Doctor Who
- Oh, Doctor Who. I am having decidedly mixed feelings about the last episode, even though I loved the previous first-parter (my favourite part of that episode? When Donna points to the screen and asks, "Who is that?") I felt a bit let down at some parts, like the Doctor’s “regeneration” (though I supposed it made sense) and how all the companions came together to help him in the end--all they really needed was Donna, didn’t they?
- But that being said I was completely sucked into the episode and I was gasping and laughing (especially at the German Daleks, lol!) at the appropriate moments.
- Oh, Donna. I am a little heartbroken at the way it all ended for her--all along she had been struggling with her self-esteem and even though she is obviously bright and capable and fun and a brilliant companion, she didn’t get to take any of that away with her at the end of it all. It just felt really cruel and rather mean-spirited, really. She was made to look like a bit of a shrill, silly woman at the end of episode talking on her cell phone, and when she just brushed the Doctor off!! Oh, that was so sad.
- But as I've read on some other journals, the issue which I am most bitter about is that she didn't get to CHOOSE her own fate at the end, she had it foisted upon her and she didn't get to take any of the good with her at all. She had grown so much over the course of the series and it was all reduced to nothing at the end of it. What a fucking waste.
- I did love that she became part-timelord, though, the payoff with the heartbeats and the “Doctor Donna” and the "threefold man" was very nicely done. Ah, but the cost of it!
- Also re: Rose and her sort-of happy ending with her own Doctor that was sort of sweet but also very fucked up--it was nice in a way, I admit, that she finally gets to have her own happy ending with her Doctor (and you know she’d never be truly happy or get on with her life otherwise) but it all felt a little fucked up to me! But yes, when the other Doctor whispered to her and she kissed him while the Doctor looked on, that was quite tragic.
- Martha--I love Martha, but honestly I felt she didn’t have much to do all episode, but I’m glad she got out safely in the end. I guess the rumours about her and Mickey joining Torchwood have some chance of becoming true, then? I would like to see Martha again, but I really hope they don’t end up toning down the “risque-ness” of the show--that was what made it interesting and, okay, inadvertently hilarious. Mickey I am ambivalent about. I could take him or leave him, though I was hoping that he’d ended up with that blonde guy back in the parallel world!
- Also, I noticed a lot of characters saluted to the Doctor at the end, and that’s fine, but I would’ve liked it if they had saluted Donna as well. Also I was hoping that she would somehow get to meet Lee again during this episode and have her own happily-ever-after but no dice.
All in all, though, this was a season that I thoroughly enjoyed--I loved Donna as a companion, and her run as a companion wasn’t so fraught with icky gender/romantic issues as Martha’s or even Rose’s was. I liked that her relationship with the Doctor was platonic, even though they had gobs of sexual chemistry on-screen and I was hoping they were shagging off-screen, haha. I think Catherine Tate did a great job with her character and I'm terribly sad we won't get to see Donna anymore. I'm really going to miss her.