Year of Hell thought...

[unfeathered]

I've just worked it out. The reason there (apparently) weren't any escape attempts from the gang on the Valiant for a whole year until the very day before the Master's launch day is that they weren't trying to escape. The Doctor had told Martha to 'use the countdown' - because she needed time to spread the word, and one specific moment for everyone to think of the Doctor - and until then, or nearly then, there was absolutely no point in trying to bring down the Master.

Probably this was blindingly obvious to everyone else and I'm just being really slow.

Mind you, they could have thrown in a few 'fake' attempted escapes, to keep the Master occupied.

Comments

[unfeathered]

OK... Maybe you're not missing anything, and I am. It's all about interpreting the information we were given on the tv and we really weren't given much to go on!

It's just - what we saw in LotTL was obviously the first time they'd managed to get the screwdriver, otherwise the Doctor would have known only the Master could use it. And honestly, it can't have been that hard to get it off him, so I assume that was the first time they'd tried.

And if they hadn't tried before to get the screwdriver, what on earth did they try? How could they possibly have got anywhere without disarming the Master?

[http://users.livejournal.com/_medley_/]

And if they hadn't tried before to get the screwdriver, what on earth did they try? How could they possibly have got anywhere without disarming the Master?

Now that's a very good point. I hadn't looked at it that way. Hmmm. So now I'm wondering what the *point* of that little exercise was. Why wait almost a year, almost to the countdown, but not *that* close, and then try to escape? Or look like you're trying to escape. I just assumed they'd been doing stuff like that off and on, as a distraction if nothing else.

[unfeathered]

The whole problem, really, is the the 'One year later' thing. All the things in the last episode - the apparently first escape attempt, Jack in chains, the Doctor still old, etc. - would have been far more convincing if it had just been 'one month later'.

Obviously, they wanted to show them in the episode, not just have them referred to as having happened, but the idea that nothing happened all year and then suddenly it all happened all at once just doesn't work, for me.

I just wish they'd actually sat down and thought about those episodes a bit more before writing/shooting/airing them.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_medley_/]

I have this feeling that it was originally written to be a shorter time period, and then somebody pointed out that Martha needed more time to spread her message, and they said, "Oh, fine, make it a year then," and didn't think any more about it.

[unfeathered]

Yeah, that sounds about right. Bloomin' annoying, though.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_medley_/]

Yes! Hee--love that icon.