Howling:What do you get when you multiply 6 by 9?

When last season had the 50-foot-high letters on the oldest cliff face in the universe, that just seemed like a throwaway reference. But now, (35 minutes into Let's Kill Hitler) we learn that the Silence are devoted to stopping anyone from discovering the Question (the first question, the oldest question in the universe, hidden in plain sight). In HHGTTG, if anyone discovered the Ultimate Question, the entire universe would vanish, to be replaced by something even more bizarre. In Doctor Who, if anyone asks the Question, Silence Will Fall. --173.228.85.35 02:05, August 28, 2011 (UTC)

Douglas Adams worked on DW before he wrote HHGTTG. Arthur Dent was referred to in The Christmas Invasion. The title of Series 3, Episode 7 was 42. It shouldn't be a huge surprise if other similarities crop up. --2.96.17.180 19:37, August 28, 2011 (UTC)


 * Actually, he worked on them mostly at the same time. (He was writing his first Who episode when the BBC picked up the first HHG radio play.)


 * Yes, there are lots of references to HHGTTG in both the classic series and the new (and in the novels). And, confusingly, some of them imply that the HHGTTG universe is the same as the Whoniverse (Oolon Colluphid wrote at least one of the same books, Lazlar Lyricon makes custom spaceships, Arthur Dent is a real person, etc.), while others imply that the HHGTTG exists as fiction in the Whoniverse (the 7th Doctor quotes a line out of the first novel, Anji's boyfriend Dave was waiting his whole life for the movie to get made, the 6th Doctor and Iris Wildthyme knew Douglas Adams, etc.). Of course Remembrance of the Daleks implies that the Doctor Who series itself seems to exist in the Whoniverse, so maybe they're both true…


 * But anyway, the question is, if this an intentional borrowing or reference, does that give us any clues to the finale of this season's arc? Connecting one of the major plot points of this season to one of the major plot points of the HHG novels is different from mentioning a Lazlar Lyricon spaceship. I don't think we're going to learn that Earth was a custom planet built for hyperdimensional mice, but the idea that the Question is locked in Amy's or Melody's mind doesn't seem too implausible. --173.228.85.35 22:32, August 28, 2011 (UTC)


 * Actually, as a Jew, I always thought the real question was "Why not?" It stumps a lot of people. Boblipton 23:26, August 28, 2011 (UTC)
 * Man, I'd hate to be one of your kids. "Why is it that on all other nights, we eat either unleavened or leavened bread, but tonight we eat only unleavened?" "Why not?" "Um… does this mean I don't have to go to temple anymore?" "Sure, once you can explain why not, you can stop going to temple." --173.228.85.35 23:42, August 28, 2011 (UTC)
 * And all the lemmas. Boblipton 00:14, August 29, 2011 (UTC)
 * what if the question is "doctor who?" Imamadmad 06:24, August 29, 2011 (UTC)
 * As stated in "the Rebel Flesh", the question is Why? 212.159.18.224 07:54, August 29, 2011 (UTC)
 * Maybe, or it could be "What the hell was that big banging noise ?" 187.113.74.34 10:55, August 29, 2011 (UTC)
 * or "when will you let me out of this cupboard?" Imamadmad 11:09, August 29, 2011 (UTC)
 * Come to think of it, the Doctor has said, 'The question is, why?' many times, not just in The Rebel Flesh. In fact, I think earlier Doctors (especially the 3rd) said it far more often than the modern ones. Maybe he asked it one too many times, and that's why silence fell in 1989. In which case, I'm rooting for the guys with the Scream faces and the lightning fingers. --173.228.85.35 16:29, August 29, 2011 (UTC)
 * Possibly the question is: "Who does this Steven Moffat think he is, anyway?" --2.101.48.209 01:41, September 2, 2011 (UTC)
 * i think the answer to that question is "head writer of doctor who". Imamadmad 07:15, September 2, 2011 (UTC)
 * No, it's worse than that, he thinks he's the executive producer and show-runner. --173.228.85.35 07:56, September 2, 2011 (UTC)
 * well, isn't he? Imamadmad 08:00, September 2, 2011 (UTC)
 * Well, he says so, but that's not in-universe, so it's not canon. :P
 * Anyway, the more I think about it, the more I like the idea that the Question is locked in Melody's head, and the Silence accidentally created the exact thing they most feared. It would kind of turn HHGTTG on its head (where the question being locked in Arthur's head was exactly what the mice wanted). However, there's one huge problem with this: it's exactly the same ironic twist that Moffat used last season, where the Alliance, by trying to stop the Doctor from destroying the universe, actually (apparently) caused that destruction. --173.228.85.35 08:38, September 2, 2011 (UTC)
 * Variants of that twist have been used before. In Day of the Daleks, for example, the freedom fighters who went back in time to assassinate Styles before he could blow up the peace conference were, in fact, the ones who caused the explosion (Styles was a pompous idiot but never the villain they thought he was) -- as the Doctor told them, they didn't change history, they became part of it -- and it was the Doctor's intervention that got the delegates out of the house so that history (as the freedom fighters knew it) really was changed. A Good Man Goes to War suggests the possibility of a similar situation. Kovarian spoke of an "endless bitter war" against the Doctor but the Doctor knew nothing of that war. It's possible that what started the war was Kovarian's attempts to win it -- she kidnapped the pregnant Amy to turn Melody into a war-winning weapon and the Doctor went to war to get Amy and Melody back. It wouldn't (I think) be a great problem if this same "ironic twist" recurred. The Silence had something to do with the events of Series 5. Perhaps the Silence (and their associates) are repeatedly making the same mistake -- causing the events they're trying to prevent -- and the Doctor will eventually find a way either to stop them making that mistake or to modify the consequences of their actions, as he did in Day of the Daleks. People, especially fanatical people, do have a tendency to keep on pig-headedly repeating the same mistakes: "This had disastrous results, the last twenty times we tried it, but it'll work, this time." --89.241.66.115 16:00, September 2, 2011 (UTC)
 * To be fair, if you were going to hide a question in plain, sight, where else would you put it but the title of the series? So many people have asked the question throughout history, when the question is finally answered and The Doctor tells Melody Pond his name (when they get married), everyone will be so eager to hear the answer, silence will fall. (Plus, Mofatt probably want to stun everyone into silence with his so-called 'mind-blowing' cliffhangers).
 * 86.160.74.7 21:09, September 3, 2011 (UTC)
 * 89, I realize that The Pandorica Opens isn't the only time in Doctor Who history that this twist has been used, and you're right that it could easily be in character for the Silence. But I still think Moffat would want to avoid using it for his two season finales. Besides, as much as I like the idea, I generally expect Moffat to come up with ideas better than mine, not identical to them. --173.228.85.35 03:47, September 4, 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm sure we all hope, clever as we are, that he will.Boblipton 03:55, September 4, 2011 (UTC)
 * Actually, some fans seem to believe it's impossible that he'll be cleverer than them, and get angry and defensive when he proves them wrong… Anyway, the question for this thread is whether Moffat is cleverer than DNA, which is a bit more of an open question. (At least we know he's better with deadlines than DNA was…) --173.228.85.35 04:19, September 4, 2011 (UTC)
 * Well my question is why would this make the tardis explode and why does the Ghosting lines keep coming up? Cory Jaynes 22:08, September 4, 2011 (UTC)
 * Variants of that twist have been used before. In Day of the Daleks, for example, the freedom fighters who went back in time to assassinate Styles before he could blow up the peace conference were, in fact, the ones who caused the explosion (Styles was a pompous idiot but never the villain they thought he was) -- as the Doctor told them, they didn't change history, they became part of it -- and it was the Doctor's intervention that got the delegates out of the house so that history (as the freedom fighters knew it) really was changed. A Good Man Goes to War suggests the possibility of a similar situation. Kovarian spoke of an "endless bitter war" against the Doctor but the Doctor knew nothing of that war. It's possible that what started the war was Kovarian's attempts to win it -- she kidnapped the pregnant Amy to turn Melody into a war-winning weapon and the Doctor went to war to get Amy and Melody back. It wouldn't (I think) be a great problem if this same "ironic twist" recurred. The Silence had something to do with the events of Series 5. Perhaps the Silence (and their associates) are repeatedly making the same mistake -- causing the events they're trying to prevent -- and the Doctor will eventually find a way either to stop them making that mistake or to modify the consequences of their actions, as he did in Day of the Daleks. People, especially fanatical people, do have a tendency to keep on pig-headedly repeating the same mistakes: "This had disastrous results, the last twenty times we tried it, but it'll work, this time." --89.241.66.115 16:00, September 2, 2011 (UTC)
 * To be fair, if you were going to hide a question in plain, sight, where else would you put it but the title of the series? So many people have asked the question throughout history, when the question is finally answered and The Doctor tells Melody Pond his name (when they get married), everyone will be so eager to hear the answer, silence will fall. (Plus, Mofatt probably want to stun everyone into silence with his so-called 'mind-blowing' cliffhangers).
 * 86.160.74.7 21:09, September 3, 2011 (UTC)
 * 89, I realize that The Pandorica Opens isn't the only time in Doctor Who history that this twist has been used, and you're right that it could easily be in character for the Silence. But I still think Moffat would want to avoid using it for his two season finales. Besides, as much as I like the idea, I generally expect Moffat to come up with ideas better than mine, not identical to them. --173.228.85.35 03:47, September 4, 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm sure we all hope, clever as we are, that he will.Boblipton 03:55, September 4, 2011 (UTC)
 * Actually, some fans seem to believe it's impossible that he'll be cleverer than them, and get angry and defensive when he proves them wrong… Anyway, the question for this thread is whether Moffat is cleverer than DNA, which is a bit more of an open question. (At least we know he's better with deadlines than DNA was…) --173.228.85.35 04:19, September 4, 2011 (UTC)
 * Well my question is why would this make the tardis explode and why does the Ghosting lines keep coming up? Cory Jaynes 22:08, September 4, 2011 (UTC)
 * I'm sure we all hope, clever as we are, that he will.Boblipton 03:55, September 4, 2011 (UTC)
 * Actually, some fans seem to believe it's impossible that he'll be cleverer than them, and get angry and defensive when he proves them wrong… Anyway, the question for this thread is whether Moffat is cleverer than DNA, which is a bit more of an open question. (At least we know he's better with deadlines than DNA was…) --173.228.85.35 04:19, September 4, 2011 (UTC)
 * Well my question is why would this make the tardis explode and why does the Ghosting lines keep coming up? Cory Jaynes 22:08, September 4, 2011 (UTC)