"The War Games" fallout/reactions
Last night, I finished rewatching The War Games, the last Second Doctor era serial. Which means I've now seen everything that currently exists on DVD with at least some real-actors moving-pictures episodes. I'm going to do another round where I also watch all the reconstructions and the completely animated stories (The Macra Terror of course only came out recently, so I haven't seen it yet, and I didn't buy The Power of the Daleks at first because it was all animated and I was the most concerned at first with getting everything of Two & Jamie goodness; now I of course want to see all of Two in some form and all of Ben and Polly that I can, too).
But oh, gods, this story. I did watch it once already, during the Twitch marathon when I fell in love with this era, but it's even more powerful when I've seen all the fully existing episodes of the Two era before it. And does it put me through a wringer. Mostly it's so amazing, probably my favourite of all the Doctor Who stories that I've ever seen, but oh, it hurts, too.
The majority of the story is so powerful and brilliant, with its gradually unfolding, complex plot, the political parallels and meanings that are powerful but not too on-the-nose, the Doctor and his friends and many guest stars getting to shine - Lt Carstairs and Lady Jennifer are among my favourite Doctor Who guest characters, and the baddies in this story are brilliant and brilliantly played and written, and the way they start turning against one another and all trying to play the game in their own ways and use the Doctor and his friends to their own ends... And this first time we learn more about the Doctor's background and why he left his home planet (which doesn't seem to have a name yet at this point). And all the ways Jamie and Zoë prove their loyalty and their awesomeness, all the ways in which the Doctor acts and thinks and does his best to stop unfairness and cruelty, prevent bloodshed even when it means momentarily tricking his friends, always find a way to do the right thing instead of the easy thing and to rebel against the establishment... That's my Doctor. This will probably be my ultimate TARDIS team.
And then. Then they're separated, and that just breaks me. I'm not good at endings and goodbyes and friends having to be separated. It's even worse when it's forced, without choice. And then...
Did they have to write in the memory wipe? Did they have to? In a way I get why the Time Lords would do that, I guess, but why did the writers have to do it? They didn't have to. It's so evil. One of the points of traveling with the Doctor is that even if you return to your old life afterwards, or leave in some other way, you get to keep what you've learned and how you've changed. Letting their lives "go on as if nothing had happened" is not a happy ending! Why are they treating it as one? And especially with Jamie, who travelled with the Doctor for so long, become such good friends with him... Why?
Well, even when I first saw this, I just went "No. That didn't happen. Or rather, it didn't really go the way they thought. Jamie and Zoë won't really forget, not that much at least. It's been too long, there are too many emotions in the mix, what do Time Lords know about human brains anyway, human memories. No. They may forget some of the things, but they won't really forget what they've been able to be and what they and the Doctor have meant to each other." And that's what I'm sticking to. Nobody's allowed to tell me anything else. Other people can believe what they will, but I know what I think.
And furthermore, after that first viewing, I've of course learned all about Season 6B, and the ways that can fix Jamie's story, and I've seen enough of The Two Doctors to get that part of it (its timing in the marathons was such that I couldn't watch all of the story, but I made sure to watch that much). There's no way it makes sense unless the Season 6B is true, so that's what I'm sticking to. Besides, we never do see Troughton regenerate at the end of The War Games, and basically, other people can choose to believe the more depressing version if they're that masochistic, but if you ask me, Two and Jamie will get together again and have more adventures. And I have my own headcanons about how Two will never allow for Jamie's memories to be wiped again, regardless of whether Jamie returns home afterwards or not. I'll write them eventually.
So in a way, the memory wipe was less painful now than it was the first time, when I immediately had to flee to fan fiction and find fix-its because I couldn't cope. Now I already knew how things go for me. But it's still an evil ending to write. And they didn't have to do it like that. Why, when they write an otherwise brilliant story, do they have to add that painful choice? And don't defend it to me, I can't take it at the moment. Or pretty much ever. But especially now. Just the departure of Jamie and Zoë is so painful at the moment.
By the way, I read somewhere that Russell T. Davies wrote Donna's fate, and Moffat wrote the whole thing with Clara and Twelve and the memory wipe where the Doctor ends up forgetting Clara (but eventually gets the memories back) as a response to the trauma of Jamie and Zoë's ending in the War Games. Can I just say, I really prefer Moffat's way of engaging with that theme. Geez, RTD reacts to a traumatic companion ending by creating more trauma for another companion's ending! And turning the Doctor into a total jack-ass in the process through it by making it his action against her explicitly stated will, and then having him be all self-centeredly angsty for the rest of that regeneration's life. Moffat engages with the trope and subverts it, giving the companion agency and letting her keep what she learned and what she's become, and also the Doctor becomes better from all that he goes through even if he's mostly forgotten her. And eventually Moffat fixes the thing by making it absolutely clear that the Doctor gets the memories back and it's all okay, too. Guess which one I find better??? (I also totally approve of Moffat letting Clara have agency and choice over her own ending, something that New Who does all too rarely. Martha is the only other one who actually gets agency in the way she leaves! Amy a bit, too, in that she at least makes a conscious choice, but it's not very much choice. So much for New Who being more feminist than Classic Who, huh. Okay, I know there are other matters, but at least most of the Classic companions make a choice.)
Anyway, back to Two and Jamie and Zoë, it's just so painful to have that team broken up against their will. Especially with Two and Jamie. I care so much about their relationship, maybe more than any other Doctor & companion combination. And that's regardless of whether I'm thinking of it from a ship angle or not. True, I do ship them, because it's just so... *flails* well, look at them! It's rather easy to ship them. But, I also friend-ship them, I totally love their relationship from the platonic point of view as well. It depends on my mood from which angle I look at them, but whether I'm in the friendship-mood or the romantic-ship-mood, I love them so much. They belong together, and it just kills me to watch them have to part. No, I'm just not accepting it as anything but temporary. I know they'll be together again.
After I watched the last episode last night, it probably took me about an hour to stop crying. (Note: I'm even generally really emotional and cry easily, including at fiction I care about, and I'm just so invested in these characters.) I don't mean I cried for an hour straight, but I'd always start again after a while. I had so much ice cream. I somehow managed to break my circular knitting needles, because I did some knitting to calm myself down and then I sat on the needles somehow... Need to get some glue that could put them back together. Today I'm just drinking lots of tea and eating chocolate and I still get tearful every now and then. It's probably not going to be healthy for me to watch this serial very often, at least not until the end. Maybe the next time I'll stop watching when Jamie and Zoë are trying to escape with the Doctor from the trial room, and write my own ending from there.
Thank goodness Classic Who stories don't often get me quite this emotional. New Who tries to make everyone's ending into a massive painful tear-jerker, and that's honestly not something I can handle often. Usually Classic Who is more soothing for my poor feelings.
I kind of just want to dive straight back into Two's beginning and watch all the stories and spend my life in a blissful never-ending Two era bubble. But maybe that's not so healthy. So I'll probably try to watch the Four & Leela DVDs that I own next, before I return to Round Two of Two: Now With the Missing Stuff. Four & Leela would probably be really good for me now, once I recover from this a bit, and I didn't see enough of Leela during the marathons. I'm also thinking of getting The War Machines and The Tenth Planet on DVD so I can actually also make it "watch all of Ben & Polly" and get Two's beginning in context. (I watched The War Machines during the January marathon and enjoyed it very much, but will gladly watch it again followed by all the other Ben & Polly stuff.)
This entry was originally posted at https://auroracloud.dreamwidth.org/97925.html. Feel free to comment on either site.
But oh, gods, this story. I did watch it once already, during the Twitch marathon when I fell in love with this era, but it's even more powerful when I've seen all the fully existing episodes of the Two era before it. And does it put me through a wringer. Mostly it's so amazing, probably my favourite of all the Doctor Who stories that I've ever seen, but oh, it hurts, too.
The majority of the story is so powerful and brilliant, with its gradually unfolding, complex plot, the political parallels and meanings that are powerful but not too on-the-nose, the Doctor and his friends and many guest stars getting to shine - Lt Carstairs and Lady Jennifer are among my favourite Doctor Who guest characters, and the baddies in this story are brilliant and brilliantly played and written, and the way they start turning against one another and all trying to play the game in their own ways and use the Doctor and his friends to their own ends... And this first time we learn more about the Doctor's background and why he left his home planet (which doesn't seem to have a name yet at this point). And all the ways Jamie and Zoë prove their loyalty and their awesomeness, all the ways in which the Doctor acts and thinks and does his best to stop unfairness and cruelty, prevent bloodshed even when it means momentarily tricking his friends, always find a way to do the right thing instead of the easy thing and to rebel against the establishment... That's my Doctor. This will probably be my ultimate TARDIS team.
And then. Then they're separated, and that just breaks me. I'm not good at endings and goodbyes and friends having to be separated. It's even worse when it's forced, without choice. And then...
Did they have to write in the memory wipe? Did they have to? In a way I get why the Time Lords would do that, I guess, but why did the writers have to do it? They didn't have to. It's so evil. One of the points of traveling with the Doctor is that even if you return to your old life afterwards, or leave in some other way, you get to keep what you've learned and how you've changed. Letting their lives "go on as if nothing had happened" is not a happy ending! Why are they treating it as one? And especially with Jamie, who travelled with the Doctor for so long, become such good friends with him... Why?
Well, even when I first saw this, I just went "No. That didn't happen. Or rather, it didn't really go the way they thought. Jamie and Zoë won't really forget, not that much at least. It's been too long, there are too many emotions in the mix, what do Time Lords know about human brains anyway, human memories. No. They may forget some of the things, but they won't really forget what they've been able to be and what they and the Doctor have meant to each other." And that's what I'm sticking to. Nobody's allowed to tell me anything else. Other people can believe what they will, but I know what I think.
And furthermore, after that first viewing, I've of course learned all about Season 6B, and the ways that can fix Jamie's story, and I've seen enough of The Two Doctors to get that part of it (its timing in the marathons was such that I couldn't watch all of the story, but I made sure to watch that much). There's no way it makes sense unless the Season 6B is true, so that's what I'm sticking to. Besides, we never do see Troughton regenerate at the end of The War Games, and basically, other people can choose to believe the more depressing version if they're that masochistic, but if you ask me, Two and Jamie will get together again and have more adventures. And I have my own headcanons about how Two will never allow for Jamie's memories to be wiped again, regardless of whether Jamie returns home afterwards or not. I'll write them eventually.
So in a way, the memory wipe was less painful now than it was the first time, when I immediately had to flee to fan fiction and find fix-its because I couldn't cope. Now I already knew how things go for me. But it's still an evil ending to write. And they didn't have to do it like that. Why, when they write an otherwise brilliant story, do they have to add that painful choice? And don't defend it to me, I can't take it at the moment. Or pretty much ever. But especially now. Just the departure of Jamie and Zoë is so painful at the moment.
By the way, I read somewhere that Russell T. Davies wrote Donna's fate, and Moffat wrote the whole thing with Clara and Twelve and the memory wipe where the Doctor ends up forgetting Clara (but eventually gets the memories back) as a response to the trauma of Jamie and Zoë's ending in the War Games. Can I just say, I really prefer Moffat's way of engaging with that theme. Geez, RTD reacts to a traumatic companion ending by creating more trauma for another companion's ending! And turning the Doctor into a total jack-ass in the process through it by making it his action against her explicitly stated will, and then having him be all self-centeredly angsty for the rest of that regeneration's life. Moffat engages with the trope and subverts it, giving the companion agency and letting her keep what she learned and what she's become, and also the Doctor becomes better from all that he goes through even if he's mostly forgotten her. And eventually Moffat fixes the thing by making it absolutely clear that the Doctor gets the memories back and it's all okay, too. Guess which one I find better??? (I also totally approve of Moffat letting Clara have agency and choice over her own ending, something that New Who does all too rarely. Martha is the only other one who actually gets agency in the way she leaves! Amy a bit, too, in that she at least makes a conscious choice, but it's not very much choice. So much for New Who being more feminist than Classic Who, huh. Okay, I know there are other matters, but at least most of the Classic companions make a choice.)
Anyway, back to Two and Jamie and Zoë, it's just so painful to have that team broken up against their will. Especially with Two and Jamie. I care so much about their relationship, maybe more than any other Doctor & companion combination. And that's regardless of whether I'm thinking of it from a ship angle or not. True, I do ship them, because it's just so... *flails* well, look at them! It's rather easy to ship them. But, I also friend-ship them, I totally love their relationship from the platonic point of view as well. It depends on my mood from which angle I look at them, but whether I'm in the friendship-mood or the romantic-ship-mood, I love them so much. They belong together, and it just kills me to watch them have to part. No, I'm just not accepting it as anything but temporary. I know they'll be together again.
After I watched the last episode last night, it probably took me about an hour to stop crying. (Note: I'm even generally really emotional and cry easily, including at fiction I care about, and I'm just so invested in these characters.) I don't mean I cried for an hour straight, but I'd always start again after a while. I had so much ice cream. I somehow managed to break my circular knitting needles, because I did some knitting to calm myself down and then I sat on the needles somehow... Need to get some glue that could put them back together. Today I'm just drinking lots of tea and eating chocolate and I still get tearful every now and then. It's probably not going to be healthy for me to watch this serial very often, at least not until the end. Maybe the next time I'll stop watching when Jamie and Zoë are trying to escape with the Doctor from the trial room, and write my own ending from there.
Thank goodness Classic Who stories don't often get me quite this emotional. New Who tries to make everyone's ending into a massive painful tear-jerker, and that's honestly not something I can handle often. Usually Classic Who is more soothing for my poor feelings.
I kind of just want to dive straight back into Two's beginning and watch all the stories and spend my life in a blissful never-ending Two era bubble. But maybe that's not so healthy. So I'll probably try to watch the Four & Leela DVDs that I own next, before I return to Round Two of Two: Now With the Missing Stuff. Four & Leela would probably be really good for me now, once I recover from this a bit, and I didn't see enough of Leela during the marathons. I'm also thinking of getting The War Machines and The Tenth Planet on DVD so I can actually also make it "watch all of Ben & Polly" and get Two's beginning in context. (I watched The War Machines during the January marathon and enjoyed it very much, but will gladly watch it again followed by all the other Ben & Polly stuff.)
This entry was originally posted at https://auroracloud.dreamwidth.org/97925.html. Feel free to comment on either site.