Doctor Who Series 4, Episode 5

[jaydk]

Hey, now that was a lot more enjoyable.  I don’t know if part two was actually objectively better than part one, but I did have more fun watching it.

Sylvia and the axe!  It was pretty obvious how this not especially suspenseful “cliffhanger” would be resolved, but I was glad that it was Sylvia who got to break open that windshield.  She may be a

Comments

[jaydk]

He genuinely disapproves of the military and its violence-first solutions, but he's also got all kinds of emotional issues going on underneath--guilt, self-loathing, over-identification. He sees his own dark side in them. *hugs the Doctor*

Yeah, the Doctor has a legitimate moral position and we see him put it into action, but it's also mixed up with his traumatic past and feelings about his own past actions, so his reactions, especially with Mace, are over the top. I like the complexity of it -- that the show has the Doctor taking this distinct moral position and putting it into effective action, but we also see how his emotions are driving him and even blinding him a bit as well.

He identified with the Doctor and respected his intelligence, and ended up being inspired by the Doctor's heroism. It fits right in with the pattern of the Doctor inspiring others to be better.

I think it fits in with Luke's personality -- for all his genius, he's an insecure kid looking for someone to model himself on and to make him feel a part of something. He does it with the Sontarans, and after they reject him, he turns to the Doctor, the only other person we've seen him connect with and a powerful personality as well. It's more about the Doctor's influence on others than about Luke himself, IMO.