The Doctor as a father figure.

[mrv3000]

In fandom some have said that the Doctor is more of a father figure to Rose than anything else. Can you see where this is coming from? Maybe you subscribe to this notion in full or in part? Or do you completely disagree? Can the father figure and romantic figure co-exist or is that just too distasteful?

Comments

[silvervintage82]

I don't see where they are coming from at all. I tend to hear that the relationship between Nine and Rose was more father/daughter than Ten and Rose and I cannot help but scratch my head. Why do people see this? Is it because CE is much older than Billie Piper? I admit that 'most' of the time big age gaps don't work between actors unless their overwhelming chemistry sells it like with Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. She was 19 in their first film and he was in his forties I believe. Yet, it worked really well. You could feel the sexuality oozing off of them. A similar thing happened between Nine and Rose thanks to the actors insane chemistry. You believed it could work that a 900 year old timelord in a forty year old man's body could fall in love with a 19 year old because they had a soul connection. It came across on screen.

Also, I would dare say that Christopher Eccleston played off the whole Doctor 'asexual' thing even less than Ten as if he would mock the very idea of it. CE came into the role not as a Doctor Who fan. In an interview, he went off about how he saw the old show as sexist because the women were treated as assistants and nothing more. The way he interpreted his role was to be sexually attracted to women but especially Rose. He didn't feel any pull towards the preconceived Doctor Who notions of a platonic Doctor. It came across on screen the moment he met Rose. From the very beginning, I knew there was something romantic between them. All their scenes told me this was not a father/daughter relationship. The moment he took her hand and they ran down London together, they were equals.

He already acts like he's fallen for her at the end of "Rose" with his look off devastation when she says no. The second episode they joke about a "date" (not very fatherly); the third episode he calls her beautiful and later takes her hand saying he's so glad he met her in a moment where Rose looks at his lips (the moment was charged); the fifth episode he goes off about losing her; the sixth episode it is made clear she is the woman he loves (and you don't get a paternal vibe from it even though he clarifies that she is only 19); in the "The Long Game" he is jealous of Adam and gets rid of him happily; the eighth they have a relationship spat and SHOW us the difference between her father and the Doctor (one is romantic; Rose even wonders why everyone thinks they are a couple and then states: "he left me"); Do I need to talk about "The Doctor Dances?" So much sexual innuendo there. I even read an article where someone was going off about how the writer tricked EVERYONE and that THIS was the episode they had sex. I never thought so BUT the language and metaphors do imply it when they "dance" at the end (could only be symbolic depending on how you look at it but seeing "Captain America" in which they use they same dance metaphor, I was intrigued that in the end they did 'not' dance); and skipping ahead to the final episode in which he kisses her. So yeah, confused where the father thing comes in. It's certainly not like any father/daughter relationships I know.

More than anything, I believe he did come across as her teacher. He gave her meaning in a life she found no fulfillment before. But teacher does not equal father.

So then there is Ten. Calling him a father to Rose is laughable. They are in love and by "Idiot's Lantern" in a relationship.

In the New Series of Doctor Who, the only character I have seen the Doctor act like a father to is Amy. He even tells her to go to bed at one point. Never does he behave that way to Rose at all.

[fogsblue]

This, all this (just had to say it).

Thank you.

[lauraxtennant]

Yep, I agree with all of this :)

[bloose09]

Sorry to be late, but I have to jump in here and say you hit this one right out of the park! I couldn't agree more with every one of your points. Well stated!