Random thoughts on DW finale
Doctor Who is over for another year. And I still miss Nine. I may have now crossed the line into becoming a crazy person. (I hear people saying that particular line was already crossed!) I love Who, but it has never been as satisfying for me as Rose and Nine and Jack, saying goodbye before marching into hell.
So now I miss Torchwood. And it will be so long before it comes back. Fandom has not conditioned me into patience.
1. Martha. So, I didn't know for definite that Martha was leaving, because I was doing my best to hit the finale unspoiled. Nevertheless, it was kind of hard to not consider the possibility, what with the Sun/Mirror around and all. Plus it was one of very few sensible ends to her arc. Martha wasn't on a journey to discover the universe, like Rose was. She was, if anything, escaping from a family that needed her too much, that fought and yelled and dragged her into the middle. The Doctor was supposed to give her some space away from that. But that wasn't how the story played out - it ended up a love story, an unrequited one, and the only sensible end was the one they gave her. The other potential end, of course, was that he fall for her. But that would leave us with a real relationship on the Tardis, and nowhere to go from there. Or she stops being in love with him, which leaves her largely sans character arc.
So they let her do the strong thing, and leave. (And go back to a family that needs her. Thus putting her right back where she started. Yeah, so only one of her stories got addressed.)
2. Jack. Tell me seriously, Russell, that you thought that through. I mean, really.
Good things: my fic is safe, Jack chose to go back of his own accord. Also, he's still unkillable.
Bad things: He had nothing to do but die repeatedly. And, again, RTD, you cannot retcon your own show with things that make no sense. If I watch those episodes again and I am wrong, and they look like a man meeting a former love, I'll take it all back. But somehow I don't think that's going to happen. (Why would he tell the Doctor that he wasn't alone when he knows what would happen?!)
3. The Master and the Doctor. Okay, that was pretty slashy right there. Poor Doctor. :( It was the crying and the begging the Master not to leave him alone again. They would have made a very dysfunctional team!Tardis, but the Doctor was willing to stop travelling for the Master, which is much closer to a declaration of love than we've had towards anyone else. It was, of course, as tied to the theme of responsibility (see also Martha and Jack) as genuine affection, but that's okay too. It plays well with the "you're the only one that can stop me/ that deserves to stop me/ that I really care about seeing me win" theme. Which was not as well executed in the plot-parts, alas.
4. Things which did tie into the series as a whole:
Time travel creating all kinds of loops; as in Blink
Paradoxes=bad; just general good sci-fi
Doctor's psychic abilities; as in GitF
The humans trying to escape to Utopia (which I was very glad actually had a point) - but who sent the message originally?
Watches; from HN/FoB
Words and power thereof; Tooth and Claw, Shakespeare Code
This is all of the good, and points towards some actual coherent plotting which was missing elsewhere
5. Rusty and religion. Once again, I am led to the belief that you are systematically confused. Or awesome. It's so hard to tell. The Doctor and the Master are two halves of God. The Doctor is saviour, judge, and pardoner. The Master is creator and destroyer, who takes earth apart to rebuild Gallifrey. I like this part, that the capability to play God lives in both of them, and even when the Doctor hovers close to the edge, he doesn't step over it. It's in seeing the Master that we can tell where the line is. However - the power of prayer? I like, very much, that the sentiment you were aiming for was that thinking can't be stopped, that thought is a type of rebellion that is unquenchable. But it was a prayer - in the absence of all other hope they cry out for salvation to the skies. It all depends whether the Doctor is meant to be a metaphor for God, or a replacement for him.
6. Humanity. There was something very dark going on here. Mostly glossed over by the collective human thinking of the climax. Lucy was driven mad by the knowledge that the universe ends. It's another pursuit of immortality, for the species rather than the individual - the "Toclafane" are actually trying to absent themselves from the end of the time, which seems troublingly like something we would do. Also the random meaningless violence. Poor Doctor, who caused it, and saw the race he spends a disproportionate amount of his time protecting destroy themselves.
7. ETA, the ending. Since when could things break into the Tardis from the outside? It's made of wood, yes, but it doesn't work that way! Also, my twelve-year old brother asked: wasn't it Nine who was on the Titanic? And stop stealing endings from yourself, Russell.
*sighs* I really, really, wanted to like this more than I did. There was some lovely moments but as a whole, I keep coming back to the part that could have been so much better than they were.
So now I miss Torchwood. And it will be so long before it comes back. Fandom has not conditioned me into patience.
1. Martha. So, I didn't know for definite that Martha was leaving, because I was doing my best to hit the finale unspoiled. Nevertheless, it was kind of hard to not consider the possibility, what with the Sun/Mirror around and all. Plus it was one of very few sensible ends to her arc. Martha wasn't on a journey to discover the universe, like Rose was. She was, if anything, escaping from a family that needed her too much, that fought and yelled and dragged her into the middle. The Doctor was supposed to give her some space away from that. But that wasn't how the story played out - it ended up a love story, an unrequited one, and the only sensible end was the one they gave her. The other potential end, of course, was that he fall for her. But that would leave us with a real relationship on the Tardis, and nowhere to go from there. Or she stops being in love with him, which leaves her largely sans character arc.
So they let her do the strong thing, and leave. (And go back to a family that needs her. Thus putting her right back where she started. Yeah, so only one of her stories got addressed.)
2. Jack. Tell me seriously, Russell, that you thought that through. I mean, really.
Good things: my fic is safe, Jack chose to go back of his own accord. Also, he's still unkillable.
Bad things: He had nothing to do but die repeatedly. And, again, RTD, you cannot retcon your own show with things that make no sense. If I watch those episodes again and I am wrong, and they look like a man meeting a former love, I'll take it all back. But somehow I don't think that's going to happen. (Why would he tell the Doctor that he wasn't alone when he knows what would happen?!)
3. The Master and the Doctor. Okay, that was pretty slashy right there. Poor Doctor. :( It was the crying and the begging the Master not to leave him alone again. They would have made a very dysfunctional team!Tardis, but the Doctor was willing to stop travelling for the Master, which is much closer to a declaration of love than we've had towards anyone else. It was, of course, as tied to the theme of responsibility (see also Martha and Jack) as genuine affection, but that's okay too. It plays well with the "you're the only one that can stop me/ that deserves to stop me/ that I really care about seeing me win" theme. Which was not as well executed in the plot-parts, alas.
4. Things which did tie into the series as a whole:
Time travel creating all kinds of loops; as in Blink
Paradoxes=bad; just general good sci-fi
Doctor's psychic abilities; as in GitF
The humans trying to escape to Utopia (which I was very glad actually had a point) - but who sent the message originally?
Watches; from HN/FoB
Words and power thereof; Tooth and Claw, Shakespeare Code
This is all of the good, and points towards some actual coherent plotting which was missing elsewhere
5. Rusty and religion. Once again, I am led to the belief that you are systematically confused. Or awesome. It's so hard to tell. The Doctor and the Master are two halves of God. The Doctor is saviour, judge, and pardoner. The Master is creator and destroyer, who takes earth apart to rebuild Gallifrey. I like this part, that the capability to play God lives in both of them, and even when the Doctor hovers close to the edge, he doesn't step over it. It's in seeing the Master that we can tell where the line is. However - the power of prayer? I like, very much, that the sentiment you were aiming for was that thinking can't be stopped, that thought is a type of rebellion that is unquenchable. But it was a prayer - in the absence of all other hope they cry out for salvation to the skies. It all depends whether the Doctor is meant to be a metaphor for God, or a replacement for him.
6. Humanity. There was something very dark going on here. Mostly glossed over by the collective human thinking of the climax. Lucy was driven mad by the knowledge that the universe ends. It's another pursuit of immortality, for the species rather than the individual - the "Toclafane" are actually trying to absent themselves from the end of the time, which seems troublingly like something we would do. Also the random meaningless violence. Poor Doctor, who caused it, and saw the race he spends a disproportionate amount of his time protecting destroy themselves.
7. ETA, the ending. Since when could things break into the Tardis from the outside? It's made of wood, yes, but it doesn't work that way! Also, my twelve-year old brother asked: wasn't it Nine who was on the Titanic? And stop stealing endings from yourself, Russell.
*sighs* I really, really, wanted to like this more than I did. There was some lovely moments but as a whole, I keep coming back to the part that could have been so much better than they were.