Rich Morris' Comics - YAFGC and The ComixBlog

I was always of the assumption it was treated in something with mind-altering properties. Does anyone remember the Metebelis crystal?

Well yes, but...well it could've been _worded_ better. "Psychic paper" sounds like the paper ITSELF is reading your mind. I'm not sure how they could've renamed it and yet still had it fairly snappy and easy to say..."a square of super-thin metal which _resembles_ paper but which is actually packed with psionic microcircuits made by the telepathic Computer-Singers of Rigel XII, programmed to read the subject's mind and rearrange pixels on its ultra-flat screen to spell out the words that person most wants to see" doesn't exactly roll off the _tongue_, but....

Thing is, the psychic paper is actually the LEAST of my grievances with the new series...but it _does_ still grate a bit. Maybe becayse it's so BLATANT of a plot device, so completely, utterly, _un_disguised at all for what it is--to the point where you can literally FEEL the writer's laziness--that it almost feels like an insult to the audience's intelligence! It's like, come on. At least invest 30 seconds in having him fasttalk his way through with a fake _name_.
Also, I don't like things being that easy for the _Doctor_, anyway. With your (sparkles) MAGIC! paper, you never have to actually like, use your _brains_ to get past authoritites/beauracrats in your way. How 'bout that becomes an actual problem they have to _deal_ with? Instead of MAGIC! and okay let's get on with the adventure now. The very first time I saw it, as a TOTAL Who newbie, my Bullshit-O-Meter STILL went off the freakin' scale.

Let the authorities who are in his way _be_ a real, solid problem. Which has to be _dealt with_...and sometimes they're smarter than you thought and you're tossed in a lockup! Hmm? How 'bout that?
And then maybe, later on, that one little beauracratic guy who was arguing with his boss and trying to talk him into letting the Doctor through anyway, can show back up, pushing his little nerdy spectacles back up his face, and unplug the doomsday device JUST before it would've blown the Doctor and Rose up, because they're chained to the wall.

Okay, so I know, it's seperate episodes not serials anymore, so they don't have as much time for local colour AND the main adventure--but come on. You can't _tell_ me that wouldn't be hella more satisfying writing.

Sigh. It's even _worse_ now that I've been spoiled by Three and the whole UNIT era. "John Smith", being stopped by beauracratic idiots, not believing in passes, and the blockages actually became part OF the story, another part of the suspense.
Put it this way: Nine and Ten have psychic paper...Three had a story where getting a message to a government official in time meant THE FATE OF THE ENTIRE EARTH. I rest my case.

(...Yeah, so I'm a curmudgeon. Uphill both ways in the snow, DAMMIT. :P)

...Notorious

...it's made from psy-resonant trees?

You mean ents?

I hope not! When the thought came to mind, I wasn't thinking anything sentient in and of itself - that seems a bit gruesome...

I thought it sounded plausible, like Sixislove said, it was probably treated with something. (Hopefully not ents!)

If you treat paper with the right materials you create paper able to hold images (tho it has no eye) - or other materials it will hold impressions. We have photo paper, had fax paper, carbon paper - it's really the normal way to name things to imitate RL habits - this paper has been treated to hold impressions based on thoughts.

As far as making thoughts and images from the mind visible, that's not really a new sci-fi concept. Future machines and alien recording devices have been broadcasting thoughts and thought made images since at least the 50's - but combining the idea with treated paper does seem clever to me.

We saw in Empty Child/Doctor Dances, and again in Silence in the Library some clever side effects and multiple uses the idea can generate, other than getting someone in the door on onto the good stuff.

We also learned that while it holds a psychic image, someone with psychic ability can see right thru the image to the paper beneath, like someone clever enough to spot a carbon copy of signature, or a photocopy of an ID, so if the story needs the paper not to work, to make getting in a challenge instead of just solving mysteries, that option is there too. (As Rose discovered in the 2006 finale).

If they are crushing ents, or using Jabe's people to make it tho - that would ruin it for me

Wow. I don't really _mean_ for my random rants to keep "starting" whole "new" topics like this, all the time. I'm sorry. I never MEAN to wander that far off, and really, just intend to bring up the one thing for a while, then go back to the main subject. But it seems that's rather stricter around here than I realised...

Well...I dunno. I just really don't like how _convenient_ and cheap it is. It still to me just SCREAMS Deux Ex Machina, and you know, you're not supposed to really use those anymore.

Now, the screwdriver is also _sort_ of a wonder-gadget, but at least the Doctor has to _do_ something to use it. It tends to take a little time, and not always work just right, and "HURRY DOCTOR THEY'RE BREAKING DOWN THE DOOR!" Also, I've always felt it just somehow..._went_ with his image. A solid, quirky metal gadget has this nice feel of...eccentric inventor. Tinkering away with things, an insatiably curious "I wonder what THIS button does?" genius who can get AMAZING results, but not until after he's lost his eyebrows a few times.

What kind of colourful character image does _paper_ give one, as a prop? Not much. It's just paper.

And also, like I said...I just have an easier time suspending my disbelief for certain types of advanced technology, and not others. I can _believe_ that a little metal piece of machinery with complcated working parts can do a lot of different things, on different settings. But paper is...paper. I'm sorry but I just can't stop seeing it as purely a cheap cop-out. They didn't even bother to have him magicing his way past with an _interesting_ looking prop.

Now, I know the old series had plenty of faults too, and there _are_ things in there that made me go "WHAT?!" and have to accept it because "it just is" and move on, still confused/annoyed about the ending, but....something _this_ stupid, right in episode ONE...well you can see how that would've left a sour taste in my mouth.
I mean, one thing you can say for Six: As bad as "Timelash" was (and it was, it WAS...), at least he never had any bloody psychic paper...!

Another thing (and _please_ don't start a whole new topic for this, guys) is that I just don't like how...I don't know how to describe it...they seemed to, when you compare the old series to the new, be trying to make the Doctor...I dunno. Too cool? It...

Anyway the psychic paper...and on a related theme, now that I've seen the original I think it's absolutely HORRIBLE that the TARDIS now actually _does_ go where he wants it to go. What...WHAT...?! Are you _kidding_ me? He's supposed to be a powerful but _fallible_ DORK, who _talks_ big, but then messes up and gets laughed at by his Companion! How can it possibly be _Who_ without bragging about how great it is on the Eye of Orion/Metabellius 3/Risa/whatever and then ending up on a post-apocalyptic moonbase, HOW?
It..it feels like they've taken another part of the show's _soul_. Taken another thing that used to be wild and fun and..._tamed_ it. The Doctor doesn't follow orders...his time machine shouldn't either!

It takes away the REAL uncertainty. The Doctor and his Companion aren't truly _lost_ in the great unknown--the Companion not knowing if she'll EVER see her family again. Instead, he's the Cool, Powerful, Commanding, Guardian Angel who can show her the stars!--and then back by teatime (barring, ya know, deaths). No wonder Rose fell in love with the Doctor. She was on a freaking JOY RIDE compared to what all the others had to go through! Wild adventures with this nice, safe feeling in the back of her mind the whole time that she _could_ go home any time she likes...and DOES. A fun little tra-la. A jaunt. She felt safer and was more _free_ to develop feelings...rather than always being just a little on edge towards the person who GOT her lost this way in the first place...!
(And the other modern Companions, too. I know I keep picking on Rose, but...)

Put it this way: It's supposed to be kind of a sacrifice, signing on as a TARDIS passenger. At least temporarily. A _trade-off_. It's supposed to MEAN something, supposed to mean a _choice_ between having your safer, but mundane life--or a more interesting one that you might _never_ come back from. It loses all drama and...
Look--you can't have legs and your handsome Prince...AND your sisters and lovely voice, under the sea, at the same time! It DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY.

Anyway, the psychic paper is another part of that too easy, God-mode, way too cool thing goin' on. The TARDIS goes where he wants it to and this time, it really, actually, DOES--which is just _wrong_...AND he can breeze past things with a prop so easy, the series' _makers_ didn't have to put in any work either! Oy.
Those two things together PLUS canon fangirling? REALLY doesn't sit well with me. (And, ya know, women (and possibly some men) fell for the powerful but dorky version of the Doctor like CRAZY, in the old days...)

While I'm at it, it never occurred to me that the TARDIS had _internal_ Chameleon Circuits, though I guess it could. I still really balk at the "wallpaper" idea, however, no matter HOW it's worded. It's another thing that makes me roll my eyes and say: "I DON'T think so."

Again, I don't like things being TOO easy--advanced, sure, but with problems--also, I rather like the idea of the Doctor physically redecorating, at least a bit, more. Whistling as he brings another chair into the room, then stands up straight with a toothy grin and says (to the Companion) "There! Perfect." "If you _say_ so..." she says, looking around at the odd mismatching furniture. (Why did I just picture Five, specifically, in this scene..?)
I dunno, isn't there just something kinda _fun_ about him carting things around different rooms and blowing the dust off them from "storage"? I think there is.

Anyway. Bottom line: Psychic paper is _still_ stupid, it's a part of the "continuity" that I am Not Acknowledging in my own interpretation of the Who universe, films at eleven.
Mind you, I DO toss out a lot of bits of the classic series that don't jibe with each other, as well...

Okay. I PROMISE I'm shutting up now. Really.

...Notorious

May I direct your attention to the rules post at the top of this forum?

The salient points:



I have a limited number of rules here. They work to keep this forum a comfortable and useful gathering place. Learn them, love them, live them.

Uh...by the way...sorry, guys. I really am. I never INTEND to rant on and on like this, and yet lately I seem to be _stuck_ in Rant Mode. I start off meaning to be brief and relatively calm--perhaps sarcastic, but calm, for me--and STILL end up ranting. I have _no_ idea...

...Notorious

Then perhaps you need to sit on posts for a while and read them over before hitting 'submit', or take a break when you feel a rant brewing. I would also like to direct your attention to the formatting buttons directly above the post edit window - we have italic and bold buttons for a reason, and they will make your posts far more readable than the constant underscoring does.

Any further posts on this topic (use of the board and appropriate posting) should go to the Admin folder. We now return you to your on-topic discussion of the psychic paper prop and its use in the show.

Re: "Psychic Paper"
Some sort of Paper like material with a Colour "E-ink" display...?
As for how it works, maybe it displays a hypnotic pattern of some sort (fractal ?) that enhances the Doctor's fast talk skill...?
As for the 5th Doctor "redecorating" , why do I see Nyssa as the other person in this scene...? (Though 6 Doc/Peri could potentially be far funnier, given his apparent personal taste, or rather, lack of...).
Mind you, this could explain Nyssa's collection of teapots, though if she has purchased them herself, how long has she been travelling with the Doctor...?