Doctor Who - Waters of Mars Review

[chloris]

I saw the episode this morning and it broke my brain. *ouch* I've been pretty much been avoiding lj all day so that I could write up my rather meta-heavy thoughts without having them be influenced by everyone else's thoughts. Now I'm off to read through the posts on my flist!

Comments

[elisi]

Lovely, lovely meta. I have to say that I agree with you *and* Anonymous - I think he definitely breaks, but because of who and what he is, the breakdown manifests itself as megalomania... that thing that has been under the surface ever since his regeneration - as Handlebars showed so perfectly of course. I love, love, love RTD for going this route.

(Would write more, but I'm not awake yet, and I need to sort out children. See you later!)

[chloris]

Handlebars proved more prophetic than I realized way back when it came out. I knew that he had that flaw certainly (and it is a big reason of why I find him fascinating as a character), but I didn't believe that they'd go there. I have to give RTD full credit for bringing the Doctor to this point and having be completely believable and supported in canon.

[papilio_luna]

Excellent meta, and I agree on all points.

My love for Ten is boundless, but part of his character has always been a god-complex (lonely god or vengeful god, take your pick, it's two sides of the same coin), and a certain, albeit usually justified, hubris. He's been on this road for a long time, and it's one of the reasons I love him as a character. I don't have to find a character 100% admirable to find them fascinating and want to watch them as much as possible (good thing for it too, given that two of my other favourite characters are Dexter Morgan and Gregory House--a serial-killer and a pathetic douchebag). A character whose motivations are always good and pure and rational is boring. A character who tries to be good but has serious cracks in their character and is haunted by a dark past--that's interesting

[chloris]

A character whose motivations are always good and pure and rational is boring. A character who tries to be good but has serious cracks in their character and is haunted by a dark past--that's interesting.

*nods* To excite my interest, I need a character with conflicts and a potential for darkness. I didn't think that we'd see more than flashes but I don't love the character less because they went there. Instead, I love him and the show even more.

It's actually kind of amazing just how arrogant and controlling that the Doctor has always been for a hero. (some regenerations more than others certainly) RTD certainly thought this through. Take a Doctor who's the last of his kind, give him an extra big dose of god-complex, and take away all his support. What do you get? Waters on Mars where the Doctor decides to fuck the rules and save everyone he can.

I think more than stopping him, they ground him.

I like this point. Everyone talks about them stopping him but what they really do is ground him. When he spends too much time alone, he