After the Library: 2008 - now
In anticipation for last nightt's Doctor Who, I tried putting into words some thoughts that have been floating around my head concerning the Doctor's life post-Forest of the Dead.
Includes spoilers up to The Pyramid at the End of the World.
Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead were a big deal for me when they aired back in 2008.
I will always love those two episodes. They hold a very special place in my heart, for what they are, what they represented, but also for where I was in my own life at the time they aired. It is all bound up with life, love, the future, and mortality.
Until those two episodes Russell T. Davies' revival of Doctor Who had been very backwards-looking, portraying the battle-scarred Doctor as a "lonely god" in the twilight of his life, filled with regret and reflecting on days gone by and the many tragedies and losses in his long life.
In Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead the Doctor Who revival started looking in the opposite direction towards the future for the first time. Through the character of Professor River Song we experience a tantalising glimpse of an unseen future Doctor.
RIVER: Look at you. Oh, you're young.
DOCTOR: I'm really not, you know.
RIVER: No, but you are. Your eyes. You're younger than I've ever seen you.
RIVER: Listen to me. You've lost your friend. You're angry. I understand. But you need to be less emotional, Doctor, right now.
DOCTOR: Less emotional? I'm not emotional.
RIVER: There are five people in this room still alive. Focus on that. Dear God, you're hard work young.
DOCTOR: Young? Who are you?
The above two quotes really deconstruct the image of David Tennant's ancient "lonely god" Doctor. In comparison to the unseen future Doctor that River knows, the Tenth Doctor is young and emotional to the point of being unhelpful.
RIVER: You know when you see a photograph of someone you know, but it's from years before you knew them. and it's like they're not quite finished. They're not done yet. Well, yes, the Doctor's here. He came when I called, just like he always does. But not my Doctor. Now my Doctor, I've seen whole armies turn and run away. And he'd just swagger off back to his Tardis and open the doors with a snap of his fingers. The Doctor in the Tardis. Next stop, everywhere.
DOCTOR: Spoilers. Nobody can open a Tardis by snapping their fingers. It doesn't work like that.
RIVER: It does for the Doctor.
DOCTOR: I am the Doctor.
RIVER: Yeah. Some day.
According to River, the Tenth Doctor may be calling himself the Doctor, but he's not living up to the title yet.
This personal future of the Doctor that River came from was an uncharted vista. I remember thinking "Who is that Doctor?", "Will we ever really get to meet him?", and "What happens between now and then to make him become that Doctor?". I was worried this would be one of those faux futures that genres shows such as Charmed were fond of giving us glimpses of, only to never deliver.
RIVER: Funny thing is, this means you've always known how I was going to die. All the time we've been together, you knew I was coming here. The last time I saw you, the real you, the future you, I mean, you turned up on my doorstep, with a new haircut and a suit. You took me to Darillium to see the Singing Towers. What a night that was. The Towers sang, and you cried.
DOCTOR: You can let me do this.
RIVER: If you die here, it'll mean I've never met you.
DOCTOR: Time can be rewritten.
RIVER: Not those times. Not one line. Don't you dare. It's okay. It's okay. It's not over for you. You'll see me again. You've got all of that to come. You and me, time and space. You watch us run.
I knew that even if we never saw River again (and that if all these events she was describing were to remain off-screen in the extremely far-future with the Forty-Second and Forty-Third Doctors) I would always be grateful that I got this two-part story. That was not to be the case as River became a recurring character. Over the next few years through stories featuring River we ventured further and further into the uncharted vista, into the days that lead to the Doctor becoming that Doctor. True, we did not see all of their story together, but we saw the important chapters in their time together. The rest, as the Eleventh Doctor said in The Wedding of River Song, was private between the Doctor and River. What is important is that we got to see the Doctor change.
DOCTOR: The Singing Towers of Darillium. Here we are at last.
With the events of The Name of the Doctor, I really thought that was it for the Doctor and River's story. I was left to assume that the Singing Towers of Darillium occurred off-screen between The Angels Take Manhattan and The Snowmen. I was slightly disappointed that River would not feature with any other Doctors, as I had always assumed that their relationship took place over a span of multiple incarnations. However, I was more than happy with their bitter sweet goodbyes in The Name of the Doctor. Even so, I still did not feel that the Doctor had yet become that unseen future Doctor described back in 2008.
Then we got The Husbands of River Song and everything came full circle. Now it is 2017 and we are on the other side of the future we got a glimpse of back in 2008. Unseen no longer. The Doctor really is that Doctor now. He is older (at least double the age of the Doctor that River encountered in the library), wiser, less emotional, and kinder. I could not be more satisfied.
I've made my point, but I thought I would also include a list of some of those life-changing events between Forest of the Dead and the current episode The Pyramid at the End of the World:
*Setting aside his own personal happiness by letting go of Rose Tyler to allow her a life more deserving of her.
*Seeing some of his worst attributes through the Meta-Crisis Doctor.
*The tragic loss of Donna Noble and with it the realisation that he must become more careful with how he chooses and looks after his companions.
*Trying to become the master of fate by rescuing Adelaide Brooke and her crew from Bowie Base One on Mars.
*Giving up his life (and his vanity) for Wilfred Mott.
*Becoming part of a family again through Amy Pond, Rory Williams, and River.
*Losing that family suddenly and unexpectedly.
*His entire relationship with River.
*Demon's Run as a consequence of people's fear of him.
*The 200-year long "farewell tour" in which he mostly travelled alone.
*The loss of his oldest friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
*Cheating death at Lake Silencio.
*Going into self-imposed retirement in Victorian London.
*Visiting his own grave on Trenzalore.
*Confronting the War Doctor.
*Going back into the Time War and saving Gallifrey.
*Spending 900 years on Trenzalore defending the town of Christmas.
*Reaching the end of his first regeneration cycle and growing extremely old.
*Being saved by Clara Oswald's belief in him.
*Reviving Ashildr and turning her immortal.
*Going into the Confession Dial.
*Returning to Gallifrey.
*Settling down for 24 years on Darillium with River.
*Living with (temporary) blindness.
Includes spoilers up to The Pyramid at the End of the World.
Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead were a big deal for me when they aired back in 2008.
I will always love those two episodes. They hold a very special place in my heart, for what they are, what they represented, but also for where I was in my own life at the time they aired. It is all bound up with life, love, the future, and mortality.
Until those two episodes Russell T. Davies' revival of Doctor Who had been very backwards-looking, portraying the battle-scarred Doctor as a "lonely god" in the twilight of his life, filled with regret and reflecting on days gone by and the many tragedies and losses in his long life.
In Silence in the Library and Forest of the Dead the Doctor Who revival started looking in the opposite direction towards the future for the first time. Through the character of Professor River Song we experience a tantalising glimpse of an unseen future Doctor.
RIVER: Look at you. Oh, you're young.
DOCTOR: I'm really not, you know.
RIVER: No, but you are. Your eyes. You're younger than I've ever seen you.
RIVER: Listen to me. You've lost your friend. You're angry. I understand. But you need to be less emotional, Doctor, right now.
DOCTOR: Less emotional? I'm not emotional.
RIVER: There are five people in this room still alive. Focus on that. Dear God, you're hard work young.
DOCTOR: Young? Who are you?
The above two quotes really deconstruct the image of David Tennant's ancient "lonely god" Doctor. In comparison to the unseen future Doctor that River knows, the Tenth Doctor is young and emotional to the point of being unhelpful.
RIVER: You know when you see a photograph of someone you know, but it's from years before you knew them. and it's like they're not quite finished. They're not done yet. Well, yes, the Doctor's here. He came when I called, just like he always does. But not my Doctor. Now my Doctor, I've seen whole armies turn and run away. And he'd just swagger off back to his Tardis and open the doors with a snap of his fingers. The Doctor in the Tardis. Next stop, everywhere.
DOCTOR: Spoilers. Nobody can open a Tardis by snapping their fingers. It doesn't work like that.
RIVER: It does for the Doctor.
DOCTOR: I am the Doctor.
RIVER: Yeah. Some day.
According to River, the Tenth Doctor may be calling himself the Doctor, but he's not living up to the title yet.
This personal future of the Doctor that River came from was an uncharted vista. I remember thinking "Who is that Doctor?", "Will we ever really get to meet him?", and "What happens between now and then to make him become that Doctor?". I was worried this would be one of those faux futures that genres shows such as Charmed were fond of giving us glimpses of, only to never deliver.
RIVER: Funny thing is, this means you've always known how I was going to die. All the time we've been together, you knew I was coming here. The last time I saw you, the real you, the future you, I mean, you turned up on my doorstep, with a new haircut and a suit. You took me to Darillium to see the Singing Towers. What a night that was. The Towers sang, and you cried.
DOCTOR: You can let me do this.
RIVER: If you die here, it'll mean I've never met you.
DOCTOR: Time can be rewritten.
RIVER: Not those times. Not one line. Don't you dare. It's okay. It's okay. It's not over for you. You'll see me again. You've got all of that to come. You and me, time and space. You watch us run.
I knew that even if we never saw River again (and that if all these events she was describing were to remain off-screen in the extremely far-future with the Forty-Second and Forty-Third Doctors) I would always be grateful that I got this two-part story. That was not to be the case as River became a recurring character. Over the next few years through stories featuring River we ventured further and further into the uncharted vista, into the days that lead to the Doctor becoming that Doctor. True, we did not see all of their story together, but we saw the important chapters in their time together. The rest, as the Eleventh Doctor said in The Wedding of River Song, was private between the Doctor and River. What is important is that we got to see the Doctor change.
DOCTOR: The Singing Towers of Darillium. Here we are at last.
With the events of The Name of the Doctor, I really thought that was it for the Doctor and River's story. I was left to assume that the Singing Towers of Darillium occurred off-screen between The Angels Take Manhattan and The Snowmen. I was slightly disappointed that River would not feature with any other Doctors, as I had always assumed that their relationship took place over a span of multiple incarnations. However, I was more than happy with their bitter sweet goodbyes in The Name of the Doctor. Even so, I still did not feel that the Doctor had yet become that unseen future Doctor described back in 2008.
Then we got The Husbands of River Song and everything came full circle. Now it is 2017 and we are on the other side of the future we got a glimpse of back in 2008. Unseen no longer. The Doctor really is that Doctor now. He is older (at least double the age of the Doctor that River encountered in the library), wiser, less emotional, and kinder. I could not be more satisfied.
I've made my point, but I thought I would also include a list of some of those life-changing events between Forest of the Dead and the current episode The Pyramid at the End of the World:
*Setting aside his own personal happiness by letting go of Rose Tyler to allow her a life more deserving of her.
*Seeing some of his worst attributes through the Meta-Crisis Doctor.
*The tragic loss of Donna Noble and with it the realisation that he must become more careful with how he chooses and looks after his companions.
*Trying to become the master of fate by rescuing Adelaide Brooke and her crew from Bowie Base One on Mars.
*Giving up his life (and his vanity) for Wilfred Mott.
*Becoming part of a family again through Amy Pond, Rory Williams, and River.
*Losing that family suddenly and unexpectedly.
*His entire relationship with River.
*Demon's Run as a consequence of people's fear of him.
*The 200-year long "farewell tour" in which he mostly travelled alone.
*The loss of his oldest friend Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart.
*Cheating death at Lake Silencio.
*Going into self-imposed retirement in Victorian London.
*Visiting his own grave on Trenzalore.
*Confronting the War Doctor.
*Going back into the Time War and saving Gallifrey.
*Spending 900 years on Trenzalore defending the town of Christmas.
*Reaching the end of his first regeneration cycle and growing extremely old.
*Being saved by Clara Oswald's belief in him.
*Reviving Ashildr and turning her immortal.
*Going into the Confession Dial.
*Returning to Gallifrey.
*Settling down for 24 years on Darillium with River.
*Living with (temporary) blindness.