My extremely, 'OMG! You have no life!!!' long "Doctor Who" post

[arabian]

I promised a long Doctor Who post and BOY! did I deliver. This baby was originally one post, then I split it into four posts, then I decided to go back and put it in one post. I'm done now, no more re-arranging. So it's just all together in one looooooooong, fell swoop. Phew

Comments

[the_spin]

Yay, Doctor Who meta! I'm a little late to the party, but whatever I'm responding anyway. I always love a chance for DW squee and there is so much gold here.

I'm so with you on the companions; I loved Rose so much, and mostly for her flaws. I loved that she was that girl on the bus, the girl down the street who worked at a shop and wears too much make-up and who's coded as sort of trashy and dumb and who most people would totally dismiss as kind of a chav. I love that she's that but so much more, strong-willed and brave and curious and exactly what the Doctor needs to bring him out of his funk. She is, as the Doctor says in Utopia, so very human. And that's what made her so fabulous.

I liked Martha, but I think they made some bad narrative choices with her that basically stopped me from being able to really love her. I think I got what they were attempting to do with her, setting her up as someone running parallel to the Doctor, someone with a clever, analytical, detached way of thinking. 'The Doctor's Daughter' really soldified that for me, the way she struck out on her own with her own little Hath companion. It was all very Doctorish. That's a character arc I could have loved, if they hadn't torpedoed that by making her fall in love with the Doctor in her first fucking episode.

That pissed me off so much, and not because I was bitter that Rose left or whatever as so many people in fandom like to claim. I wouldn't have minded Martha falling in love with him gradually, the way Rose did. I could've believed that. But I absolutely never buy falling in love with someone in such a short time. Whenever anyone is instantly infatuated with someone else, I automatically like them less because I think it makes them seem a bit stupid. And that basically ruined Martha for me, because I could never take her seriously because of that, and because it was so at odds with the way they drew her character otherwise, so sensible and sophisticated and pragmatic.

I also was never enamoured with the Ten/Martha dynamic. It was always a bit too serious for my taste. For me, Ten needs someone to bounce off of. I love Ten most when he's fun, and I get that he was grieving that season but Martha/Ten was just so serious that it kind of killed my joy. Plus 'Runaway Bride' proved that Ten can be grieving and still be entertaining. I did love their dynamic in 'Utopia' though, once Jack showed up. I thought Ten/Martha/Jack worked really, really well and was incredibly fun. I think Martha might've worked a lot better if there'd been another companion in the TARDIS the whole time, like with Sarah Jane and Harry or Nyssa and Tegan.

And Donna. I totally agree with you; she is simply MADE OF AWESOME and is exactly what the series needed at this point. I freaking love her. I am consumed with love for Donna Noble. She works really well with Ten; she can play straight man and bring him back down and slap him around when he needs it, but she can also play comic relief and just be silly and fun. She's perfection.

And Doomsday. Oh my god, Doomsday. Army of Ghosts/Doomsday is fucking shippy perfection. I will never hate RTD the way large chunks of the fandom seem to because of it. He's such a shipper and I love it.