Live Until They Die - Journey's End Rant about the Doctor, Rose, and 'forever'
jigglykat and wendymr encouraged me...;)
I've come to the conclusion that the majority of fandom (well, the Doctor/Rose shippers) reacted to Journey's End in one (or more) of the following ways:
1) The Doctor version 2.0 (or The Tenth Doctor (Duplicate)) isn't the Doctor and shouldn't be called the Doctor - let's call him John! And make Rose call him John! In the heat of passion!
2) Rose can't leave the Doctor! But the Doctor gave her Doctor 2.0! So...I know! Rose is immortal. She gets to live with Doctor 2.0 (Let's call him John) until he dies, rip her way across the universes and then stay with the real Doctor! Yes! Perfect plan! Best of both worlds!
or
3) Rose belongs with the Doctor. The real Doctor! So, let's kill off Doctor 2.0 quickly, then get Rose back to the real Doctor. Yes! Perfect plan! Bwahaha!
My reaction to all of these trends? AUGH! ACK! NO! Yes, I know, my reaction isn't the most eloquent, but it's still very valid.
What I want to know, seriously know, is why Rose wouldn't call the Doctor the Doctor. It's still him, save for this little quirk of biology that makes him have one heart and one lifespan. Hell, if you go with certain bits of old school canon (like I tend to do since, well, it's me) Never mind that canon contradicts itself! Gallifreyans had one heart. Not all Gallifreyans were Time Lords, but all Time Lords were Gallifreyans and Time Lords didn't get their second heart until after they regenerated for the first time. Ergo, the Doctor is Gallifreyan. A normal, run-of-the-mill Gallifreyan with some human factors mixed in (but we all know Gallifreyan's dominant, otherwise he'd have the same problem as Donna). He's got the Doctor's memories, etc. He's still the Doctor. Rose has known him for a long time.
Can you honestly see Rose calling him John? Or Jack? In private? Even in public? I have a hard time with it. A really hard time with it. He's still the Doctor! Sure, he needs to have some identity papers. And maybe those papers need a name (John Smith, John Noble, Jack Noble, Jack Smith, Jonathan Smith, James McCrimmon, Doctor Spock), but still! I can't see Rose calling him anything other than Doctor. Hard to break a habit of a lifetime, especially since it's still him. Not to mention the fact that it's a name he's chosen for himself. He's the Doctor. Nothing less, nothing more.
Which brings me to the immortal!Rose quandary. Yes, I agree that the show never properly explained why Bad Wolf was written everywhere. They never properly explained how Rose punched through universes with her dimension cannon/how long it took her to get to the right universe. But why do these aspects have to mean that Rose is immortal?
On the surface, yes, it seems like the perfect solution. Let Rose live a life with Doctor 2.0, then find her way back to the Time Lord Doctor. That way both Doctors get Rose, and she gets both Doctors. But...doesn't that make it seem like Doctor 2.0 is second best? A rest stop during the course of Rose's life?
Wouldn't that be the last thing the Time Lord Doctor wanted for her? Because that means she'll have to watch her family, her friends, her Doctor wither and die. She'll have to live on, young and beautiful, while everyone else ages around her. She'll be immortal. Just like Jack. A fact in time and space.
So why wouldn't the Time Lord Doctor sense that?
Why would he condemn her to that life - his life?
Then you've got the fics where they kill off Doctor 2.0 way too soon, leaving Rose alone. So, of course, Rose goes back to the Time Lord Doctor.
Why? Honestly, why? Would the Time Lord Doctor really want that for Rose? It'd be like he's saying "Here's my human self. He's weaker, more prone to dying suddenly without regeneration and did I mention that he's going to die in three months? Oops, forgot about that pesky metacrisis. It'll kill my human self too, but don't worry about it. You can come back to me when you're done 'making him better'. Later!"
It just doesn't make sense to me.
Now, I know that people don't want the Doctor (Time Lord version) to be alone. He won't be. He's the Doctor. He's over 900 years old. And, like Sarah Jane said, he's got the biggest family in the world. His companions. His children of time. Yes, they come and go. But they're always there for him in the end, if he needs them. And there will always be someone else walking through the doors of the TARDIS, gasping in wonder at her being bigger on the inside. There will be days where he feels like he's alone. Days where he does it to himself. But there will also be days where he realises he isn't. And he never was.
So why can't there be more fics where Rose and Doctor 2.0 are old, still getting into trouble/saving the world, and having the time of their lives? Why can't there be more fics where they have a good life, the best life, together and then, as all good stories, all lives, do, end?
So did Rose get stuck with someone who's not the Doctor? No. Would she call him anything other than Doctor? No, because he is the Doctor, in every way that counts. Is Rose immortal? Will she live out her life with Doctor 2.0 and then go back to the Time Lord Doctor? No. Because that's the last thing the Time Lord Doctor wanted for her. Because she and the Doctor 2.0 should be running around Torchwood using zimmer frames, causing trouble, up until the day they die.
That's my personal canon.