Ten Days to a Tenth Anniversary, 9: Favourite Arc
Once again, our countdown to the tenth anniversary of the new series of Doctor Who is brought to you by the New Who Anniversary Celebration Countdown Challenge posted to the comm by ibishtar:
March 25th: Favourite Arc
Obviously one of the defining features of the new series has been its season-long (or even longer) story-arcs, beginning right back there with Bad Wolf and continuing with vague mentions of Torchwood and Mr Saxon, mysterious reappearing Rose, the cracks in the universe, the Silence and River Song, the multitude of Claras and, most recently, Missy lurking at the pearly gates to greet luckless supporting characters. I guess the old series had its Keys to Time and Trials of Time Lords, but I'm not sure they were really the same thing. It's a sign of the way television has developed as a medium since the 80s - overarching storylines and mysteries to be unravelled by the viewers are very much the way things are, especially in genre television, in the modern era.
And some of these story-arcs have worked quite well (Missy, I would argue, was one of the more coherent ones); others were a bit puzzling even once revealed (Bad Wolf, perhaps), while the whole Eleven cracks-Silence-River multi-season epic, for me, promised a lot upfront and never really quite delivered on it in the end. Part of the reason why The Time of the Doctor isn't as good as it arguably should have been is that it was scrambling frantically to tie up all of those contradictory loose ends in, sadly, not as neat a bow as Mr Moffat and others might have liked. The first part of the arc, though, in series 5, was pretty sublime, really, even if it didn't deliver at the time on the question of how the TARDIS actually exploded. Eleven's shirt change in Flesh and Stone was remarkably well done and the welter of wild speculation and conspiracy theorising it generated over following days and weeks remains one of my most fondly-remembered experiences of online fandom.
I can't really answer "Series 5!" to every single one of these questions, however. I think the other kind of arcs - character as opposed to story arcs - are something that demand attention. Again, not something that the old series never did, not by a long shot, but again something that has become more important as television has evolved over the years. I think in the case of just about every new series companion and recurring character you can point to some degree of character development, sometimes quite dramatic and transformative, although quite often not actually ending well for the character in question. I suppose that's a more realistic depiction of the way life often pans out than riding triumphantly into the sunset at the end, but there are some cases that feel somewhat like extended shaggy dog stories to little ultimate purpose. Poor Donna.
I think one character arc that I find really fascinating, though, and one that should be very obvious but maybe isn't, is that of the Doctor himself over the course of his four new series incarnations. I don't think the Doctor's psychology or personal development was ever something that was central to the old series - the actors, obviously, brought some truth to the character as they played him, as did the writers, and the different Doctors had very distinct characters and personalities, but I think it was rare that we got a lot of genuine insight into what the Doctor was thinking and feeling and how his various experiences had affected him over time. There are exceptions to this, of course - One undergoes a fairly remarkable character arc in his first few stories, and Five and Seven are Doctors whose motives and rationales you can speculate endlessly about. There are other examples, to be sure. However, I think one thing the new series has done very well - too well, arguably, in the case of the so-called Ten!angst people used to talk about - is to make the Doctor's journey as a character central to the show itself, and to show a progression not only within individual incarnations but across them.
So we start with Nine, wracked with survivor's guilt after the Time War, and with the other kind of guilt because, as we learn, he played a pivotal role in events (when has the Doctor ever not done so?), still twisted with bitterness and hatred but trying his utmost to live up to his own pre-War ideals and make the universe a better place. And then we have Ten, who thinks he can escape his pain and loneliness by investing himself in his love for Rose, only to lose her and bounce from one companion to another looking for some sort of redemption. Again, he's determined to do what's right, but this takes increasingly scary forms as the damaged last of the Time Lord flirts with the idea of godhood, culminating in the devastating payoff at the end of Waters of Mars. And then we have Eleven, who seems outwardly less pained and troubled than Ten, but who also shows signs throughout his tenure that his eccentric outward persona is also a mask for something much chillier and more ruthless. It's as if he's trying to learn from his mistakes with Ten, but drawing some of the wrong conclusions, still missing Gallifrey and regretting what he did in the War, increasingly weighed down by his own sense of ancientness and mortality.
And that is why The Day of the Doctor is such a great story, quite apart from being a great anniversary celebration, because it takes all of these implied character threads from the preceding two or three Doctors (Eleven and Ten are there, of course, with the War Doctor essentially filling in for Nine) and explicitly addresses them, and resolves them. The lonely god finally gets some sort of redemption and hope for the future, augmented by the literal new lease of life he receives from exiled Gallifrey as Eleven becomes Twelve. And this explains Twelve's seeming confusion during his first season - is he a good man? He really doesn't know, because the man he has been since the new series began, even across regenerations, has been made anew and he is once more having to find his way in a mysterious universe. Taking Doctor Who right back to its roots, in other words, and if some of the things Moffat has been saying are true, Series 9 will see Twelve going off on his own direction, which may not be the same as the one he has been following up to now. I for one look forward to it.
So, I went on a bit there, but I hope it made sense. What do you reckon to all of this arc business, then? ;)
March 25th: Favourite Arc
Obviously one of the defining features of the new series has been its season-long (or even longer) story-arcs, beginning right back there with Bad Wolf and continuing with vague mentions of Torchwood and Mr Saxon, mysterious reappearing Rose, the cracks in the universe, the Silence and River Song, the multitude of Claras and, most recently, Missy lurking at the pearly gates to greet luckless supporting characters. I guess the old series had its Keys to Time and Trials of Time Lords, but I'm not sure they were really the same thing. It's a sign of the way television has developed as a medium since the 80s - overarching storylines and mysteries to be unravelled by the viewers are very much the way things are, especially in genre television, in the modern era.
And some of these story-arcs have worked quite well (Missy, I would argue, was one of the more coherent ones); others were a bit puzzling even once revealed (Bad Wolf, perhaps), while the whole Eleven cracks-Silence-River multi-season epic, for me, promised a lot upfront and never really quite delivered on it in the end. Part of the reason why The Time of the Doctor isn't as good as it arguably should have been is that it was scrambling frantically to tie up all of those contradictory loose ends in, sadly, not as neat a bow as Mr Moffat and others might have liked. The first part of the arc, though, in series 5, was pretty sublime, really, even if it didn't deliver at the time on the question of how the TARDIS actually exploded. Eleven's shirt change in Flesh and Stone was remarkably well done and the welter of wild speculation and conspiracy theorising it generated over following days and weeks remains one of my most fondly-remembered experiences of online fandom.
I can't really answer "Series 5!" to every single one of these questions, however. I think the other kind of arcs - character as opposed to story arcs - are something that demand attention. Again, not something that the old series never did, not by a long shot, but again something that has become more important as television has evolved over the years. I think in the case of just about every new series companion and recurring character you can point to some degree of character development, sometimes quite dramatic and transformative, although quite often not actually ending well for the character in question. I suppose that's a more realistic depiction of the way life often pans out than riding triumphantly into the sunset at the end, but there are some cases that feel somewhat like extended shaggy dog stories to little ultimate purpose. Poor Donna.
I think one character arc that I find really fascinating, though, and one that should be very obvious but maybe isn't, is that of the Doctor himself over the course of his four new series incarnations. I don't think the Doctor's psychology or personal development was ever something that was central to the old series - the actors, obviously, brought some truth to the character as they played him, as did the writers, and the different Doctors had very distinct characters and personalities, but I think it was rare that we got a lot of genuine insight into what the Doctor was thinking and feeling and how his various experiences had affected him over time. There are exceptions to this, of course - One undergoes a fairly remarkable character arc in his first few stories, and Five and Seven are Doctors whose motives and rationales you can speculate endlessly about. There are other examples, to be sure. However, I think one thing the new series has done very well - too well, arguably, in the case of the so-called Ten!angst people used to talk about - is to make the Doctor's journey as a character central to the show itself, and to show a progression not only within individual incarnations but across them.
So we start with Nine, wracked with survivor's guilt after the Time War, and with the other kind of guilt because, as we learn, he played a pivotal role in events (when has the Doctor ever not done so?), still twisted with bitterness and hatred but trying his utmost to live up to his own pre-War ideals and make the universe a better place. And then we have Ten, who thinks he can escape his pain and loneliness by investing himself in his love for Rose, only to lose her and bounce from one companion to another looking for some sort of redemption. Again, he's determined to do what's right, but this takes increasingly scary forms as the damaged last of the Time Lord flirts with the idea of godhood, culminating in the devastating payoff at the end of Waters of Mars. And then we have Eleven, who seems outwardly less pained and troubled than Ten, but who also shows signs throughout his tenure that his eccentric outward persona is also a mask for something much chillier and more ruthless. It's as if he's trying to learn from his mistakes with Ten, but drawing some of the wrong conclusions, still missing Gallifrey and regretting what he did in the War, increasingly weighed down by his own sense of ancientness and mortality.
And that is why The Day of the Doctor is such a great story, quite apart from being a great anniversary celebration, because it takes all of these implied character threads from the preceding two or three Doctors (Eleven and Ten are there, of course, with the War Doctor essentially filling in for Nine) and explicitly addresses them, and resolves them. The lonely god finally gets some sort of redemption and hope for the future, augmented by the literal new lease of life he receives from exiled Gallifrey as Eleven becomes Twelve. And this explains Twelve's seeming confusion during his first season - is he a good man? He really doesn't know, because the man he has been since the new series began, even across regenerations, has been made anew and he is once more having to find his way in a mysterious universe. Taking Doctor Who right back to its roots, in other words, and if some of the things Moffat has been saying are true, Series 9 will see Twelve going off on his own direction, which may not be the same as the one he has been following up to now. I for one look forward to it.
So, I went on a bit there, but I hope it made sense. What do you reckon to all of this arc business, then? ;)