Random Shippy Drivel - DW (spoilers up to S3)
Doctor/Rose versus Ten/Martha. Under the cut because it's utter nonsense and was written solely to drag me out of my emo and kick me into believing in my ship again. Sometimes I need to remind myself of this stuff, when I read articles about bed-sharing or the Doctor invites yet another person along.
For a moment there, I thought I could see where the Martha shippers were coming from, because the two were obviously very close at the end of Family of Blood - all that hugging and Martha putting his poppy on and stuff (though the Rose shipper in me yells that he wasn't responding to that at ALL, and that, if Rose had done it, he would've looked down and smiled. *ahem*). However, looking back on the past two episodes, I have to - in a thoroughly unbiased manner, I hope, if you’ll forgive the split infinitive - conclude that the Doctor and Martha simply have a very strong friendship. Yes, she wants something more. Yes, he needs her, now, because it would be too difficult to start again and he’s got quite attached to her, but he could have picked anyone up and had the same thing happen. I’m not going to bring in comparisons with Rose’s replacability, because I’m trying to be unbiased. *grin* But yes. He needs Martha, he’s fond of her, but he simply doesn’t love her. After all, why has she been so miserable for the past two episodes? Because, given a clean slate and therefore effectively "getting over" Rose, he didn’t, as she had hoped he would, turn to her, but fell in love with someone else, even though Martha was right there in front of him, in his memories and trying very hard to get noticed (which really made me rather hurt for her, despite myself, because we've all been there, haven't we? Though hopefully not stuck in 1913 in the process).
There are a hundred other factors in there, too, including the way he used to look at Rose (and Joan, I notice) but has never looked at Martha. The way hand-holdings and glances were made so much of in S1 and S2 and yet, in a rather enclosed space with an obviously flirting Martha, Ten is completely unflustered. The way RTD intended the Doctor and Rose as a love story, said he literally needed a universe to separate them because nothing else could keep them apart, and yet we’ve heard no such purpose about Martha. I could go on all day, but I should really get around to some Philosophy revision. Ahem.
So. *shrugs* Let the Ten/Martha shippers have their squees and their moments, as we had ours. Let them make as much of unrequited love as we did promises of forever. I daresay they argue every point I’ve made in the other direction (such is life as a shipper in a fandom as crazy as this one), but…let them. Because everyone has the right to fall in love with a pairing, everyone has the right to take what they want from this show (though what’s the betting that the Martha shippers are the ones who identify with/want to be like Martha, and the Rose shippers the other way around?), and, mostly importantly to me, because I’m selfish like that *g*, having written all this long-sentenced drivel, I suddenly feel a lot happier about and more secure with my own ship. I’m sorry, DoctorxRose. How could I doubt you, when Nine died for Rose and Rose became the goddess of all time to save him, when Ten came so very close to admitting he loved her so many times and she gave up her entirely family for a chance at a little more time with him?
Sometimes, a hug is just a hug, and I need to stop stressing over the fact that *gasp* the Doctor actually dared to touch someone who wasn’t Rose. It’s happened before and it’ll happen again, and no matter what happens in the future of DW, no matter when Ten gets over Rose, no-one will ever, ever be able to change the undeniable fact that they did love each other.
Thus ends drivelly nonsense.
For a moment there, I thought I could see where the Martha shippers were coming from, because the two were obviously very close at the end of Family of Blood - all that hugging and Martha putting his poppy on and stuff (though the Rose shipper in me yells that he wasn't responding to that at ALL, and that, if Rose had done it, he would've looked down and smiled. *ahem*). However, looking back on the past two episodes, I have to - in a thoroughly unbiased manner, I hope, if you’ll forgive the split infinitive - conclude that the Doctor and Martha simply have a very strong friendship. Yes, she wants something more. Yes, he needs her, now, because it would be too difficult to start again and he’s got quite attached to her, but he could have picked anyone up and had the same thing happen. I’m not going to bring in comparisons with Rose’s replacability, because I’m trying to be unbiased. *grin* But yes. He needs Martha, he’s fond of her, but he simply doesn’t love her. After all, why has she been so miserable for the past two episodes? Because, given a clean slate and therefore effectively "getting over" Rose, he didn’t, as she had hoped he would, turn to her, but fell in love with someone else, even though Martha was right there in front of him, in his memories and trying very hard to get noticed (which really made me rather hurt for her, despite myself, because we've all been there, haven't we? Though hopefully not stuck in 1913 in the process).
There are a hundred other factors in there, too, including the way he used to look at Rose (and Joan, I notice) but has never looked at Martha. The way hand-holdings and glances were made so much of in S1 and S2 and yet, in a rather enclosed space with an obviously flirting Martha, Ten is completely unflustered. The way RTD intended the Doctor and Rose as a love story, said he literally needed a universe to separate them because nothing else could keep them apart, and yet we’ve heard no such purpose about Martha. I could go on all day, but I should really get around to some Philosophy revision. Ahem.
So. *shrugs* Let the Ten/Martha shippers have their squees and their moments, as we had ours. Let them make as much of unrequited love as we did promises of forever. I daresay they argue every point I’ve made in the other direction (such is life as a shipper in a fandom as crazy as this one), but…let them. Because everyone has the right to fall in love with a pairing, everyone has the right to take what they want from this show (though what’s the betting that the Martha shippers are the ones who identify with/want to be like Martha, and the Rose shippers the other way around?), and, mostly importantly to me, because I’m selfish like that *g*, having written all this long-sentenced drivel, I suddenly feel a lot happier about and more secure with my own ship. I’m sorry, DoctorxRose. How could I doubt you, when Nine died for Rose and Rose became the goddess of all time to save him, when Ten came so very close to admitting he loved her so many times and she gave up her entirely family for a chance at a little more time with him?
Sometimes, a hug is just a hug, and I need to stop stressing over the fact that *gasp* the Doctor actually dared to touch someone who wasn’t Rose. It’s happened before and it’ll happen again, and no matter what happens in the future of DW, no matter when Ten gets over Rose, no-one will ever, ever be able to change the undeniable fact that they did love each other.
Thus ends drivelly nonsense.