Just when the blinking flip was The Eleventh Hour supposed to be set?

• 6th April 2010 • Blog Post by Seb Patrick •

… or is the confusion over dates the whole point, considering the “crack in time” thing that seems to be the series’ ongoing arc?

The popular assumption is that the Amy that goes off with the Doctor at the end of the episode is either from 2012 (with the “main” story thus taking place in 2010) or 2010 (with the story being set in 2008), the latter seeming to me the most likely due to Rory owning a phone that came out in that year (although the former is possibly suggested by reference to Twitter, which was nowhere near as widespread in ’08).

But having watched the ep a few times now, I can’t believe I still didn’t spot this, during the slightly rubbish time-lapse photo “Doctor’s memory” sequence. Guaranteed to blow your mind:


WHY ARE THE CUPS WOBBLING, WHAT’S GOING ON?

Seb Patrick once met Paul McGann, who immediately pretended to be Mark McGann. He writes for Den of Geek, BBC America, Film4 and the official Red Dwarf website, among others. He owns over thirty toy Daleks and wishes the Dapol factory tour was still open.

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12 Responses

  1. This is quite interesting, but after years of studying stills from numerous episodes of Lost, things like this are usually production errors, and that’s in a show where dates and times are very important.

  2. The Canary Wharf the TARDIS flies over just before crashing in young Amelia’s garden is problematic as well. You can see the curved blue light of the Radisson Edwardian* which was only finished in 2007. The dome at least is clearly finished which puts it post-2000, meaning policewoman Amy & the Atraxi are 2012 at the earliest and the wedding dress Amy is 2014…

    …but I suppose the TARDIS could’ve jumped back a few years whilst we were watching the new credit sequence.

    * I was looking out for it as it’s next to my flat

  3. Capps: in a show that is even more explicitly about time travel, and whose first episode was so packed with attention to detail, I’m refusing to believe that was an error. Especially as the badge was specifically zoomed in upon.

    Andy: My assumption was simply that yeah, he went back in time when crashing into Amy’s garden. I didn’t spot the Radisson, though, I’ll have to look out for that (I call it the Space Ramp, as when it’s lit up at night it looks like a launchpad of some kind).

  4. I was given over to the assumption that the Amy that leaves with the Doctor at the end of the episode is the Amy of 2010, the action of the episode happens in 2008, and therefore little Amelia is back in 1996. That would, given that little Amelia is seven, now make Amy 21, which makes more sense. But, if the Amy of two years ago is only nineteen, then presumably Rory is of a similar age – early twenties at the most – and he looks a good couple of years older.

    But then there’s that ID card. That’s thrown me off something rotten.

  5. Also, I noticed a nice, glaring, continuity error. This is how I posted it at the DWM Facebook page:

    Dunno if anyone else has picked up on this,but-OOH!OOH! Continuity error!Be warned,I’m gonna get all nerdy.At 31.30(I did warn you)The Doctor and Amy walk past five cars towards the duckpond,the last of which is a small red car with two white stripes on the bonnet.Then,at 38.52,Amy and Rory get into the same car-which we’ve now established is Rory’s-except that it’s parked in a completely different place,in front of the shop,just across the green from the pond!

    So there.Do I win a prize?

    I was rather pleased with myself.

  7. Um, isn’t the issue that he’d have to be about 45 to have been a qualified nurse for 20 years?

  8. I want for this either:

    a) to have been a joke by Moffat and the production team to wind up people like us who look into these kinds of things to this extent, or

    b) to become something that DOESN’T end up being explained detail for detail in a series finale, but rather happens to have been an easter egg for people who happened to notice. RTD would have the Doctor go: “Oh yes! The way the millennium dome was already built, oh yes, I’m getting it! Of course, and all those circa 2008 mobile phones, despite the date on Rory’s ID card, now this is all making sense!” Along with other clues planted throughout the episodes being flickered to us like flashbacks.

  9. Dunno if anyone else has picked up on this,but-OOH!OOH! Continuity error!

    Murray Gold has stolen “OOOEEEOOOO” from us, and now everybody thinks it should be “OOH!OOH!” Thankfully I am here to constantly make brilliant remarks like this.

  10. >Just when the blinking flip was The Eleventh Hour supposed to be set?

    a) Between The End Of Time, Part Two and The Beast Below

    b) After The Tenth Hour and before The Twelfth Hour

    c) All will become clear…

    Answers on a postcard

  11. Arthur Smith in Backwards, there.

    DW Adventures apparently says 1996/2008/2010,