DW finale post
Well, it took me a few days to watch it (the perils of work), and a little longer to process it, but I traded therapy for fanfic and now here's the post.
First: Donna. OMG, DONNA. That will not stop hurting, I kid you not. Honestly, I love Rose, but I think Donna managed to replace (or at least alternate with) even her as my favourite companion, and what have they done to her? This girl became so much--was discovering and fulfilling the potential she didn't know she had, was living her life with depth and compassion she hadn't explored before the Doctor...and now she's back pre-TRB. What, there were *no* alternatives? I'm not recovering from this soon, because Donna, it's not fair, but I refuse to believe that she'll stay forever as shallow and oblivious and new pringles flavour, text me! as she was. She became awesome in that parallel world, she'll do it again. I do believe, I do, I do; anything else just sucks for lack of a better word.
Also, less with the weepiness--the DoctorDonna almost killed me with laughter. It was too much awesome, and far too much funny. How did this same character once annoy me in TRB? And hand!Doctor, with Donna basically his mum. Good luck with that mix, Rose ;P
Martha was threatening genocide a la the Doctor's solution to the Time War. Why didn't *she* get sidelined in a parallel world? Seriously, the writers seem to have a blind spot for this girl, sometimes--like, she had it so difficult loving the Doctor, she can do no wrong. And I do understand the reasons behind the key, I do, but...seriously, for Martha to just walk up to and away from that, everyone still worshipping her... With everything about the Doctor and genocide, and the Time War, and the way we keep bashing our heads into the means *don't* always justify the end, are we really doing that now? If someone else did it (hi, hand!10!), they'd be stuck in Pete's world for Rose to babysit. Gaaah, Martha.
There was no Jack/Rose love, and I was sad. We know, thanks to Utopia and this episde both, that Jack and Rose still care about each other a great deal, and we got--nothing. Not even a *hug*, people, let alone any talk/hint about what she did as Bad Wolf, or even "hi, Jack, alive again?" besides the obvious reaction to Jack's notdead!parlour trick. Well, let the fanfic begin.
Jackie. I love Jackie, and she was there, and it was good. Even if her flying was Absolutely Not Allowed *snerk* And I like that Mickey has grown up--although, really, the Doctor gave *him* more of a choice than he did Rose. Bzuh.
Which brings me to Rose. Rose and human!Doctor and the Doctor and back on that beach, which is the part I sometimes didn't like, actually. As I said before, I've acclimated, even warmed, to it, but my issues were not so much with *what* happened as *how* it happened, because it was all so very...Ten, really. Ten deposited Rose and Jackie back in Pete's world, then informed her that she and hand!Ten were staying there to grow old together and not be genocidal, and it felt rather like exile after she spent all that time (a dimension cannon for goodness' sake). And I do appreciate what they're doing--human!Doctor and Rose, and it's more like regeneration than clone, and it's not that much of a change for someone who's already lived 9 lives, and finishing it up before Moffatt takes the reins, and so on. It was more a matter of *how* he did it--this wasn't a negotation, and Rose didn't really have much more choice than she did on that same beach back in Doomsday. She has a human version of the Doctor this time, which is sort of a step up, except that she also didn't choose him, either. Not to say she won't (the kiss says otherwise), or that she shouldn't, or that she probably wouldn't have maybe, just that she was still dealing with "back on Pete's world" when she realized she was getting left behind again. It was less of a choice about fundamentals, and more of a choice in how to react.
And the Doctor is left alone again--something that we know Rose most definitely wanted to prevent. In Fear Her, she wondered who was going to hold his hand; in The Satan Pit, she never thought that they wouldn't keep going on together; in Doomsday, she was thinking as much of not leaving the Doctor alone again as her own loss. Of course, that's the show, so I shouldn't be surprised--but it adds to the future that Rose didn't necessarily pick.
And I'm....really not doing that great of a job in saying I've resolved my issues. Basically, though, I really think--even with the extended time slot--that there was another episode in Journey's End, and although they balanced the huge cast fairly well, it showed in some key moments, and made the beach scene more rushed/less subtle, and human!Doctor less fully formed/acceptable, than it/he might otherwise have been, and this is what fic is for, right? Also, I actually have work soon, so it'll be better for us all if I just shut up already, or at least until I'm feeling less long-winded and more to-the-point :P