Friends, I have a couple of weeks until I have to hand in my PhD thesis. One cute little thing you can do in it is to put quotes at the beginning. In my Master’s dissertation, I used this one from Capt. Jack
“You twenty-first century humans with your science, your beliefs and your poetry and… oh, yeah, you’re pretty great. You never stop searching for answers. Sometimes I don’t think you know what the questions are, but you never stop searching. Somewhere out there in that chaos of darkness and light, of science and protons, of gods and stars and death… somewhere there’s an answer. And sometimes I think that just asking the question is the answer. And sometimes I think I just… need a coffee.”
But now I’m in desperate need of another, similarly science-y, punchy, and inspirational (or funny!) quote, and I think it just makes sense to use a Doctor Who one, since it is a thesis on astrophysics, after all. I have a lot of favorite quotes, but I can’t think of a good one that fits the vibe from the top of my head. So, I’m asking for your suggestions! Can you help a nerd out, TARDIS Guide fam?
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The whole thing is a bit more of a conversation than a quote, but “Our destiny is in the stars, so let’s go and search for it” from the Reign of Terror is one I’ve always enjoyed that’s also quite astrophysics-y
(And congrats on the PhD thesis nearly being done!!)
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This quote is great, esp when you realize he probably doesn’t gain anything from drinking coffee. He just likes the taste.
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While I’m not an astrophysicist, and I haven’t actually listened to this story, I did find a quote online that I rather like from ‘The Time of the Daleks,’ which goes:
“A comet eating its own tail. Two nebulae locked together in accelerated dance.
Constant motion. You’re witnessing the life and death and life of an entire universe,
taking place in an everchanging instance.”
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The only quote I can think of is the “matter coalesces” one, but it’s kind of depressing (or relieving, depending on the person). I don’t know if I’d ever use that unless my paper was on the somber side.
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It could be fun if you use “lots of planets have a north”
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Wait yeah also depending on how you found the various parts of the course you could do “I must admit to being somewhat surprised,” said the Doctor. “And probably perplexed, too.” from Mad Dogs and Englishmen by Paul Magrs
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Here’s one from ‘Shada’ someone posted on our site that I quite like, though I’m not sure how you’d use it in a PhD thesis:
SKAGRA: Take over the universe? How childish. Who could possibly want to take over the universe?
DOCTOR: Exactly. That’s what I keep telling people. It’s a troublesome place, difficult to administer. And as a piece of real estate, it’s worthless, because by definition there’d be no one to sell it to.
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