(all spoilers! don’t read till you’ve seen the episode! and no comments from party poopers — this is a love fest only / previous: “Amy’s Choice”)
The first time I watched this, I thought, This has no connection whatsoever to the ongoing crack-in-the-universe, problem-of-Amy Pond story. The second time around, I started seeing all sorts of clues to those matters. The third time around, I became convinced that this episode is the best evidence yet that everything since he landed in Amelia Pond’s backyard — perhaps everything since his regeneration — is all in the Doctor’s head.
The biggest evidence for this, I think, is the sequence that begins when the Doctor says they’ve got 12 minutes before whatever is burrowing up from far beneath the planet’s surface arrives. I don’t see how everything that is supposed to be happening in those 12 minutes can possibly actually happen. They’re down to nine and a half minutes when Rory, Ambrose, and Elliot join up with the Doctor, Nasreen, and Tony. Then they all bust into the church and set up their equipment, which apparently takes only a minute and a half, because when the Doctor sends them all out to gather up every device that can receive or transmit electronic signals, he says they’re down to eight minutes. All of this — “I want the whole area covered with sensors,” the Doctor says —
cannot possibly happen in one minute 20 seconds, but it must, because at 6:40 left, the Doctor tells Elliot, “I need a map of the village marking where the cameras are going.” Now, surely, it would take the kid at least a few minutes just to rustle up the paper and markers (never mind if the positioning of cameras were still going on) but at 3:23 left, Elliot is showing the Doctor his elaborate map.
Which means that they rounded up every electronic device, mounted all of them, and reprogrammed the computers to track those devices, in four and a half minutes?
Impossible.
At the same time, too, Ambrose is gathering weapons, which means she’s not available to be doing other work… except we do see her helping with that!
Compressed, the whole sequence takes seven minutes — which would mean that it takes more than half the time as the events it’s supposed to represent.
That can’t be right.
I also wonder about the Doctor’s interactions with Elliot. At one minute left before, apparently, all hell will break loose, he lets the kid run out to get his headphones. And maybe that’s just the Doctor being his usual selfish (in some ways) self, not paying attention to the needs of other people. But then, too, it takes way too long for Ambrose to realize her son isn’t there with them in the church. It’s almost like he’s an afterthought in the Doctor’s imagination.
This has been nagging at me, too, since Matt Smith’s arrival:
He wears his watch with the face on the inside of his wrist. Now, I know lots of people wear their watches like that, and maybe this is a Matt Smith thing rather than a Doctor thing, or maybe it’s just one more little indication of how he’s changed now that he’s regenerated (the Christopher Eccleston Doctor wore his watch with the face on the outside of his wrist; I can’t recall if the David Tennant Doctor wore a watch).
But I wouldn’t put it past Steven Moffat for this to be a little sign about how things are “reversed” or “inside out” or something…
And there’s also something definitely “different” about Amy. When the Silurians scan her, they get different results than when they scan Elliot and Ambrose. First, Amy:
Only one little indicator thingie over on the right side. And in fact the scanner moves up and down her body like whoever is doing the scanning is expecting a different result. (Presumably they have a baseline from Mo.)
Elliot:
Ambrose:
Two indicator thingies for each of them…
Also, we have only the Doctor’s word for it that it’s future Amy and Rory that he sees waving to them from across the field at the beginning of the episode. And he distracts current Amy and Rory really quickly from going and saying hi. Of course, such a conversation could cause all sorts of problems. Or something else could be going on.
The blue grass must mean something more than, as the Doctor said to Nasreen, Don’t drill here:
And Amy’s engagement ring sitting in this little pod on the console has got to be significant:
It’s not sitting off to the side, on a table or something: it’s on the console, where all the timey-whimey stuff begins. Where the psychic pollen got warmed up. Where the magic happens…
Random thoughts on “The Hungry Earth”:
• This episode recalls two classic stories: Peter Davison’s “Frontios” — in which intelligent ground-burrowing grublike aliens sucked human people through the earth for nefarious reasons; and Jon Pertwee’s “Inferno,” in which an experiment to drill deep into the planet results in all sorts of bad stuff happening.
• The Doctor carries around a slingshot?
• Bowties are cool, and sunglasses at night are cool:
(Even if the night is artificially induced by not-alien aliens, and the glasses see in infrared.)
Coolest Doctor ever? Maybe…
• I love watching Nasreen fall under the Doctor’s spell! From applauding his little “You have to be the best of humanity” speech to flirting with him by tweaking his braces:
to her first look inside the TARDIS — “No way! This is fantastic!” — to her delight at his life — “It’s like this is every day to you” / “Not every day. Every other day.” — she is perfect companion fodder. Can we get her onboard the TARDIS permanently?
• The Doctor’s interrogation of the Silurian warrior Alaya is such a wonderful antidote to the torture ethos that runs through pop culture at the moment — even on the best and smartest of shows, like on this week’s episode of Stargate: Universe: these shows lie, they act like torture actually works, they have the good guys as well as the bad guys engaging in it, to great success. Here, though, it’s not just that torture is distasteful and unpleasant and that’s why the Doctor doesn’t resort to it: he knows that torture simply is not effective. So he tells Alaya she’s beautiful, asks her name, has a pleasant conversation. He knows that creating a rapport is how you get the answers you need… And I’m glad that Doctor Who knows that, too.
• On the other hand, humans are violent people. Is Alaya right? Will either Tony or Ambrose or Rory kill her? “I know which one of you will kill me. Do you?” We could come up with “good” reasons for any of them to do so… but will they instead be the brilliant, decent people the Doctor insists they are?
• Oh, man. This is not going to be good:
And this is not going to be good:
And I have to wait a whole week to find out how not good it’s going to be? *argh*
• Great quotes:
“I love a big mining thing.” –the Doctor
“After everything we’ve seen, we just drop back into our old lives, the nurse and the kissogram?” –Rory (yeah, I’m not so sure about that either…)
“Doctor, that’s breaking and entering!” –Amy
“What did I break? Sonicing and entering. Totally different.” –the Doctor
“Oh, pul-leeze! Have you always been this disgusting?” –Amy
“No. That’s recent.” –the Doctor
“The graves round here eat people.” –Elliot
“You’re not making any sense, man.” –Tony
“Excuse me, I’m making perfect sense. You’re just not keeping up.” –the Doctor
“I can’t do the words, I’m dyslexic.” –Elliot
“That’s all right. I can’t make a decent meringue.” –the Doctor
“I want to live in a city one day. Soon as I’m old enough, I’ll be off.” –Elliot
“I was the same where I grew up.” –the Doctor
“Did you get away?” –Elliot
“Yeah.” –the Doctor
“Do you ever miss it?” –Elliot
“So much.” –the Doctor
“Is it monsters coming? Have you met monsters before?” –Elliot
“Yeah.” –the Doctor
“Are you scared of them?” –Elliot
“No, they’re scared of me.” –the Doctor
“Oy, don’t diss the sonic!” –the Doctor
“Defending the planet with Meals on Wheels!” –the Doctor
“Oh, I do hate to monologue.” –the Doctor
“I’m the last of my species.” –Alaya
“No, you’re really not. Because I’m the last of my species, and I know how it sits in a heart. So don’t insult me.” –the Doctor
(next: Episode 9: “Cold Blood”)
I’m glad I’m not the only one who finds that “other Amy and Rory” suspect. Not only does the Doctor distract them pretty quickly but you can’t absolutely tell from “binocu-cam” if that is actually them. For all we know it’s actually the Doctor and River dressed up as them from episode 13.
Hmm, I’m semi-convinmced by your theory, but I do wonder if you are over-analysing. This is a family show – children are expected to follow the plot, people are meant to be able to dip in and out. The series arc can’t be too overcomplicated – it’ll need to be explainable within a couple of minutes in the last or second-to-last episode of the series.
Now, there’s certainly more going on than is immediately obvious, I don’t dispute that. But I rather expect Moffat to come up with something elegantly simple that no-one has guessed yet.
I read somewhere about rumours that Rory will be the next victim of the crack and that “Cold Blood” will be the one where he vanishes.
So maybe the future-Amy and future-Rory waving are a reminder of how time is meant to track, and Rory, if lost, might mean facing up to just what the cracks can unwind?
And the engagement ring, protected in the TARDIS console like that, might survive Rory’s being erased…
…and it seems like it’s setting it up for that now, and I can’t get it out of my head especially with Arthur Darvill not being in the credits for the rest of the season, and damn, damn, damn you, Moffatt, for making me scared like that because I don’t want Rory or Nasreen to die or never-be.
Damn damn damn I am reading way too much into this. Stupid Doctor Who, making me anxious just as a vacation starts and I won’t be able to see the next one till mid-next week.
Mary Ann – with regard to the rapidity of the setup that you talk about, I wonder if that might not just be a bit of oversight on the editing part as opposed to a clue that it’s all unreal…but as you’ve pointed out before, one never knows with this series and this showrunner…
Re: the 12-minute countdown….
Oh, I’d love to believe this theory – and I genuinely hope it’s true. But given the fact that this week’s Confidential says The Hungry Earth was a *big* editing job, with 15 minutes excised from the first cut, and given the habitual clumsiness of the episode’s writer, I’m willing to bet it’s just sloppy editing and/or writing.
I’m loving Doctor Who so much! This newest episode is great. Nice review! I always come here after watching an episode to see what your take on it is. Oh, I do think the scans they did on Elliot, Ambrose, and Amy were the same. The only difference is that with the extra indicator is that it each had their eye in it, and Amy had hers closed (unconscious?) so they couldn’t have an indicator of her eye. I don’t think the scan showed her as any different. I do question the Amy and Rory of the future and weather or not they were actually from that far in the future or now.
About future Amy and Rory: if you freeze frame it at the moment the Doctor looks that second time, it pretty clearly *is* Amy and Rory.
Now, if Rory is undone by the crack in the universe, then trying to figure just how this is all going to play out in the next five(!) episodes…makes my head hurt.
I wouldn’t expect Rory to be travelling with them much longer. The whole bit with the Doctor seeing them on the hill was a bit weird. There is either going to be a fair amount of unanswered questions by the end of the season or these are all clues as to the big mystery we are all being teased with. After the previous episode, I’m quite onboard with the whole thing like it all being some sort of dream the (still) regenerating Doctor is having. I wouldn’t put it past Moffat to have some other crafty plan up his sleeve that he is plans to whack us upside the head with by the finale, either.
Also, I was looking up the old Doctor Who episode Inferno (not sure if I saw that one or not, was at or just before I started watching the rest of Jon Pertwee’s episodes on into Baker) Maryann mentioned. I got jumping around and on Jo Grant’s page I saw that she is due to make an appearance on season 4 of Sarah Jane Adventures. It’s cool we are getting to see some of these old character dusted off and given new life.
While I completely see your points, and ‘off’ things that make no sense have certainly been used before in Who to be hints towards the Epic Finale… Who also just has more plot holes than should be ever allowed. There were SO many in The Time of the Angels/ Flesh and Stone, and sure they still have time to fix them- why were the Angels killing people? Why were they able to LOOK AT EACH OTHER and not be dead? Why did they go completely against their biology and just ‘think’ Amy could see them? – I doubt it’ll be explained. Alot of them are just silly plot holes.
So I completely noticed the “… That’s alot of running around for 12 minutes you know” but, I think it’s just Who being Who. Especially since, casting wise, we know for a fact that Amy is still going to be his companion next series.
(And I found the “Hey, look, it’s you two from the future!” comment decisively odd as well and just took it as he confused Ambrosia and whatnot up for them, since she looks alot like an older Amy, but I haven’t rewatched it so that may be completely not true.)
But the 12-minute thing is not an editing issue. The problem isn’t that what they do in those 12 minutes is too condensed in the editing: it’s that no matter how long what they do took *onscreen,* it would still not make any sense in story time.
This is an issue in the writing. The Doctor could have said, “We have an hour to do XYZ,” and it could have cut instantly to one hour later, with them all dusting off their hands and congratulating themselves on a good hour’s work, and it would have been fine. But that’s not what happens here.
This is akin to Donna in the computer VR at the Library, where her life jumps hours or years in one cut with her having no memory of anything in between.
So why were future Amy and Rory there, just casually waving? They reminded me of the Watcher. Where did they go afterwards? Will they factor in the next part?
I like to think that the Doctor and the Tardis influence things around them more than they used to. The same influence that translates languages psychically seems to be letting people from other times ignore Amy’s, Rory’s, and the Doctor’s clothing. Also, I think the Doctor and the Tardis can locally change the speed of time, especially at the behest of the Doctor’s needs.
What I found interesting, given the previous episode, was the moment where the Doctor pleaded for Rory to believe him. Is 11 suffering from a bit of low self esteem at the moment?
That’s the second time that’s happened this season. In Victory of the Daleks, we’re told that the ETA of the German bombers is 10 minutes. It takes at least 2 minutes for Amy & Churchill to talk Bracewell out of killing himself and realize he has a solution. That leaves about 8 minutes for the Dalek device to be taken out. The gravity whatsits have to go from a plan to a working piece of equipment that is then applied to the spitfires, which must then launch into space and destroy the device.
It’s going to be interesting to see if the whole dream idea holds up, especially after having just watched the Lost finale and what the “parallel reality” was all about. Of course, “reality” in this season of Doctor Who isn’t going to be anything like that, but it shouldn’t be too surprising if it turns out to be something other than what we assume it is.
http://blogtorwho.blogspot.com/2010/05/hungry-earth-deleted-scene.html
Hungry Earth deleted scene the dr likes Rory!
Even though that’s not what happens, that doesn’t mean it’s not a writing/editing/filming blunder. Maybe they thought it made sense? I know I thought it felt like a massive blunder though, but I don’t think it’s a wibbly-wobbly timey-whimey thing.
As for his wristwatch, you could say the same thing about his bowtie, especially since people keep mentioning it every episode.
Now, the best evidence for “things-not-being-what-they-seem” is future Rory and Amy. Did Future Amy and Rory some how cause the Tardis to land in Whales instead of Rio? Was that really Rory and Amy? My guess is that it was really Rory and Amy, and it’s just a way to get Rory (and maybe Amy as well) to trust the Doctor. Rory has no problems calling the Doctor out on his BS,and I’m starting to like him more because of it. As you pointed out MAJ, the Doctor is pretty arrogant and selfish this season. Maybe his companions stop trusting him? Trust has been a large theme this season, too. The Doctor begs Amy to trust him for twenty-minutes in “The Eleventh Hour.” He tells her “it’s never been more important that she trust him” in “Flesh and Stone.” Amy’s going to have to take a leap of faith at some point, and seeing her future self might help her do it.
Indeed, I had not at first observed that Amy’s results looked different in the Silurian’s scan of her! That was observant! I doubt it will turn out to be significant, though, because of what the missing icon is.
The first icon looks like some sort of heartbeat monitor thing. The additional item that the other two people had that Amy lacked was just a zoomed-in view of the person’s open eye. Her eyes were shut while theirs were wide awake and open. It seems that there wouldn’t be much reason for the Silurians to focus on her eyes if she happened to be “asleep” or passed out.
Maybe it’s important, but I’d guess it is not… we’ll see next week! Such an exciting episode. I am LOVING this doctor and can’t wait!
They could have added more time to setup the cameras but I guess they wanted to make it seem like time was running out to build more excitement. Why not setup the video equipment in the TARDIS instead of the church? Did they want to use the sticking door as a plot device to build tension?
Why is Alaya able to talk to the other humans in the basement? The TARDIS gives Rory and the Doctor the ability to hear her but I assume she doesn’t speak English. I guess it allows her to give the speech about her death starting a war and knowing who will kill her.
Why even invade the surface when you can have dirt bio-engineered to swallow people? Why put up a force field over a group of six people or turn it black but still let in enough light to see? Why is there a meals-on-wheels van in a town made up of 5 people? Why is the kid worried about his headphones when the monsters are coming?
About the older Amy and Rory – when I first saw Ambrose I immediately thought she was the older Amy, and mentally congratulated the team on finding an actress who looks so much like Karen Gillan. Then it turned out she was a different character, so I expected Rory to say “Oh, I thought you were my fiancee!” at some point. But he didn’t – the resemblance is never addressed on screen. Which makes me think we’re meant to think Ambrose is the future Amy, or perhaps that she isn’t – it’s a triple, maybe quadruple bluff and… ow. My head hurts.
I think Future Amy and Rory might be another case of the Doctor seeing his own Chekhov’s gun before he’s set it up, kinda like Bill and Ted finding their plans put in place as they think of them.
If they’re outside the force field (and they’d know where/when to stand to make sure they were), they could use some gizmo the Doctor leaves them to help out. They might not be from ten years ahead, they might be from two days ahead (“Right, we’ve got out of that. Now I’m going to drop you off last week so you can get us out of that.”)
It’s a plot device I think they could logically use a lot of the time, although it would probably end up causing more trouble than it’s worth. (As in, why doesn’t he do that all the time?)
As for the too-short time limits, I think it’s just writers not thinking things through. (and it adds a sense of urgency for the viewer. Being told there’s an hour to prepare doesn’t seem as urgent, even if it passes in a one minute montage)
Unfortunately, I’m seeing a lot of that sort of directorial sloppiness this season. A lot of the issue is with shots not hooking up properly.
In the “Eleventh Hour” for instance, Camera cuts to a wide shot of the Atraxi flying away, and you can see the Doctor wincing and reaching into his breast pocket. Next shot is a closeup of him looking at the Atraxi, THEN wincing and reaching into his pocket.
Same in “Victory of the Daleks” The doctor is threatening the Daleks with an upheld Fruit Cream biscuit for he two shots surrounding the characters looking at him in the monitor standing with his arms down.
Maybe it’s just because my job is to look for these sort of continuity errors, but it’s not a good sign about the level of care going into a production.
Der Bruno Stroszek, when I first saw Ambrose, I thought it was Amy’s Mother. I thought maybe Amy wanted to go back and watch her mom from afar. Then they pointed out that they were in Wales, not Scotland, and I felt like a stupid American…
NickT, I’m glad you brought up Bill and Ted because I was thinking the same thing. I see future Amy and Rory as “Future US’s” coming back to tell current Amy and Rory to “listen to this dude Rufus, he’s knows what he’s talking about.”
Oh, and is it me but do those sunglasses look a lot like the modern 3D glasses? If they are supposed to be them, it’s a nice little nod to Doomsday.
I also think that you are reading way too deeply into the episodes. I agree with the above poster with the fact that you can’t show Amy’s eye when she’s unconsious.
I can’t see them pulling a “dream sequence” on the whole season. It’s too easy an answer and way too much of a cop out on Moffats part. I’m still leaning towards the cracks being caused by the crash of the Tardis. It’s the only time I can remember seeing one on it’s side.
The worrying thing to me was Amy and Rory coming back to visit because while some “timey wimey” things could happen if you look at some of Moffats other stories he doesn’t seem to use that excuse. Blink all has to happen for any of it to happen without any changes based on when things can happen and River’s book of spoilers seems to be considered difinitive.
Also a little question for others. Does the use of the Sonic Screwdriver bug anyone else? Almost every episode it’s gaining some new use. I mean a couple of times this episode he takes it out glances at it for a minute then puts it away. It may be sonic but it’s still a screwdriver it’s not a tricorder or a med kit or anything else. It seems to be becoming a crutch lately. We need something to happen, well lets use the screwdriver.
After just rewatching Vampires of Venice I am actually leaning more towards the whole-series-a-dream thing than I was. I think the Doctor’s still regenerating and this is some kind of regeneration nightmare (in which case when it’s over he’d be even more bonkers). There’s just too many little things that keep happening.
If it isn’t a dream sequence, then Moffat and his other exec producers need to take a tighter hold of the reins and get rid of the sloppiness. I can excuse my emotions being played with for 13 episodes. I can’t excuse impossible time sequences, aka the set-up in this one, because of bad writing, directing or editing. Say what you like about the RTD era, it was largely mistake-free.
I really enjoyed this episode, and was somehow surprised to enjoy it, maybe because I’d seen a couple of preview reviews online that weren’t so enthusiastic. The time issues aside I thought it was well-acted, looked gorgeous, nice to see Wales being Wales for a change, and I loved Meera Syal’s character falling for the Doctor as she did.
I liked the moment after Amy falls into the earth when he stands over the ground pointing the screwdriver at the hole, as if maybe, just maybe that would work. It is funny, though, that he can use it to heal Amy’s neck in one episode, but can’t use it on wood in another.
Totally unrelated, but did anyone else love the makeup in this episode? I thought it was really well done. I know some complained it wasn’t scary enough or that it was too different from the Original Silurians, but I liked it.
Dave asked:
It’s a pretty effective tricorder. Remember Christopher Eccleston scanning the zombie masked people in the hospital in The Empty Child? It fixes *barbed wire* in that story, too.
Russell T. Davies said a few times that the sonic is just a way to deal with the little squiggly things – like getting through doors. An easy way to get past the boring bits. Who wants to spend time trying to figure out how to escape *every* prison? He said the same thing about the psychic paper.
I also think the overuse is a bit of a Matt thing. He carries the thing around all the time, even when he’s not on set, and pulls it out to play with it. He’s broken a few copies already.
But that’s half the fun! :->
The best story I’ve heard about how much he (the actor) loves the sonic screwdriver is that, before the show debuted in the U.K., he was flying somewhere to promote the show, and he got stopped at airport security somewhere in England because they were suspicious about it. Smith apparently had to pull out promo material from the show to prove that he was the actor playing the Doctor and that the thing was just a prop.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who thinks the ring on the TARDIS console is a Chekhov’s gun just waiting to go off.
re: the sonic screwdriver.
My much more devoted Whovian friend told me a while ago that the earlier writers of Doctor Who made him lose the sonic screwdriver for some time – effectively banning writers from using it as the cheap get out of jail free card it often ends up being.
From the sonic screwdriver entry in wikipedia:
It’s always pissed me off and I was temporarily excited when the thing died in ep 1 – only to be frustrated when he got a new one.
@Alli I also loved the Silurian makeup! In fact, this was the first episode this season that I really liked an alien character design. I also really liked the design of the underground city. All around this was a very visually pleasant episode. That was one good thing about RTD: he really made things very nice, visually. I haven’t warmed to the spiky fish teeth or fish as aliens theme going on this season. We’ve had three aliens that were fish (two who had spiky teeth in human form), and two that were eyeballs. And a reused alien from RTD, the Weeping Angels (who didn’t weep much). Pretty unimaginative.
I also agree with the blog author that I’d love Nasreen to be a companion; I found myself wishing she’d replace Amy, even though Amy is such great eye candy. Amy’s got a bad case of the snarkies, it gets tiresome. It seems to be a common affliction since the New Who started. It was at its worst with the execrable Donna Noble. At least the actress playing Nasreen can deliver those kinds of lines without being obnoxious, unlike Amy, who comes across as a petulant, self-absorbed ten year old.
Also agree that the engagement ring left on the Tardis dashboard must be significant, and that there has to be more to the “future Amy and Rory” waving than was let on. Otherwise why bother to put it in at all?
I’m already flashing up to that “Planet of the Dead” episode Tennant did with Michelle Ryan and how a seemingly insignificant artifact proved to the one thing the Doctor needed to save the day.
Anyone else guessing that the climax of the next episode will either involve the need for a diamond cut in a certain pattern or a piece of gold in a particular shape or some other requirement that that particular ring just happens to fill?
Then again I could be wrong…
Ahem. I meant, of course, “flashing back.” See what happens when you type in a hurry?…
Just a pre-warning for the next episode – the last 10 minutes or so are Utopia level intense. To say anymore would be to spoiler it, but have a stiff drink ready.
I can see it now.
SPOILER
Midway through “Cold Blood,” Rory accidentally reaches into the wrong pocket and pulls out an old-fashioned pocket watch that he has never seen before.
On an impulse, he opens it and then he…
I have a feeling that either Rory of Amy is going to be swallowed by the crack in time. The ring would then serve as a reminder that someone is missing that those who remain behind do not remember.
I think there are probably some significant clues in The Beast Below that we’re not aware of yet. Seeing how a big part of that episode has to do with memory, or rather lost memories, and that’s been a recurring theme this season. Amy doesn’t remember the Daleks. The crack removes all memories of the person it swallows. And in that scene in Flesh & Bone, in the forest (yes, that scene), the Doctor stresses that it’s not what he told Amy when she was 7 that was important, it was that she remember.
The resolution to this season’s story in some way is going to involve “unerasing” someone that gets swallowed by the crack, I imagine. I think it would be awesome if Moffatt chose to “reintroduce” a new villain that way at the same time, someone that all of us—Doctor, viewers, historians of DW—have forgotten.
And who are you that you know this, teganj?