Howling:Interesting questions from The Time of Angels


 * The Angels convince Amy that her hand has turned to stone. Karen Gillan previously play the Soothsayer in Fires of Pompeii, who was turning to stone, beginning with her hand. Since the show has previously connected up separate characters played by the same actor in various ways (e.g., Gwyneth/Gwen) this may not just be a throwaway.
 * The 11th Doctor has no problems giving salutes, being referred to as "the equivalent of an army", being around people with rifles, and firing a gun. This implies that he's come to terms with his past as a soldier (in the LGTW). However, he hates being called "Sir", which implies that he's an enlisted man, probably something like the Gallifreyan equivalent of a Special Forces Commando.
 * The whole thing about images brings up interesting questions about quantum locking. The tricky thing about the observer problem in (Copenhagen Interpretation) quantum mechanics is, what counts as an observation? Taking a recording and then later observing that recording seems to count, as the Angel was locked while being recorded. But, what if no one had ever observed that recording? That brings up all kinds of interesting Timey-Wimey stuff: whether or not the Angel is locked depends on events that will happen in the future, on whether or not someone later observes the recording. If the future is in flux, then it's not actually determinate at any time whether the Angel is locked. (In fact, all of this stuff is problematic in CI QM in general, which is why people have been so interested in other interpretations that don't have any special place for observers in the first place.)
 * What religion are the Clerics? From the titles, you'd expect Anglican or Catholic--but they never mention Jesus, even when talking about praying, and they have no Christian symbols anywhere on their uniforms or equipment. While the name "Christian" is apparently a sacred name to them, so is "Octavian"--most famously connected to the first Emperor of Rome (who declared himself a God) and an Antipope, and one that's been a dead name for so many centuries that the idea of a future saint by that name seems unlikely. (So is "Bob", but, while that's originally a pre-Christian name, it's also the name of five Catholic saints. And besides, it doesn't seem plausible that they're SubGenii or anything.) I think Moffat was explicitly leaving their religion unspecified.
 * There's something Douglas-Adamsy about the idea of asking an army of clerics to keep watching them, but I can't pinpoint what it is that makes me think that. However, the very DNA-ish stuff about what you can do with two heads makes me think that there is something here too, and they're both probably intentional homage to DNA (but probably nothing more meaningful than that). --Falcotron 10:23, April 25, 2010 (UTC)