Howling:Crash Of The Byzantium

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In the episode " Crash Of The Byzantium" - River gives Amy an injection of some sort, with the excuse that it is to protect her from any possible germs/virus on the alien planet. But why, in all the episodes and planets I've seen, very very rarely is anyone worried about ambient virus infections. Is this just a way of bringing the characters together to talk, or is it a definate way of taking something from or adding something to Amy's dna/blood?

It could be that she was checking to see if amy was pregnant ... or it could be that they knew the Byzantium was leaking radiation. Besides that it could be anything Cory Jaynes 19:55, August 3, 2011 (UTC)

Three more possibilities:

• Companions are getting innoculated all the time, but we rarely see it on-camera. Just as they're presumably eating breakfast, sleeping, and using the facilities.

• The Doctor rarely thinks about it. When he is reminded by someone getting sick, he usually reacts with mild surprise and annoyance ("You humans, so fragile"). Maybe he gets away with it because the TARDIS can probably cure most things they're likely to pick up.

• They rarely go to places like grubby slums or failed colonies of near-future humans. In the present and recent past, their immune system is fine; on a world that's never seen a modern human, the germs probably wouldn't infect them; etc.

If you look at the novels, especially the EDAs, there are a lot more mentions of getting shots than on TV. But that doesn't really help. One sentence is 0.02% of a book, while one scene is 2% of an episode. On the other hand, Fitz loved to worry, and Sam was very cautious, and the 8th Doctor was (at that point) more in tune with humans than most companions. On the third hand, Sam spent half her time in 23rd century slums, and Fitz kept visiting Earth 30-40 years after his time, neither of which is common. So, all three explanations (and probably many more) are still plausible.

(PS, the episode's called The Time of Angels. But no big deal; anyone can tell what you meant.) --173.228.85.118 04:44, August 4, 2011 (UTC)

We don't know River Song knew something regarding Amelia Pond's health and was merely hoping to affect it in some way, in order to help Amy in here future when she'd need it.

Gallifrey102 22:22, August 4, 2011 (UTC)\

I was doing a cleanup of the article on Artron energy when I ran across this passage: Artron energy altered and enhanced human antibodies, making the immune system of the human in question better at fighting diseases. (TV: Reset). This may be significant to this discussion. Boblipton 14:01, August 6, 2011 (UTC)

I'm not sure when the effects of artron energy on the immune system were first explicitly mentioned on screen but it's certainly been implied on occasions over a long period of time. In Survival, for example, the human who's best able to resist the cheetah virus (using the abilities it confers without letting it take her over) is Ace, the only one of the humans who'd been exposed to artron energy. --89.240.246.112 08:08, August 7, 2011 (UTC)

Good point. But it doesn't exactly explain why River would go out of her way to innoculate the only artron-saturated human on the planet other than herself; if anything, it just makes it more mysterious. But not that much more, and I think the explanations above all work just as well. (But maybe modify the second one in that it's not that River is more of a worry-wart in general than the 11th Doctor so much as that River is overprotective of her mother?) --173.228.85.118 09:43, August 7, 2011 (UTC)

River told Amy that the innoculation was for the radiation. The clerics and River presumably had their own innoculations before they went down, and the Doctor is probably immune. We don't normally see companions recieve innoculations, because they don't normally go into caves with a giant starship leaking radiation in the ceiling.Icecreamdif 14:08, August 7, 2011 (UTC)

"and the Doctor is probably immune" He was unharmed by röntgen radiation in Smith and Jones (though he did have to expel it from his body) but not to whatever type of radiation was produced by the "nuclear bolt" in The End of Time. Certainly, given the effects of artron energy, protecting Amy from radiation makes more sense than protecting her from infection and, as pointed out, if River and/or the clerics needed the injections, they'd had plenty of opportunity to get them earlier. --78.146.180.51 15:47, August 7, 2011 (UTC)

The Doctor isn't immune to all types of radiation, but it isn't beyond the realm of possibilities to assume that he is immune to some. River and the clerics probably had their injections before they went down stairs, but Amy could have been overlooked because she is just a civilian who the church wouldn't consider important. Plenty of companions have been affected by both diseases and radiation over the years, so clearly artron energy doesn't protect people from everything.Icecreamdif 19:39, August 8, 2011 (UTC)

Even if artron energy improves a human's immune system, that's not the same as making the human invulnerable to disease. In the example given above of Ace being better at dealing with the Cheetah virus, she was affected by it but, unlike Midge, for example, she managed to prevent it taking her over completely.

Amy probably wasn't "overlooked because she is just a civilian". The mission, from the point of view of the clerics, was planned to include them, River and the Doctor; Amy was an unexpected addition to the party. --2.96.30.72 20:03, August 8, 2011 (UTC)

Yeah, but the clerics would all have known that in a situation like that they were suppossed to get their injections. Not having gone through church training, Amy would have missed that, but River knew that she would need an injection. The whole point seemed to be more of a way to start a conversation between the two of them than anything.Icecreamdif 21:32, August 8, 2011 (UTC)

I'm going to take a leap here and dare to think that a tiny detail like that will become a vital plot element in a few seasons from now. (If the series even makes it that far...)

86.173.142.182 22:11, August 11, 2011 (UTC)

I doubt it. Maybe it will become an important plot element this season, but in season 9 nobody is going to say "Oh, remember back in season 9 River gave Amy an injection and said that it was for the radiation when they were in that cave that was being flooded with radiation. Well actually, ..." Doctor Who doesn't often make small things like that important in later episodes, and when they do, it is important at the end of the same season(like the future Doctor from the same episode.)Icecreamdif 04:51, August 12, 2011 (UTC)

Well, they do occasionally take some random throwaway line from the past and make it important later (the Shadow Proclamation, Time Agents from the 51st century, etc.). The most extreme example is probably the novel The Slow Empire, which was ultimately inspired by a line Terrence Dicks had written for The Seeds of Death but cut before shooting; it's hard to get more throwaway than that.

But that doesn't mean that it happens every time. There have been thousands upon thousands of throwaway references in the course of the show, and only a few dozen have later come back as plot points. So, it's not impossible, but you're betting on some very long odds. --173.228.85.118 05:22, August 12, 2011 (UTC)