Doctor Who Common Entries Contests
DWCE2: 15 April 2009
Results
50 people elected to play, just slightly down on DWCE1 and DWCE2, and this may have
been at least in part to the lack of variety in the questions. On the other hand,
some people seemed to particularly relish the challenge. It certainly seems as if
this was a tougher game, as the eventual winner couldn't quite get past 2% of the
theoretical maximum which was around 800 trillion; previous winners have scored 17%
and 8.5%.
That 2%er is BeyondTheVoid with a score of 15 trillion, and to whom go hearty
congratulations. Five other players also scored above 5 trillion, including
HolmesBaker who also came third in DWCE1. Here are all six of their answer-slates.
No other players got above 3 trillion or 0.5% of the theoretical maximum.
BEYONDTHEVOID ANDREW HODSON BIGGLES
0 Davros Davros Invasion
1 Time Time Pirates
2 Daleks Daleks Daleks
3 Doctor Console Police
4 Gallifrey Dead Dead
5 Giant K1 Giant
6 Wars Wars Wars
7 Fiction Wank Wank
8 Ace Ace Ace
9 Waterhouse Dinosaurs Dead
HOLMESBAKER JESSE SMITH ICEDUCK
0 Davros Exterminate Exterminate
1 Time Time Time
2 Daleks Daleks Daleks
3 Time Console Blue
4 Dead Spiders Gallifrey
5 Giant Giant K9
6 Wars Omega Sun
7 Wank Fiction Spoilers
8 Ace Ace Ace
9 Died Earthshock Earthshock
To review the scoring:
The scores on the different questions are MULTIPLIED to produce a final score for
each entrant. High score wins.
Here is the complete table of scores. Use a monospaced font to see proper alignment
(this may mean doing 'view source').
As usual, I have provided a so-called theoretical maximum which is the product of
the highest scores obtained on each question. It is theoretical because it does not
take into account the effect on the scores of an entrant submitting such an
answer-slate.
RANK SCORE ENTRANT Q0 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 Q6 Q7 Q8 Q9 RATIO
802,436,544,000 MAXIMUM 26 21 27 9 14 16 12 9 25 10
1 15,872,371,200 Beyondthevoid 9 21 27 9 4 16 12 6 25 3 1.9780%
2 13,226,976,000 Andrew Hodson 9 21 27 8 10 4 12 9 25 3 1.6484%
3 9,331,200,000 Biggles 4 5 27 4 10 16 12 9 25 10 1.1629%
4 8,817,984,000 HolmesBaker 9 21 27 4 10 16 12 9 25 1 1.0989%
5 8,491,392,000 Jesse Smith 26 21 27 8 5 16 1 6 25 6 1.0582%
6 7,164,612,000 Iceduck 26 21 27 9 4 9 10 1 25 6 0.8929%
7 2,264,371,200 DoctorBrownCoat 26 5 27 4 14 16 12 2 5 6 0.2822%
8 1,415,232,000 Starfighter Pilot 26 21 27 1 6 16 10 1 25 4 0.1764%
9 1,273,708,800 Fortmap 26 21 27 8 6 9 4 2 25 1 0.1587%
10 1,069,915,392 Simon Kinnear 26 21 27 3 14 9 4 4 4 3 0.1333%
11 551,124,000 David Ainsworth 9 21 2 9 1 9 12 6 25 10 0.0687%
12 524,160,000 Will OZOO James 26 21 5 4 4 16 10 1 25 3 0.0653%
13 442,260,000 Iain Rylands 26 1 3 9 14 9 10 2 25 10 0.0551%
14 363,916,800 Froo 26 5 27 8 10 9 12 3 2 2 0.0454%
15 235,872,000 Peter Morris 26 21 5 1 10 9 4 6 4 10 0.0294%
= 235,872,000 Vegetables 26 21 27 1 10 16 2 2 5 5 0.0294%
17 199,017,000 TheOther 26 3 27 1 14 9 10 1 25 3 0.0248%
18 194,400,000 Matthew Bradford 9 3 4 9 5 16 10 1 25 10 0.0242%
19 100,776,960 Trevor Gensch 1 3 27 9 6 16 12 6 2 10 0.0126%
20 80,372,250 JCCMMBailey 9 21 5 9 14 9 3 1 25 1 0.0100%
21 79,606,800 Badgers 26 21 27 4 1 1 3 9 25 2 0.0099%
22 70,761,600 Ged Sweeney 26 21 5 8 1 1 12 9 5 6 0.0088%
23 61,916,400 Trollface 26 21 27 3 14 1 1 2 25 2 0.0077%
24 49,128,768 Carl Wood 26 1 27 9 6 9 4 9 4 1 0.0061%
25 37,908,000 Vgrattidge-1 26 3 27 1 5 4 4 9 25 1 0.0047%
26 25,272,000 Mark Welsh 26 2 1 9 4 9 2 3 25 10 0.0031%
27 22,044,960 Gavin Morgan 9 1 27 4 14 9 10 3 1 6 0.0027%
28 21,432,600 Martin Ingham 3 21 27 9 14 1 10 1 1 10 0.0027%
29 20,995,200 Gordon Ridout 4 3 27 4 5 1 12 9 5 6 0.0026%
30 20,412,000 Magicbaboon 1 3 27 4 14 9 10 1 25 2 0.0025%
31 19,906,560 Wilf 4 1 27 8 10 16 1 9 4 4 0.0025%
32 19,656,000 Daniel McGrath 26 21 2 9 5 16 1 1 25 1 0.0024%
33 18,200,000 Aloysius 26 5 5 4 14 1 2 1 25 10 0.0023%
34 15,163,200 Vislor 26 1 3 9 4 9 12 1 25 2 0.0019%
35 6,048,000 Nsullivan 1 21 2 2 10 16 3 2 25 3 0.0008%
36 4,147,200 Jonathan Morris 2 3 27 8 10 1 4 4 5 4 0.0005%
37 3,369,600 TheMonitor 26 1 3 8 4 9 1 3 25 2 0.0004%
38 3,359,232 Barnaby Salton 3 4 27 9 6 16 4 1 3 1 0.0004%
39 3,024,000 Dave Jones 1 4 4 9 14 2 1 3 25 10 0.0004%
40 1,259,712 Llama Roddy 4 3 27 9 4 9 1 6 2 1 0.0002%
41 931,840 Chriskelk 26 4 1 4 14 2 10 4 1 2 0.0001%
42 842,400 BaselSorian 26 1 4 9 10 9 2 1 1 5 0.0001%
43 158,760 Peter Scandrett 9 21 4 3 14 1 1 1 1 5 0.0000%
44 138,240 Haydon Dennison 9 2 2 4 6 4 4 1 2 5 0.0000%
45 36,288 Stacey01 1 21 1 9 1 16 1 1 3 4 0.0000%
46 22,464 Graymalkin 26 3 1 2 1 9 2 4 1 2 0.0000%
47 12,096 Binro_The_Heretic 3 1 1 4 14 4 2 3 3 1 0.0000%
48 7,680 Ben Goudie 2 5 1 1 4 16 12 1 1 1 0.0000%
49 4,860 Matthew Warren 1 4 27 9 1 1 1 1 1 5 0.0000%
50 26 Phil Evans 26 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 0.0000%
Of the 500 answers submitted, 96 were unique, scoring one point. Again, this is
considerably more than for DWCE1 and DWCE2, even though more people played in those
contests. Of the 50 entrants, only 6 had no one-point answers, and another 16 had
only one.
As usual, we also have an entrant who wins not so much the wooden spoon as the
cardboard spoon. With one exception, all of Phil Evans' answer-words were the
question words repeated (and he was very clear in his submission email that this was
intentional). Why he thought this would be a winning strategy, and why he did not
apply it to the first question, he did not reveal, but he was the only one thinking
along those lines, and so he scores one point for nine out of ten of his answers
giving him a magnificently poor score of 26 and a last-place finish.
Here is the complete list of answers given. Each list shows correct answers in the
order best to worst (most to least popular).
[b]0. Dalek[/b]
26 Exterminate
9 Davros
4 Invasion
3 Skaro
2 Masterplan
1 Cyberman
1 Death
1 Empire
1 Evil
1 Pepper
1 Stairs
We begin with one of the easiest questions, with over half the field going straight
for the Daleks' battle-cry. A pattern is shown here which can also be seen in most
of the rest of the questions, with entrants split between a related word, like
"Exterminate" or a connected word which forms a phrase or part of phrase. Other
"related" examples here are "Davros" and "Skaro", whereas "connected" words include
"Invasion" (as in "of Earth") and ("Masterplan"). A few people went for what I
suppose are antonyms - "Cyberman" and, at a push, "Stairs".
[b]1. Space[/b]
21 Time
5 Pirates
4 Ship
3 Big
3 Museum
3 War
2 Ark
1 Black
1 Colony
1 Frontier
1 Man
1 Planet
1 Relative
1 Space
1 Spaceship
1 Station
This was the one I [u]expected[/u] to be the easiest. My original draft included
"Time" as a question, but I figured everyone would put "Lord" so I took it out.
Then I realised that some people might put "Space" and then I wondered if I should
take "Space" out because everyone would put "Time" as the answer to that.
Eventually I decided that there were enough other plausible "Space" answers to
make that worth leaving in, and so it proved to be. Story titles turned out to
be a low-percentage play because there are so many of them. Having decided to go
with a story title should it be "Museum"? Or "Colony"? Or "Frontier"? Or "Pirates"?
Or if you're a Target fan, "War"?
[b]2. Evil[/b]
27 Daleks
5 Dalek
4 Master
3 Planet
2 Good
2 Mind
1 Davros
1 Evil
1 Face
1 Genius
1 K9
1 Of
1 Twin
Because there are no (potentially controversial) judgments of equivalence by me in
this contest, "Daleks" and "Dalek" are marked as separate answers, with I suppose
those who submitted the former thinking of the 1967 serial and those who submitted
the later just thinking descriptively. So, mysteriously, here an episode title was
the way to go, despite the distractions of "Mind" and "Face". I guess you just can't
beat Daleks. I have no idea what the entrants who submitted "K9" and "Of" were
thinking (well I imagine the "Of" person was thinking of story titles, but... wuh?).
"Twin" might have been a good answer if evil twins were a common device in Doctor
Who, but they aren't. Dopplegangers do appear once every three or so seasons, but
they tend to be benign or robotic (or both).
[b]3. TARDIS[/b]
9 Blue
9 Doctor
8 Console
4 Police
4 Ship
4 Time
3 Box
2 Travel
1 Big
1 Bigger
1 Huge
1 Inside
1 Key
1 Policebox
1 TARDIS
This question marks the first appearance of the answer "Doctor" which struck me as
odd. This after all is a Doctor Who Common Entries Quiz. "Doctor" is a plausible
answer to every question, so it was surprising for me to see it come up at all, more
surprising that it would be given as an answer at least once for four different
questions (one entrant gave "Doctor" as an answer three times) and staggering to
see it as joint best answer for this question. Again, the field is divided between
related and connected words, with the two best answers being related, but the next
best answer being connected.
[b]4. Planet[/b]
14 Earth
10 Dead
6 Daleks
5 Spiders
4 Evil
4 Gallifrey
1 Alien
1 Giants
1 Home
1 Impossible
1 Of
1 Planet
1 Space
Daleks again do well here, both the word itself and the episode title which
introduced them. Other story titles again divide the field, but we all know where
home is - planet Earth.
[b]5. Robot[/b]
16 Giant
9 Death
9 K9
4 K1
2 Dog
1 Android
1 Baker
1 Chumblie
1 Cleaner
1 Kettlewell
1 Machine
1 Metal
1 Raston
1 Robot
1 Tom
Here it's good luck to be a target fan. If, for you, the first adventure of the
fourth Doctor is "Doctor Who and the Giant Robot" then this was an easy question.
If you're more of a Chris Boucher, season 14 type of fan, then "Death" still
scores you a decent 9 points, or finally if you're a Bob-and-Dave seasons 15
type then it's "K9" who comes to your rescue. I ruled that "K-9" and "K9" were the
same answer if you ignored punctuation, which I trust also answers the question
about compound words. The real answer to the compound words question was "no-one
has submitted any" which I didn't feel was an appropriate answer to give at that
stage in the contest. At the close of the contest, it was still the case that
nobody had submitted any, including those who enquired about their interpretation.
[b]6. Star[/b]
12 Wars
10 Sun
4 Ship
4 Trek
3 Adric
2 Baker
2 Guest
2 System
1 Badge
1 Beast
1 Bright
1 Constellation
1 Fish
1 Kylie
1 Light
1 Omega
1 Rassilon's
1 Star
1 Twinkle
This question continues the theme of related vs connected answers, with the added
wrinkle that the best connected answer, which was also narrowly the best answer
overall for this question, was a non-Doctor Who answer! "Wars" also left "Trek" for
dead for reasons which are not clear to me. Those who answered "Adric" were
obviously thinking of the lad's badge and may have been influenced by the Alzarian
teenager's presence in question 9.
[b]7. Fan[/b]
9 Wank
6 Fiction
4 Boy
3 Club
3 Geek
2 Anorak
2 LINDA
2 Whovian
1 Anal
1 Breeze
1 Ceiling
1 Convention
1 Doctor
1 Dom
1 Fan
1 Fanatic
1 Fandom
1 Fic
1 Forum
1 Hot
1 I'm
1 Levine
1 Nerd
1 Obsessed
1 Spoilers
1 Who
1 Zine
This was an interesting and possibly controversial question for a couple of reasons.
It was clearly the most difficult, with almost 30 different answers given. Some fell
foul of my not judging similar answers as equivalent, so "Fic" and "Fiction" get
marked as separate answers and so do "Fandom" and "Dom". The top answer was
particularly interesting, for the number of people who gave it and the number of
people who didn't. One entrant answered this question with "I'm not willing to
disclose the word that immediately comes to mind: there may be ladies present" and
so was deemed to have answered simply "I'm". Several others indicated in their
emails that they had considered "Wank" and rejected it. At least one of these
entrants denied themselves a top three finish by this manoeuvre. One entrant gave
their answer as "W a n k" and directed me to ignore the spaces which were simply
there as a defense against firewalls and the like, which I had no problem with.
[b]8. Professor[/b]
25 Ace
5 Yana
4 Doctor
3 Zaroff
2 Chronotis
2 Marius
1 Boom
1 Haaaa-aaa-aaaace!
1 Lazarus
1 Mad
1 Professor
1 School
1 Science
1 Song
1 Travers
Again, two schools of thought here. One was to ask "who is that word associated
with?" to which there is one answer - "Ace". The other was to ask "who is that
word used to refer to?", which gives you any number of Professors, mad and
otherwise, which split the votes between them. The entrant who submitted
"Haaaa-aaa-aaaace!" told me I should "feel at liberty to count this as the same
word as 'Ace'" but I felt that this was going beyond the clearly stated rules
of the contest, and having not marked "Dalek" as equivalent to "Daleks" I
couldn't see on what grounds I could possibly mark "Haaaa-aaa-aaaace!" as
equivalent to "Ace", so I didn't.
[b]9. Adric[/b]
10 Dead
6 Earthshock
5 Companion
4 Badge
3 Dinosaurs
3 Waterhouse
2 Alzarius
2 Annoying
2 Crap
2 Death
1 AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAHAHA
1 Adric
1 Boom!
1 Died
1 Dies
1 Doctor
1 Genius
1 Git
1 Maths
1 Star
1 Twat
And finally, Adric seems to be most famous for his demise, with a number of other
coarse words also appearing as answers. One entrant told me "I don't mind Adric,
but that was by far the hardest question, with words like "die", "kill", "hate" and
"twat" all seeming likely to me. I'm reasonably sure that the top-scoring word will
be a negative one, it's just trying to guess which one." I don't know if "Dead"
counts as negative, but all the obviously pejorative words like "twat" and "git"
were one or two point answers, even if there were quite a few of them. The entrant
who submitted "AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAAHAHA" gave no other indication that
this answer should be interpreted in any way other than literally (even if the
rules permitted such a thing).
That wraps it up for DWCE3 and will be my last common entries contest for a while.
I have DWRE14 almost ready to go, so look for that early next week, and then I
anticipate letting the contests rest for a while, unless anyone else wants a go
of course.
Cheers
Tom
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