The Tragedy of Ten; or, the further frustrations of a fan whose favorite season is still S3

[tempestsarekind]

Thanks to various comment threads (I love my flist!), I'm thinking about the Tenth Doctor and why I find him particularly frustrating in certain respects, and yet another thing that irks me about the end of season 4. The other jumping-off point for thinking about this is the very end of "Planet of the Dead," but it's not about that, really (no

Comments

[stoplookingup]

I don't know. Nine has his angry, judgmental side (ETA like in Dalek), and Ten has his self-doubt (ETA like the Ood). But Nine has this enormous advantage of just one season, which we see as a completed arc with no reset. He has an ending, and it's an ending that creates a powerful impression of having been touched and changed by his companion.

I know a lot of people detested S2, but my own opinion is that the story of Rose's problematic relationship with Ten wasn't an inherently bad one. Had Rose's ending been allowed to stand, and had Ten moved on and shown growth as a result, the series would have been much better off. S2 became a total disaster when viewed through the lens of S3, with the Rose relp being recast as a romantic ideal, Ten rejecting Martha because of Rose, treating Jack coldly, and basically going right back to his lonely emo place. And then S4 just made all that worse by having Donna share the limelight, bringing Martha back only to show us how cold Ten still is toward her, and then bringing Rose back to make her More Important Yet Again. Despite some good stories told in S3 and S4, the overall Ten arc is, as you say, the big problem. The repeated reset of Ten's emotional state becomes seriously off-putting.

[tempestsarekind]

That's true--Nine definitely isn't perfect. And the fact that he has an ending is a big difference between his arc and Ten's (non-) arc. And I definitely agree (surprise, surprise) that the big problem with S2 is the way that it casts an unnecessary shadow over S3 and S4.

Still, I think the "godlike" thing becomes a much bigger part of Ten's character than it was of Nine's. For one thing, I think Nine only goes all Oncoming Storm on the Daleks--and that winds up being the setup for his abdication of that responsibility, in not using the delta wave, even with Jack there to be the voice that says he can. And one of the really interesting things RTD does in S1 is to actually *problematize* the idea of Nine as the authority in "Boomtown," which is all about whether the Doctor has the right to be the judge. Frequently--though not always, as you point out--Ten's actions aren't questioned by the narrative itself (which has the odd effect of making the occasions when they are questioned seem kind of arbitrary: what is it about the situation with the Racnoss that merits Donna's "you need someone to stop you," when what he does to the Family of Blood is presented as perfect mythic justice?).

I think that's part of why it bothered me that Donna was brought back on board without really addressing her real issues with him--she thought he was terrifying, and it casts Ten in a very different light; he's actually *rejected* for his actions. (Which is 'curse of the Time Lord' done well, I think; his loneliness is the result of his own actions, not--say--the fact that Martha couldn't get over her 'crush' on him, which is how it's depicted in S4.) That moment is an important critique of Ten, even if it is oddly placed, and it gets written over.

[stoplookingup]

Can't disagree with any of that -- especially the bit about Donna's reaction to Ten being conveniently papered over when suddenly CT becomes available for a full season. While I liked Donna in S4, I was very bothered by the state in which we found her -- desperately searching for the Doctor to bring meaning to her humdrum life. That was NOT the Donna we left at the end of Runaway Bride, who I found to be very sympathetic. Fortunately, she does turn up again in S4, from time to time.

I definitely see your point about Nine vs. Ten, and overall I agree. Nine is a much more vulnerable guy. I think it helps that Eccleston was very good at playing the nuances.

[tempestsarekind]

Yeah. I remember posting about that just after "Partners in Crime" aired, and Nea pointed out something that modified my views on that: that Donna *had* actually made some serious changes in her life; she'd gone from being someone who was totally oblivious, to being someone who was noticing and investigating the world around her. It still bothers me somewhat that all of that is in order to find the Doctor--the writing, especially in that "it was nothing like that one day I spent with you" scene, doesn't help--but she has changed, and we do get to see it. The thing that I think is weird is that she's somehow gone from being terrified of the Doctor to wanting to travel with him again, without any evidence that he's changed. She says he has, after she's found him, but why was she looking for him in the first place?

[stoplookingup]

It's very tiring having to come up with contorted arguments to explain bad character arcs. Donna's "progress" = aggressively hunting down the Doctor (which isn't really all that different than aggressively hunting down Lance). Martha's "progress" = leaving the Doctor because her family needs her (but really because he doesn't love her). Nope, neither one really works for me.

And yet along the way there are some really great moments...like Donna in the library being the one who sympathizes with Miss Evangelista. For me, that's a beautiful character moment. Or the Doctor telling Martha all about Gallifrey. Those were the moments that should have made an impact on the Doctor.

[tempestsarekind]

Well, I do think that Martha's leaving is ultimately the healthiest thing she could do there--"This is me, getting out"--not just that she's leaving because the Doctor doesn't love her: it's about what she needs, not about what he doesn't give. And I love that she finally puts her needs over the Doctor's when she's been doing the opposite the whole season. But I see what you mean. It is a development, of sorts, but you have to ask--why make that the arc in the first place?

If only we could just have the moments without all the weird subtext!

[stoplookingup]

why make that the arc in the first place?

EXACTLY!

[tempestsarekind]

It is the Puzzle of Russell. :)