Judge him, Jackie!

Oct 30, 2011 08:58

In series 1, there was meant to be a different episode. One that RTD purportedly axed. In it Jack finds out that the Doctor manipulated Rose's entire life to create the perfect companion for him ( Read more... )

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shinyopals October 30 2011, 16:06:59 UTC
Every time I get reminded of this idea/rumour/missing episode, I get more and more horrified. I dislike Nine being manipulative in World War Three and that was fairly straight forward. Adding a time travel element just makes it even worse.

And recovered? I would have wanted her to get the hell out. I can think of very few things that could have made me hate their relationship more than this sort of dynamic.

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kilodalton October 30 2011, 16:26:23 UTC
I can think of very few things that could have made me hate their relationship more than this sort of dynamic.

Totally ... I mean, can you even imagine? Give him that type of power, and make him comfortable with using it, and would she ever even have the ability to walk out? Or would he mind-meld with her and erase her unpleasant memories, plant thoughts, rewrite her timeline again to make her more likely to stay. It would have taken away all her agency as a character, and made him basically an abuser of his power.

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kilodalton October 30 2011, 16:24:19 UTC
It's interesting that you mention this, as I was just thinking about this the other day - but in relation to Eleven and River. Because, basically that's what happened, right? And it's like he's tacitly accepting that her entire life was meant to be about being obsessed with him, and killing him by not rewriting it (and he said her "time can be rewritten" so it's clearly a possibility). I think their relationship is fairly Frankenstein-ish and all kinds of disturbing, so, there ya go =P

I think RTD's call was the best one - I think it would have been squicky in the extreme, and no, I don't think it would have ever recovered. There was already quite a power dynamic imbalance between the two of them - I think this would basically have made her nothing more than a pawn, a piece of clay to his Pygmalion as it were.

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wander_realtai October 30 2011, 16:26:47 UTC
I was just thinking this as soon as I hit the "send" button on my comment down there. It *is* very much Eleven and River, in some ways, isn't it? Eek.

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fogsblue October 30 2011, 16:32:25 UTC
Heh, it's distinctly Eleven/River, you could actually see this kind of story being written in s5/6 in regards to those two.

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kilodalton October 30 2011, 16:47:38 UTC
Totally ... I am completely mystified why he chose to take her story in that direction. It's even turned some River fans and shippers off her. Why would he do that to his own characters? That's just such a completely out-of-touch bungle that I just can't even comprehend his motivation.

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sensiblecat October 30 2011, 16:25:14 UTC
Strange, that sounds far more like a Moff episode to me!

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spicandspan89 October 30 2011, 20:22:07 UTC
LOL that seems to be the general consensus!

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wander_realtai October 30 2011, 16:25:27 UTC
Agh! Haven't heard that before, but NO NO NO. That is so beyond creepy and disturbing.

I think there would be no way to "recover" from a story like that. Either Rose leaves because she's become all too aware of that manipulation and isn't having any of that, thank you very much; or she stays and succumbs to exactly that, becoming exactly what he made her to be.

Just, no. A thousand times, no.

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fogsblue October 30 2011, 16:30:53 UTC
When I first heard about this, I assumed it was a joke, but apparently not. I'm sure I heard somewhere it was originally supposed to be in place of Boomtown (if someone knows for sure?).

So very very glad they didn't make this episode, because it would have been more disturbing than some of the relationships we've seen on Who (lately especially).

I love the way the Doctor/Rose relationship works. If Rose had been manipulated like that I wouldn't have bought the relationship. Actually, it probably would have scared me off a bit. I certainly never would have believed Rose would stick around if she discovered that had happened and wouldn't like the character if she had.

I'm not sure there would be any possible way to pull this story off and keep their relationship how it is without being creepy, disturbing or just plain wrong.

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isawthephoto November 2 2011, 16:57:00 UTC
Ugh that they even considered this makes me squick. It's just... the power imbalance would be worse than Doctor/River or Doctor/Reinette. Blegh.

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fogsblue November 2 2011, 17:03:24 UTC
Also, suddenly the whole Twilight stalking would seem mild in comparison. I like the theory that this was a Moffat idea, don't care if it was or not, it seems like something he'd do.

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spicandspan89 November 4 2011, 01:04:04 UTC
Also, suddenly the whole Twilight stalking would seem mild in comparison.

O.o You're right! Never thought anything would make Twilight stalking look tame lol.

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