CAGE MATCH WOOO
SO here is the final cage match poll, based on the winners for the cage match polls for each season & the specials.
Poll Most of these were pretty clear-cut, except s3 which was one vote away from being a 3-way tie (runners-up being Human Nature/Family of Blood and Blink). S5 was probably the biggest margin, with Vincent & The Doctor winning by an ( Read more... )
Poll Most of these were pretty clear-cut, except s3 which was one vote away from being a 3-way tie (runners-up being Human Nature/Family of Blood and Blink). S5 was probably the biggest margin, with Vincent & The Doctor winning by an ( Read more... )
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(Crazy-eyed Ten is just... well, he's a flavor of Ten that I was a bit tired of by the end, yeah?)
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Waters of Mars is my favourite because I think it kind of sums up what I liked so much about RTD's Who. I can see how it wouldn't be for everyone but I basically think it is unendingly brilliant, lol.
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Hm. I'd be hard-pressed to pick a (personal) favorite episode of all time of new Who.
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This. Exactly. This.
Ten's arc was about his chronic loss and having to watch people die/leave/forget, etc - or in Rose's case, having to push her away for her own long-term good so she could be with a more compatible version of himself. And finally, all that builds up to WOM, where he just can't deal with witnessing all that loss anymore, and snaps.
It's brilliant and I adore that episode. It's dark, and his intentions SHOULD be uplifting, but they come across as creepy and out of control. It is I think the best episode of DW, ever.
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On a more meta level, what I love so much about New Who and particularly RTD's version of it was that it did not fall into the standard TV trope of pretending a character never existed once they left the show. (LOOKING @ U, SECRET DIARY.) The Doctor absolutely felt each and every loss, and finding new friends and new companions didn't magically erase the hurt of having lost the previous one. Moreover, there was never any maximum level of angst or pain or loss the Doctor was allowed to feel -- he doesn't react the same to losing Rose as to losing the Master as to losing Martha etc, and like with a real person you get the sense each and every one of those losses is responsible for his steady decline, that all of those things ate weighing on him by Waters of Mars and EOT; it's not just the Time War or just Rose or just Donna, it's Rose and Martha and Donna and the Master and Jenny and the Time War etc. His rock bottom in TRB isn't the same as the rock bottom in VOTD which isn't the same as the rock bottom in WOM.
Having him snap under all that grief and giving him moments where his actions aren't commendable or heroic or "right" was precisely what I liked about the writing and about the character, that's what made him relatable for me and humanized him and allowed me to sympathize with him. And Waters of Mars is more or less the climax of that -- he tries to do the right thing the wrong way, the power goes to his head, and he's lashing out at basically the universe itself. It trickles into EOT as well (which is a large part of why I love EOT too) but I think WOM showcases it best. Plus for me, those moments where we see how hard it is for him to do the right thing/the heroic thing/etc make it that much more worthwhile/important/meaningful when he struggles but does it anyway.
And the other thing I love about RTD's Who is that the companions aren't interchangeable and aren't replaceable parts and that he does miss them when they're gone, and he needs them there, like Donna says he needs someone to stop him -- so having an entire episode dedicated to "this is what goes wrong when no one is there" was right up my alley too.
Wow lol this comment. TL;DR WATERS OF MARS IS GREAT.
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THIS.
One of the many reasons I love RTD, and one of the reasons WoM is pretty high on my list.
And also why people need to stop going, "Oh, Ten, stop angsting." HOW CAN HE STOP ANGSTING WHEN THE UNIVERSE JUST KEEPS DIGGING DEEPER HOLES FOR HIM?
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