Howling:5 things to look for: "There's something..."

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 by me (anonymously) in Michael Downey's original thread on "5 things to look for". This might not be one of the 5 things; it could be secondary to something else. It's also a little more subtle and meta than the others.

In each episode, there's a significant line beginning with "There's something", always relating to something wrong in a way that's significant to that episode.


 * The Eleventh Hour: "There's something I'm missing... in the corner of my eye." And the episode has multiple other lines referening to people not being able to notice things they've seen (the bit where Amy doesn't notice the 6th door, the bit where the Doctor "saw it, and I missed it" about Rory, etc.). People not noticing things is a significant theme in the episode, and the Doctor actually mentions that people never notice things.
 * The Beast Below: I don't have a copy of this episode. I think the line was "There's something I'm forgetting", but I could be wrong. If I'm right, forgetting is the whole point of the episode.
 * Victory of the Daleks: "There's something we've forgotten. Or, rather, you have. You didn't know them, Amy." The episode has multiple other references to people's memory not being right (the first bit about Amy not knowing the Daleks earlier on, and of course the central plot point about the Daleks pretending not to remember the Doctor, not to mention Bracewell remembering things that actually didn't happen to him).
 * The Time of Angels: "There's something wrong, but I don't know what it is." The Doctor repeating and rephrasing River Song, this time. The museum is wrong about a bunch of things, there's something wrong with the book about the Angels, and of course the River Song spoilers thing. But, unlike the first three episodes, this is all expected stuff, people being wrong about history, not something more meaningful. Except for the central plot device, with the Angels only having one head, that is.
 * Flesh and Stone: "There's something I've... missed" (and the pause is where the Doctor sees the crack). This time, they play with the line, and talk about it explicitly. Angel Bob says, "There's something in her eye." Later, Angel Bob says, "You haven't noticed yet, sir. The Doctor in the TARDIS hasn't noticed." Octavian starts, "Doctor--" and the Doctor cuts him off, saying, "No! Wait! There's something I've... missed." And then they start talking about it explicitly. People and events (and ducks) are missing from history. And the Doctor missed the reason.

It's hard to imagine that this could just be a coincidence. But it could be something a meaningless little inside joke, or an intentional red herring--hell, maybe Moffat even saw fans talking about it and wrote it into the later episodes. --Falcotron 08:10, May 3, 2010 (UTC)

Another thought: In TEH, "The Doctor in the TARDIS doesn't know" and "There's something I'm missing" (both present tense); in FaS, "The Doctor in the TARDIS hasn't noticed" and "There's something I've missed" (both past participles). (Not that I think Moffat is diagramming his sentences or anything, just that it's a callback to the first episode. The tenses are just because one was introducing the series, while the other is connecting up all kinds of things from the last 5 weeks.) --Falcotron 08:28, May 3, 2010 (UTC)


 * Damn, my computer crashed while I was skimming through TBB looking for the line, and I hadn't saved the text file full of notes, so... details later but anyway, the line definitely appears in AC as well. --Falcotron 09:46, May 18, 2010 (UTC)

OK, here goes:


 * The Beast Below: "There's something they're afraid of." Fear isn't as good a theme as forgetting for the episode, but it still works.
 * Amy's Choice: "There's something here that doesn't make sense" (referring to everyone living to their 90s). And things nothing making sense--well, they're in a dream, which is the whole point of the episode.
 * The Hungry Earth: Nothing. Lots of lines about things being wrong, but nothing even close to the "there's something" pattern. --Falcotron 08:59, May 23, 2010 (UTC)


 * Vincent and the Doctor: "There's something not right, but I can't put my finger on it." Right before Vincent spots the alien and the Doctor heads into the church. I'm not sure how this fits into the theme of the episode. --Falcotron 23:51, June 5, 2010 (UTC)


 * Both The Hungry Earth and Cold Blood have lines that fit the pattern ("There's something out there" and "There's something I've got to do"), but neither one is the same kind of line, and neither is spoken by the Doctor. --Falcotron 23:54, June 5, 2010 (UTC)

Interesting, especially considering the previous series meme: "There's something on your back!" Agonaga 04:12, June 7, 2010 (UTC)


 * Well, this was one that I really liked a lot early on, but as the season goes on I think it's just more "the way 11 talks" than a plot hint. It fits in with his constantly saying he's stupid, telling himself to think, etc. But I still keep watching for the one example every episode, and most of them do have exactly one.... --Falcotron 04:31, June 7, 2010 (UTC)

I can actually imagine the "There's something..." meme and the perception filter meme being one and the same. "There's something [important that someone isn't aware of]" is the whole definition of what perception filters do. Agonaga 04:43, June 7, 2010 (UTC)


 * Maybe this even ties in with the Hitchhikers Guide references, and someone's get a Somebody Else's Problem field, which is like a perception filter but even better--even if people do notice it, they assume it's somebody else's problem and ignore it. :) More seriously, yeah, I can definitely see the connection you're talking about. And that makes this broader than just that one sentence per episode--all of the many instances where the Doctor isn't getting something and uses different sentences about it fit in. --Falcotron 23:29, June 8, 2010 (UTC)


 * Ep 1: Full of perception filters. Ep 2: Forgetting about the beast. Ep 3: Everything the Daleks did. ("Deception is second nature to you!") Ep 4/5: Natural p.f.'s on the Angels, not knowing all the statues were Angels. Ep 6: Natural aversion to seeing the truth. Ep 7: The whole thing, incl. the Dream Lord's origin seeming "obvious" to the Doctor but not Rory & Amy. Ep 8-9: Amy can't remember Rory at the end. Ep 10: Couldn't see the Space Cockatrice. Agonaga 00:25, June 9, 2010 (UTC) (Want auto sig :