DW 4.13 - Reactions

[out_there]

I watched the season finale last night and... hmmm. I'm left less squeeful than I would have hoped. Part of it is because I ADORED Donna and I'm feeling that loss, but a bigger part is that I need a series finale to have a little less heartbreak and doom.

So, firstly, Donna. It feels so horribly unfair (even though I know it could be worse, even though I know she'll never miss what she lost, even though I should be glad she's still alive) and it hits this personal tender spot I have for characters having their world-view changed without their knowledge, having their personal freedom to choose completely removed. It makes me upset. Not in the hating-RTD stage, but... upset. I can't explain it more than that, but just... oh.

However, I adored her as a Time Lord/temp combination and I loved her saving the day. LOVED it. And I loved her claiming a hug from Jack. But... yeah, unlike other companions where they may reappear, that's it for Donna. Never again will she appear on our screens. *sigh*

Secondly, Martha and the whole "every companion ever" idea. Good in theory, not so great in actuality. Now, I'm someone who literally did a happy dance when I realised the TW group were appearing on DW, but it didn't leave me feeling satisfied. In the effort to be bigger and better and MORE, I think the last two episodes weren't as well-crafted as they could have been. The storytelling felt a little clunky to me and there was such a huge level of info dump at the start of last week's ep -- a lot of it only explained in a couple of lines of dialogue in the final ep -- and it didn't work for me. I mean, honestly, why have the TW team if they're just going to sit there? Couldn't that have been cleared up last episode, and had Jack set the defense before he disappeared? And for Martha... she... well, didn't hold my interest. Not entirely Martha's fault (I liked her on S3, I liked her appearing on TW, I was... a bit ho-hum about her on this season of DW) but the plot, I think. I mean, yes, Martha works for UNIT, but her entire plot was basically wasted. I didn't overly care about it, but I didn't need to because all the effort was for nothing.

Now, admittedly, the same thing happened with Jack's subplot (and Sarah-Jane's) but theirs was quicker, to the poit, and didn't involve a whole bunch of UNIT secrets being rushedly explained to us. I get that the point is that we were entirely helpless without the second Doctor and Donna rushing in to save the day, but I think the point could have been proved with less info-dumping.

I liked the way the finale tied up so many loose ends (and the potential that Mickey or Martha -- or both! -- might start working for Jack would be great) but I'm left with the vague impression that having so many different characters kind of took away from the story. I don't know, because the Doctor's scenes with Davros were fantastic and rivetting, but the momentum of the story was choppy and uneven.

Out of the four series finales so far, it's my least favourite (For the curious, the order goes: S2's Doomsday, S1 because I cheered for Rose saving everyone and the regeneration scene was fantastic, S3 because the Master was so much fun, and I didn't object to the idea of the Doctor using the Master's mind control system against him and defeating him through human faith). It was still better than most things on TV these days, but I wasn't left overwhelmed with love for my show or the Doctor. I was left emotionally drained. (A good part of that might be being sick, I must admit. But I want DW to fill me with joy and awe, less with the heartbreak and doom.)

I'm looking forward to a break between seasons and a new writer. Secretly, I'm hoping that the new stories will spend less time linking back to the Daleks (seriously, I'm over the daleks, DW was about more than three or four villians, and I'd like some brand new ones, please) and will settle down with a stable companion and doctor team. I need some more emotional security in my show, I think. I can't take a new companion every year, I can't take changing Doctors, I can't take RTD breaking our hearts over and over.

Also... hmmm. What am I forgetting? Rose and the second Doctor.

I liked it. I liked Rose being back (even though I'm pretty sure Billie Piper had this weird lisp thing going on. In 4.11, I was really distracted by it), I loved how much the Doctor cared for her, and I think the second Doctor staying with her was a highly romantic moment and them kissing made me victoriously pump the air with a fist.

This is partly because I love Rose and I loved the bond she had with the Doctor, but I simultaneously don't like the idea of DW becoming a show about a couple that travels in time and space. So this was a solution that worked for me, made Rose and the second Doctor happy, and... gave the first Doctor some satisfaction (even if he was left alone again).

Doc II (because I'm tired of typing "the second Doctor") is the one and only chance the Doctor has of being human and still being *him*, of living the settled life that he can't have as the Doctor. As much as he has companions that love him, everyone settles down to live a life eventually, but the Doctor keeps travelling. While he's had a family and children (and grandchildren) before, while he's had that life of constant love, now he's alone. He's travelling, forever adventuring and having holidays, but never having any certainty, never able to keep his companions because he can't offer them what they need. Doc II is a version of the Doctor that *can*, that can let himself tell Rose he loves her -- that can let himself love her -- because he can now give her what she needs: he can offer himself entirely because he no longer has the responsibility of being the last Time Lord, he no longer has the TARDIS to obligate him to save others. He can settle on Earth, let himself fall head over heels in love with Rose, and live with her for the rest of his life. (He doesn't have to guard himself against not caring too much, not relying too much for fear of being too heartbroken when she leaves him or dies, and he has to live on.)

It's so terribly romantic. in_the_bottle was saying that she didn't see that, that she thought Rose thinks DocII is second best, never as good as the original, but I don't think so. There was no hesitation in kissing DocII. But I think she was still worried for the Doctor, who is off to travel again, going to be alone again, going to be challenged and do terrible and wonderful things, and who loves her, even if he can't say it. Rose cares about him, wants to ease things for him, and even if making him feel better meant spending the rest of her life knowing that he couldn't love her as she loved him, she would. She would stand by him to her dying day and not care that she missed life's other opportunities. (Unlike Martha, who has the personal pride/strength/whatever to walk away, but she never saw Nine, never saw the depth of anger and pain that the Doctor held after the Time War.)

It's the biggest gift the Doctor can give to Rose -- the opportunity to have him (well, DocII) love her as she really wants -- and it also keeps the universe safe from an angry DocII. It's also the biggest gift he could give to DocII: the influence of someone who loves him and can calm him, can make him love. And he knows that Rose's Earth will be safer with himself (well, DocII) to help her watch over it and who can he trust more to care for Rose than himself?

Basically, it made me very happy.

(For the record, I was thrilled with the not-regenerating loophole. I'm not ready for a new Doctor, and I'd be surprisingly sad to see DT walk away from his role. He seems to be enjoying it so much. ...yeah, inside my head, I'd like him to stay for as long as Tom Baker. And I like the stated idea that the Doctor is happy with who he is now, isn't looking to change, and the implication from River Song knowing him that he goes on to have a lot of adventures as Ten.)

Comments

[minna.livejournal.com]

(even though I'm pretty sure Billie Piper had this weird lisp thing going on. In 4.11, I was really distracted by it)

yeah, she did, haha. we all went o_O at her. apparently she said she was having trouble getting back into rose's accent. xD

[out-there.livejournal.com]

apparently she said she was having trouble getting back into rose's accent. xD

My guess was dental work, since those invisible braces (the ones that go on the inside of the teeth, so no-one sees them) can cause a lisp like that. Mind you, I hadn't realised how different Rose's accent was to Billie Piper's real accent until I paid attention on the confidentials.

[minna.livejournal.com]

I still haven't heard her natural accent xD I assumed Rose's was probably a bit put on since it was so aggressively chav, but I wasn't positive until Liss told me when I complained she looks like she's talking with her mouth full xD

[charliequinn.livejournal.com]

I really didn't like the last episode, which was so sad, because The Stolen Earth was SO GOOD.

WORD on Donna, I hated that! I wanted her to keep travelling with him, definatley the best companion so far.

I wasn't too impressed with Doctor 10.5 and Rose, because I felt it really betrayed Rose's character; like she had nothing better to do than sit around and wait for the Doctor, and now she has a clone, her life is complete. I liked Rose much better when she didn't need a man to complete her life.

And everyone else just didn't have enought to do :(

[out-there.livejournal.com]

WORD on Donna, I hated that! I wanted her to keep travelling with him, definatley the best companion so far.

Certinaly my favourite, I have to say.

I wasn't too impressed with Doctor 10.5 and Rose, because I felt it really betrayed Rose's character; like she had nothing better to do than sit around and wait for the Doctor, and now she has a clone, her life is complete. I liked Rose much better when she didn't need a man to complete her life.

Well... hmmm. I don't agree there, but that's because I look at Rose and see someone who now has a loving family living in wealthy comfort, has an important and challenging job in UNIT, and is clearly doing her best to protect everyone, and the only thing she's now missing is the Doctor. It's not that she couldn't be complete without him (she could) but she'd be happier with him.

And everyone else just didn't have enought to do :(

Not enough that was important, I think. I mean, they tried but it all felt... shoved together too quickly.

[charliequinn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that was my main problem. Even with the extra running time, everything was so... rushed. And the dreaded duex ex machina reared it's ugly head again :(

[ekaterinn.livejournal.com]

So, firstly, Donna. It feels so horribly unfair (even though I know it could be worse, even though I know she'll never miss what she lost, even though I should be glad she's still alive) and it hits this personal tender spot I have for characters having their world-view changed without their knowledge, having their personal freedom to choose completely removed. It makes me upset. Not in the hating-RTD stage, but... upset. I can't explain it more than that, but just... oh.

Yes, yes, and YES. The lack of CHOICE really got to me, as well as the violation it represents. I even went back and rewatched 'Midnight', going, ha, Ten, how do you like it when your agency is removed?

And then I got to thinking about it, and a lot of this season is about choices, and when you have them and when you don't. From Pompeii to Turn Left, the largest and smallest choices have consequences, sometimes unintended. (And also how the Doctor will choose life if at all possible, and how that might not always be the best choice). I'm probably going to write up meta and post it in the next couple of days.

I'm also coping by writing "Donna is awesome, even if she doesn't remember anything" fic, which, um, I'll probably ask you to beta.

[out-there.livejournal.com]

I even went back and rewatched 'Midnight', going, ha, Ten, how do you like it when your agency is removed?

Hee! Oh, that shouldn't make me snigger, but it does. Because, yes, that's exactly it. The lack of choice isn't something that hasn't been mentioned/noticed in the series. It's there, just as much as the Doctor's tendency to make decisions for people/the human race is. (Like Harriet Jones. I loved that his decision to removed her from power -- which he did, quite intentionally -- had horrible ramifications for the Master coming to power. And yet, she remained a practical, gutsy female character that I always liked, and someone who had a geniune point about the Doctor' powers of guardianship over Earth.)

I'm probably going to write up meta and post it in the next couple of days.

I'm going to keep an eye for it, because, yes. This is one of thsoe things that hits my buttons hard. Back in SV fandom, seperis wrote a fic (A Handful of Dust) that traumatised me far more than anything I'd read before (or read since) because of the lack of choice that was left. It's a great story, narratively works and the characterisation is spot-on, but the lack of choice (or what I saw as Lex's lack of choice) was horrible.

I'm also coping by writing "Donna is awesome, even if she doesn't remember anything" fic, which, um, I'll probably ask you to beta.

*raises hand enthusiastically* I would love to! Because Donna = so awesome I could flail.

[in-the-bottle.livejournal.com]

I was reading the last email you sent me before I left work, and going "OMG, you can write an ESSAY on it!" as my eyes semi-glazed over while my tired brain threatened to shut down from it all.

I love Midnight, I do, it was just the lack of Donna, though it wouldn't have worked with her on the train thing, I know that. I didn't squee over the ep, but I still utterly enjoyed it, the only thing that spoiled it for me was that housewife lady on it. She was annoying the HELL out of me through the whole thing.

Maybe I shouldn't say 'second best', but more along the lines of he's the Doctor, but not quite *her* Doctor, yet, he is in a way... it's all a bit confusing, really.

For the record, I was thrilled with the not-regenerating loophole.

Oh yeah! I told you it's gonna have something to do with the Hand!! :D

ETA: And you know what? There's nothing preventing them from doing some sci-fi magic and have Donna being able to remember the Doctor and what they did, but not having his brain in her head, so that she won't die from it. That's the reason I'm not as upset as I would've been if they'd killed her. There's still hope that she'll be coming back one way or another. And hey, s2, the whole 'wall between universe shut FOREVER' thing, see how THAT turned out! :P

[out-there.livejournal.com]

There's still hope that she'll be coming back one way or another. And hey, s2, the whole 'wall between universe shut FOREVER' thing, see how THAT turned out!

Hee! Very true!