Does it count if a robot sees it?

Doctor Who Question by theusualsuspectshines on 2012-06-14 15:52:00 UTC Reply

So I started watching Doctor Who recently, and I had a question about the Weeping Angels. According to canon, if they were observed, their quantum-locking mechanism would turn them to stone, thus rendering them nearly impossible to kill. However, the only form of observation that I saw, that activated the Angels' quantum-locking, appeared to be sight. So, my question is this: Would it be possible to kill an Angel if you were an excellent martial artist that happened to be blind?

Re: Doctor Who Question by Anonymous on 2012-06-15 17:35:00 UTC Reply

"The angels are faster, faster than you can believe."

It might be able to defeat an angel that way, but does an angel still look humanoid while not being looked at? And how would the martial artist know his opponent is defeated?
Does it count if a robot sees it? by Tawaki on 2012-06-14 17:35:00 UTC Reply

If so, you could have a K-9 there to guide the blind martial artist's arm in aiming a rocket launcher.
"A little to the right, master/mistress. Your aim is now correct. Suggest firing now, master/mistress."

Considering that... by Huinesoron on 2012-06-15 18:17:00 UTC Reply

... quite often they seem to be quantum-locked by us watching the show (back in 'Blink' we often saw locked Angels when there was no-one else actually looking, such as... well, actually, the very first shots of them moving through the greenhouse/garden were locked by the viewers, not the cast), I think they're very sensitive to observation of all kinds. Probably including robots.

hS

PS: Yes, I know we saw them move in Flesh And Stone - but since they still had the stone-effect, I choose to believe they were exploiting the framerate of the camera and moving in between frames. They're fast, remember? :P ~hS

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Oh great... by Ellipsis Flood on 2012-06-15 18:56:00 UTC Reply

Thanks for making me not wanting to watch this episode. Ever.
*hides under the bed*

A robot may still give problems by the Irish Samurai on 2012-06-14 18:56:00 UTC Reply

If I remember rightly, when the Weeping Angels show up for the second time (in an episode involving the 11th Doctor, Amy, River Song, some strangely militant 'clerics' and a crashed spaceship), it's revealed that any image of an Angel becomes an Angel.

They've got one trapped in a container of some kind, with a security camera watching it to keep it quantum-locked, and the fact that it's being watched (even by a mechanical system) somehow allows it to escape, or a new one to be created, or something like that. I can't remember the exact details, it's been too long since I watched it, but Bad Things happen as a result of the camera.

I suppose if the robot had purely non-visual sensors like radar, LIDAR or ultrasound, then you might be able to get away with it, as it wouldn't be creating an 'image' in the usual sense.

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Robots by Phobos on 2012-06-14 18:37:00 UTC Reply

An interesting idea. However, I wonder how that would work with the "That which holds the image of an Angel..." thing. It could be potentially problematic.

-Phobos

One thing you are forgetting by Phobos on 2012-06-14 16:24:00 UTC Reply

All they have to do is touch you to send you to another time. That's it. So, unless you can kill one of the fastest things around without it even laying a finger on you, then you are pretty much boned.

I've always wondered why no one thought to take a sledgehammer to one while it was quantum-locked, honestly. It could work.

Sledgehammer? by Sergio Turbo on 2012-06-14 16:55:00 UTC Reply

Try rocket launcher. Or grenades.

Or, if PPC Agents are involved, portal them somewhere nasty when they are quantum-locked. Like the center of a star. Or a black hole. Or somewhere near the Tzar Bomb when it went off.

Like the Sniper says, prioritize your targets, be efficient, and have a plan to kill everyone you meet. Ah, the possibilities...

Re: Sledgehammer? by Cyba Zero on 2012-06-22 10:19:00 UTC Reply

Nice ideas both of you. I personally would favour a geological hammer (it being designed for stone) or maybe just leave it to a master stonemason.

Alternatively, setting the cybermen on a weeping angel would be interesting. It might also get around the 'storing an image problem', as cybermen do have organic brains...

Answer by desdendelle on 2012-06-14 16:15:00 UTC Reply

I don't think so. If you're blind, you're not looking at them, and (I'm assuming the martial artist is human) they are really, really, really fast. They'll send you to the past in no time.

Alrighty then... by theusualsuspectshines on 2012-06-17 01:28:00 UTC Reply

So, it's safe to assume that any human character that can take on a Weeping Angel mano a mano is channeling some Sueishness?

Not necessarily by the Irish Samurai on 2012-06-17 16:55:00 UTC Reply

Firstly, it does depend on what you mean by 'take on', after all, in the episode Blink, the Doctor manages to outwit the four Angels he faces, and leaves them in a state of being permanently quantum-locked. Any other quick-thinker may be able to do something similar, once they know what they're up against.

If you do mean literal hand-to-hand combat, there are a couple of potential ways of achieving that without slipping into sueishness. As has been pointed out already, the main problem with a fistfight is that they can send you back into the past with a touch, so you're probably only going to get one hit in before you find yourself located inconveniently elsewhere. But if you've got access to a method of time travel (such as a Time Agent's Vortex Manipulator), then essentially no harm has been done to you. You could pop back to the present, hit it again, and repeat until a victor emerges or you both get bored of the whole thing. The only reason it caused problems for the Doctor and Martha in Blink was that they couldn't get back to the TARDIS in the past, but if you carry your time travel device with you, it won't be as much of a problem.

The other option is to get some sort of device, or material with special properties, that allow an item to be locked into a single timeline and build that into a suit of armour. Given that there are a few time travel technologies around in the Whoniverse, a sort of 'time lock' technology isn't that much of a stretch in my opinion.

A human who is born with such an ability would be very speshul indeed, but any organisation intending on combating the Angels would be very well advised to spend a portion of their R&D budget on time-locked armour.

The biggest challenge to overcome is that 'that which holds the image of an angel becomes itself an angel'. This leaves you with two main options in a fight. Either have the Angel be observed, and hope that it is dealt with before any of the observers become Angels themselves, or don't observe it directly, and hope that you can keep pace with it (after all, they are frighteningly fast).

I think it's possible for a non-Sue human to be able to beat an Angel in single combat, but they’ll need a lot of preparation and specialised equipment. As long as where all that came from is adequately explained, it should be fine.

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