Kris's Doctor Who Adventure: 'The Sontaran Stratagem', 'The Poison Sky' and 'The Doctor's Daughter'
I'm going to group these ones together, even though they don't actually all run into each other... except they kind of do? *intriguing music plays*
Because it is MARTHA JONES TIME!!
'The Sontaran Stratagem' and 'The Poison Sky'
I was very excited to see Martha Jones in her post-companion life. It was lovely to have her with that doctor, to see her being badass in her own right, and putting everything the Doctor gave her to good use. She didn't pine. She just owned her life, and that's great.
"Is this what travelling with you did to her? You made her a soldier," Donna says to the Doctor, and his heart-broken face is his acknowledgment. Because the companions all get changed by their time with the Doctor, and Martha was forced to fight, and she can't just forget that. I don't think the Doctor should be too sad, though. She has obviously found her place, and a lot of it is incredibly happy for her.
But, of course, there is an alien invasion we must deal with. And some Doctor-awesomeness. And sad things. Honestly, can't they all just sit down for tea and have a nice visit?
Fiiiine.
These two episodes had an interesting story and I actually loved the Sontarans. I thought they were just such an interesting race. Again, we returned to the idea that the way a species in, biologically, is going to shape so much more about it. Because the Ood carry their brains in their hands, they have to be passive. They trust their entire selves to anyone the approach. The Sontarans are incapable of backing down, because their only weakness is on the back of their necks, and so they will stand and fight and never turn away, and the Doctor spends the entire first episode trying to explain this to the general, who just doesn't get it. The Doctor is not saying that they can't fight the Sontarans because they have superior technology or numbers, but because once the fight is engaged, the Sontarans cannot stop until they win, or until they are destroyed, utterly and completely, and neither of those things can be tolerated by the Doctor.
But humans suck, and they fight anyway (another theme, I am on a roll), and the plotline twists about some, but basically returns to the awesome 'let's watch the Doctor be a badass' trope, which, let's face it, yes please more.
That sentence did make sense. Shh.
I liked seeing the Doctor at the school for geniuses, and interacting with its founder. He basically is so much more clever than this boy, and sees through his life and all his plans, and all his secrets just by walking through the door, but he understands how very alone he feels, too. I kind of wish there had been more between them, but the episode also had to deal with....
MARTHA JONES THE CLONE. Nothing doing, really, just some clone-happenings and the Doctor being badass.
AND LET'S GET BACK TO DONNA, SHALL WE BECAUSE I OBVIOUSLY DON'T TALK ABOUT HER ENOUGH *MANIC LAUGHTER*
She is so scared, in the Tardis on the ship, and the Doctor has to ask her to leave, to help save them all. And there is a major difference in the way he treats Donna than he would have treated Martha, here, because he is so sorry that he is putting her life in danger, and it is a little heart-breaking. Martha was put in danger, almost literally, once an episode, and the Doctor was so very off-hand about it. I thought it was just because he wasn't in love with Martha like he was with Rose, but he's not in love with Donna, either. Poor Martha.
Anyway, she does leave the Tardis and she hits the Sontaran guarding the Tardis and then she goes 'back of the neeeeck', and is basically the most badass badass to ever badass anywhere in the whole badass universe. Please, can I keep her?
The other thing I loved was a return of the Doctor's "one-chance" philosophy here. He has to give people a chance to save themselves. It returns again and again, and is honestly probably one of the largest parts of his character, and one of my favourites things about him. They could just kill all the Sontarans, and the Earth would survive and they would all live... but the Doctor sacrifices himself in order to give them a chance to turn away. Even though he spent the entire episode telling everyone who would listen that they won't turn away from a fight. He knows there's no chance they'll retreat. But he has to give them the chance.
I love the Doctor.
And then this happens, and basically, good god, I love everything.
The Doctor's Daughter
Oops, it is 'kidnap Martha Jones' time! How did that happen?
Before I get into the rest of the episode, I just want to point out that someone hates Martha Jones. Someone on the writing staff honest-to-god hates this character and wants to see her suffer. Because can I point out that she had her season and it was awful. Truly horrific things happened to this woman, and she gave up and she left and she had her happy ending. And then she gets made into a clone and watches herself die. And then she ends up on a planet, separated from the Doctor and on a radioactive surface and nearly dies in extraterrestrial quicksand only to have the friend she's made sacrifice itself for her and die right out of her grasp.
Honest to god, there is a major hate-on happening.
I kind of laughed at her plight, but I also admired her throughout the episode, but mostly I was utterly and completely in physical and emotional pain because THE DOCTOR HAS A MOTHERFUCKING DAUGHTER AND EVERYTHING HURTS.
Everything.
Hurts.
Always.
I liked that it was brought up again, and again I think it is a testiment to the relationship between Donna and the Doctor that he gives her so much of himself without her even asking.
In 'Fear Her', I got my first mention of this when this happened between Rose and the Doctor:
“Easy for you to say; you don’t have kids.”
“I was a dad once.”
“What did you say?”
and he doesn't say anything, he just changes the subject. Because it is too painful, and he didn't really mean to say it? I don't know.
And rosaxx50 was nice enough to point out, when I latched onto that conversation and refused to let go, that his children would have died, when Gallifrey burned. and I died.
Thanks, rosa, btw.
BUT, I shouldn't hate on her too much, because the topic is, of course, brought up again in the face of the Doctor's complete and utter rejection of Jenny. And everything hurts.
“Donna, I’ve been a father before.”
“What?”
“Lost all that a long time ago. Along with everything else.”
“I’m sorry; I didn’t know. Why didn’t you tell me? You talk all the time, but you don’t say anything.”
“I know. It’s just… when I look at her now, I can see them. The hole they left, all the pain that filled it.”
Please, stop. Please, just stop this because it hurts me.
It gets worse, you all know it gets worse and you are all laughing at me since the pain is fresh and horrible and you have probably lived through so much worse in future Doctor Who episodes, but the Doctor holding Jenny while she dies, and him getting up and sparing the man that killed her and then wanting to wait for her regeneration and believing that it won't happen, she is not enough of him, and leaving having lost another child. Because he didn't want to accept her, it hurt too much to have someone replace the children he loved and had lost, so he wants her to be as different from him as possible. She is a soldier, she is too human, she is not real... but he is a soldier, too, and her discovering his character was just brilliant. Him accepting her, just in time to lose her, honest to god what is wrong with this show.
I swear to god, you are all devils for allowing me to continue watching. You knew this was coming and you just watched.
The whole concept of the 'generations' and the myth that is built up within a week through this mental game of Telephone is just incredible and kind of blew my mind. I loved it. But everything else has to stop because ouch. Pain. Everywhere. Ouch.
And we haven't even talked about River Song yet. God dammit.
Because it is MARTHA JONES TIME!!
'The Sontaran Stratagem' and 'The Poison Sky'
I was very excited to see Martha Jones in her post-companion life. It was lovely to have her with that doctor, to see her being badass in her own right, and putting everything the Doctor gave her to good use. She didn't pine. She just owned her life, and that's great.
"Is this what travelling with you did to her? You made her a soldier," Donna says to the Doctor, and his heart-broken face is his acknowledgment. Because the companions all get changed by their time with the Doctor, and Martha was forced to fight, and she can't just forget that. I don't think the Doctor should be too sad, though. She has obviously found her place, and a lot of it is incredibly happy for her.
But, of course, there is an alien invasion we must deal with. And some Doctor-awesomeness. And sad things. Honestly, can't they all just sit down for tea and have a nice visit?
Fiiiine.
These two episodes had an interesting story and I actually loved the Sontarans. I thought they were just such an interesting race. Again, we returned to the idea that the way a species in, biologically, is going to shape so much more about it. Because the Ood carry their brains in their hands, they have to be passive. They trust their entire selves to anyone the approach. The Sontarans are incapable of backing down, because their only weakness is on the back of their necks, and so they will stand and fight and never turn away, and the Doctor spends the entire first episode trying to explain this to the general, who just doesn't get it. The Doctor is not saying that they can't fight the Sontarans because they have superior technology or numbers, but because once the fight is engaged, the Sontarans cannot stop until they win, or until they are destroyed, utterly and completely, and neither of those things can be tolerated by the Doctor.
But humans suck, and they fight anyway (another theme, I am on a roll), and the plotline twists about some, but basically returns to the awesome 'let's watch the Doctor be a badass' trope, which, let's face it, yes please more.
That sentence did make sense. Shh.
I liked seeing the Doctor at the school for geniuses, and interacting with its founder. He basically is so much more clever than this boy, and sees through his life and all his plans, and all his secrets just by walking through the door, but he understands how very alone he feels, too. I kind of wish there had been more between them, but the episode also had to deal with....
MARTHA JONES THE CLONE. Nothing doing, really, just some clone-happenings and the Doctor being badass.
AND LET'S GET BACK TO DONNA, SHALL WE BECAUSE I OBVIOUSLY DON'T TALK ABOUT HER ENOUGH *MANIC LAUGHTER*
She is so scared, in the Tardis on the ship, and the Doctor has to ask her to leave, to help save them all. And there is a major difference in the way he treats Donna than he would have treated Martha, here, because he is so sorry that he is putting her life in danger, and it is a little heart-breaking. Martha was put in danger, almost literally, once an episode, and the Doctor was so very off-hand about it. I thought it was just because he wasn't in love with Martha like he was with Rose, but he's not in love with Donna, either. Poor Martha.
Anyway, she does leave the Tardis and she hits the Sontaran guarding the Tardis and then she goes 'back of the neeeeck', and is basically the most badass badass to ever badass anywhere in the whole badass universe. Please, can I keep her?
The other thing I loved was a return of the Doctor's "one-chance" philosophy here. He has to give people a chance to save themselves. It returns again and again, and is honestly probably one of the largest parts of his character, and one of my favourites things about him. They could just kill all the Sontarans, and the Earth would survive and they would all live... but the Doctor sacrifices himself in order to give them a chance to turn away. Even though he spent the entire episode telling everyone who would listen that they won't turn away from a fight. He knows there's no chance they'll retreat. But he has to give them the chance.
I love the Doctor.
And then this happens, and basically, good god, I love everything.
The Doctor's Daughter
Oops, it is 'kidnap Martha Jones' time! How did that happen?
Before I get into the rest of the episode, I just want to point out that someone hates Martha Jones. Someone on the writing staff honest-to-god hates this character and wants to see her suffer. Because can I point out that she had her season and it was awful. Truly horrific things happened to this woman, and she gave up and she left and she had her happy ending. And then she gets made into a clone and watches herself die. And then she ends up on a planet, separated from the Doctor and on a radioactive surface and nearly dies in extraterrestrial quicksand only to have the friend she's made sacrifice itself for her and die right out of her grasp.
Honest to god, there is a major hate-on happening.
I kind of laughed at her plight, but I also admired her throughout the episode, but mostly I was utterly and completely in physical and emotional pain because THE DOCTOR HAS A MOTHERFUCKING DAUGHTER AND EVERYTHING HURTS.
Everything.
Hurts.
Always.
I liked that it was brought up again, and again I think it is a testiment to the relationship between Donna and the Doctor that he gives her so much of himself without her even asking.
In 'Fear Her', I got my first mention of this when this happened between Rose and the Doctor:
“Easy for you to say; you don’t have kids.”
“I was a dad once.”
“What did you say?”
and he doesn't say anything, he just changes the subject. Because it is too painful, and he didn't really mean to say it? I don't know.
And rosaxx50 was nice enough to point out, when I latched onto that conversation and refused to let go, that his children would have died, when Gallifrey burned. and I died.
Thanks, rosa, btw.
BUT, I shouldn't hate on her too much, because the topic is, of course, brought up again in the face of the Doctor's complete and utter rejection of Jenny. And everything hurts.
“Donna, I’ve been a father before.”
“What?”
“Lost all that a long time ago. Along with everything else.”
“I’m sorry; I didn’t know. Why didn’t you tell me? You talk all the time, but you don’t say anything.”
“I know. It’s just… when I look at her now, I can see them. The hole they left, all the pain that filled it.”
Please, stop. Please, just stop this because it hurts me.
It gets worse, you all know it gets worse and you are all laughing at me since the pain is fresh and horrible and you have probably lived through so much worse in future Doctor Who episodes, but the Doctor holding Jenny while she dies, and him getting up and sparing the man that killed her and then wanting to wait for her regeneration and believing that it won't happen, she is not enough of him, and leaving having lost another child. Because he didn't want to accept her, it hurt too much to have someone replace the children he loved and had lost, so he wants her to be as different from him as possible. She is a soldier, she is too human, she is not real... but he is a soldier, too, and her discovering his character was just brilliant. Him accepting her, just in time to lose her, honest to god what is wrong with this show.
I swear to god, you are all devils for allowing me to continue watching. You knew this was coming and you just watched.
The whole concept of the 'generations' and the myth that is built up within a week through this mental game of Telephone is just incredible and kind of blew my mind. I loved it. But everything else has to stop because ouch. Pain. Everywhere. Ouch.
And we haven't even talked about River Song yet. God dammit.