Talk:Café

Wi-Fi

I'd assume no, but I have no idea whether Wi-Fi commercially existed at the time The Dying Days was written. Unless The Dying Days has some real deviations from the real world use of Internet café, what I mean by "connecting to Wi-Fi" is not an Internet café at all. Aren't Internet cafés terminals of desktop computers connected by wires? My writing meant ordinary cafés with the Wi-Fi symbol on the front where people can (sometimes, not always, for free) access the Internet through laptops (such as in The Bells of Saint John), mobiles, smartphones and tablets that were brought from elsewhere. -- Tybort (talk page) 21:31, September 30, 2013 (UTC)

It's most definitely an internet cafe. Here's a direct quote:

"We need somewhere like a library or a university."

"How about an Internet Cafe?" Bernice suggested, from halfway across the street. She was heading to a shop with a bright neon sign flashing on and off. "A what?" the Doctor asked, following her across. He stepped into what would have been an ordinary cafe, except for the personal computer sitting on each table. The place was about half-full. Its proprietor, an overweight little man, stood behind a gleaming counter, his attention occupied by the big wall-mounted television. The Doctor followed his gaze, fascinated by what he saw on the screen. A man in odd clothes and a woman in a tailored suit were standing in an American street. He was trying to convince her that he was a time traveller and that in the next twenty-four hours the world would come to an end. She thought he was mad.

They have no money, but the Doctor essentially pimps Benny out to get access to the internet. Anyway, we even have a description of such an establishment in Dying Days!
--SOTO ☎ 22:37, September 30, 2013 (UTC)

And funnily enough, the Eighth Doctor should know what an internet cafe is from his sixth incarnation:

"Doctor," Mel finally volunteered. "Doctor, do you remember when we were in London, facing down the Codex?"

"Yes, Mel."

"Leonor and Julia took me into an internet café. If we went to one of those now, I could try downloading some information about the Magnate."

"Good idea, Mel,’ said the Doctor.

(PROSE: Instruments of Darkness)

Eight disapproves of internet cafes in The Blue Angel. And here's another goldmine of info on the subject from The Dragons of Prague, which features the Fourth Doctor:

"The first thing you two need to do is find the nearest internet café. Harry, I'll want you to research everything you can on Mr Drak and his establishment, paying particular attention to his menu. Sarah, I'll want you to look for anything out of the ordinary, anything that you think I might want to know. Think edible...."

[...]

"Doctor," said Sarah, "what is an internet café anyway?"

"It’s a place where people sip tea or coffee while they browse the internet on their computers," the Doctor explained.

"Well, Doctor, we've a bit of a problem, then," Harry said. "Seeing as we haven’t got a computer and they're a bit hard to haul around."

"No, not any more," the Doctor said. ‘Many people use laptops. I expect they'll have laptops set up at the café.

"Laptops?" Sarah repeated blankly, looking down at her thighs. "They implant computers in their bodies?"

--SOTO ☎ 22:48, September 30, 2013 (UTC)

There you go: Created the page.. Now. Does Bells have any proof that that particular café offers free Wi-Fi? I don't remember that detail. --SOTO ☎ 23:19, September 30, 2013 (UTC)

The precise details are admittedly fuzzy, even if I remember the individual scenes well enough. My recollection is that the episode is about the Wi-Fi and it had the Doctor and Clara hacking the Shard. Anything more than that I'd have to obtain a copy of Bells and analyse. I don't think it's said either way how they accessed the Internet, just that it's cut to them sharing breakfast shortly after the "it's the most powerful ship in existence" motorbike sequence.

At the very least, the free (or sometimes paid through the wireless device) Wi-Fi service just doesn't seem to be correct to source to The Dying Days on this page. ("Some cafés also had a Wi-Fi service for its customers to reach the Internet. (PROSE: The Dying Days)") Cute around-the-lawyers TV movie reference though.

I don't think how he gained the laptop is part of the narrative. It's just that it didn't seem to have the appearance of an Internet café. My point is, and apologies for the real world creep, but I feel I have to make this point to show context, by 2013, technology has advanced and miniaturised enough in just 16 years, hell, probably SIX years, that many venues in 2013 Britain just have Internet connections where passing comment and exposition on it is probably talking down to the viewers that react to the show on Twitter using their iPhones, and such venues just use an Internet service that on top of whatever they've been for decades prior; cafés, restaurants, places that sell English breakfasts, fast food outlets, hotels and, to give a narrative example, aeroplanes.

My main point was the bit about Wi-Fi, which doesn't seem to be a 1990s technology in public use, seems misleading to source to The Dying Days, even if later incarnations of Internet cafés, both in the real world and in Doctor Who media, do in fact use Wi-Fi-enabled laptops.

And if the Doctor's laptop was the only one on display, Bells probably features an ordinary café that, though it probably advertises something to say "Wi-Fi", doesn't need to put it large letters due to its ubiquity like an Internet café might. -- Tybort (talk page) 00:01, October 1, 2013 (UTC)

Oh yeah, you can find internet anywhere in the UK, even more so in London. But it's still real world creep to suggest that they got their internet from the cafe. Logical, but there's no DWU evidence that regular cafes provide Wi-Fi. Of course, though, why go to a cafe if you're not getting computer/internet access from there?

I still say we stay as close to what Bells actually says, and don't assume much. The Doctor and Clara went there to eat breakfast and to find out more about the people taken by the Spoonheads on a laptop — that's just about all we know. We can make general statements about cafes offering Wi-Fi when such statements are given in-narrative. Who knows, that information may be in a recent audio or something, yet to be uncovered.
--SOTO ☎ 00:35, October 1, 2013 (UTC)