Listen Review

There has been some debate as to whether there was actually a monster in this episode. If there was something in the TARDIS, it could easily have been a Silent. The Doctor would have seen the Silent pick up the chalk and write, but then immediately forgotten about it. It's the same with the guy in the children's home and the TV/coffee. Remember in series 6 when the Silence were in control of that home where Melody lived? It seems eerily similar.

One question I have, and I'll chalk this up to a continuity error on the part of the BBC, is why was Orson wearing a space suit from Sanctuary Base 6. If you don't remember SB6 is the space base on the planetoid in orbit around a black hole that was seen in The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit. The exact time period those episodes took place in isn't given, but based on the Ood involvement, it can't be any earlier than the 40th century. The Doctor said Orson was from 100 years in Clara's future, so there's no way he could have gotten a space suit from that time period. Also, in The Waters of Mars (which takes place in 2059) Steffi Ehrlich said she had "never seen anything like it" in reference to the Doctor's space suit that he got from SB6.

So this episode was technically a multi-Doctor story what with appearance of the first Doctor as a child. Now if you're wondering if this really was a younger version of William Hartnell's Doctor, in The Five Doctors, Peter Davison's Doctor confirms that he is indeed the fifth. Also, in either The Three Doctors or The Five Doctors (I forget which) William Hartnell's Doctor claims that he is the original. However, in The Lodger, Matt Smith's Doctor claims to be on his eleventh face, so this may not stop Steven Moffat. The thing is, creating an extra past Doctor is only a good trick once. Moffat would probably face a lot of criticism if he tried to pull it again.

Now, the Doctor seems to think that Orson had some connection to Clara's life. Before anyone goes saying he's Clara and Danny's great-grandchild, I just want to point out that <SPOILER>Danny gets turned into a Cyberman in the finale</SPOILER>. The connection is more likely through the toy soldier and Clara's interaction with it earlier in the episode. However, I may just be saying this because I refuse to ship Clara with anyone other than myself.

You Can Actually Pinpoint the Exact Moment the Series 5 Story Arc Begins

So I noticed several days ago that you can actually find the exact second that the TARDIS begins to malfunction and eventually explode. It's at the very end of The Waters of Mars, after the Doctor goes back into the TARDIS after seeing Ood Sigma. Right then, the cloister bell sounds, and it's never really explained why.

The cloister bell only sounds when something is seriously wrong with the TARDIS. I figure that at that exact moment, someone hacked into the TARDIS and installed a virus that caused some critical system malfunction to occur when it landed on June 26th 2010. The next time it landed on the date was in The Pandorica Opens, it took off on that date at the end of Flesh and Stone, but the virus must only be programmed for when it lands on that date, not when it takes off.

This would actually go against my theory about the Time Lords, which assumes that they hacked into the TARDIS during the Time War. It seems more likely that it was something the Silence did.

The Sun's Gone Wibbly

Okay, so here's something I've been noticing for quite some time now: they've mentioned solar flares far too many times.

Solar flares have received at least four mentions: in Bad Wolf/The Parting of the Ways, in The Waters of Mars, in The Rebel Flesh/The Almost People, and in The Wedding of River Song. In The Wedding of River Song, it turned out to not actually be solar flares, but they still received a mention. There might have been other mentions as well, but I can't think of them off the top of my head. There could very well have been a mention of solar flares in every season, but I can't really remember. There were probably also mentions of them in Torchwood and The Sarah Jane Adventures.

I think we're going to see an explanation of this at some point, or at least another mention of them. I think there's something building extremely long–term here, something all the way back to Series 1. Someone is probably messing with the Sun, causing solar flares. Whatever it is, I don't think it's done yet. I might just be overthinking it, but this is Doctor Who, and everything means something.