neutrons can, indeed, be said to have a flow, under certain conditions. I have seen a demonstration of the use of sonics to cause an object to levitate, rotate and change the direction of that rotation, so it might be possible to produce a sonic screwdriver that can be used to put up shelves, someday. The space whale, if such a creature can exist at all, has to be perfectly suited to its environment, by definition. Whatever it feeds on must be readily available in that environment and, being struck by an object would likely result in an injury, but it would not cause the creature to explode.
In the Pirate Planet,the physic energy came from the beings that were killed when the planets were crushed. But I agree that no amount of science could keep the mass of so many compressed planets “in balance”.