Doctor Who: 10 Episodes That Should Have Changed Things Forever (But Didn't)
3. Boom Town & Utopia (Christopher Eccleston & David Tennant)
We are, of course, talking about the rift. The supposed rift in space-time, that the Gelth tried to come through and was partly sealed, reappeared in Roald Dahl Plass in Cardiff. It was a major plot-point in Torchwood, but for Doctor Who it was the far more sinister cousin, a plot device. Suddenly the TARDIS needs to refuel on rift energy. This is not to say that the TARDIS has not had its share of mechanical breakdowns, from mercury fluid links and Zeiton 7, to Artron energy and the eye of harmony, it certainly is a power hungry machine. But in 700 years of travelling the universe there are no other mentions of the TARDIS having to stop for fuel. Since the show was brought back, though, there were two incidents of stopping, both of which happened to coincide with a major event. There is a radio adventure with Jack Harkness that attempts to tie off the hanging thread of the rift still polluting Cardiff with ghosts and goblins, and Steven Moffats catch all 50th special took a blowtorch to the thing just to make sure it couldnt be tugged on again. So where does that leave the TARDIS with its now apparently frequent need for rift energy? Who wants to bet we never hear it mentioned again?
I.T. Consultant, technophile and Doctor Who fan. I like to talk about tech, take films apart and make excuses for Doctor Who's continuity errors. No other show has the power to make me feel like a big kid.
