top 5 'gaps' and top 5 doctor/rose episodes
I'm doing that top 5 meme, so here are two of them.
Top 5 "Gaps"
5. There are loads of things I feel like I should have read as an English major but haven't. I have never read any Dickens, haven't read or seen and could not even vaguely summarize King Lear. Also, I think people sometimes mistake studying English with studying literature at large, because I often get asked about famous non-English authors and my experience there is very minimal. I'm not familiar with myths, haven't read the Iliad or the Odyssey, no Descartes or Camus or whoever else.
4. I know fuck all about religion. I was raised in a vaguely-Christian-but-mostly-agnostic family, never got baptized, have been to a grand total of one church service in my life, am now an atheist, etc. This is true of any religion, but Christianity is the one that comes up the most often in my studies. BASICALLY everything ever written in the English language is about Jesus and I never know it because I don't know shit about the Bible. My knowledge of other religions is even spottier. I watched The Prince of Egypt for the first time the other day with Hannah and Tay (lol) and basically there were some moments where I was like "hey I remember that from Rugrats!"
3. Geography! I know nothing about geography. I blame this squarely on public education because we did "Canadian Geography" every year for like five years, in which they taught us the provinces ad nauseum and also about rocks and fishing and shit. Then after that it was no longer mandatory and I stopped taking it and never learned shit like where Prague is.
2. I have never seen any of the Back to the Future films. Every time I try to watch one something goes wrong! That's not quite Star Wars-level, but it's pretty bad.
1. I didn't know Casanova was a real person until like... 2 or 3 years ago when I watched the BBC one and went to Wikipedia to find out who originally wrote Casanova. I JUST ASSUMED HE WAS A LEGENDARY MYTHIC FIGURE like Santa, the Easter Bunny or Don Quixote. To this day I still feel wary, like the Wikipedia page was an elaborate ruse created by someone trying to trick me.
PS while trying to make this list I also thought of two for my friends that are so funny I've obviously cherished them forever. 1) the friend who thought reindeer were made-up creatures like unicorns, 2) the friend who asked me what Mick Jagger's first name is.
And then fauxkaren asked for
Top 5 Doctor/Rose Episodes
Some of the pictures are from tumblr so click 'em for the source.
5. Fear Her
Okay, Fear Her made the list because it is representative of how I feel about many of the weak episodes in s2: the plot sucks, but goddamn if the Doctor and Rose aren't adorable. They're cute and flirty at the start, having a blast just being around each other and teasing each other. Their reunion hug is squishy and wonderful and you can tell just how happy they are travelling together and how happy they make each other.
I also like Fear Her because in the end it's Rose who saves the day and Rose who works out how to save the day and the Doctor. Lots of episodes revolve around the Doctor rescuing the companion, so it was nice to have one that did the opposite, and this is sort of the button on Rose's s2 arc of growing into a leader and a hero.
4. The Runaway Bride
Did I just list an episode that has no Rose in it as one of my top 5 Doctor/Rose episodes? I SURE DID!
I fucking love Runaway Bride, for a whole host of reasons, but Doctor/Rose is definitely a big chunk of it. THERE'S AN ENTIRE SONG WRITTEN FOR THIS EPISODE THAT IS ABOUT DOCTOR/ROSE. Runaway Bride brings us our first glimpse into grieving Ten and it is wonderful. We see how much losing Rose has hurt the Doctor and we get the first indications that the text isn't going to forget Rose existed. The Doctor's pain at losing Rose is what gives Donna something to latch onto and something to trust, and I think by the end she recognizes it even better than he does. He very nearly calls the Tylers his family and baww I just love it so much.
I always wish he'd accepted Donna's dinner offer or at least eaten icecream out of the tub with her while they cried about their Rose- and Lance-issues. TBH Ten probably wishes that as well after JE. Way to go, Ten.
3. Journey's End
I knew I wanted JE on the list but couldn't decide where. It hopped around a lot. The thing about JE is it's not a perfect episode, and the episode itself isn't explicitly about Doctor/Rose. But if we're listing Doctor/Rose episodes I love because of their Doctor/Rose content, then JE has to rank pretty high because OMG BEACH SCENE and CLOEN LET ME LOVE YOU.
On a Doctor/Rose front JE gives me a lot of things to love. We get the reunion hug we've been waiting for since s2. We get the Doctor's adorable squee noise when Rose says she was building the Cannon to get back to him. We get Rose being Rose and offering her emotional support when he thinks the Daleks have killed Donna. We get Martha approving of Ten/Rose and Rose approving of Martha.
AND THEN WE GET THE BEACH SCENE. So many people have issues with this scene and it's not perfect but on the whole I really love it. It's bittersweet, but that's fitting for the ship and I think that makes me like it more. Writer's Tale shows us how it'd've been if it had been played as a perfectly happy ending, and the answer is "terrible". Ten pushing Rose away in the hopes that she can be happy with Cloen is sad for both of them, but it's the best solution. There's the "you made me better" line which is sweet, and even "does it need saying?", while perhaps a terrible response to Rose's question, is also essentially saying "well obviously he loves her". Cloen is sweet and BASICALLY PROPOSES and finally the Doctor tells Rose he loves her, even if the audience doesn't get to listen.
AND THEN KISSING.
2. Doomsday
Oh, Doomsday.
Doomsday is the first time it really occurred to me that I was maybe possibly shipping these characters like FedEx. I watched all of s1 through the start of s4 in such a rush that I barely had time to process anything, but I do distinctly remember laughing at the Ten/Cassandra kiss in New Earth and not because of shippy flail. But by the beach scene in Doomsday I was shifting anxiously in my seat with a constant mental refrain of say it say it say it say it say it gdi and also it felt like someone was hitting my soul in the crotch with a frozen sledgehammer. I knew Rose would come back -- the site I was streaming on helpfully had announced ROSE RETURNS IN SERIES 4 at the top of the page -- but the episode was devastating nonetheless and, like I said, was the first time I realized how much I wanted these Rose to put her face on his face or vice versa.
Plus, the whole end is just so wonderful and sad. The Doctor and Rose are so committed you literally need two different universes to split them up. The whole season arc in a plot perspective has been created with the express purpose of separating these characters because Rose isn't going to just go home or marry someone on Planet Zorg. We see -- and I think the Doctor sees, for the first time -- exactly how much Rose means it when she says she wants to stay forever. David Tennant and Billie Piper are amazing during the wall scene; I can never really decide which one of them makes me sadder in that scene. I love the contrast of Rose's desperation and heartbroken sobbing with the Doctor's mute and still devastation.
Then the beach scene happens and it is beautifully sad for so many reasons. The Doctor, after promising Rose he wouldn't leave her behind, orbits a supernova to try and say goodbye properly. Rose packs bags with her when she goes to Norway because she probably thinks he's coming to pick her up :(. And then their conversation is so great -- both trying to keep it light and stay strong for the other person and neither quite succeeding. I love that Rose has to try twice to choke out an "I love you", and I love that Ten was absolutely going to say it back, even if he ran out of time. Rose sobbing and running to hug her mother while we see Ten crying alone in the TARDIS is ....awwwww.
1. The Impossible Planet/Satan Pit
In terms of best Doctor/Rose episodes I think this two-parter has to win, hands down. They're really solidly constructed episodes, probably the strongest in s2, but beyond that I think they show the Doctor/Rose relationship at its absolute best. This two-parter really showcases them as a team. When the TARDIS is GONE FOREVER, Rose keeps it together to support the Doctor. The mortgage conversation happens and it's awesome -- it's not about Rose wanting a house and a dog and 3 kids and pressuring the Doctor into settling down, it's about Rose trying to make the best of the situation and pointing out that they still have each other while they're both awkward and adorable about it. When the Doctor wants to go down and investigate with Ida, Rose gives him a kiss and tells him to come back in one piece because they are functional adults who trust each other to take care of themselves.
There's the "if you talk to Rose, tell her... tell her I... oh, she knows" which is a MAGICAL GIFT.
But the best thing about this episode is the faith they both have in each other. It ties in so nicely with the overall themes of faith and belief. When the Doctor winds up stuck down the pit, he's convinced he'll find a way to get back up because "Rose is up there". When it seems the Doctor is dead, Rose wants to stay because she doesn't believe that he is. And then of course there's THE BEST SPEECH EVER IN THE WORLD:
So, that's the trap, or the test, or the final judgment, I don't know. But if I kill you, I kill her.
Except that implies - in this big grand scheme of gods and devils - that she's just a victim. But I've seen a lot of this universe. I've seen fake gods, and bad gods, and demi-gods and would-be gods. Out of all that, out of that whole pantheon - if I believe in one thing... just one thing... I believe in her.
Perfect stunning flawless all the awards etc. When we rewatched this episode this summer it was somewhere around this point that spud14 was like "wait how does he plan to save her again?" and me, firstofoct and papilio_luna were like "HE DOESN'T HE TRUSTS HER TO SAVE HERSELF THAT IS WHY IT IS SO AWESOME!!" And it is. For all that the internet talks about how useless and clingy Rose is, the Doctor makes it explicit here that he knows she is not a victim. The whole "plan" here hinges on the idea that the Doctor won't sacrifice Rose, and the whole plan topples because the Doctor believes in Rose's ability to save herself. And for her part, Rose sends the beast into a black hole.
That speech is exactly what I like about the Doctor/Rose relationship and is them at their absolute best. They believe in each other and have faith in each other's capabilities and that's what allows them to work together as a team. Despite the age gap, despite the gap in experience, despite the fact that he's a Time Lord and she's a twenty-year old girl from a council estate, they're partners.
Top 5 "Gaps"
5. There are loads of things I feel like I should have read as an English major but haven't. I have never read any Dickens, haven't read or seen and could not even vaguely summarize King Lear. Also, I think people sometimes mistake studying English with studying literature at large, because I often get asked about famous non-English authors and my experience there is very minimal. I'm not familiar with myths, haven't read the Iliad or the Odyssey, no Descartes or Camus or whoever else.
4. I know fuck all about religion. I was raised in a vaguely-Christian-but-mostly-agnostic family, never got baptized, have been to a grand total of one church service in my life, am now an atheist, etc. This is true of any religion, but Christianity is the one that comes up the most often in my studies. BASICALLY everything ever written in the English language is about Jesus and I never know it because I don't know shit about the Bible. My knowledge of other religions is even spottier. I watched The Prince of Egypt for the first time the other day with Hannah and Tay (lol) and basically there were some moments where I was like "hey I remember that from Rugrats!"
3. Geography! I know nothing about geography. I blame this squarely on public education because we did "Canadian Geography" every year for like five years, in which they taught us the provinces ad nauseum and also about rocks and fishing and shit. Then after that it was no longer mandatory and I stopped taking it and never learned shit like where Prague is.
2. I have never seen any of the Back to the Future films. Every time I try to watch one something goes wrong! That's not quite Star Wars-level, but it's pretty bad.
1. I didn't know Casanova was a real person until like... 2 or 3 years ago when I watched the BBC one and went to Wikipedia to find out who originally wrote Casanova. I JUST ASSUMED HE WAS A LEGENDARY MYTHIC FIGURE like Santa, the Easter Bunny or Don Quixote. To this day I still feel wary, like the Wikipedia page was an elaborate ruse created by someone trying to trick me.
PS while trying to make this list I also thought of two for my friends that are so funny I've obviously cherished them forever. 1) the friend who thought reindeer were made-up creatures like unicorns, 2) the friend who asked me what Mick Jagger's first name is.
And then fauxkaren asked for
Top 5 Doctor/Rose Episodes
Some of the pictures are from tumblr so click 'em for the source.
5. Fear Her
Okay, Fear Her made the list because it is representative of how I feel about many of the weak episodes in s2: the plot sucks, but goddamn if the Doctor and Rose aren't adorable. They're cute and flirty at the start, having a blast just being around each other and teasing each other. Their reunion hug is squishy and wonderful and you can tell just how happy they are travelling together and how happy they make each other.
I also like Fear Her because in the end it's Rose who saves the day and Rose who works out how to save the day and the Doctor. Lots of episodes revolve around the Doctor rescuing the companion, so it was nice to have one that did the opposite, and this is sort of the button on Rose's s2 arc of growing into a leader and a hero.
4. The Runaway Bride
Did I just list an episode that has no Rose in it as one of my top 5 Doctor/Rose episodes? I SURE DID!
I fucking love Runaway Bride, for a whole host of reasons, but Doctor/Rose is definitely a big chunk of it. THERE'S AN ENTIRE SONG WRITTEN FOR THIS EPISODE THAT IS ABOUT DOCTOR/ROSE. Runaway Bride brings us our first glimpse into grieving Ten and it is wonderful. We see how much losing Rose has hurt the Doctor and we get the first indications that the text isn't going to forget Rose existed. The Doctor's pain at losing Rose is what gives Donna something to latch onto and something to trust, and I think by the end she recognizes it even better than he does. He very nearly calls the Tylers his family and baww I just love it so much.
I always wish he'd accepted Donna's dinner offer or at least eaten icecream out of the tub with her while they cried about their Rose- and Lance-issues. TBH Ten probably wishes that as well after JE. Way to go, Ten.
3. Journey's End
I knew I wanted JE on the list but couldn't decide where. It hopped around a lot. The thing about JE is it's not a perfect episode, and the episode itself isn't explicitly about Doctor/Rose. But if we're listing Doctor/Rose episodes I love because of their Doctor/Rose content, then JE has to rank pretty high because OMG BEACH SCENE and CLOEN LET ME LOVE YOU.
On a Doctor/Rose front JE gives me a lot of things to love. We get the reunion hug we've been waiting for since s2. We get the Doctor's adorable squee noise when Rose says she was building the Cannon to get back to him. We get Rose being Rose and offering her emotional support when he thinks the Daleks have killed Donna. We get Martha approving of Ten/Rose and Rose approving of Martha.
AND THEN WE GET THE BEACH SCENE. So many people have issues with this scene and it's not perfect but on the whole I really love it. It's bittersweet, but that's fitting for the ship and I think that makes me like it more. Writer's Tale shows us how it'd've been if it had been played as a perfectly happy ending, and the answer is "terrible". Ten pushing Rose away in the hopes that she can be happy with Cloen is sad for both of them, but it's the best solution. There's the "you made me better" line which is sweet, and even "does it need saying?", while perhaps a terrible response to Rose's question, is also essentially saying "well obviously he loves her". Cloen is sweet and BASICALLY PROPOSES and finally the Doctor tells Rose he loves her, even if the audience doesn't get to listen.
AND THEN KISSING.
2. Doomsday
Oh, Doomsday.
Doomsday is the first time it really occurred to me that I was maybe possibly shipping these characters like FedEx. I watched all of s1 through the start of s4 in such a rush that I barely had time to process anything, but I do distinctly remember laughing at the Ten/Cassandra kiss in New Earth and not because of shippy flail. But by the beach scene in Doomsday I was shifting anxiously in my seat with a constant mental refrain of say it say it say it say it say it gdi and also it felt like someone was hitting my soul in the crotch with a frozen sledgehammer. I knew Rose would come back -- the site I was streaming on helpfully had announced ROSE RETURNS IN SERIES 4 at the top of the page -- but the episode was devastating nonetheless and, like I said, was the first time I realized how much I wanted these Rose to put her face on his face or vice versa.
Plus, the whole end is just so wonderful and sad. The Doctor and Rose are so committed you literally need two different universes to split them up. The whole season arc in a plot perspective has been created with the express purpose of separating these characters because Rose isn't going to just go home or marry someone on Planet Zorg. We see -- and I think the Doctor sees, for the first time -- exactly how much Rose means it when she says she wants to stay forever. David Tennant and Billie Piper are amazing during the wall scene; I can never really decide which one of them makes me sadder in that scene. I love the contrast of Rose's desperation and heartbroken sobbing with the Doctor's mute and still devastation.
Then the beach scene happens and it is beautifully sad for so many reasons. The Doctor, after promising Rose he wouldn't leave her behind, orbits a supernova to try and say goodbye properly. Rose packs bags with her when she goes to Norway because she probably thinks he's coming to pick her up :(. And then their conversation is so great -- both trying to keep it light and stay strong for the other person and neither quite succeeding. I love that Rose has to try twice to choke out an "I love you", and I love that Ten was absolutely going to say it back, even if he ran out of time. Rose sobbing and running to hug her mother while we see Ten crying alone in the TARDIS is ....awwwww.
1. The Impossible Planet/Satan Pit
In terms of best Doctor/Rose episodes I think this two-parter has to win, hands down. They're really solidly constructed episodes, probably the strongest in s2, but beyond that I think they show the Doctor/Rose relationship at its absolute best. This two-parter really showcases them as a team. When the TARDIS is GONE FOREVER, Rose keeps it together to support the Doctor. The mortgage conversation happens and it's awesome -- it's not about Rose wanting a house and a dog and 3 kids and pressuring the Doctor into settling down, it's about Rose trying to make the best of the situation and pointing out that they still have each other while they're both awkward and adorable about it. When the Doctor wants to go down and investigate with Ida, Rose gives him a kiss and tells him to come back in one piece because they are functional adults who trust each other to take care of themselves.
There's the "if you talk to Rose, tell her... tell her I... oh, she knows" which is a MAGICAL GIFT.
But the best thing about this episode is the faith they both have in each other. It ties in so nicely with the overall themes of faith and belief. When the Doctor winds up stuck down the pit, he's convinced he'll find a way to get back up because "Rose is up there". When it seems the Doctor is dead, Rose wants to stay because she doesn't believe that he is. And then of course there's THE BEST SPEECH EVER IN THE WORLD:
So, that's the trap, or the test, or the final judgment, I don't know. But if I kill you, I kill her.
Except that implies - in this big grand scheme of gods and devils - that she's just a victim. But I've seen a lot of this universe. I've seen fake gods, and bad gods, and demi-gods and would-be gods. Out of all that, out of that whole pantheon - if I believe in one thing... just one thing... I believe in her.
Perfect stunning flawless all the awards etc. When we rewatched this episode this summer it was somewhere around this point that spud14 was like "wait how does he plan to save her again?" and me, firstofoct and papilio_luna were like "HE DOESN'T HE TRUSTS HER TO SAVE HERSELF THAT IS WHY IT IS SO AWESOME!!" And it is. For all that the internet talks about how useless and clingy Rose is, the Doctor makes it explicit here that he knows she is not a victim. The whole "plan" here hinges on the idea that the Doctor won't sacrifice Rose, and the whole plan topples because the Doctor believes in Rose's ability to save herself. And for her part, Rose sends the beast into a black hole.
That speech is exactly what I like about the Doctor/Rose relationship and is them at their absolute best. They believe in each other and have faith in each other's capabilities and that's what allows them to work together as a team. Despite the age gap, despite the gap in experience, despite the fact that he's a Time Lord and she's a twenty-year old girl from a council estate, they're partners.