gordon@uw-june (Jamie Green) (10/09/84)
Well, I've been procrastinating long enough, so I'm finally bringing to a close
the First Annual Doctor Who Trivia Challenge. As I suspected, I had hordes of
solutions to score :-) There were a few exceptionally high scores, which leads
me to suspect that a couple people had Programme Guides or the equivalent.
Here are the five highest scores (they also just happen to be the only scores!)
in the order in which I recieved them:
Name Score
pur-ee!Physics:dub (Dwight) 83.5
ucbvax!okamoto (Jeff Okamoto) 90
pur-ee!Pucc-H:rsk (Rich Kulawiec) 55
looking!brad 91
sunybcs!hobbit (Thomas Pellitieri) 89
No one entered in the "Deprived" category, so I assume that everyone on the net
has access to every episode ever made :-) Due to this, I will not include this
category in future quizzes unless a few people persuade me otherwise. If you
feel it essential that you see where you went wrong/right, drop me a line and
I'll mail you your graded response.
And now, without further ado, here are the correct solutions (feel free to
flame me; I love a good Doctor Who discussion!).
Part One: The 12th through 15th seasons
1. What was the only organic part of the Peking Homonculous, and by
what other name was it known?
It had the cerebral cortex of a pig. Weng-Chiang called it
"Mr. Sin".
Most people got this one mostly right, the most common (and not very
crucial) error was that people just said "brain".
2. Why did the Doctor become a candidate for President of the Council
of Time Lords in "The Deadly Assassin"?
To stave off his impending execution.
The most common error here was when people said things to the effect
of "so he could search for the Master". The real reason was to save
his neck.
3. What was the planet of origin of the Fendahl, and how did the
Time Lords deal with the creature? (7/8 points)
It was known only as "The Fifth Planet", being the fifth planet
in the Sol System. The Time Lords put the planet in a time
loop.
Most people either got this right or not at all.
4. What two alien races attacked Gallifrey in "The Invasion of Time"?
The Vardans and the Sontarans.
Most everyone got "Sontarans", but many forgot the name of the Vardans
(don't blame you...). I gave half credit for answers to the effect of
"the aluminum foil monsters".
Part Two: The 7th through 18th seasons
5. What was Callufrax, and what was its significance?
Callufrax was one of the planets `mined' by Zanak. It was the
second segment of the Key to Time.
Most everyone got the first half of this, but some people forgot the
second half, which was of course far more important!
6. Who was "the BOSS" and in which episode did he/she/it appear?
The Bimorphic Organisational Systems Supervisor was the real
head of Global Chemicals, a super-computer programmed with the
fallibility of human beings. It started The Green Death.
This also was either totally accurate, or missing.
7. How could the Doctor have guaranteed victory for either the Daleks
or their enemy the Movellans in "Destiny of the Daleks"?
Each side, being robots, always performed the best logical
actions, and so were at a stalemate. If the Doctor had pro-
grammed one of the battle computers of either side to perform
an irrational act, that side would win the conflict, for the
other side would be unable to predict it.
I got several bizarre answers to this. If you want to flame me about
my solution, know that I based it on what the Doctor himself said to
Romana at the end of the story.
8. Why was Omega unable to leave his antimatter universe, and how did
the Doctor defeat him?
The Singularity had destroyed his body, so that he existed
only by his will. The Doctors gave him the Second Doctor's
recorder, which had not been converted to antimatter because
it was lodged in the force-field generator of the TARDIS, and
the resulting explosion destroyed Omega (or so we thought...)
and gave the Time Lords a new power source.
Only sunybcs!hobbit got this one entirely correct. Most people thought
that the reason he couldn't leave was because he wouldn't be able to
maintain the gateway with his will if he left. In reality (?),
however, he knew this: it was why he sent his creepies out after a
Time Lord; to maintain the gateway while he went through.
A final word on scoring: when in doubt, I generally gave the responder half
credit for that part of the question. I did not consider spelling in grading;
if I could figure out what he was trying to say, I gave it to him.
In the fairly near future; I shall return with the
Doctor Who Word Association Quiz!
details to follow...
Yours in Time and Space,
The Great Green Arkleseizure
Jamie Green
{decvax,ihnp4,allegra}!uw-beaver!uw-june!gordon
(Put "To Jamie" in the subject line)