Character Transition and Living Heroes
I have some loosely connected thoughts about Doctor Who, the different Doctors (especially Ten and Eleven), and Buffy the Vampire Slayer. This is partly my response to a recent post by the brilliant and wonderful green_maia , but too disconnected to be a comment on that post. So.
Thing One
I'm trying to sort out the Doctor's emotional/psychological evolution. I haven't seen much Classic Who, but having heard the nutshell version of what happened just prior to New Who, I get where Nine came from: the reluctance to feel, the focus on doing, moving ever forward; the latent pain that's there if he does (rarely) look back; the affection/annoyance with everything human. And I get how Nine turned into Ten -- I get it too much, maybe. It's what happens when the shell cracks, and everything starts spilling out -- vindictive, affectionate, jealous, protective, cocky, self-detesting, nostalgic; pick an emotional response and it's there, somewhere, in an indiscriminate jumble that I sometimes hate but I understand more often than not. He's still saving the world, because that's what he does -- but at the same time, he's inward-focused and needy and very damaged.
What I can't figure out is how Ten could ever become Eleven. They're nothing alike. Eleven is arrogant and overly sure of himself, yes, but he's also capable of focusing only on the hopes and fears and pain of others (which might not be all that healthy, either, come to think of it) -- as I described him a little while back, he's "avuncular and slightly distant and just helping [his] friends deal with their angst." And I don't get the sense that he's doing it to avoid his own issues (as Nine did, a bit); I get the sense that his issues honestly have been resolved. But I don't see how. I don't see when. I cannot fathom someone like Ten turning into someone like Eleven in so short a time. (I wonder if that's part of why it's easy to see Eleven as old? Because it would should take a long time for a Ten to turn into an Eleven?)
As I said in a comment elsewhere, I need to do a mainline rewatch of S4.5 and S5 to see if I get a different perspective watching it all at once. I'm pretty much stumped on this, but I'm still trying to reconcile the two. If nothing else, River Song seems to believe they're essentially the same man, which implies to me that Steven Moffat sees it that way, too. I wonder what's going on in his head?
Thing Two
This part is a little more directly borrowed from green_maia , who has made the astute assessment that "The End of Time" makes more sense as the Doctor's death than as the Tenth Doctor's regeneration. From a narrative standpoint, I can see that. Just like I can see that "The Gift" would have been a good (final) death for Buffy, and a fantastic ending to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The transition between the Tenth Doctor and the Eleventh Doctor doesn't make any sense to me (see above). Seasons 6 and 7 of BtVS are full of tangles and loose ends and shoddy writing. For the good of the shows, and the good of the stories, you can definitely make a case that they both should have ended (sooner).
I don't care. I wasn't watching for the stories, anyway. I wasn't watching for the big picture. I was watching for the characters. It's the characters who become real to me. I'm still mourning Tara. I'm still mourning Ianto. I'm still hurting over what happened to Donna, and I still miss Cordy and Anya and Doyle and Owen and Tosh. I can go back and rewatch the episodes they were in, but knowing they're not alive anymore takes a lot of the shine off. It makes them less real. It hurts. I know none of it's real, but that doesn't change my feelings.
So when it comes to the heroes of my two most-obsessed-over shows? I want them to live.
I need to know The Doctor is alive (no matter how much he's changed).
I need to know Buffy is alive (even if I'm steering clear of her newer incarnations).
I'm not ready to lose my fictional heroes, even if it would be better for the story. I don't want a Who-niverse without The Doctor. I want a world where Buffy lives to become a cantankerous old woman. My real heroes, from Kurt Cobain to Susan Butcher, are mortal -- tragically mortal. I like knowing my fictional heroes live on.
Thing One
I'm trying to sort out the Doctor's emotional/psychological evolution. I haven't seen much Classic Who, but having heard the nutshell version of what happened just prior to New Who, I get where Nine came from: the reluctance to feel, the focus on doing, moving ever forward; the latent pain that's there if he does (rarely) look back; the affection/annoyance with everything human. And I get how Nine turned into Ten -- I get it too much, maybe. It's what happens when the shell cracks, and everything starts spilling out -- vindictive, affectionate, jealous, protective, cocky, self-detesting, nostalgic; pick an emotional response and it's there, somewhere, in an indiscriminate jumble that I sometimes hate but I understand more often than not. He's still saving the world, because that's what he does -- but at the same time, he's inward-focused and needy and very damaged.
What I can't figure out is how Ten could ever become Eleven. They're nothing alike. Eleven is arrogant and overly sure of himself, yes, but he's also capable of focusing only on the hopes and fears and pain of others (which might not be all that healthy, either, come to think of it) -- as I described him a little while back, he's "avuncular and slightly distant and just helping [his] friends deal with their angst." And I don't get the sense that he's doing it to avoid his own issues (as Nine did, a bit); I get the sense that his issues honestly have been resolved. But I don't see how. I don't see when. I cannot fathom someone like Ten turning into someone like Eleven in so short a time. (I wonder if that's part of why it's easy to see Eleven as old? Because it would should take a long time for a Ten to turn into an Eleven?)
As I said in a comment elsewhere, I need to do a mainline rewatch of S4.5 and S5 to see if I get a different perspective watching it all at once. I'm pretty much stumped on this, but I'm still trying to reconcile the two. If nothing else, River Song seems to believe they're essentially the same man, which implies to me that Steven Moffat sees it that way, too. I wonder what's going on in his head?
Thing Two
This part is a little more directly borrowed from green_maia , who has made the astute assessment that "The End of Time" makes more sense as the Doctor's death than as the Tenth Doctor's regeneration. From a narrative standpoint, I can see that. Just like I can see that "The Gift" would have been a good (final) death for Buffy, and a fantastic ending to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The transition between the Tenth Doctor and the Eleventh Doctor doesn't make any sense to me (see above). Seasons 6 and 7 of BtVS are full of tangles and loose ends and shoddy writing. For the good of the shows, and the good of the stories, you can definitely make a case that they both should have ended (sooner).
I don't care. I wasn't watching for the stories, anyway. I wasn't watching for the big picture. I was watching for the characters. It's the characters who become real to me. I'm still mourning Tara. I'm still mourning Ianto. I'm still hurting over what happened to Donna, and I still miss Cordy and Anya and Doyle and Owen and Tosh. I can go back and rewatch the episodes they were in, but knowing they're not alive anymore takes a lot of the shine off. It makes them less real. It hurts. I know none of it's real, but that doesn't change my feelings.
So when it comes to the heroes of my two most-obsessed-over shows? I want them to live.
I need to know The Doctor is alive (no matter how much he's changed).
I need to know Buffy is alive (even if I'm steering clear of her newer incarnations).
I'm not ready to lose my fictional heroes, even if it would be better for the story. I don't want a Who-niverse without The Doctor. I want a world where Buffy lives to become a cantankerous old woman. My real heroes, from Kurt Cobain to Susan Butcher, are mortal -- tragically mortal. I like knowing my fictional heroes live on.