Howling:5 things to look for: The countdown

Please see the original thread Forum:5 Things to look for in Series 5 and the summary thread Forum:5 things to look for: Overall.

This was originally proposed in another thread (actually, I think first on the talk page for an article), and added by me (anonymous) to the original thread.

This one is a bit more meta than the others. There's a countdown, starting from 11, going down 1/episode (not 1/story), which means it'll reach 0 in time for part 1 of the finale. The numbers might always be in characters' names, although this isn't yet clear. (Could the finale then involve the return of Prisoner 0?)

Also, each episode might have a countdown within it.

--Falcotron 02:05, April 28, 2010 (UTC)
 * The Eleventh Hour: The 11th Doctor. There are also other 11s, even in the name of the episode. There's 20 minutes to save the world.
 * The Beast Below: The main guest star is Liz 10. Any good countdowns within the episode?
 * Victory of the Daleks: Can't think of a 9 name. But an unsigned poster pointed out there were 9 barrage balloons in the first scene, and fewer in each one, although an anon-IP poster says there were only 7. That same anon-IP poster pointed out that there's a clock with both hands on the IX. There's also an obvious countdown in the episode, the colorwheel in Bracewell's chest (and on the Dalek saucer) counting down to him kerploding.
 * The Time of Angels: Father Octavian's name means "8th". No obvious countdowns that anyone's spotted yet, short of the "10 little Indians" way the Clerics are picked off 1 by 1.
 * Flesh and Stone: No 7 name yet, but the Digital Spy teasers have Amy counting down from 7, which is both a 7 and a countdown in one.

Adding others, some have been previously mentioned ...

The Eleventh Hour, countdown on clock as the TARDIS takes off from 12 ish, Rory's badge date is 20 years out (and yes despite Moffat I still think it wasn't a production mistake!)

The Beast Below, Liz 10's reign also lasts 10 years each time before repeating, Timmy says about walking down 20 decks to London, Amy's memory is wiped of 20 minutes, at the end as the TARDIS dematerialises there is a 20 mph road sign RHS of TARDIS (@ 40.30), there is a countdown of floors in Timmy's vator from floor 148 to 000

Victory of the Daleks How many squadron numbers were mentioned?, there are 12 planes when Bracewell looks through binoculars all destroyed by the daleks but 1 at a time

The Time of Angels, there is a countdown device which ends at 0 (on lower RHS of picture) and opens the door where River escapes, video timer is set at 12 minutes ish on the home box security playback video clip of River and at 11 minutes and 20ish seconds on the time loop video clip of the angel fron the Byzantium, River's coordinates are triple-7, 5, /, 3, 4, 9 by 10, 0, 12, /, acorn

Flesh and Stone, the teaser about a significant date could be 7 7 2010 from design art http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/dw/episodes/b00s8dwd/galleries/design_art

Vampires of Venice trailers etc show 5 vampire ladies or is it really 6 ? Check about 36 seconds on the series trailer as the 5 are coming towards the Doctor he turns round and there is another woman behind him but it might be Amy but it's too quick

Amy's Choice is apparantly set 5 years after

The Lodger episode, the Doctor is stranded for 4 days but is to late in the series as ep 11 86.26.137.154 09:31, April 28, 2010 (UTC)

Lots of good info! I'll have to remember to come back here for the "20s" thread. (I forget whose theory that was, but someone thinks that the "20 minutes" and the number 20 in general might be one of the 5 things to watch for.) --Falcotron 09:59, April 28, 2010 (UTC)

Here's the clock with both hands on the IX from VotD. As the anon-IP poster says in the original thread, the lighting and position make it very noticeable.

http://i95.photobucket.com/albums/l129/MurasamEdge/vlcsnap-2010-04-28-22h39m46s113.png

--Falcotron 14:08, April 28, 2010 (UTC)

First, for another non-9 in VotD: Two people in RL told me that the Spitfire was the F9/300. But they're wrong.
 * The initial spec was called "F7/30", the design submitted was called "Type 300", and the final contract called it the "F10/35". The name "F9" was not attached to any spec ever published.
 * On the rare occasions when the RAF needs to number them, they call it an F10.
 * And, before you ask, the Mk IX was not the main model during the Blitz; that was the Mark Vb. The IX was built later, because the Vb wasn't fast enough to dogfight the new German fighters, and the VII and VIII were taking too long to build, so they needed something they could retrofit the old V and III models into.

Now, on to Flesh and Stone.

There are multiple countdowns. I think the first is Octavian's "On my count... God be with us all... 3, 2, 1, fire!"

The big one is of course Amy's countdown, which they talk about explicitly. Here's the lines:


 * Doctor: "4 times" (for turning the wheel). Amy: "10".
 * Doctor: "5 minutes max" (how long they have). Amy: "9".
 * Doctor: "... if we're lucky, an escape route". Amy: "8".
 * Doctor: "Have I impressed you yet, Amy Pond?" Amy: "7".
 * Doctor: "I made him say comfy chairs". Amy: "6".
 * Angel Bob: "There's something in her eye." Doctor: "What's in her eye?" Angel Bob: "We are". Amy: "What's he talking about? Doctor, I'm 5! I mean 5. Fine!"

After that, they start talking about the countdown, and continue throughout the episode, even saying things like, "You've used up your countdown."

However, unlike the cracks, they don't call out the implicit cross-episode countdown in peoples' names (or the fact that every episode has a countdown). I think that may still turn out to be something important that the Doctor just hasn't noticed yet. Except that I didn't see any significant 7s, and nobody had a 7-based name.

A few people have mentioned the 4-10-5-9 thing, but I think that's just a coincidence, one that Moffat may not have even noticed. The fact that the first two are responses to numbers, that's significant, but not so much what numbers they are. There's nothing that sounds remotely like 6, 7, 8, or 9 before the next 4. What there is, in every case, is a reasonable opportunity for a slip of the tongue. Whether the Angel is trying to get her to say the numbers (to scare her and everyone else around her), or her mind is trying to slip them past the Angel (as a warning), I'm not sure, but look at them:

Skipping the episode preview and the opening credits, it's precisely seven minutes to the moment Amy says 7. My crazy theories, they only get crazier. Since we only have one fatality (who is in fact part of the last countdown), this episode - I wouldn't say the other four died exactly - where we were left with eight, that means we have seven.
 * Trying to repeat the number 4, she says 10 instead, without consciously realizing it.
 * Obviously worried about 5 minutes, she says 9, but when called on it thinks she just repeated the 5.
 * Distracted, worried, and trying to think of something to say, comes up with nothing, and then blurts out 8.
 * While trying to come up with a sarcastic but still appreciative answer, she says 7.
 * In the middle of giggling, she says 6.
 * While trying to say "fine" she slips up and says 5, notices this, tries again and says it again, and then gets it right. --Falcotron 07:26, May 3, 2010 (UTC)

122.49.159.198 13:46, May 3, 2010 (UTC)


 * Well, we're only "left with" 7 by counting the 4 who don't exist and have never existed, and it's pretty hard to count people who never existed.


 * The 7 minutes thing is interesting. I wouldn't quite put it past Moffat to throw something like that in as a clue, or as a red herring, for the insane fans like us. But think of how hard it would be to guarantee that it works out that way. When you're writing the script, you only have the vaguest idea of how it'll play out as far as timing. You really don't know for sure what second anything happens until you finish the final edit, and you'd have to do a lot of tweaking to get it right. Can you imagine deciding, "Let's use the other take for scene 4, because it's 3 seconds longer, but trim off 1 second from the reaction shot, and that'll put Amy's 7 at exactly 07:00"? --Falcotron 15:13, May 3, 2010 (UTC)