Howling:Baby language

The Howling → Baby language

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Does The Doctor actually speak "Baby", or is he just trying to lighten up the situation with humor? Benuphoenix 10:27, September 27, 2011 (UTC)

Those are not mutually exclusive possibilities; it could be both. --89.242.69.48 10:43, September 27, 2011 (UTC)

He could be exaggerating a bit also, being there is no one spoken "baby language" it could just be he is he psychically communicating with them and claiming he is speaking baby out of humour. The Light6 11:10, September 27, 2011 (UTC)

Eh, he's probably faking it. The way he translates them makes it sound like they are somewhat more intelligent than they should be. The fact that Melody instantly seemed to know that wearing a bow tie was weird, or Alfie preferring Stormageddon for example. Actually, I don't think that anything that Alfie supposedly said would make sense for a baby to be thinking. Of course, he could be telepathically communicating with them, but he's probably just messing with Craig and Amy. After all, Melody isn't the first baby the Doctor's ever met, and he's never tried to speak to them before. Same goes for the shh thing. It probably isn't telepathic or anything-Alfie was just quiet when the Doctor did it and pretty much everyone else the Doctor used it on knew him and were just being quiet because he told them to be. Now, if the Doctor had used this trick to shut the Cybermen up, that would have been impressive.Icecreamdif 18:00, September 27, 2011 (UTC)

Icecreamdif: Shh! Boblipton 19:27, September 27, 2011 (UTC)

...Icecreamdif 20:40, September 27, 2011 (UTC)

I don't think that the Doctor is faking it. I won't rule out the possibility that he is faking (rule #1: The Doctor lies.), but i don't see any reason to lie in this instance. For the sake of Argument lets divide "intelligence" in this instance into categories: Knowledge gained, IQ (problem solving ability), and emotional maturity.

I think Icecreamdif's main issue is with the knowledge gained. The Doctor's has only spoken with babies that are no longer newborns (at least that is the way it seemed to me). That would give the babies time to absorb some of the knowledge that Icecreamdif had issue with. In the Lodger it is implied that Craig and Sophie watch a lot of television ("pizza-booze-telly" as a regular occurrence) and a large stack of DVD's can be seen on a bookcase so Alfie could have pieced together Stormagedon from something he saw/heard while his parents watched. I also cannot imagine Amy describing the Doctor to Melody (if she had the opportunity to) without describing his tie as rubbish. Even if Melody was truly newborn (only hours old) she is human+timelord so she may have had consciousness even in the womb.

As for IQ, I think this has more to due with ones own brainpower and less to due with what they have learned. If this is true, a baby should still have a large percentage of the problem solving ability that his/her older self would have. For example: I feel solving an algebra equation and trying to get a toy out of a box require the same amount of problem solving, one just requires more knowledge than the other.

As for emotional maturity, neither baby could be described as emotionally mature. Both babies show that they think very highly of themselves and little for those around them (something I equate to emotional immaturity). Melody called Amy "Giant Milk Thing" and Craig was "Not Mom" to Alfie.

Now that said, if the Doctor is indeed communicating with them, he either is communicating psychically (is the Doctor psychic enough to do this without physical contact?), knows every language and does not need the TARDIS to translate for him (possible but I would think that everysingle baby speaks his/her own language till they lean the accepted language), or the TARDIS is translating baby for him (why not translate for the parents too?). I think each of these have problems that could disprove the whole thing in the first place. MasterIII 23:56, September 27, 2011 (UTC)