More stuff about Doctor Who
Other stuff that's occurred to me now that I've had a couple days to digest the finale.
I'm going to preface this with saying that I've decided I did really like most of the episode, and that it could have definitely been worse. But I still have issues.
1. Okay, so the Doctor basically wiped all of Donna's memories from "The Runaway Bride" and beyond. So, um, does Donna now have a two-year hole in her memories? Because I don't care how unobservant she is, I think she would have noticed if she fell asleep in 2006 and didn't wake up until 2008. Or did the Doctor just wipe everything having to do with him? Which still leaves a big gap in her memories because for at least a few months all she did was travel with him. If all that was extracted, there's nothing left to account for that time period. So how does that work?
2. The more I think about it the less the Donna ending disturbs me. As I think I've said in comments on other journals although not in an actual post, I don't think Donna is back in the exact same place she was pre-Doctor, because her family isn't. Wilf and Sylvia still remember what happened, and I think that's going to affect their interactions with Donna even if they can't mention anything specific to her. They now know about the potential hidden inside Donna, and I'd like to think they would try to help her find it again. Basically, Wilf and Sylvia can themselves play the same role the Doctor did originally, by supporting her decisions, helping her build up her confidence, telling her that she is capable of things she would have never imagined. I rewatched all of S4 and "The Runaway Bride" the week before the finale, and I think there's an argument to be made that a lot of Donna's insecurity, defense mechanisms, and issues could stem from the way her mother treats her. Sylvia is casually emotionally abusive toward her daughter, although I don't think she means to be. I hope that the Doctor point-blank telling her to show some appreciation for her daughter once in a while makes Sylvia re-examine her own actions, and hopefully she'll become the support that Donna needs to rediscover her awesome. So I can be okay with Donna's ending even if it still sucks.
3. The emotion and character interactions in this episode were just so badly done and empty, which is surprising considering that RTD always goes for the big weepy character moments.
a. Rose and Jack: they were friends, right? They flirted a lot and it was clear they were important to each other. They also thought they would never see each other again. But did they actually say two words to each other throughout the entire episode? Rose cries over him when she thinks the Daleks have killed him, but that was the only indication that she seemed to notice Jack was there at all. Mickey and Sarah Jane both had still-rushed but more significant interactions with Jack, and Jack barely knew either one of them.
b. Mickey and Rose: Did he even say goodbye to her? Even if they hadn't worked out romantically in the altverse, weren't they still friends? He was still hanging around, anyway. But again it was like Rose didn't even notice whether he was or wasn't there.
c. Ten and Rose: Okay, really, Rose in general. She just wasn't there in any significant way. If nothing else, I would have expected a lot of interaction between her and the Doctor. They were in every scene together in "Journey's End" and yet I don't think they said five sentences to each other the whole time. Yeah, yeah, end of all reality and there were more important things to worry about, but again: RTD almost always goes for the big weepy moment, even in the middle of a crisis (see Pete and Jackie's reunion smack in the middle of a giant Cyberman/Dalek invasion in "Doomsday").
4. And why exactly did she need to be put back in the altverse? There was no reason for that, other than the Doctor wanted to force her to watch his clone and he didn't particularly want his clone making messes in his own universe. I don't know. I don't see it as a shippy ending at all, even disregarding the issue of whether clone!Ten was enough like real!Ten to make Rose happy, because the Doctor just gave off this vibe of "I'm not that into you" toward Rose. Of course, there are a lot of different interpretations of that scene, and I'm not even sure I buy my own interpretation of it, but that whole scene was awkwardly written and directed. Rose bringing up the unfinished line seemed petty and was a really clunky way for RTD to show that real!Ten was stepping back to let clone!Ten win Rose's heart. The kiss seemed more desperate than passionate, and I blame the directing for that, because the frames used were just kind of weird. Who directed this, anyway? The whole episode seemed kind of lackluster in that department, though this scene was the worst. Everything in that scene was just surprisingly awkward and amateurish compared to the polish the series usually shows. I was never that into the Doctor/Rose ship, but I was disappointed how unemotional and empty that scene was.
5. And now I'm really worried about clone!Ten. He has all the memories of a Time Lord and of what he did and all the TARDIS travel and all that. Real!Ten made a point that they were exactly the same (which isn't true because clone!Ten had a good chunk of Donna's personality in him, but apparently RTD completely forgot about that between the scene where it was established and the end of the episode), but the show has implied several times that the Doctor cannot stand to be in the same place and time for very long. So how can he be expected to be happy stranded in one place with no TARDIS? Or if we're supposed to believe he has enough human/Donna's personality in him to be okay with that, then he's really not at all like real!Ten, is he? And what does that say about Rose, that she's supposed to be happy with the domestic-friendly version of the Doctor? Wasn't her whole thing that she loved the adventure and travel as well as the Doctor? So her happy ending is that she gets saddled with a copy of the Doctor who can't take her traveling or resume the kind of life with her that she had with the real Doctor? You could fanwank around that the same way I did with Donna up above: maybe clone!Ten will build/find/steal a spaceship or something and he and Rose can run around and have adventures in her universe. And that's something that I hope a lot of people explore in fanfic because I would read that. But it still bothers me that this whole situation is supposed to be some happy romantic ending for Rose. And it still doesn't explain why they had to be dumped in the other universe to begin with.
Have I written enough about this yet? I think so.
I'm going to preface this with saying that I've decided I did really like most of the episode, and that it could have definitely been worse. But I still have issues.
1. Okay, so the Doctor basically wiped all of Donna's memories from "The Runaway Bride" and beyond. So, um, does Donna now have a two-year hole in her memories? Because I don't care how unobservant she is, I think she would have noticed if she fell asleep in 2006 and didn't wake up until 2008. Or did the Doctor just wipe everything having to do with him? Which still leaves a big gap in her memories because for at least a few months all she did was travel with him. If all that was extracted, there's nothing left to account for that time period. So how does that work?
2. The more I think about it the less the Donna ending disturbs me. As I think I've said in comments on other journals although not in an actual post, I don't think Donna is back in the exact same place she was pre-Doctor, because her family isn't. Wilf and Sylvia still remember what happened, and I think that's going to affect their interactions with Donna even if they can't mention anything specific to her. They now know about the potential hidden inside Donna, and I'd like to think they would try to help her find it again. Basically, Wilf and Sylvia can themselves play the same role the Doctor did originally, by supporting her decisions, helping her build up her confidence, telling her that she is capable of things she would have never imagined. I rewatched all of S4 and "The Runaway Bride" the week before the finale, and I think there's an argument to be made that a lot of Donna's insecurity, defense mechanisms, and issues could stem from the way her mother treats her. Sylvia is casually emotionally abusive toward her daughter, although I don't think she means to be. I hope that the Doctor point-blank telling her to show some appreciation for her daughter once in a while makes Sylvia re-examine her own actions, and hopefully she'll become the support that Donna needs to rediscover her awesome. So I can be okay with Donna's ending even if it still sucks.
3. The emotion and character interactions in this episode were just so badly done and empty, which is surprising considering that RTD always goes for the big weepy character moments.
a. Rose and Jack: they were friends, right? They flirted a lot and it was clear they were important to each other. They also thought they would never see each other again. But did they actually say two words to each other throughout the entire episode? Rose cries over him when she thinks the Daleks have killed him, but that was the only indication that she seemed to notice Jack was there at all. Mickey and Sarah Jane both had still-rushed but more significant interactions with Jack, and Jack barely knew either one of them.
b. Mickey and Rose: Did he even say goodbye to her? Even if they hadn't worked out romantically in the altverse, weren't they still friends? He was still hanging around, anyway. But again it was like Rose didn't even notice whether he was or wasn't there.
c. Ten and Rose: Okay, really, Rose in general. She just wasn't there in any significant way. If nothing else, I would have expected a lot of interaction between her and the Doctor. They were in every scene together in "Journey's End" and yet I don't think they said five sentences to each other the whole time. Yeah, yeah, end of all reality and there were more important things to worry about, but again: RTD almost always goes for the big weepy moment, even in the middle of a crisis (see Pete and Jackie's reunion smack in the middle of a giant Cyberman/Dalek invasion in "Doomsday").
4. And why exactly did she need to be put back in the altverse? There was no reason for that, other than the Doctor wanted to force her to watch his clone and he didn't particularly want his clone making messes in his own universe. I don't know. I don't see it as a shippy ending at all, even disregarding the issue of whether clone!Ten was enough like real!Ten to make Rose happy, because the Doctor just gave off this vibe of "I'm not that into you" toward Rose. Of course, there are a lot of different interpretations of that scene, and I'm not even sure I buy my own interpretation of it, but that whole scene was awkwardly written and directed. Rose bringing up the unfinished line seemed petty and was a really clunky way for RTD to show that real!Ten was stepping back to let clone!Ten win Rose's heart. The kiss seemed more desperate than passionate, and I blame the directing for that, because the frames used were just kind of weird. Who directed this, anyway? The whole episode seemed kind of lackluster in that department, though this scene was the worst. Everything in that scene was just surprisingly awkward and amateurish compared to the polish the series usually shows. I was never that into the Doctor/Rose ship, but I was disappointed how unemotional and empty that scene was.
5. And now I'm really worried about clone!Ten. He has all the memories of a Time Lord and of what he did and all the TARDIS travel and all that. Real!Ten made a point that they were exactly the same (which isn't true because clone!Ten had a good chunk of Donna's personality in him, but apparently RTD completely forgot about that between the scene where it was established and the end of the episode), but the show has implied several times that the Doctor cannot stand to be in the same place and time for very long. So how can he be expected to be happy stranded in one place with no TARDIS? Or if we're supposed to believe he has enough human/Donna's personality in him to be okay with that, then he's really not at all like real!Ten, is he? And what does that say about Rose, that she's supposed to be happy with the domestic-friendly version of the Doctor? Wasn't her whole thing that she loved the adventure and travel as well as the Doctor? So her happy ending is that she gets saddled with a copy of the Doctor who can't take her traveling or resume the kind of life with her that she had with the real Doctor? You could fanwank around that the same way I did with Donna up above: maybe clone!Ten will build/find/steal a spaceship or something and he and Rose can run around and have adventures in her universe. And that's something that I hope a lot of people explore in fanfic because I would read that. But it still bothers me that this whole situation is supposed to be some happy romantic ending for Rose. And it still doesn't explain why they had to be dumped in the other universe to begin with.
Have I written enough about this yet? I think so.