the doctor and (mommy) daddy issues

[tlr3]

i'm not sure whether this is so obvious that someone will have thought of it already, or so crazy that it won't make sense. so. . .

proposition: since _rose_, the relationship between the doctor and his female companion has been mirrored in the relationship between the companion's mother and the companion's father.

more specifically, how the

Comments

[qtrhorserider]

I think you have some good observations

[doyle_sb4]

I think you have some good observations.

In the opening to "Father's Day" Rose gives Pete's birth year as 1953. That makes him 5 years older than me. When Jackie was 40, I was 48 thus Pete would have been 53, which is consistent with the amount of time it would have taken in his adult life to build a company that size. That makes him 13 years older than Jackie, older man, see where I'm going?

Oh, that's interesting! And since Jackie's 40 in January 2007 as per Rise of the Cybermen she would have been about 19 when she married Pete. (Of course, this is assuming the Father's Day maths gets everyone else right, considering it has Rose as 17 years old)

[vampadvocate]

In Jackie's case RTD also allowed an older woman to have a libido - the look that passes between the Doctor and Mickey in reaction to her declaration to alt Pete "there's been no one since you" that says "oh yeah?". We also see in "Love and Monsters" that Jackie is partly so interested in male companionship because she's lonely and misses having a partner as well as someone to sleep with which is actually quite a sensitive treatment of a middle aged woman who's been left on her own - although Jackie's experience in particular is unusual she stands for more ordinary single mums whose children have flown the nest.

[tlr3]

i suppose some folks might argue that it's not so nice that her libido is the source of jokes?

(i'm not sure i would argue it, but i'm trying to figure out why that's not usually brought out as a positive about RTD's writing of over 30 women.)

[stoplookingup]

*raises my hand* OK, I'll argue that!

But really, Jackie's sexuality is portrayed as kind of pathetic and desperate. I think this is just part of the stereotype RTD set up for her. And the "cure" for it is...getting her back with her husband, her True Love.

Really, RTD is shockingly conventional in many ways.

[tlr3]

um, yeah.

ok, it's kind of hard to argue with that. it is good that people over 30 get to have feelings and libidos. but why exactly must the ending always be either ending up back with their husbands or getting a chaste spin-off?*

*(i am not totally spoilered for the SJS series, so maybe i am wrong.)

[tlr3]

oh, you pulled together a lot of threads there. nice.

i also think you can read rose's nonchalance after saving pete in father's day (in the face of the doctor's anger) as, "i've got my dad now, so i don't need you." (which sort of ends up being true for the rest of the episode, given the ending.) they also do a bit in which the doctor does the same thing with rose that pete does (i forget what: touch her face or something.)

i'm not sure if the stuff i talk about in my post is all purposeful, but this particular strand of it just *has* to be.