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)