True to Character?
I'm really looking forward to reading Doctor Who - The Writer's Tale by Russell T. Davies and Benjamin Cook. I've been reading various articles and reviews of it that have excerpts and it seems fascinating, not just for what it reveals about Doctor Who, but for what it reveals about Davies and the writing process. Recently, I read a few excerpts that made me think about the series 4 finale, "Journey's End", again.
I glossed over this in my original post about "Journey's End", but, as I did say in that post, "I was a bit surprised that Rose kissed the humanish Doctor." (Since I don't really like that term, "humanish Doctor" and there seems to be a standard of calling him "10.2" or "10.5" in other fora, I'll call him "10.5" from now on.) I just couldn't see Rose accepting 10.5 as the Doctor.
I rationalized it by thinking that it was really the Doctor who chose to leave while Rose was temporarily distracted and she didn't exactly choose to stay with 10.5 in the parallel universe. Still, I didn't really understand why Rose would have kissed him - if I was in that situation, I don't think I'd have kissed him. But, I rationalized that by thinking that perhaps Rose was caught up in the moment. I mean, here's a guy who mostly* looks like the Doctor and sounds exactly like the Doctor telling her what she's longed to hear from him for years. So, she gets caught up in the fantasy and kisses him...
But, it turns out that it didn't make sense to Davies, either. This is from jaded_jamie's blog, although I'm sure I read it in a news article first and now can't find it (I found it on this blog through google):
Davies has chicken pox, at the same time he's supposed to be writing Doctor Who 4.13 "Journey's End". He's up to the scene on Bad Wolf Bay where the Doctor and Donna bid farewell to Rose Tyler, and the newly born 'second' human Doctor. Only things aren't clicking as well as Davies would like, and he doesn't know why. Then he figures; he can't understand why Rose (after searching for him for so long) would choose to stay on the parallel Earth, when the chance to travel with the real Doctor is open to her...
Davies wants to give Rose a sort of inter-reality 'virus' that means she can't travel to our Earth, or she'll die. Of course, as Davies figures, this then hampers Mickey - who'd have to suffer a similar fate. A dilemma, when a promise has already been made...
"I just realised," Davies writes, "My plan to make the Bad Wolf scene work - the one involving the Voidstuff - won't work, because I'd forgotten that Mickey has to be free to stay in our universe. Bollocks. Julie [Gardner]'s upset. She's saying, 'Leave Mickey in the parallel universe,' and I'm saying, 'Too late! We promised Noel that we'd bring him back in Torchwood series three.'"
I'm speculating that the "fix" for this problem was to have the Doctor sneaking off while Rose was kissing 10.5 - it serves his purpose to leave 10.5 with Rose, getting him away without further complication, and why would he want to continue watching the woman he loves kiss a man who looks and sounds like him, but isn't him? It still doesn't quite work, though. Davies goes on to say (according to this review):
"It's too complicated. Emotionally, I mean. It has no echo, no response, it's empty sci-fi. When the Doctor and Rose were separated into parallel universes in Doomsday, that felt like every love you've ever lost. But when you've been separated into different universes, but now have a double of the man that you loved, who's not quite the same, but who's better because he's mortal, but worse because he's not the original...well, you're going beyond human experience. There's no parallel with real life. No equation. Therefore, no feeling."
I'm not sure this is really why it doesn't work, though. It's true that this exact experience, for both Rose and the Doctor, is outside normal human experience, but does that mean the emotion portrayed in this scene can't resonate? I'm not so certain. I still think it has to do with the outcome of this scene being not entirely true to the characters, especially Rose.
*I have no idea how David Tennant, et al, did this, but 10.5 doesn't look exactly like the Doctor and I can't say what it is that's different - he's just not the same. 10.5 has to be Tennant, though (I say that feeling 99.5% certain that he is)...it doesn't make sense to get a look-alike for a scene that doesn't show both together....
I glossed over this in my original post about "Journey's End", but, as I did say in that post, "I was a bit surprised that Rose kissed the humanish Doctor." (Since I don't really like that term, "humanish Doctor" and there seems to be a standard of calling him "10.2" or "10.5" in other fora, I'll call him "10.5" from now on.) I just couldn't see Rose accepting 10.5 as the Doctor.
I rationalized it by thinking that it was really the Doctor who chose to leave while Rose was temporarily distracted and she didn't exactly choose to stay with 10.5 in the parallel universe. Still, I didn't really understand why Rose would have kissed him - if I was in that situation, I don't think I'd have kissed him. But, I rationalized that by thinking that perhaps Rose was caught up in the moment. I mean, here's a guy who mostly* looks like the Doctor and sounds exactly like the Doctor telling her what she's longed to hear from him for years. So, she gets caught up in the fantasy and kisses him...
But, it turns out that it didn't make sense to Davies, either. This is from jaded_jamie's blog, although I'm sure I read it in a news article first and now can't find it (I found it on this blog through google):
Davies has chicken pox, at the same time he's supposed to be writing Doctor Who 4.13 "Journey's End". He's up to the scene on Bad Wolf Bay where the Doctor and Donna bid farewell to Rose Tyler, and the newly born 'second' human Doctor. Only things aren't clicking as well as Davies would like, and he doesn't know why. Then he figures; he can't understand why Rose (after searching for him for so long) would choose to stay on the parallel Earth, when the chance to travel with the real Doctor is open to her...
Davies wants to give Rose a sort of inter-reality 'virus' that means she can't travel to our Earth, or she'll die. Of course, as Davies figures, this then hampers Mickey - who'd have to suffer a similar fate. A dilemma, when a promise has already been made...
"I just realised," Davies writes, "My plan to make the Bad Wolf scene work - the one involving the Voidstuff - won't work, because I'd forgotten that Mickey has to be free to stay in our universe. Bollocks. Julie [Gardner]'s upset. She's saying, 'Leave Mickey in the parallel universe,' and I'm saying, 'Too late! We promised Noel that we'd bring him back in Torchwood series three.'"
I'm speculating that the "fix" for this problem was to have the Doctor sneaking off while Rose was kissing 10.5 - it serves his purpose to leave 10.5 with Rose, getting him away without further complication, and why would he want to continue watching the woman he loves kiss a man who looks and sounds like him, but isn't him? It still doesn't quite work, though. Davies goes on to say (according to this review):
"It's too complicated. Emotionally, I mean. It has no echo, no response, it's empty sci-fi. When the Doctor and Rose were separated into parallel universes in Doomsday, that felt like every love you've ever lost. But when you've been separated into different universes, but now have a double of the man that you loved, who's not quite the same, but who's better because he's mortal, but worse because he's not the original...well, you're going beyond human experience. There's no parallel with real life. No equation. Therefore, no feeling."
I'm not sure this is really why it doesn't work, though. It's true that this exact experience, for both Rose and the Doctor, is outside normal human experience, but does that mean the emotion portrayed in this scene can't resonate? I'm not so certain. I still think it has to do with the outcome of this scene being not entirely true to the characters, especially Rose.
*I have no idea how David Tennant, et al, did this, but 10.5 doesn't look exactly like the Doctor and I can't say what it is that's different - he's just not the same. 10.5 has to be Tennant, though (I say that feeling 99.5% certain that he is)...it doesn't make sense to get a look-alike for a scene that doesn't show both together....