More Journey's End thoughts
So I've been thinking a bit more...
I've been reading the comments and reviews around the episode and it's
interesting (and slightly depressing) to see just how divided fandom is over
it. While I will agree that the plot had some moments of incoherence and it
was certainly an episode aimed at spectacle over anything else, overall
there was so much to love about it that I just can't write it off as a bad
episode. I really did love it, despite what they did to Donna.
Why yes, I have already got a fix-it fic for Donna in mind. You expected
anything different?
The interesting thing is the reaction to Doctor v2 and Rose. I have a small
confession: I've always been a quiet Doctor/Rose shipper. More of a Nine
shipper than a Ten shipper and it's not based on any logic apart from the
chemistry and relationship that we see on screen. To have it spelled out in
canon, right there, doesn't bother me because it's something that I had been
seeing since episode 2.
Now, while I definitely agree that the Doctor's is Rose's one great love, I
don't think that it works both ways. I'm not sure that the Doctor ever could
have one great love who is human and fragile. It's telling to me that the
only way he could be with her is with a half-human clone who will age and
died as a human. That doesn't make their feelings any less real. If anything
it makes more emotional sense for me because Rose's relationship with our
Doctor was always, in some senses, doomed to end in tragedy eventually and
the Doctor knew it even if Rose didn't want to know it. Like I said, it's
not a ship based in logic or sense but in chemistry and feelings.
I'm waiting for the shower of de-friending messages now :-)
I've also loved every minute of the relationship between the Doctor and
Donna because they aren't shippy. It's been wonderful to see their growth
into best mates and I think that might be part of the reason why I've been
able to write Donna fic where I hadn't previously found a voice for New Who.
Doctor Two is interesting and I think that I agree with the Doctor about
him. The Doctor that we had at the very beginning of the new show was in the
same emotional trap as Doctor Two. His first instinct when he found the
Dalek (in Dalek) was to kill it. No questions, no hesitation about
whether it was right or what the moral implications were. He hated the
Daleks. They had caused the destruction of his entire race and the Doctor's
reaction is quite chilling.
It's been hinted at a number of times, though I don't think it's ever been
said out loud, but the Doctor seems to have been the one who pressed the
trigger than destroyed the Daleks and the Time Lords together. Essentially
the Doctor, our Doctor, committed genocide.
By the time we get to Parting of the Ways the Doctor still wants to
wipe out the Daleks, but he's changed. He can't do it even though he's got
the means. He knows that the human race will survive on isolated colonies,
he knows that probably most of the humans on Earth have already been killed
by the Daleks, but despite everything he simply cannot press the trigger.
His comment in JE that Rose healed him from the damaged, genocidal man that
he was is true. And if she could do that for him, she can do it for Doctor
Two because emotionally he is back to where he was at the start of New Who.
That doesn't remove the slightly creepy aspect to being left with Rose, but
it does explain a bit about why the Doctor thinks that's the best place for
him. As for Rose, it's not the happy lovey-dovey ending she wanted. Yes, the
slightly overly rabid end of the fandom is going to have a field day with
it, but the 95% of fans with sanity should be able to think through the
consequences of this ending. She has a Doctor, he has all the same memories
but he's not the same man that she knew and she has been made responsible
for him. So it's a happy-sad ending, to me.
I think there is going to be a mountain of crap fic as a result of it, but I
also think there is going to be some very interesting fic looking at the
possible outcomes of all this.
In other thoughts:
How brilliant was Catherine Tate? She really made me love Donna over the
last thirteen weeks and then she broke my heart at the end of that episode.
She also did some absolutely genius Tenth Doctor impersonations :-) The
catch-phrases and delivery were just spot on.
And yes, I did enjoy Doctor Two trying to out-Donna Donna :-)
I suspect that Davros wasn't destroyed, despite the massive explosions. He
never dies. However, I do think that it would be good if Moffat can resist
the temptation to use the Daleks again for a couple of years. Despite
appearances, most Doctors only encountered the Daleks once or twice. Don't
get me wrong, the modern take on Daleks is chilling because they are so hard
to destroy (I suspect that even a magic baseball bat wouldn't kill one of
those things now) but they lose their impact when they're overused. That was
always their strength before, that they only appeared occasionally and
acquired a sort of mythos to them when they weren't there.
Moffat's invention and use of psychological fear is wonderful so I'm really
excited to see what he'll do with a season finale in 2010. I'm also excited
to see what he'll do with an entire season to build up a theme.
The only bad thing is that we aren't getting a full season next year. I love
being a Doctor Who fan, it's such incredible fun and I know that the
specials are going to feel even more special because they'll be rationed,
but I think that I might be a DW addict and I won't be getting my fix :-( At
least this isn't an indefinite hiatus, though, and I'll be getting a few
mini-fixes in the meantime to keep my going!
And it leaves me with more time to write Donna the Time Lord and my Donna
fix-it fic and everything else Donna-ish that has appeared in my head
lately.
I've been reading the comments and reviews around the episode and it's
interesting (and slightly depressing) to see just how divided fandom is over
it. While I will agree that the plot had some moments of incoherence and it
was certainly an episode aimed at spectacle over anything else, overall
there was so much to love about it that I just can't write it off as a bad
episode. I really did love it, despite what they did to Donna.
Why yes, I have already got a fix-it fic for Donna in mind. You expected
anything different?
The interesting thing is the reaction to Doctor v2 and Rose. I have a small
confession: I've always been a quiet Doctor/Rose shipper. More of a Nine
shipper than a Ten shipper and it's not based on any logic apart from the
chemistry and relationship that we see on screen. To have it spelled out in
canon, right there, doesn't bother me because it's something that I had been
seeing since episode 2.
Now, while I definitely agree that the Doctor's is Rose's one great love, I
don't think that it works both ways. I'm not sure that the Doctor ever could
have one great love who is human and fragile. It's telling to me that the
only way he could be with her is with a half-human clone who will age and
died as a human. That doesn't make their feelings any less real. If anything
it makes more emotional sense for me because Rose's relationship with our
Doctor was always, in some senses, doomed to end in tragedy eventually and
the Doctor knew it even if Rose didn't want to know it. Like I said, it's
not a ship based in logic or sense but in chemistry and feelings.
I'm waiting for the shower of de-friending messages now :-)
I've also loved every minute of the relationship between the Doctor and
Donna because they aren't shippy. It's been wonderful to see their growth
into best mates and I think that might be part of the reason why I've been
able to write Donna fic where I hadn't previously found a voice for New Who.
Doctor Two is interesting and I think that I agree with the Doctor about
him. The Doctor that we had at the very beginning of the new show was in the
same emotional trap as Doctor Two. His first instinct when he found the
Dalek (in Dalek) was to kill it. No questions, no hesitation about
whether it was right or what the moral implications were. He hated the
Daleks. They had caused the destruction of his entire race and the Doctor's
reaction is quite chilling.
It's been hinted at a number of times, though I don't think it's ever been
said out loud, but the Doctor seems to have been the one who pressed the
trigger than destroyed the Daleks and the Time Lords together. Essentially
the Doctor, our Doctor, committed genocide.
By the time we get to Parting of the Ways the Doctor still wants to
wipe out the Daleks, but he's changed. He can't do it even though he's got
the means. He knows that the human race will survive on isolated colonies,
he knows that probably most of the humans on Earth have already been killed
by the Daleks, but despite everything he simply cannot press the trigger.
His comment in JE that Rose healed him from the damaged, genocidal man that
he was is true. And if she could do that for him, she can do it for Doctor
Two because emotionally he is back to where he was at the start of New Who.
That doesn't remove the slightly creepy aspect to being left with Rose, but
it does explain a bit about why the Doctor thinks that's the best place for
him. As for Rose, it's not the happy lovey-dovey ending she wanted. Yes, the
slightly overly rabid end of the fandom is going to have a field day with
it, but the 95% of fans with sanity should be able to think through the
consequences of this ending. She has a Doctor, he has all the same memories
but he's not the same man that she knew and she has been made responsible
for him. So it's a happy-sad ending, to me.
I think there is going to be a mountain of crap fic as a result of it, but I
also think there is going to be some very interesting fic looking at the
possible outcomes of all this.
In other thoughts:
How brilliant was Catherine Tate? She really made me love Donna over the
last thirteen weeks and then she broke my heart at the end of that episode.
She also did some absolutely genius Tenth Doctor impersonations :-) The
catch-phrases and delivery were just spot on.
And yes, I did enjoy Doctor Two trying to out-Donna Donna :-)
I suspect that Davros wasn't destroyed, despite the massive explosions. He
never dies. However, I do think that it would be good if Moffat can resist
the temptation to use the Daleks again for a couple of years. Despite
appearances, most Doctors only encountered the Daleks once or twice. Don't
get me wrong, the modern take on Daleks is chilling because they are so hard
to destroy (I suspect that even a magic baseball bat wouldn't kill one of
those things now) but they lose their impact when they're overused. That was
always their strength before, that they only appeared occasionally and
acquired a sort of mythos to them when they weren't there.
Moffat's invention and use of psychological fear is wonderful so I'm really
excited to see what he'll do with a season finale in 2010. I'm also excited
to see what he'll do with an entire season to build up a theme.
The only bad thing is that we aren't getting a full season next year. I love
being a Doctor Who fan, it's such incredible fun and I know that the
specials are going to feel even more special because they'll be rationed,
but I think that I might be a DW addict and I won't be getting my fix :-( At
least this isn't an indefinite hiatus, though, and I'll be getting a few
mini-fixes in the meantime to keep my going!
And it leaves me with more time to write Donna the Time Lord and my Donna
fix-it fic and everything else Donna-ish that has appeared in my head
lately.