Doctor Who Club of Australia

charlie · Posted: Thu Dec 28, 2006 8:02 pm Post subject: Trekkie Devils

I am convinced that there is a trekkie working on Doctor Who. At least in the second season anyway. All throughout tennants time star trek references keep popping up. Sometimes very vague, other times very obvious. I can only think of three examples right now;

Girl in the fireplace the vulcan mind meld with the hand signal (but timelords have always had psychic abilities)
fear her the doctor does the hand signal again
doomsday one of the daleks is named Khan and one of the star trek movies is Wrath of Khan.

and I remember the word vulcan popping up a few times but vulcan is used all over scifi so probably not a reference. However it does make one wonder.

What do YOU think of this theory?

SharazJek · Joined: 12 Aug 2005 Posts: 892 Location: Hobart, Tasmania

Sulp Niar · Posted: Sat Dec 30, 2006 11:39 am Post subject:

Star Trek is referenced, but I'm not sure if there's a fan... certainly not Steven Moffatt, whose script did contain the Spock stuff but also, in early drafts, contained a line that basically said "Doctor Who is better than Star Trek".

Ickabod · Joined: 26 Jun 2005 Posts: 505 Location: far far away

which of course it is Wink

Tom N. · Joined: 07 Jul 2005 Posts: 144 Location: Sydney, NSW

Davesake · Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 3:36 pm Post subject:

If you're really bored on the weekend and you're listening to the comentary on the empty child, you'll hear that steven moffat originally wrote somehting that goes a little like this.

Jack: Pleased to meet you Mr Spock
Doctor: Spock?
Rose: Well i had to tell him something, you haven't exactly got a name, i mean, the doctor? Doctror Who?
Doctor: I prefer Doctor Who to Star Trek.

Sulp Niar · Posted: Mon Jan 22, 2007 7:10 pm Post subject:

Yes! That's the one I was talking about. Well researched, Davesake.

Martin Dunne · Joined: 21 Feb 2006 Posts: 31 Location: Adelaide, Australia

Both are tromped by the Romans' use of the name for their god of fire, and Le Verrier's proposed inter-Mercury planet (the need for which vanishes when astronomers stopped using the Newtonian model to predict orbits). Trek didn't debut on BBC until July 1969, as the replacement for Who following season six.

Martin Dunne · Joined: 21 Feb 2006 Posts: 31 Location: Adelaide, Australia

I'll expand on the astronomical point as it's most relevant to this board. With classical or Newtonian physics Mercury's orbital perturbations (despite being the most nearly circular of the Solar planets) suggest interference, thus Vulcan. However with General Relativity it becomes apparent that Mercury's changes of precession at perihelion are due to the sun's distortion of space.
So Mercury is traveling though space/time faster than us.

Greg · Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 4:28 pm Post subject:

I've been looking back for this, but have failed to find it...

Some short time after it was announced that RTD would be producing and writing teh new Who, an interview with him appeared. In it, he said something like:

When I was kid, Star Trek fans used to make fun of me and my friends because we liked Doctor Who. Now me and my friends are making TV, and where are the Star Trek fans? Working in restaurants and serving us food!

Panecea · Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 5:32 pm Post subject:

Tut, Tut Mr. Davies... you above anyone else (considering your childhood experiences) should know better.