The Moff re-uses the idea of little girls falling for the Doctor over and over (and that's just sort of creepy when you really think about it). In the original Sally Sparrow story he wrote (What I Did On My Christmas Holidays by Sally Sparrow in the 2006 Annual) the Doctor (Nine) first encountered a grown up Sally (a beautiful woman that saved him from a Sontaran) who gave him her childhood essay so that the Doctor could leave clues for the child Sally to help him get back the TARDIS while he was stuck in the past, sound familiar? (also the Doctor's companion, Rose in this case, was conspicuously absent). They we get Reinette and then we get Amy. Not to mention his line about a red bicycle for Rose in The Doctor Dances (which I loved at the time, not to mention all the fic it seeded but still
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Man, I hate this episode so much, and I think you summed it up really well. Mostly I just brim with rage when I get to it.
And yeah - it's totally a character thing. Throwing in a love interest for the Doctor midway through the Doctor/Rose story *could* have been interesting if the characters were handled better and there was some emotional continuity between them. But since there isn't, I basically assume that GitF just sort of took place in a weird AU standalone bubble.
I actually quite liked that he completely ditched Rose without even realizing how she would feel about it- I agree that it is out of character for this season, but the truth is that the whole Doctor/Rose relationship is completely out of character for him, and this is one of the rare times when he is himself, in my opinion. The old doctors left companions on their own all the time. He always picked them up in the end (except for that time he totally, you know, left Adric to die), but he frequently expects them to take care of themselves for a while.
What did rankle on me about this episode was the fact that, at the end, he seemed to forget about the time distortion with the fireplace. It was fairly obvious that it still wasn't going to work- why wouldn't he say "hey Reinette, come through this door with me right now"? Or leave the timeline and then pick her up in the Tardis?
I do completely agree about the re-use of plotlines, though- I watched Eleventh Hour and thought heeeyyyy, this is familiar... (I just stumbled on this
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There's a difference between expecting your companion to be able to take care of himself or herself for a while (which the Doctor DOES expect of Rose as seen in "The Impossible Planet") and leaving them in the 51st century with no reasonable expectation of ever being able to return to them, while they are abandoned on a broken down spaceship with a Tardis that they can't fly
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Brilliant analysis of why this episode fails as part of the story of New Who arc.
The Doctor: Why not? I let you keep Mickey! Now go!
"No, you can't keep the horse". Yep. Painting Rose as the no-fun girlfriend who keeps the Doctor from having fun. Ugh, women. Am I right? Moffat does not just stop at setting up Rose as the nagging wife type character, he also sets up the relationship with Reinette as a sexual relationship.
And this really points out the place where Moffat very obviously doesn't flow with the previous episode - Rose did not want Mickey along and the Doctor is the one that said he could come. He's the one who 'kept' Mickey.
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luv jackie
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And yeah - it's totally a character thing. Throwing in a love interest for the Doctor midway through the Doctor/Rose story *could* have been interesting if the characters were handled better and there was some emotional continuity between them. But since there isn't, I basically assume that GitF just sort of took place in a weird AU standalone bubble.
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What did rankle on me about this episode was the fact that, at the end, he seemed to forget about the time distortion with the fireplace. It was fairly obvious that it still wasn't going to work- why wouldn't he say "hey Reinette, come through this door with me right now"? Or leave the timeline and then pick her up in the Tardis?
I do completely agree about the re-use of plotlines, though- I watched Eleventh Hour and thought heeeyyyy, this is familiar... (I just stumbled on this ( ... )
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The Doctor: Why not? I let you keep Mickey! Now go!
"No, you can't keep the horse". Yep. Painting Rose as the no-fun girlfriend who keeps the Doctor from having fun. Ugh, women. Am I right? Moffat does not just stop at setting up Rose as the nagging wife type character, he also sets up the relationship with Reinette as a sexual relationship.
And this really points out the place where Moffat very obviously doesn't flow with the previous episode - Rose did not want Mickey along and the Doctor is the one that said he could come. He's the one who 'kept' Mickey.
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