Episode Reaction: Human Nature / The Family of Blood
Random thoughts about the future: So Steven Moffat is writing again next week. If he puts the Doctor and Martha together, I will personally fly across the Atlantic, put my hands on my hips, and lecture him for four hours. I'LL DO IT, STEVEN. I WILL. YOU JUST WATCH.
Even though I really liked Martha (for the most part) these past two weeks, I'm surprisingly not happy that Freema signed on for Series Four. Well, not that I expected her NOT to. She's, understandably and wonderfully, thrilled to be on Doctor Who. What bothers me is the sexual tension thing, because whenever there's tension on modern television, they HAVE to resolve it (even in "The Office" US!), and I don't want them to. goldy-dollar said it best when she said the Doctor is not a serial monogamist. He's better than that. He's more than that. It's not just weird writing; there's really something TO the fact that he doesn't snog companions onscreen and he doesn't say "I love you." It's because he's a Time Lord. It's because he loves them FOR REAL and he can't help but be one hundred percent in the moment at all times.
Look, I said it better in that fic I wrote that one time. It's just I hate how the writers seem not to get ANYTHING this year. More on their shoddy characterization of Martha below ...
Doctor Who 3x08 - Human Nature and 3x09 - The Family of Blood: Yeah, I remembered why I've been watching Four/Romana II serials.
There's none of this bloody tension. They just bop around the universe saying clever things and making Fake Science, meeting weirdly dressed aliens, bantering back and forth -- there is no moaning, pining, whinging, or crying. (Not that David Tennant can't have a good cry once in awhile. He's made for it.)
I just LONG for the day when Martha becomes the awesome woman she's always been in my heart -- the one who says "fuck you, Joan Redfern, I know all the bones of the hand and you're what, a NURSE?!" -- the one who (quite appropriately, yet not with panic) swears whenever something disastrous happens. I want her to roll her eyes and say, "Jesus, Doctor, you'd forget your specs if there weren't all these legions of fangirls putting them back on your face all the time." I want her to pick and choose from all the boys in space and time, and find one that really actually fits her, and I want her to be comfortable with his Anguished Rose Stories and make him tea when he needs to look up at her helplessly and say that he doesn't know what to do without a gorgeous Cockney blonde by his side. AND I want him to look over her shoulder when she does MCAT practice tests (or whatever they have in Britain) and snort, and then she can fling a pencil at him and tell him that if he's not willing to interfere with time by giving humans access to Gallifreyan medical technology he can bloody well shut up.
And yet all we get is a bit of a monologue and then nervous, cover-up-my-crush laughter at the end of the episode. Really, Paul Cornell. You can do better than that. I don't know what it will take for people to realize that most of the time, the important relationships are the ones without kissing and heart-fluttering and all that other absolute nonsense.
In other news, I don't think it gets any better than the sequence where Martha steps back into the TARDIS and she's getting the flashbacks and the music is rising and the Doctor is screaming and you're just going, "OH MY GOD, PAUL CORNELL, OH MY EFFING, EFFING GOD."
It also doesn't get any better than Thomas Sangster as a slightly psychic, extremely small, and incredibly squishy British schoolboy. I was gripping the arms of my chair so hard my knuckles were turning white (and about to pop off, or something), going, "MAKE HIM THE NEXT COMPANION. MARTHA, TAKE HIM WITH YOU. OH MY GOD TAKE HIM WITH YOU." How disappointing that they gave him a whole life and cut that option out, BUT you will remember that Doctor Who has a long history of switching actors around with abandon (Adeola? Princess Astra?) so I've still got a bit of hope.
Plus, I thought it was very clever that the "it's time" didn't mean "wait a year and a half to make the Doctor a Time Lord again" but instead "dive out of the way, there's a bomb coming." Because the preview scared the shit out of me. And of course I thought, "No way. No WAY would he have children with THAT moron while Martha had to work as a serving maid for MONTHS AND MONTHS AND MONTHS!" but then it looked like Sam Latimer didn't open the watch until World War I so I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF.
Also, scarecrows. I agree that they're excellent. But it was pointed out to me that, um, fire? You really didn't need guns. Doesn't straw ... IGNITE?! Did no one think of that? Did Paul Cornell not think of that? Were there no matches in the kitchen of the Farringham School for Boys? And hey, when did Zippo lighters come into being? They're cinematic as all hell.
After reading bits of a Chris Chibnall interview in Doctor Who Magazine, I have a little more sympathy for these writers -- apparently Russell gives them a shopping list and says "include THIS THIS and THIS" and they just have to go for it as best they can. Which means (a) Paul Cornell got lucky and (b) we can definitely still blame RTD for the ridiculous, stupid, idiotic, endless, anvil-esque, useless, repetitive, pathetic parallels to Series One and Two.
(Although: "Can you change back?" is a marvelous parallel. YOU SEE, KEEP THOSE. It's just not necessary for EVERY THIRD LINE to have been said before. Maybe they're trying to get across that having thirteen lives is boring or whatever, but like ... yeah. Whatever. It's been said.)
On to the Frankly Brilliant Doctor Meta.
1. I was extremely disturbed by the idea that the Doctor doesn't really want to be the Doctor. There's a big difference between being unhappy with all the things in your life and actually wanting to exist as an ignorant, powerless human. It's actually not very human at ALL, to choose ignorance. We jump at every discovery. No stone is left unturned. Never in human history have we had the chance to move forward and NOT taken it. If I discovered I was an all-powerful alien with all kinds of hot adventures (and girls) and I could find out more about that life by opening a pocketwatch, I would open that fucking watch. So would anyone. Damn the consequences. At some point you have to say, "What is safety FOR if I'm not going to DO anything?!"
(Oh, and: "A girl in every fireplace?" Why the hell is Reinette that important? SHE WAS IN ONE EPISODE. Maybe they should bring up someone he ACTUALLY had a cool relationship with, LIKE ROMANA. Actually, after having watched Fourth Doctor serials with Sarah Jane and Romana, it's kind of like, "Uhhh, WHY the hell was he so impressed with Reinette again?" Oh man, she seduced a member of an ignorant, near-sighted, inbred, overly wealthy royal family on Earth at, let's face it, a fairly miserable time. How AMAAAAAAAAAAAAAZING. Jesus.)
But I did think it was very sweet the way they dealt with all that. I think it would have been even better if they talked about Rose a little bit ROSE ROSE ROSE ROSE ROSE because literally, he knew the woman for two months, they'd been on ONE DATE, and that can't have been all angst about her. I think it was more a subconscious angst that staying with someone forever never works out.
Plus, it's true, really. WE want him to be the Doctor. But maybe, when it's all said and done, he's pretty much ready to die at this point. That makes me tear up. There's ALWAYS a reason to live, Doctor. ALWAYS.
(Also: When he came back, he was totally normal TriumphantCheekyExcited Ten. Did you believe it? I'm curious.)
2. He came back. And not only did he come back, he came back with SPECS. When the specs and the jargon started -- I think that was the happiest I've ever been. Since, like, the beginning of Series 2. It was just so good to SEE him again. David Tennant, you get a gold star. I know Eccles was (IS!) a legend and you're kind of "young and hot" so it's easy to get fangirls but a bit harder to get respect, but ... YOU, man. You rule.
3. When he was the Doctor again and did horrible, dark things, did anybody else ... you know ... have an orgasm want to coddle him?
Yeah, okay, I'm done now. There are a lot of wonderful things to be said and analyzed here about vengeance ("Vengeance is not Jewish!"), but right now, I just like DARKNESS. And supernovas. And dark, dark, dark David Tennant. (He shouldn't be happy. I haven't been happy since Rose left either.)
5. "He was being kind."
Interesting, that. VERY interesting. Because it wasn't just kindness. The Doctor sacrificed several human lives so that he could AVOID doing terrible things. He's so, so sick of being merciless and he doesn't know how to make it stop. We thought he'd come along a bit since The Racnoss Issue, but clearly not. CLEARLY HE IS STILL DARK AND DEPRESSED AND WOOBIE, AND IT'S ALL BECAUSE OF ROSE. POOR, POOR DOCTOR. COME FIND ME. WE WILL TALK ABOUT AERODYNAMICS, AND I WILL HOLD YOU AT NIGHT WHEN THE BAD DREAMS COME.
And he still never used a gun. BIG exhale of relief on my part. That would be a huge line to cross. British children would be traumatized. (And they already will not go near scarecrows ever again, so.)
4. Yelling at Martha about what she did for the Doctor? HARSH! HARSH! And so brilliant on the part of Paul Cornell. SO MUCH CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND META I LOVE IT I LOVE IT.
They're so much better as awesome COLLEAGUES -- partners in crime. Best friends 4eva and all that. She keeps him grounded, he gives her that "thanks for looking after me" hug, and it's just, OH. Why do you have to spoil it by making it into a fourth grade crush? (And deliberately writing Martha's character as such a fog-headed idiot that she thinks it's a good idea to (a) not guard the watch very closely and (b) announce to a hall filled with people that he is, in fact, the Doctor?) (And I'm not sure that she exactly succeeded on the "don't let me hurt anyone" front, either. In fact, I think she failed at all the rules we heard. Oops. :P Did Paul Cornell intend that? OH, REAL LIFE. YOU ARE SO FILLED WITH CHAOS.)
5. Shallow: Martha's outfit was MADE OF WIN. It was so hot. I love her style. She NEEDS to wear that in the next one, seriously. After weeks of outfit repetition, they CAN'T just give us that awesome black jacket and gorgeous hair and have her ONLY WEAR IT FOR LIKE TWO SECONDS.
We love the Doctor. And we hope he loves himself, too.
Even though I really liked Martha (for the most part) these past two weeks, I'm surprisingly not happy that Freema signed on for Series Four. Well, not that I expected her NOT to. She's, understandably and wonderfully, thrilled to be on Doctor Who. What bothers me is the sexual tension thing, because whenever there's tension on modern television, they HAVE to resolve it (even in "The Office" US!), and I don't want them to. goldy-dollar said it best when she said the Doctor is not a serial monogamist. He's better than that. He's more than that. It's not just weird writing; there's really something TO the fact that he doesn't snog companions onscreen and he doesn't say "I love you." It's because he's a Time Lord. It's because he loves them FOR REAL and he can't help but be one hundred percent in the moment at all times.
Look, I said it better in that fic I wrote that one time. It's just I hate how the writers seem not to get ANYTHING this year. More on their shoddy characterization of Martha below ...
Doctor Who 3x08 - Human Nature and 3x09 - The Family of Blood: Yeah, I remembered why I've been watching Four/Romana II serials.
There's none of this bloody tension. They just bop around the universe saying clever things and making Fake Science, meeting weirdly dressed aliens, bantering back and forth -- there is no moaning, pining, whinging, or crying. (Not that David Tennant can't have a good cry once in awhile. He's made for it.)
I just LONG for the day when Martha becomes the awesome woman she's always been in my heart -- the one who says "fuck you, Joan Redfern, I know all the bones of the hand and you're what, a NURSE?!" -- the one who (quite appropriately, yet not with panic) swears whenever something disastrous happens. I want her to roll her eyes and say, "Jesus, Doctor, you'd forget your specs if there weren't all these legions of fangirls putting them back on your face all the time." I want her to pick and choose from all the boys in space and time, and find one that really actually fits her, and I want her to be comfortable with his Anguished Rose Stories and make him tea when he needs to look up at her helplessly and say that he doesn't know what to do without a gorgeous Cockney blonde by his side. AND I want him to look over her shoulder when she does MCAT practice tests (or whatever they have in Britain) and snort, and then she can fling a pencil at him and tell him that if he's not willing to interfere with time by giving humans access to Gallifreyan medical technology he can bloody well shut up.
And yet all we get is a bit of a monologue and then nervous, cover-up-my-crush laughter at the end of the episode. Really, Paul Cornell. You can do better than that. I don't know what it will take for people to realize that most of the time, the important relationships are the ones without kissing and heart-fluttering and all that other absolute nonsense.
In other news, I don't think it gets any better than the sequence where Martha steps back into the TARDIS and she's getting the flashbacks and the music is rising and the Doctor is screaming and you're just going, "OH MY GOD, PAUL CORNELL, OH MY EFFING, EFFING GOD."
It also doesn't get any better than Thomas Sangster as a slightly psychic, extremely small, and incredibly squishy British schoolboy. I was gripping the arms of my chair so hard my knuckles were turning white (and about to pop off, or something), going, "MAKE HIM THE NEXT COMPANION. MARTHA, TAKE HIM WITH YOU. OH MY GOD TAKE HIM WITH YOU." How disappointing that they gave him a whole life and cut that option out, BUT you will remember that Doctor Who has a long history of switching actors around with abandon (Adeola? Princess Astra?) so I've still got a bit of hope.
Plus, I thought it was very clever that the "it's time" didn't mean "wait a year and a half to make the Doctor a Time Lord again" but instead "dive out of the way, there's a bomb coming." Because the preview scared the shit out of me. And of course I thought, "No way. No WAY would he have children with THAT moron while Martha had to work as a serving maid for MONTHS AND MONTHS AND MONTHS!" but then it looked like Sam Latimer didn't open the watch until World War I so I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH MYSELF.
Also, scarecrows. I agree that they're excellent. But it was pointed out to me that, um, fire? You really didn't need guns. Doesn't straw ... IGNITE?! Did no one think of that? Did Paul Cornell not think of that? Were there no matches in the kitchen of the Farringham School for Boys? And hey, when did Zippo lighters come into being? They're cinematic as all hell.
After reading bits of a Chris Chibnall interview in Doctor Who Magazine, I have a little more sympathy for these writers -- apparently Russell gives them a shopping list and says "include THIS THIS and THIS" and they just have to go for it as best they can. Which means (a) Paul Cornell got lucky and (b) we can definitely still blame RTD for the ridiculous, stupid, idiotic, endless, anvil-esque, useless, repetitive, pathetic parallels to Series One and Two.
(Although: "Can you change back?" is a marvelous parallel. YOU SEE, KEEP THOSE. It's just not necessary for EVERY THIRD LINE to have been said before. Maybe they're trying to get across that having thirteen lives is boring or whatever, but like ... yeah. Whatever. It's been said.)
On to the Frankly Brilliant Doctor Meta.
1. I was extremely disturbed by the idea that the Doctor doesn't really want to be the Doctor. There's a big difference between being unhappy with all the things in your life and actually wanting to exist as an ignorant, powerless human. It's actually not very human at ALL, to choose ignorance. We jump at every discovery. No stone is left unturned. Never in human history have we had the chance to move forward and NOT taken it. If I discovered I was an all-powerful alien with all kinds of hot adventures (and girls) and I could find out more about that life by opening a pocketwatch, I would open that fucking watch. So would anyone. Damn the consequences. At some point you have to say, "What is safety FOR if I'm not going to DO anything?!"
(Oh, and: "A girl in every fireplace?" Why the hell is Reinette that important? SHE WAS IN ONE EPISODE. Maybe they should bring up someone he ACTUALLY had a cool relationship with, LIKE ROMANA. Actually, after having watched Fourth Doctor serials with Sarah Jane and Romana, it's kind of like, "Uhhh, WHY the hell was he so impressed with Reinette again?" Oh man, she seduced a member of an ignorant, near-sighted, inbred, overly wealthy royal family on Earth at, let's face it, a fairly miserable time. How AMAAAAAAAAAAAAAZING. Jesus.)
But I did think it was very sweet the way they dealt with all that. I think it would have been even better if they talked about Rose a little bit ROSE ROSE ROSE ROSE ROSE because literally, he knew the woman for two months, they'd been on ONE DATE, and that can't have been all angst about her. I think it was more a subconscious angst that staying with someone forever never works out.
Plus, it's true, really. WE want him to be the Doctor. But maybe, when it's all said and done, he's pretty much ready to die at this point. That makes me tear up. There's ALWAYS a reason to live, Doctor. ALWAYS.
(Also: When he came back, he was totally normal TriumphantCheekyExcited Ten. Did you believe it? I'm curious.)
2. He came back. And not only did he come back, he came back with SPECS. When the specs and the jargon started -- I think that was the happiest I've ever been. Since, like, the beginning of Series 2. It was just so good to SEE him again. David Tennant, you get a gold star. I know Eccles was (IS!) a legend and you're kind of "young and hot" so it's easy to get fangirls but a bit harder to get respect, but ... YOU, man. You rule.
3. When he was the Doctor again and did horrible, dark things, did anybody else ... you know ... have an orgasm want to coddle him?
Yeah, okay, I'm done now. There are a lot of wonderful things to be said and analyzed here about vengeance ("Vengeance is not Jewish!"), but right now, I just like DARKNESS. And supernovas. And dark, dark, dark David Tennant. (He shouldn't be happy. I haven't been happy since Rose left either.)
5. "He was being kind."
Interesting, that. VERY interesting. Because it wasn't just kindness. The Doctor sacrificed several human lives so that he could AVOID doing terrible things. He's so, so sick of being merciless and he doesn't know how to make it stop. We thought he'd come along a bit since The Racnoss Issue, but clearly not. CLEARLY HE IS STILL DARK AND DEPRESSED AND WOOBIE, AND IT'S ALL BECAUSE OF ROSE. POOR, POOR DOCTOR. COME FIND ME. WE WILL TALK ABOUT AERODYNAMICS, AND I WILL HOLD YOU AT NIGHT WHEN THE BAD DREAMS COME.
And he still never used a gun. BIG exhale of relief on my part. That would be a huge line to cross. British children would be traumatized. (And they already will not go near scarecrows ever again, so.)
4. Yelling at Martha about what she did for the Doctor? HARSH! HARSH! And so brilliant on the part of Paul Cornell. SO MUCH CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND META I LOVE IT I LOVE IT.
They're so much better as awesome COLLEAGUES -- partners in crime. Best friends 4eva and all that. She keeps him grounded, he gives her that "thanks for looking after me" hug, and it's just, OH. Why do you have to spoil it by making it into a fourth grade crush? (And deliberately writing Martha's character as such a fog-headed idiot that she thinks it's a good idea to (a) not guard the watch very closely and (b) announce to a hall filled with people that he is, in fact, the Doctor?) (And I'm not sure that she exactly succeeded on the "don't let me hurt anyone" front, either. In fact, I think she failed at all the rules we heard. Oops. :P Did Paul Cornell intend that? OH, REAL LIFE. YOU ARE SO FILLED WITH CHAOS.)
5. Shallow: Martha's outfit was MADE OF WIN. It was so hot. I love her style. She NEEDS to wear that in the next one, seriously. After weeks of outfit repetition, they CAN'T just give us that awesome black jacket and gorgeous hair and have her ONLY WEAR IT FOR LIKE TWO SECONDS.
We love the Doctor. And we hope he loves himself, too.