Talk:The Impossible Planet

message: Am I the only one who's reminded of Cthulhu by these things?
:Feel free to read Niffux's suggestion of R'lyeh above. ;p Phil 01:23, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Nope - I'm a player adn 'keeper' of Cthulhu - and the writing on the seal and plot of this feels very much like a cthulhu game - wouldn't be surprised if Lovecraft has his influence here somewhere... 
Also - what do people think about the overtones of the Bible being used here - accesses primal fear - but imagining that the people on the ship might be of different religions or philosophies (not just due to appearing to be from different countries/origins but also, how far into the future is this supposed to be?)
Crescent 18:52, 3 June 2006 (UTC)

text: This was fixed by Khaosworks at 12:54, 6 June 2006 Khaosworks. Liyster 12:48, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: The Ood

message: Does "Chris Evans was rumoured to be playing the part of the Devil in this two-part story. However, David Tennant confirmed on the Christian O'Connell Breakfast Show on Virgin Radio that Evans will not be appearing in the episode." mean that Chris Evans won't appear in Impossible Planet but could appear in The Satan Pit, or that he isn't appearing in the two parter at all? smurrayinchester(User), (Talk) 16:49, 2 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I would assume that means he won't show up at all.  I'm only going by the wording of the statement though and don't have anything to back it up. Phil 01:24, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Chris Evans 

message: Whats the name of the girl that gets killed and how plays her shes not in the cast?
Scooti Manista — MyAnna Buring: she is in the list
: Mr Jefferson gives her full name as Scootori Manista; "Scooti" seems to be her nickname.  Snowflake Sans Crainte 10:44, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Missing cast member 

message: The Milky Way seems to do all right orbiting a whole cluster of super massive black holes without falling in--70.107.115.168 18:00, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: It depends how close the planet is to the black hole. If the planet was a long way away from the black hole, then there wouldn't be any problem orbiting it for exactly the reason you (and everyone else) has given. But, if the radius orbit was less than 3{Gm \over c^2}, then the planet would have to be moving sideways faster than the speed of light. Before anyone says, no this is not the event horison — that's a{Gm \over c^2} with a=2 for Schwarzschild and a=1 for maximal Kerr: Reference: Black hole#Mathematical theory. Also, as an aside, how fast would a planet loose energy to gravitational radiation if it was that sort of distance? Whitepaw 18:29, 15 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: ahem

message: Anyone notice Maxwell's Equations scrawled on the lunch table while the Doctor and Rose talk?
:Well spotted! I missed that. You're right, there they are. --DudeGalea 21:14, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  I really missed mentioning of Maxwell's Equations in the Notes, as this was most surprising to me besides the "Doom sound". But why the 29A weren't they written correctly in the first place- the last equation (which deals about the change of electric current yielding a magnetic field) has a correction. Also, what's written on the opposite side of the table- two lines might represent parts of the integral representation of Maxwell's formulas along with some arrows towards a \kappa, but the rest might be specific boundary conditions related to this episode? Finally, there are three words written on a spot closest to the wall, which most probably won't be readable until the series is released in higher resolution. r@129.13.72.153 21:32, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: other physics

message: From the article:
:After a quick introduction, the Doctor and Rose learn that these humans are from an expedition that crashed onto a ruined planetoid that orbited a black hole. This is impossible as a black hole sucks everything into it and destroys it. The Doctor and Rose then witness the domain of an ancient race which owned many planets for a period of time.
But the expedition has apparently gone there with a purpose, to drill and find the power source... Which is it, are they on the planet by accident or deisgn? (e.g. did they crash)
Also, what is the 'domain of an ancient race' that the Doctor and Rose witness? Is this a referring to them watching the destruction of a star system in to the black hole?
*The TARDISODE puts it that they went there on purpose. The 'empire' sounds to be in some kind of crisis, because the original captain is told that if he pulls this mission off he'll be 'hero of the empire'. The captain probably died during one of the quakes and the crew stayed to complete the mission out of a mix of honour and curiosity.    In general though, I think every Saturday we get people rushing to add to each article and they put stuff in in a rush just to say they did it. --HellCat86 21:53, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Crashed or there on purpose? 

message: from the article:
:'The Doctor and Rose then witness the domain of an ancient race which owned many planets for a period of time.' (emphasis added)
surely should be "demise"? Chrisd87
::No, it's domain. The wording perhaps is a little confusing, but after seeing the episode, domain is what makes the most sense.  To say that the episode featured a race's demise would be untrue, as that didn't happen. RobbieG 07:35, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text:  Fair enough, I thought it was referring to the star system that fell into the black hole. Chrisd87 12:13, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Malapropism 

message: I'm trying to clean up the plot summary for spelling/grammar/style. For reference, is there a convention concerning whether these plot summaries should be in the present or past tense? the current one here mixes the two. Chrisd87 23:17, 3 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Style of plot summary 

message: I don't know if this is notable or not, but this series seems far more science-fictiony than the last one.  Series 1 was basically science fantasy for the most part (with the possible exception of the Empty Child story).  This series, however, seems to largely deal with actual science.  I may be wrong here, but I think electrical organisms, self-reparing androids dismantling crewmembers, parallel universes, the removal of emotions, black holes and disease are all elements of 'hard' as opposed to 'soft' science fiction.  Anyone else thinking along the same lines? RobbieG 08:22, 4 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Series 2: Heavier on the science? 

message: Didn't they use a quarry in The Christmas Invasion as the Sycorax ship before this? smurrayinchester(User), (Talk) 10:41, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't think so.  I seem to recall photographs from the Radio Times showing the ship was a set and the surface of the ship, for the battle, was filmed on a beach using a lot of green screen work. Snowflake Sans Crainte 10:54, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: For the interior of the Sycorax ship in The Christmas Invasion, a cave was used as the location for shooting.  This from The Christmas Invasion: "Parts of the episode were filmed at the Clearwell Caves in Gloucestershire." Liyster 12:53, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Quarries 

message: ...so I just thought we should bear in mind a lot of our queries may be answered in five days' time. No doubt this pair of episodes will still leave room for speculation, even then. DavidFarmbrough 11:29, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  This is a two parter... 

message: The notes section on these episode pages contain a lot of seemingly irrelevant information, i think they need to be pruned a bit. Things like " "Ood" is also "Doom" backwards omitting the M " are rather speculative and serve no real purpose 88.109.129.10 11:49, 5 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Notes Section 

message: When Jefferson reports Scooti's death, he mentions that she is deceased, "Forty-three K two point one", which is presumably where the website that says "43,231 AD" got the date from, i.e. a mishearing. We don't know for sure that it's a date, but it sounds likely, but we still don't know what scale they are using. Personally, I'd take it as an indication that the setting is the 440th century, but this is just my own speculation, and should not be added. I'm noting the actual words said here just in case anyone tries to add it again.
:Wouldn't that more likely be the 44th rather than the 440th, since 43K is 43,000 yrs  - see Warhammer 40K. GraemeLeggett 12:39, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: We don't know for sure that the K means thousand - it might be 'kay' - a word inserted into a date like 'apple' and 'cup'! DavidFarmbrough 13:17, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: For instance, today is June delta apple orange banana 251325 day--205.188.116.5 14:11, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Dating the episode

message: I think it's pretty obvious that they're more or less trying to recreate the success of the empty child and the doctor dances, but beyond that, there seem to be some pretty specific parallels:
*1) "the beast" seems to be able to Om-Com, "anything with a speaker grill" or in this the base computer, and the ood spheres..
*2) "the beast" also seems to be able to revive "toby" from death or near death
*3) and finally "the beast" seems to be able to telepathically control armies of people who behave almost zombie like
Either they're using a very obvious formula for writing these episodes, or we may get to finally see what a Chula looks like, not to mention, since Jack hinted at having the "last [chula warship] in existance", kind of suggests that the Chula were one of the races that ceased to exist as a result of the time war, which would also explain the TARDIS not being able to translate a language that doesn't exist anymore--205.188.116.5 13:57, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: That's a good theory, but I think the Beast's telepathic powers are merely a story element, and the zombies, like the Devil, are just a universal fear.  They want a scary episode, so they make the Ood zombie-like.  Emotionless, zombie-like beings are nearly always scary.  They did the same in Rose, The Unquiet Dead, The Long Game, The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances, New Earth, The Girl in the Fireplace, Rise of the Cybermen/The Age of Steel and The Idiot's Lantern.  Whew... more than I expected.  It's not very original, but if you want to know why it's effective, see uncanny valley.  As for the speaker grill, I didn't think that's what the Beast did - rather, he used all the machinery - phones, doors, translation balls.  He even made his face appear on the monitor, which evidently did not involve the use of a speaker grill.  OTOH, it's high time we found out more about this "Time War", and your theory is certainly attractive. RobbieG 18:37, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: An interesting link to the uncanny valley article, RobbieG. Not a million miles away from Who's own Grimwade's Syndrome in The Robots of Death: the Sandminer Society's pathological fear of robots, often caused by the automatas' lack of subtle human/primate/organic body language cues. It must be like being in an Anechoic chamber, which can be unsettling & disturbing as you can't hear all the echoes you hear from normal environments. Vivamancer 21:02, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  trying to be scary 

message: I note both your points, Khaosworks. However, I would point out: the shot of the Scarlet system is given particular prominence in the show, as Ida draws attention to it, at a time when the tension & allusions to The Number of the Beast are being built up. Red in particular is a colour associated with the Devil.
The hole doesn't look like this in the previous shots, & the red trail makes the image significantly different. Most sci-fi film & tv graphics of black holes show more of a uniform spiral or whirlpool effect, not the single extruded arc in a contrast colour leading down into it.
Screencap the image & invert it, & look at it.
Yes the Mill could have made it more obviously a six, rather than inverting it, but if you look at the graphic, it's obviously intended to be a number not just a cosmic plughole.
I would have uploaded the inverted graphic on the page to make this clearer, but as there was already an image on the page, I didn't, becaue I respect other Wikipedians' editorial contributions.
The number of the Beast is 666, not 999, unless the police have some very dodgy connections. The episode is riddled with 6s. This shot is one of them.
I'm off for a 99 cornet (from cornu, Latin for horn...)
Vivamancer 19:45, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I just don't see it; the screenshot, which is on Outpost Gallifrey, looks fairly normal and pretty un-sixlike. smurrayinchester(User), (Talk) 21:10, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: That screenshot's probably not the best example.  There's another bit where you see it behind the mountains and then it really does look like an inverted 6.  Well, to me, anyway. RobbieG 16:48, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sixes & Nines in the Scarlet System's demise

message: 'Plot' does not mean 'detailed description of every minute detail of a story'. These plot descriptions are ludicrously long - someone ought to shorten them. Damiancorrigan 22:47, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: This has been raised before on the Wikiproject page and you're welcome to raise it there again. However, the general feeling was that the longer synopses were to be retained. --khaosworks (talk • contribs) 02:57, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Definition of the word 'plot'

message: Didn't the Doctor make a "because it's there" reference to Mt. Everest in this episode? RobbieG 08:42, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Because It's There! 

message: Note 1 says "This is the first episode of the revived series not to have any scenes on or near Earth (or parallel versions thereof)."
But that's not right is it? New Earth, anyone? It wasn't a paraell Earth either, just another planet that the humans settling there happened to mould into being similar to Earth for nostalgia, wasn't it? The_B 18:40, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Suggest you re-watch the first 2 minutes of that episode, if you think it had no scenes set on Earth.  Morwen - Talk 18:51, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Ah, I missed the pre credits sequence that episode, apologies. The_B 19:01, 7 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Note 1 - Innaccurate? 

message: The following is a spoiler for The Satan Pit.  It concerns the nature of the plot of the two episodes.  If you do not wish to have this spoilt for you, do not read this!!!
Have I made myself clear?  I know there's already a spoiler warning further up the page, but as this is official information and concerns an unbroadcast episode, I thought some people might appreciate an additional warning.  In the Radio Times (10-16 June) Russell T. Davies made the following statement about the Beast:
"It's not the Devil.  It's a tricky one.  Without giving too much away, there's a great big creature which is red - a magnificent CGI creation by the Mill.  But this is still Doctor Who.  It just pushes the Doctor's and Rose's thinking, their preconceptions.  It challenges everyone's faith and belief, and doesn't undermine it, either."
Well, there you have it.  Really, it isn't that big a spoiler (doubtless many of you suspected as much all along), but I didn't want to ruin the upcoming episode for anyone.  Anyway, I hope this means we can finally bring all this ridiculous speculation about the Beast to a close (that'd be the day). RobbieG 08:03, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  WARNING: MAJOR SPOILER 

message: We're using the traditional spelling, 'Zach', but the BBC's official website uses the more modern 'Zack'. RobbieG 08:40, 8 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Spelling of Zach/Zack 

message: If the power source is at the center, and it's 10 miles down, that makes the radius of the planet a mere 10 miles, for comparison the radius of the earth is around 3963 miles, give or take, which makes this "planet" a tiny little rock, probably too small to even have a natural gravitational pull, which probably explains the lack of atmosphere anyway, but puts the gravity discussion to rest.  Unless this planet is made of something bizarrely dense, the only option is artifical gravity, planet wide, probably all the way down to the core--70.107.115.168 18:29, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Ah, but it's the impossible planet! :-) --DudeGalea 19:28, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Perhaps you could say impossible planetoid. ;) RobbieG 20:29, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  It's really not a planet is it? 

message: The Tardis appears in section 6 - and isn't there a triple six mentioned - a pair of episodes on the Saturdays nearest to 06.06.06. Somebody's sense of humour? Jackiespeel 22:23, 9 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Numbers

message: Jefferson reports Scooty's death:
"Report: Officer Scootori Manista PKD, Deceased, 43K 2.1"
Is PKD some kind of post-nomial qualification/award. Are we supposed to be left completely in the dark as to its meaning. Or are we just supposed to reasonably assume that it's an homage to Philip K. Dick who wrote a story called... The Impossible Planet. I suppose this is speculation, and therefore cannot go in the article. But I'm rather pleased to have worked it out. Thoughts? Dissent? --81.105.251.160 01:08, 10 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  "Scootori Manista PKD" 

message: : There are four good reasons to examine the science in fiction:  
1) Acknowledging errors can be a useful way to move past them and enjoy the program instead of being distracted by trying to understand what isn't really understandable.  
2) Sometimes a seaming "error" in a script is in fact a clue that foreshadows future events.  For example in The Twin Dilema, Mestor's explanation of moving planets around to make a larder is in fact a fraud to hide his true intention of blowing up the star.  (Unfortunately, the real science is as bad as Mestor's cover story, so the audience does not really have any chance of solving the mystery the way the Doctor does.)
3) Connecting abstract concepts to something visual and interesting is a useful way to refine one's understanding of science - even if the connection is that of how things don't work. 
4) It's fun to come up with ways to fix the science without breaking the story.  Algr 18:02, 16 July 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Four good reasons to examine the science  

message: Did the Doctor ever say why he couldn’t call the TARDIS to him using the key like he did last season?  --Arctic Gnome 17:59, 11 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Summoning the TARDIS 

message: the doctor is incorrect in the context that it is impossible to orbit a black hole, but the First Stable Orbin of any black hold is generally billions of kilometers in distance. In the episode, It appears that the BLack hold is within quite close proximity to the black hold and well beyond the last stable point at which it could orbit it and I think that this is the impossibility that the doctor referrs to, not the phenomenon itself. James Random 13:29, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Scientific Errors 

message: The body would not explode in space - rather - it would freeze solid in two minutes flat and then implode, the trauma to the body leading up to solid freezing has often caused fim-makers to believe that the body explodes in space, but generally, it does not. James Random 13:37, 22 June 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Only because the temperature is -273° Celsius in space (a few millionths of a degree above that maybe). You freeze before you explode in the vacuum of space. However if there was plenty of heat and you just explosively decompressed with a lungfull of air - ooh boy would you ever pop like an over-ripe grape, for the same reason scuba divers who don't breath out on ascent and head up too quickly wind up with multiple air embolisms, severe internal trauma and stroke. Also, two minutes is a conservative estimate. It would take a handful of seconds. 124.148.125.156 (talk) 11:12, 25 July 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Bodies Exploding in space.  

message: Does anyone else see (possibly coincidental) similarities between both The Impossible Plannet & The Satan Pit and the old Dungeons & Dragons module H2 Mines of the Bloodstone? Can anyone speculate on the likelyhood of this being a purpusful homage on the part of the writers? Azezel 23:16, 19 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: It's not really relevant to the article, I know, but since we're talking about this sort of thing, could the possessed Toby's appearance have been influenced by Sasuke from Naruto (complete with cursed seal and sharingan)?  The resemblance is striking.  RobbieG 17:06, 5 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Yeah Im going to have to say it was just one big Doom reference. From the plot to the sound effects it had Doom written all over it. Well Doom 3 to be more precise. Thats why I was a little irked when all references to get where missing the second time I checked this page.68.226.119.201 17:22, 8 January 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: You only think that because the show sometimes uses the same soundboard as the sound effects in Doom. Nothing worse than a bunch of neurotic editors cluttering articles with the perceived "references" to their obsessions that they mysteriously discover everywhere. I mean, Naruto? Really? 174.110.143.94 (talk) 03:55, 27 July 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dungeons & Dragons 

message: The scientific errors section is original research so I've removed it.  It would fit very well on the Tardis website (see Wikia:tardis:The Impossible Planet).  The material may be used there under the same GNU Free Document License that is supported by Wikipedia. Please credit Wikipedia in your edit, in order to comply with the license. --Tony Sidaway 19:11, 27 May 2007 (UTC)
thread_title: Scientific errors

message: Shavian, by any chance? Andy Dingley (talk) 00:01, 30 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  The unreadable language? 

message: Is there a reason why the blueprints are considered to be a plot hole? Even biological organisms have a blueprint they're grown to. Humans inherit their blueprint from their parents. Surely, they'd have to encode the growing information in some manner. Could you imagine having to come up with the TARDIS blueprints from scratch every time a new one was requisitioned (back before the TARDIS was the last)? While there are plot holes in Dr Who, I'm not sure that growing being grown and having a blueprint qualifies as a plot hole. Thoughts on deletion? 173.8.202.97 (talk) 00:02, 4 June 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't mind it being deleted, as it is nit-pickey trivia. It's also just discontinuity, not a plot hole. Glimmer721 talk 00:28, 4 June 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: I deleted this part.  In the events of The Doctor's Wife we see that the Doctor can and did build a working TARDIS console.  So, when they say they built a TARDIS they may be referring to just the console section.  Also, even if a TARDIS was grown from coral you would still need to add the mechanical parts to the inside even if the shell is alive.  In essence, the TARDIS is a "bigger on the inside" cyborg.  Wtbe7560 (talk) 21:12, 20 April 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Blueprints of TARDIS 

message: Would the fact that the guns used in both this episode and the next ('The Satan Pit') are FN P90s belong anywhere on this page? I can't believe no one else mentioned this on either article or talk page, though the shots with it were filmed in such a way that they rarely show the gun in profile.--AlexSushiama (talk) 00:25, 5 September 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Thanks for your expertise. Please provide a reliable source so that we amateurs can verify it. DonQuixote (talk) 01:38, 5 September 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  FN P90? No one else noticed? 

message: Just saying, to whoever added that part in, he means 4302, in January.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 162.200.109.124 (talk) 00:48, 18 August 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Year 43K 2.1 

message: Please add . IPs are blocked from inserting the word 'dick'. Thanks. 81.141.56.30 (talk) 22:25, 4 October 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: . Cheers, Dresken (talk) 22:33, 4 October 2017 (UTC)
thread_title: Help

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thread_title:  External links modified (January 2018)