[Social Engineering] "I could bring down your Government with six words."

[PTTG]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

I think this specific example is a use of the History skill by a time traveler.

There are lots of points in history where a small, precise change would seem to make a huge difference. For example, it should be pretty easy to save the Archduke Ferdinand and thus, presumably, stop WW1. And if you've seen multiple possible timelines, then you have a pretty clear view of what could be your root cause of an event. So, he might know what brought down the Harriet Jones government and what didn't, what particularly moment was especially critical, and he could precipitate it at that moment.

In a sense, this is like classic social engineering, in that he's finding the one point in a system where he can break it and applying the exact words necessary to do it, but like real social engineering (the hacking kind) it requires extensive technical knowledge that lies outside of the purview of social skills to turn a seemingly innocuous statement into something powerful.

Call it a fairly easy check of Cliodynamics. Or Moiralogy.

[johndallman]

It's even easier, although too slow for TV drama, if you can persuade a British style government to do the right kind of stupid thing. Of the seven Prime Ministers since 1978, when I started taking notice of these things, two have brought themselves down through decisions they took freely, but which looked foolish to many at the time, four have contributed significantly to their own downfall, and the seventh is still in office.

[Anthony]

Honestly, the specific power isn't the ability to speak six words; all he's really doing is triggering a potential that was clearly already present. The power, if one exists, is either to see that the potential exists, or to create the potential.

[(E)]

Another quick thought the doctor is very experienced at bringing down governments, it's almost a specialist skill.

From a non social point of view is there a "viewing the strands of time" angle that the doctor could exploit to aid his choice of words.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

That was one of the episodes that stopped me from being a fan of the series. He got angry that one of his pets got uppity trying to defend "his" species for times when he's not there.

It helps that they changed showrunners some time after that. The Doctor is written better in other episodes, but David Tennant's run did not coincide with the best writing, IMHO (he's a good actor, but the Doctor he played was generally not the best Doctor, mostly for script reasons, and that episode is one of them).

It also helps that later episodes proved what a bad idea doing that was, since it lead to the Master becoming PM.

[Flyndaran]

It was the recent doctor that had the worst written piece of trash episode I've ever seen. The moon one. It was incoherent, against all previous canon and common sense, leading to a giant obnoxious mess that actively angered me. I should watch a good episode if only to avoid having that! being that final image I have of the show I loved literally since I was a toddler.
Sorry, I'm getting crotchety in my "old age".

[Flyndaran]

Originally Posted by (E)

Another quick thought the doctor is very experienced at bringing down governments, it's almost a specialist skill.

From a non social point of view is there a "viewing the strands of time" angle that the doctor could exploit to aid his choice of words.

He is almost a champion of chaos itself. He is a harbinger of change, usually of the violent sort, and usually of the good kind.
It's almost like it takes extreme effort and care to not break things/people/governments/etc.

I wonder how you'd write up that power.

[Donny Brook]

Maybe it's based on Detect. Detect: Socio-political vulnerabilty (Common), with Analyzing.
After that it takes an influence skill to plant the seed.

[Prince Charon]

Originally Posted by Flyndaran

It was the recent doctor that had the worst written piece of trash episode I've ever seen. The moon one. It was incoherent, against all previous canon and common sense, leading to a giant obnoxious mess that actively angered me. I should watch a good episode if only to avoid having that! being that final image I have of the show I loved literally since I was a toddler.
Sorry, I'm getting crotchety in my "old age".

Um, yeah, that was not a good one (it's been described as 'the most fan-dividing episode of Series 8'). You might want to consider watching 'Heaven Sent' and 'Hell Bent' (the second is an immediate sequel to the first, and Heaven Sent is considered by some to be the best Capaldi episode so far, or one of the best).

[(E)]

Doesn't Capaldi pull off regime change in Hell bent with just 4 words?
Fnord
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