I’m in love with a fairy tale: ‘The Big Bang’ reaction post, the tl;dr version. Plus some ramblings.
First of all, I love this season for giving me something I’ve not had since BtVS and AtS went off air: A TV show not just rich, but so saturated with meta, layers, themes, parallels, foreshadowing, symbolism, mirroring, etc. etc. that I hardly know where to start. Hence the fact that this is a long, rambly and somewhat incoherent stab at three million different lines of thought. (Really, this might be the best look inside my head that you’ll ever get. It should come with a warning.) At some point I'll write something better, promise. For now, I just wanted this done.
Now it’s not that RTD doesn’t do meta, but it’s of a very different sort. SJA has metaphors so obvious they’re pretty much colour coded and Torchwood suffered from an overdose of crack and angst until ‘Children of Earth’ which - imho - moved it beyond TV and into the realm of art, which is an entirely different thing. His DW era hovered between these two extremes, and was thus a very different beast in meta-terms.
Also I need to put a disclaimer here. I’ve loved S5 like few things before, but when I point out that something or other is good, or that I like how something developed from the way it was before, this doesn’t mean that I all of a sudden dislike the Rusty era. It’s just that in many cases I love where we’ve ended up, and I like the fact that the Doctor has recovered from his traumas/is once more written more like he used to be (See this post). So no bashing please. (And this post of mine: My Doctor, explains how I feel about Ten Vs. Eleven.)
Oh and sorry about stuff being repeated. I’m too tired to make it more coherent.
I’m in love with a fairy tale: ‘The Big Bang’ reaction post, the tl;dr version. Plus some ramblings on stories and storytelling.
(or: the Doctor saved the world by being *kind*)
First of all, then I was hopeful that the finale wouldn’t be a great tragedy for three reasons:
1) Rory was the obvious one to kill off. (Amy, the Doctor and River all had to survive.) Except we’d already seen him die twice and killing him off a third time would be overkill. (Pardon the pun.)
2) River, at the end of ‘Flesh and Stone’ seemed very happy remembering what happened when the Pandorica opened, so surely it couldn’t be a grief fest, right?
3) Months and months ago I accidentally read a spoilery story about Matt’s Doctor being dressed up in a top hat and tails. And why would he be all dressed up if not because of a wedding? The wedding-to-be that runs like a red thread through the whole season...
So. I wanted it to end with a wedding! And it did. I am still in shock, to be honest, because I’m not used to happy endings, what with being a disciple of Joss and Rusty. (Not that there’s anything wrong with tragedy, but I’ve become used to having my heart ripped out and stomped on - for every good thing only to be there so that it could be removed later for maximum pain. And this thing of getting everything I wanted and more... I’m not sure what to do. Except that it feels GREAT! (Dear Joss - sometimes what people need, and what they want, is the same thing. Who’d have thought?)
:)
But to get back to my meandering thoughts (because they are. Meandering that is.) - I think I’m going to go through the episode and write down all the various thoughts that pop up as I go along. (I’ve tried to work out how to structure this behemoth, and this seems like the best way.)
So, first of all, we get little Amelia, Mark 2. Little Amelia who never meets the raggedy Doctor, and yet believes in stars, despite all evidence to the contrary. Love how this theme of memory/belief/stubbornness has run through the whole season, focussed on this one little girl who refuses to back down.
Was also happy to finally see ‘Aunt Sharon’, who is obviously not a horrible person, but imo just someone generally not particularly good with children.
Anyway, then we get the wonderfully cryptic ‘Pond’ notes and it’s all... surprisingly light hearted, despite the ominous undertones set by the stone Daleks. Culminating in the incredible reveal of Amy in the Pandorica.
Didn’t see that coming.
And then time goes haywire.
We have poor Rory, still holding on to Amy, as tragic as can be except that we just saw her alive in the future... and then the Doctor appears, with a fez on his head and a mop under his arm and we appear to be watching a comedy.
By rights it shouldn’t work, except it does. I’m trying to work out why and how, because it’s not like the episode is lacking in emotion. But I think the emotions it focusses on are not tragedy, but (to quote BtVS):
No one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does. So what are we, helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are gonna come. You can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are.
In many ways this story, this season, is all about choices, about discovering who you are. That’s where the emotions come from. The tragic, pointless death is brushed aside and fixed within moments, so the story can get moving. Let me explain:
Rory’s death in ‘Amy’s Choice’ wasn’t about him, or about making the audience hurt - it was about Amy, pushing her, giving her new insight, and showing her the depth of her feelings.
Amy’s death (and resurrection) works the same way. Rory as the Lonely Centurion is the most wonderful thing - The Boy Who Waited indeed.
(And how much does it say about them that Amy’s act of devotion is something drastic and possibly fatal, whilst Rory’s is one of patience and quiet strength? Love is love, but how it is expressed varies from person to person, and situation to situation.) So yes, I love the fact that Amy/Rory is this big epic love story. The Nurse and the Kissogram indeed.
I also love that the Doctor ‘ships it. That he is *not* the most important person in the world for them. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the Rusty years, and Donna was made of too much win to describe, but there was a focus on the Doctor that was unhealthy. Both Rose and Donna pledged ‘forever’, and Martha’s choice was impeded by her unrequited love. And poor Sarah Jane (“You were my life”). I’m not saying that ‘forever’ is a bad choice - it is River’s choice after all, and she is *awesome* - but it is nice to see someone choose differently.
(The girls, btw, are very, very impressed with Rory and his devotion and bravery. A proper hero, they agree. This makes me exceedingly happy.)
But back to the story. The story of the End of the Universe, which (as others have pointed out) is essentially just four people in a museum, trying to save the world, with a single Dalek to provide an immediate threat. The focus is solely on the characters, and - as someone who is *all* about character stuff - I loved this to distraction. :)
Especially the fez. It is genius, and one of those impossibly Eleven-y things that somehow make me love him even more than before.
Also, this:
"Steven mentioned the fez to Piers and I before he even wrote it. He said, 'I’m thinking of putting Matt in a fez in episode 13.' And of course Piers’ and my jaws hit the floor and went 'A fez? You’re kidding me, you’re going to put Matt in a fez? If we put Matt in a fez Matt will never take the fez off. He will want to wear the fez for the next of the whole series. It will be glued to his head. He’ll be wearing it, you know, with his own clothes. It will be a nightmare.' He said, 'No no, I’ve got a cunning plan; as soon as he’s got the fez I’m going to kill the fez.'"
-Beth Willis, producer, Doctor Who Confidential 5x13 Out of Time
Matt Smith I ♥ you to infinity! :)
Anyway, there all the fabulous timey-wimey-ness of the Doctor jumping back and forth and saving himself and Amy, and it makes me wave my hands around quite uncontrollably. Esp the drink. :)
The fun is of course undercut by the nearly-dead Doctor from the future showing up, which does lead to the wonderful “Today dying is a result.”
(I love that Rory puts his coat over him.)
All of which leads to the TARDIS having been burning up for the past 2000 years. POOR TARDIS! But I was completely distracted from this by the Doctor’s rescue of River from the time loop, and one of the most fantastic lines, like, ever:
“Hi honey. I’m home.”
At which point my brain just short-circuited and I’m surprised I didn’t actually fall off the sofa from sheer joy.
(If we don’t get the picnic at Asgard next season I shall be HORRIBLY disappointed. Also, it better be VERY romantic. Well, inbetween the snarking. Love the snarking.)
But getting back to the ep, then “What in the name of sanity have you got on your head?” is a fabulous fabulous line. :) And - despite loving the fez - its destruction is a great moment, and also provides some great comic relief, before the Dalek shows up.
Being a shallow, shallow shipper, what I love most about the Doctor’s brilliant plan is the fact that he taps River’s nose.
“Almost completely impossible!”
(Really, the Doctor being all ‘Look at me, aren’t I clever?’ never gets old.)
And then he promptly gets shot, falls down - and then vanishes.
The look on River’s face as she looks on the thin air... oh my River.
“Where did he go?”
I think this is one of the things about being with the Doctor - he is in many respects unpredictable, and prone to vanishing...
This, then, sets up her confrontation with the Dalek, which is of course superb.
It’s the most brilliant scene, but almost bettered by the one that follows, when she catches up with Amy and Rory, and finds out that the Doctor didn’t died but has disappeared instead.
“Rule number One: The Doctor always lies.”
“What happened to the Dalek?”
“It died.”
The absolute calm with which she walks, neither hurrying, nor slowing down, her voice perfectly even throughout - that’s the sort of woman who the Doctor could marry. IMHO of course! ;)
(Also she is in many ways his mirror. Remember she, too, by her own admission, is always lying.)
And then we get the Doctor in the Pandorica, half dead, and raggedy once more - the most wonderful way of making the season come full circle. In the beginning he was so shiny and new, literally glowing and brightly curious about who he was and what might happen next. Similarly Amy was a child, young and innocent and excited, a far cry from the young woman fighting back tears as she says her last goodbye.
But listen to what he tells her. Because he isn’t just saying goodbye, he’s explaining why. Why he chose her. It doesn’t matter Amy says, but he contradicts her:
“It’s the most important thing left in the universe. That’s why I’m doing this.”
Sacrificing himself so that a little girl can have her parents back. One girl. But it isn’t because he loves her more than anyone else. (I hate the way people try to quantify love.) To quote ascian3, talking about Spike:
Spike loved, and that's his power. He understood in the end that the things he loved in the specific - Manchester United, cigarettes, dog racing, and Buffy - couldn't be separated from the world they exist in.
If you start fighting for an abstract good, then you end up with the Timelord Victorious. So this time, the Doctor will save the universe for the sake of a child that he loves. Or, to tie this back to ‘The Beast Below’ again:
Amy: "You never interfere in the affairs of other people or planets - unless there's children crying."
Doctor: "Yes."
Of course the Doctor also admits why he chose her:
“The girl who made no sense. How could I resist?”
And that is so very Doctor-y. Always curious. And it sheds new light on the ‘Flesh and Stone’ line: “It’s all about you!”
The crack in her bedroom wall, appearing in a spaceship thousands of years and miles away, erasing people from history... what has it done to her? Her life (“Does it ever bother you, Amy, that your life makes no sense?”), her memories (“You didn’t remember the Daleks, and you should have!”), her family (“I don’t even remember...”)
And it makes her special. Remember your parents and they’ll be there. Nothing is ever forgotten but you have to try.
(It’s interesting that the whole arc of this season is about a girl remembering (and that this saves the Doctor), when in S4 it was all about one woman saving the world and then forgetting (her memories deadly to herself). Just thought I’d mention.)
As someone pointed out, he uses his last moments to explain, without apologising, which is a very nice touch. Also, he comforts her, because it’s not about him, not really. And I love that this Doctor has reached that place where it’s not even a question of pushing his own pain aside, his own pain is quite simply immaterial.
“You'll have your family back, you won't need your imaginary friend anymore. Amy Pond, crying over me, eh?”
The ‘need’ has been switched 180 degrees - the Doctor doesn’t need Amy, she needs (needed) him. He doesn’t ask her along because he’s lonely - or rather, that’s not the main reason. He asks her because she’s intriguing. Ditto River - she makes him curious, interested, wanting to know more. The focus is not on him, but on the way he affects them.
But going back to his motivation:
“If you were that old, and that kind, and the very, very last of your kind, you couldn’t just stand by and watch children cry.”
I always knew this statement was one of those pivotal moments, and I was exceedingly happy to be proven right. (I’ll get back to this.)
(Sidebar: Now who could have foreseen, back in January, that ‘Geronimo’ would one day make us cry?)
Generally the whole thing is just beautiful on every level: colour, imagery, cinematography... I love it when my shows are gorgeous. And (thanks to beer_good_foamy for this insight) the Doctor now does, indeed, ‘Burn at the centre of time’. Although I guess that goes for River too, having been in the TARDIS for 2000 years, while it was exploding at every point in history. Mmmm... ‘My ship burns at the centre of time’. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? ;)
And then - he’s OK! The ‘Legs!’ comment made me laugh - hurrah for continuity - and checking the bow tie was great. But it lead to ‘I can buy a fez’ which is one of my favourite lines/actions ever!!!
But, it’s the ‘Oh I escaped. I love it when I do that!’ which calls back to EoT (in my mind anyway) and that moment of breathless relief of not having been killed - which is then broken.
To just compare for a moment then Ten’s face when he hears the four knocks is one of the most heartbreaking things *ever*. Eleven’s reaction is much more subdued - a sad, quiet resignation.
Then we get the backwards travel through the season, which includes that wonderful moment in the forest, which I always think of in Anna’s words from her review of the Angel eps:
I loved that amidst the mounting tension they could play out a moment of tenderness, and play it long enough to pull back into it. I was so sure the scene was done that for an instant I didn't know whose hands they were, and they are not easy hands to disguise.
And now we know why there was that disconnect... But the words of course now carry a much greater weight.
Doctor: “It has never been more important that you trust me.”
Amy: “But you don’t always tell me the truth.”
Doctor: "If I always told you the truth I wouldn't need you to trust me.”
I (via circuitous routes) found this review of the Angel episodes, which had this rather very interesting insight:
The pivotal moment in F&S between Amy and the Doctor was all about her faith in him, her trusting him even though he lies to her. But Amy had to also have faith in herself, she had to believe that she could walk like she could see. The most disappointing aspect of this episode upon rewatch was that she didn't have that faith; in the end, River had to rescue her, because she lost her connection with the Doctor, and her faith in herself was not strong enough. Perhaps by the end of the season - or the end of her time with the Doctor - it will be.
And indeed, it was strong enough and more besides. But I rather like that her arc (the arc of the season) was for the Doctor to earn back the trust he broke.
Anyway, it all leads to what I think might be the most beautiful scene I’ve ever seen, starting with the Doctor finally arriving only a few hours too late, finding little Amelia asleep on her suitcase. And it was just about then that my heart started to break into a thousand pieces.
To quote doomandnachos:
but...The Doctor's about to be erased from existence, and instead of scenery-chewing and swelling strings, we see him hunched over, whispering to a sleeping child.
But I’d like to add this quote by eve11 to it:
...maybe Ten's last act of saving Wilf was the catalyst for that kind of quiet self-sacrifice.
I love things that tie together, that make the different parts into a coherent whole, and this works incredibly well - Ten died for Wilf, and I love the idea that this helped inform who Eleven became. So this time, he will die - be erased - for the sake of a child that he loves. So he sits at her bedside and tells her a story...
"It's funny. I thought if you could hear me I could hang on somehow. Silly me. Silly old Doctor. When you wake up, you'll have a mum and dad, and you won't even remember me. Well you'll remember me a little. I'll be a story in your head. That's okay, we're all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh? 'Cause it was, you know. It was the best. A daft old man who stole a magic box and ran away. Did I ever tell you that I stole it? Well, I borrowed it; I was always gonna take it back. Oh, that box. Amy, you'll dream about that box. It'll never leave you. Big and little at the same time. Brand new and ancient, and the bluest blue ever. And the times we had, eh? Woulda had. Never had. In your dreams, they'll still be there. The Doctor and Amy Pond. And the days that never came.”
"The cracks are closing, but they can't close properly 'til I'm on the other side. I don't belong here anymore. I think I'll skip the rest of the rewind. I hate repeats. Live well. Love Rory. Bye-bye Pond."
For now I’ll just let the words speak for themselves, but I will come back to this, because it’s central to the whole season.
And really, have there ever been more beautiful last words? *sniff* Also love how quiet the whole scene is, and how all we see is the Doctor’s shadow moving over the wall, the focus still on little Amelia.
Who then grows up...
Must just take a moment to appreciate Amy’s family (her father calling her ‘Amelia’ is perfect) and her easy happiness. Notice how she tells Rory that she loves him, and that this is such a normal occurrence that he almost fails to respond. And I flash back to the teary Amy in ‘Amy’s Choice’ (“I loved Rory, and I never told him-”). *hugs happy!Amy*
It is the most wonderful thing to see her finally whole, to see that broken, defensive, angry young woman just living. And then - remembering.
“You told me a story...”
And this is the thing, one of the central themes of this season: The power of stories. I love that the whole season is about a little girl (re-)learning to believe in fairy tales. And how belief, faith, trust is what matters.
“Believe me. Just for twenty minutes!” the Doctor asks Amy in The Eleventh Hour.
“NO!” she shouts, furious, in return.
“It’s never been more important that you trust me,” he says in ‘Flesh and Stone’.
“But you don’t always tell me the truth,” she replies.
“If I always told you the truth, I wouldn’t need you to trust me...”
But it’s a two-way thing. He trusts her. We see these themes of trust and reality played out most overtly in ‘Amy’s Choice’ - two realities, but which is real? Both feel real, the bird song the link that ties them together. (There is birdsong in The Eleventh Hour when the Atraxi leave and Amy wakes up from her ‘coma’...)
In Amy’s choice both scenarios could have been real, and in the end neither was. The Big Bang mirrors this perfectly - there is the ‘ordinary life’, with the wedding, and the ‘extraordinary’ one, once contained in River’s Diary. And Amy chooses - both.
The Doctor (and oh, has he ever been more Doctor-y) mended the broken little girl, and she in turn once more believed in fairy tales, using all that determination to say “Yes I believe!”
It actually reminds me of one of the recurring themes of Buffy - Buffy often won through sheer determination. Emotions equalled power, love could move mountains, and was always worth it, despite the pain.
I love the Doctor’s plan, by the way. That he tries to save himself through a story, how he trusts that Amy will remember...
“No. She is dreaming about me because she can hear me!” he tells Prisoner Zero in ‘The Eleventh Hour’, and proceeds to direct Amy’s dream to where he needs it to go, to save the world.
Have I mentioned how much I love the continuity, the exquisite set-ups, this season? because:
“The cracks are closing, but they can't close properly 'til I'm on the other side.”
This directly calls back to ‘Flesh and Stone’, and the Angels asking the Doctor to sacrifice himself.
The Angel episodes, btw, are so full of foreshadowing, set-ups and parallels that I don’t even know where to start, so I’ll just touch on one thing. Namely: How can a girl’s memory bring people back? It’s of course touched upon in ‘The Pandorica Opens’ ("Nothing is ever forgotten, not completely. If something is ever remembered, it can come back."), but what struck me the other day was Amy’s specific story during the Angel two-parter. Remember this?
“The image of an angel itself becomes an angel.”
The angel, just an image on a screen, has the power to become real!
“The eyes are not the window to the soul, they are the door. Beware what might enter.”
It is no coincidence that it is Amy who carries an angel within her, threatening to break out, Amy who has to walk as if she can see.
‘The image of an angel itself becomes an angel.’
The image [bow tie, braces] - the story [something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue] - of a Doctor , in a girl’s mind itself becomes a Doctor?
(Not an ordinary girl: “That crack in your wall, all that time, the universe pouring into your head. You brought Rory back, you can bring them back too. Just remember, and they'll be there.")
Anyway, I don’t have much to say about his reappearance or the dancing or any of that, since it leaves me mostly just failing with happiness. (To quote calapine OMG THE DOCTOR'S DANCING. Clearly Nine is winning the Doctor Dance Off and Eleventy is LOSING BY A BILLION.)
It’s just so... joyful. ‘We saved the universe, and Amy brought everyone back who was missing and let’s PARTY and BE HAPPY!’ ♥ ♥ ♥ The thing is, before I fell for Rusty’s Doctor Who/Torchwood, I was a disciple of the Mighty Joss, and I don’t know how to handle a Happy Ending! I’ve not had one before. (I guess the S4 finale of BtVS might count, but I wasn’t invested in the show then, and - as a matter of fact - never watched those episodes it until years later.) So yeah, to quote the Doctor: I WAS NOT EXPECTING THIS!
But I love it. And I love we weren’t given things only for them to be taken away again for the sake of maximum pain. (Don’t get me wrong, I think that tragedy can be a wonderful thing. But Everyone Lives is almost more affecting...) And whatever happens in S6 we will always have this!
And then River. Beautiful, mysterious River. I’ve already written at length about her and the Doctor, so won’t say much about their final scene except that if I loved it any more I’d probably explode. Actually, no, that’s not true, there is one thing. The repeated ‘Yes’ is a very wonderful thing (and I remember discussing this with someone, promethia_tenk probably) - how she isn’t just coming onto him, but is also trying to teach him how their relationship works. Because it can only be like that - both of them continually saying ‘Yes, I want this’, without worrying about *where* they are in their different time streams. Maybe they’re both married, maybe only one of them is, maybe neither. But it doesn’t matter. As I said in my essay, the relationship transcends any labels or definitions.
And here is where I’m going to have to dig out the_royal_anna’s Spike/Buffy meta, because my goodness her words fit River and the Doctor:
I'm a spuffy fan. Do I believe Spike is Buffy's one true love? No, hell no. For me, that's kind of the point of being a spuffy fan. I don't have any romantic ideals about this relationship - or, if it comes to that, any relationship. And these two come back to each other, again and again and again, not because it is their destiny but because it is their duty. They share enough history to owe it to each other to be there for each other.
And, goodness, such a history it is, but the relationship is never defined by that history. If anything, it is defined by the mutual acknowledgment that their history establishes the basis for the relationship, but the relationship exists always and only in the here and now. They never stoop under the weight of their history. Buffy taking Dawn to Spike in Villains is one of many examples that illustrates that. There's always a back doorstep, if you like - always a place the two of them can find where they can sit, side-by-side, and put everything else behind them.
This is what River is trying to say. Yes I’m always here.
Also:
I think what I love most about Season 7 [of BtVS] is that over the course of it, Buffy and Spike become stronger and more dependent.
In a world that loves to tell us we should all be strong and independent there's something very extraordinary about that.
And this doesn’t just go for River and the Doctor - it goes for Amy and the Doctor, Amy and Rory, Rory and the Doctor... over the course of this season we’ve seen everyone forge strong bonds with each other - trusting each other to such a degree that when the universe ends, it can be saved by the strength of four people working together, trusting each other even though two of them are inveterate liars.
OK, that was another tangent, derailing me from the brilliant ending of the newly wed Ponds running away with the Doctor... and as a way of coming full circle from Amy running away the night before the big day, it is truly wonderful. The whole season taking place ‘in one night’ (and how fairytale [A Christmas Carol is the first that springs to mind] is that?).
Also MUST mention one of my favourite lines ever, when Amy talks about ‘her wedding’ and Rory corrects her with ‘Our. Wedding!’ Just the way he says it - it’s so utterly Rory, that quiet exasperation, and it makes me smile every time I remember it and want to hug him.
So. Married couple in the TARDIS. And an Egyptian goddess loose on the Orient Express. In Space.
Is it Christmas yet?
Fairy tales, Reality, Moffat and assorted other musings.
OTHER DAVE (to River): Who is he? You haven't even told us. You just expect us to trust him.
RIVER: He's the Doctor.
MR LUX: And who is the Doctor?
RIVER: The only story you'll ever tell - if you survive him.
promethia_tenk wrote a fabulous post about what kind of writer Steven Moffat is:
It seems a common thing to refer to Moffat as a “plot” rather than “character” writer, but I think this season has pretty firmly disproven that: he is neither. He is, instead, an idea writer, much like T.S. Eliot, and everything else, including plot and characters, works in service of ideas, themes, and artistic emotion (that is, the emotion raised by the artistic work itself, the feeling of experiencing the work, rather than the emotions of the characters and the situations presented in the work).
This is in stark contrast to RTD who was all about the characters. Or rather - RTD’s ‘thing’ is humanity. Our strengths and weaknesses, what makes us monsters or heroes, or even both at the same time (Waters of Mars, Children of Earth).
Moffat - as far as I can tell - is a storyteller fascinated by how stories work. Because stories aren’t real, stories are made up, and yet they can have the most extraordinary impact. if we believe, they become true.
Let me try to explain, first by looking back at the Library episodes:
DR MOON: Now, listen. This is important. There's the real world, and there's the world of nightmares. That's right, isn't it? You understand that?
THE GIRL: Yes, I know, Dr Moon.
DR MOON: What I want you to remember is this... and I know it's hard. The real world is a lie, and your nightmares are real.
So - is the Doctor real? Of course he isn’t. And yet... he is. Like Superman, or Winnie-the-Pooh, he is real because we remember him.
See stories might not ‘be true’ in the technical sense of the word, but they contain truth. I’m reminded of green_maia’s reaction post to Children of Earth (RTD’s stories contain a lot of truth, that’s why they are powerful):
I think, if I have one reaction to COE, it's this: yes. Yes, this is how the world works. Yes, this is how human beings work. Yes, this is how governments work. Yes, this is how group dynamics work. Yes, this is how families work. Yes, this is how human heroism works. Yes, this is how human evil works. Yes, this is how human despair works. Yes, this is how human hope works. Yes, this is the nobility of humanity. Yes, this is the monstrosity of humanity.
Yes, this is what is. This is what we are.
THAT is the truth we find in good stories, in fairy tales. And that is why they’re important:
We’re all stories in the end.
This point is also central to this season, to the show. Because this is it:
Doctor Who is a fairy tale, told to a whole country. A fairy tale for the age of television, and more powerful for that maybe? A story that today’s children are having told to them, just like their parents and grandparents had. A wonderful story about the daft old man who stole a magic box and ran away. And it is brand new (new Doctor, new Companion, new show runner, new logo, new theme) and at the same time very old (the TARDIS once more has its St John’s Ambulance sticker, the Doctor carries around a library card with a photo of his first face), small and personal (everyone has their Doctor), and huge, spanning a nation and generations, and the bluest blue ever (back when the show was in black and white Police Boxes were a common sight and everyone knew that it was blue). It changes, and yet stays the same, and everyone knows about the man with the blue box.
It’s the power of stories. And this *particular* story is important, because it’s a fairy tale, because it’s for children. (I love that we've had little Amelia this year, someone for children to truly identify with.) The Doctor isn’t a ‘hero’ as such, the Doctor is an adventurer. He doesn’t carry weapons, he doesn’t want to fight. But he stands up for people, and he tries to do the right thing, and he can travel anywhere in time and space in his magic box. What better imaginary friend could any child wish for?
Now at the end of Ten’s time, he stepped out of that role (and I admire RTD greatly for daring to go there btw.), but it was also problematic when it comes to the Doctor being someone to look up to. But (and this is something promethia_tenk touches upon in her post), Moffat seems to be very carefully re-assembling everything, including the Doctor. I was reminded of this when reading a post by rm wherein she talked about Octavian:
I'm working on something related to how sacrifice of one's life is the gold standard for heroism in the Whoniverse and how that prevents the show's narrative heroes (the Doctor and Jack, primarily) from ever being actual heroes by the show's own definition and wow this episode just handed me everything I needed on a platter with Octavian.
"Ready?" the Doctor asks.
"Content," comes the response.
The Doctor and Jack can never sacrifice themselves for anyone, can never be content!
But. The Big Bang gave us this. I’m not sure ‘content’ is quite the word for what the Doctor was feeling as he left little Amelia and stepped into the crack, never to have existed at all, but on some level, I think, he was at peace with his choice. (“I don’t belong here anymore.”)
And finally.
The meta in this season has been exquisite, especially when it comes to storytelling. Let me show you what I mean by re-using a bit of familiar dialogue:
Moffat to us: “It has never been more important that you trust me.”
Audience: “But you don’t always tell me the truth.” (Rory died, Amy died, the Doctor was erased...)
Moffat: "If I always told you the truth I wouldn't need you to trust me.”
Has there ever been a more wonderful message to the audience? I expect that by the time Mr Moffat bows out, and he wonders if maybe he should have done some things differently, if maybe the next guy should ret-con certain elements, we will all echo River:
Moffat: Time can be rewritten.
Us: Not those times. Not one line! Don't you dare!
And that’s all.
*collapses*
Now it’s not that RTD doesn’t do meta, but it’s of a very different sort. SJA has metaphors so obvious they’re pretty much colour coded and Torchwood suffered from an overdose of crack and angst until ‘Children of Earth’ which - imho - moved it beyond TV and into the realm of art, which is an entirely different thing. His DW era hovered between these two extremes, and was thus a very different beast in meta-terms.
Also I need to put a disclaimer here. I’ve loved S5 like few things before, but when I point out that something or other is good, or that I like how something developed from the way it was before, this doesn’t mean that I all of a sudden dislike the Rusty era. It’s just that in many cases I love where we’ve ended up, and I like the fact that the Doctor has recovered from his traumas/is once more written more like he used to be (See this post). So no bashing please. (And this post of mine: My Doctor, explains how I feel about Ten Vs. Eleven.)
Oh and sorry about stuff being repeated. I’m too tired to make it more coherent.
I’m in love with a fairy tale: ‘The Big Bang’ reaction post, the tl;dr version. Plus some ramblings on stories and storytelling.
(or: the Doctor saved the world by being *kind*)
First of all, then I was hopeful that the finale wouldn’t be a great tragedy for three reasons:
1) Rory was the obvious one to kill off. (Amy, the Doctor and River all had to survive.) Except we’d already seen him die twice and killing him off a third time would be overkill. (Pardon the pun.)
2) River, at the end of ‘Flesh and Stone’ seemed very happy remembering what happened when the Pandorica opened, so surely it couldn’t be a grief fest, right?
3) Months and months ago I accidentally read a spoilery story about Matt’s Doctor being dressed up in a top hat and tails. And why would he be all dressed up if not because of a wedding? The wedding-to-be that runs like a red thread through the whole season...
So. I wanted it to end with a wedding! And it did. I am still in shock, to be honest, because I’m not used to happy endings, what with being a disciple of Joss and Rusty. (Not that there’s anything wrong with tragedy, but I’ve become used to having my heart ripped out and stomped on - for every good thing only to be there so that it could be removed later for maximum pain. And this thing of getting everything I wanted and more... I’m not sure what to do. Except that it feels GREAT! (Dear Joss - sometimes what people need, and what they want, is the same thing. Who’d have thought?)
:)
But to get back to my meandering thoughts (because they are. Meandering that is.) - I think I’m going to go through the episode and write down all the various thoughts that pop up as I go along. (I’ve tried to work out how to structure this behemoth, and this seems like the best way.)
So, first of all, we get little Amelia, Mark 2. Little Amelia who never meets the raggedy Doctor, and yet believes in stars, despite all evidence to the contrary. Love how this theme of memory/belief/stubbornness has run through the whole season, focussed on this one little girl who refuses to back down.
Was also happy to finally see ‘Aunt Sharon’, who is obviously not a horrible person, but imo just someone generally not particularly good with children.
Anyway, then we get the wonderfully cryptic ‘Pond’ notes and it’s all... surprisingly light hearted, despite the ominous undertones set by the stone Daleks. Culminating in the incredible reveal of Amy in the Pandorica.
Didn’t see that coming.
And then time goes haywire.
We have poor Rory, still holding on to Amy, as tragic as can be except that we just saw her alive in the future... and then the Doctor appears, with a fez on his head and a mop under his arm and we appear to be watching a comedy.
By rights it shouldn’t work, except it does. I’m trying to work out why and how, because it’s not like the episode is lacking in emotion. But I think the emotions it focusses on are not tragedy, but (to quote BtVS):
No one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does. So what are we, helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are gonna come. You can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are.
In many ways this story, this season, is all about choices, about discovering who you are. That’s where the emotions come from. The tragic, pointless death is brushed aside and fixed within moments, so the story can get moving. Let me explain:
Rory’s death in ‘Amy’s Choice’ wasn’t about him, or about making the audience hurt - it was about Amy, pushing her, giving her new insight, and showing her the depth of her feelings.
Amy’s death (and resurrection) works the same way. Rory as the Lonely Centurion is the most wonderful thing - The Boy Who Waited indeed.
(And how much does it say about them that Amy’s act of devotion is something drastic and possibly fatal, whilst Rory’s is one of patience and quiet strength? Love is love, but how it is expressed varies from person to person, and situation to situation.) So yes, I love the fact that Amy/Rory is this big epic love story. The Nurse and the Kissogram indeed.
I also love that the Doctor ‘ships it. That he is *not* the most important person in the world for them. Don’t get me wrong, I loved the Rusty years, and Donna was made of too much win to describe, but there was a focus on the Doctor that was unhealthy. Both Rose and Donna pledged ‘forever’, and Martha’s choice was impeded by her unrequited love. And poor Sarah Jane (“You were my life”). I’m not saying that ‘forever’ is a bad choice - it is River’s choice after all, and she is *awesome* - but it is nice to see someone choose differently.
(The girls, btw, are very, very impressed with Rory and his devotion and bravery. A proper hero, they agree. This makes me exceedingly happy.)
But back to the story. The story of the End of the Universe, which (as others have pointed out) is essentially just four people in a museum, trying to save the world, with a single Dalek to provide an immediate threat. The focus is solely on the characters, and - as someone who is *all* about character stuff - I loved this to distraction. :)
Especially the fez. It is genius, and one of those impossibly Eleven-y things that somehow make me love him even more than before.
Also, this:
"Steven mentioned the fez to Piers and I before he even wrote it. He said, 'I’m thinking of putting Matt in a fez in episode 13.' And of course Piers’ and my jaws hit the floor and went 'A fez? You’re kidding me, you’re going to put Matt in a fez? If we put Matt in a fez Matt will never take the fez off. He will want to wear the fez for the next of the whole series. It will be glued to his head. He’ll be wearing it, you know, with his own clothes. It will be a nightmare.' He said, 'No no, I’ve got a cunning plan; as soon as he’s got the fez I’m going to kill the fez.'"
-Beth Willis, producer, Doctor Who Confidential 5x13 Out of Time
Matt Smith I ♥ you to infinity! :)
Anyway, there all the fabulous timey-wimey-ness of the Doctor jumping back and forth and saving himself and Amy, and it makes me wave my hands around quite uncontrollably. Esp the drink. :)
The fun is of course undercut by the nearly-dead Doctor from the future showing up, which does lead to the wonderful “Today dying is a result.”
(I love that Rory puts his coat over him.)
All of which leads to the TARDIS having been burning up for the past 2000 years. POOR TARDIS! But I was completely distracted from this by the Doctor’s rescue of River from the time loop, and one of the most fantastic lines, like, ever:
“Hi honey. I’m home.”
At which point my brain just short-circuited and I’m surprised I didn’t actually fall off the sofa from sheer joy.
(If we don’t get the picnic at Asgard next season I shall be HORRIBLY disappointed. Also, it better be VERY romantic. Well, inbetween the snarking. Love the snarking.)
But getting back to the ep, then “What in the name of sanity have you got on your head?” is a fabulous fabulous line. :) And - despite loving the fez - its destruction is a great moment, and also provides some great comic relief, before the Dalek shows up.
Being a shallow, shallow shipper, what I love most about the Doctor’s brilliant plan is the fact that he taps River’s nose.
“Almost completely impossible!”
(Really, the Doctor being all ‘Look at me, aren’t I clever?’ never gets old.)
And then he promptly gets shot, falls down - and then vanishes.
The look on River’s face as she looks on the thin air... oh my River.
“Where did he go?”
I think this is one of the things about being with the Doctor - he is in many respects unpredictable, and prone to vanishing...
This, then, sets up her confrontation with the Dalek, which is of course superb.
It’s the most brilliant scene, but almost bettered by the one that follows, when she catches up with Amy and Rory, and finds out that the Doctor didn’t died but has disappeared instead.
“Rule number One: The Doctor always lies.”
“What happened to the Dalek?”
“It died.”
The absolute calm with which she walks, neither hurrying, nor slowing down, her voice perfectly even throughout - that’s the sort of woman who the Doctor could marry. IMHO of course! ;)
(Also she is in many ways his mirror. Remember she, too, by her own admission, is always lying.)
And then we get the Doctor in the Pandorica, half dead, and raggedy once more - the most wonderful way of making the season come full circle. In the beginning he was so shiny and new, literally glowing and brightly curious about who he was and what might happen next. Similarly Amy was a child, young and innocent and excited, a far cry from the young woman fighting back tears as she says her last goodbye.
But listen to what he tells her. Because he isn’t just saying goodbye, he’s explaining why. Why he chose her. It doesn’t matter Amy says, but he contradicts her:
“It’s the most important thing left in the universe. That’s why I’m doing this.”
Sacrificing himself so that a little girl can have her parents back. One girl. But it isn’t because he loves her more than anyone else. (I hate the way people try to quantify love.) To quote ascian3, talking about Spike:
Spike loved, and that's his power. He understood in the end that the things he loved in the specific - Manchester United, cigarettes, dog racing, and Buffy - couldn't be separated from the world they exist in.
If you start fighting for an abstract good, then you end up with the Timelord Victorious. So this time, the Doctor will save the universe for the sake of a child that he loves. Or, to tie this back to ‘The Beast Below’ again:
Amy: "You never interfere in the affairs of other people or planets - unless there's children crying."
Doctor: "Yes."
Of course the Doctor also admits why he chose her:
“The girl who made no sense. How could I resist?”
And that is so very Doctor-y. Always curious. And it sheds new light on the ‘Flesh and Stone’ line: “It’s all about you!”
The crack in her bedroom wall, appearing in a spaceship thousands of years and miles away, erasing people from history... what has it done to her? Her life (“Does it ever bother you, Amy, that your life makes no sense?”), her memories (“You didn’t remember the Daleks, and you should have!”), her family (“I don’t even remember...”)
And it makes her special. Remember your parents and they’ll be there. Nothing is ever forgotten but you have to try.
(It’s interesting that the whole arc of this season is about a girl remembering (and that this saves the Doctor), when in S4 it was all about one woman saving the world and then forgetting (her memories deadly to herself). Just thought I’d mention.)
As someone pointed out, he uses his last moments to explain, without apologising, which is a very nice touch. Also, he comforts her, because it’s not about him, not really. And I love that this Doctor has reached that place where it’s not even a question of pushing his own pain aside, his own pain is quite simply immaterial.
“You'll have your family back, you won't need your imaginary friend anymore. Amy Pond, crying over me, eh?”
The ‘need’ has been switched 180 degrees - the Doctor doesn’t need Amy, she needs (needed) him. He doesn’t ask her along because he’s lonely - or rather, that’s not the main reason. He asks her because she’s intriguing. Ditto River - she makes him curious, interested, wanting to know more. The focus is not on him, but on the way he affects them.
But going back to his motivation:
“If you were that old, and that kind, and the very, very last of your kind, you couldn’t just stand by and watch children cry.”
I always knew this statement was one of those pivotal moments, and I was exceedingly happy to be proven right. (I’ll get back to this.)
(Sidebar: Now who could have foreseen, back in January, that ‘Geronimo’ would one day make us cry?)
Generally the whole thing is just beautiful on every level: colour, imagery, cinematography... I love it when my shows are gorgeous. And (thanks to beer_good_foamy for this insight) the Doctor now does, indeed, ‘Burn at the centre of time’. Although I guess that goes for River too, having been in the TARDIS for 2000 years, while it was exploding at every point in history. Mmmm... ‘My ship burns at the centre of time’. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? ;)
And then - he’s OK! The ‘Legs!’ comment made me laugh - hurrah for continuity - and checking the bow tie was great. But it lead to ‘I can buy a fez’ which is one of my favourite lines/actions ever!!!
But, it’s the ‘Oh I escaped. I love it when I do that!’ which calls back to EoT (in my mind anyway) and that moment of breathless relief of not having been killed - which is then broken.
To just compare for a moment then Ten’s face when he hears the four knocks is one of the most heartbreaking things *ever*. Eleven’s reaction is much more subdued - a sad, quiet resignation.
Then we get the backwards travel through the season, which includes that wonderful moment in the forest, which I always think of in Anna’s words from her review of the Angel eps:
I loved that amidst the mounting tension they could play out a moment of tenderness, and play it long enough to pull back into it. I was so sure the scene was done that for an instant I didn't know whose hands they were, and they are not easy hands to disguise.
And now we know why there was that disconnect... But the words of course now carry a much greater weight.
Doctor: “It has never been more important that you trust me.”
Amy: “But you don’t always tell me the truth.”
Doctor: "If I always told you the truth I wouldn't need you to trust me.”
I (via circuitous routes) found this review of the Angel episodes, which had this rather very interesting insight:
The pivotal moment in F&S between Amy and the Doctor was all about her faith in him, her trusting him even though he lies to her. But Amy had to also have faith in herself, she had to believe that she could walk like she could see. The most disappointing aspect of this episode upon rewatch was that she didn't have that faith; in the end, River had to rescue her, because she lost her connection with the Doctor, and her faith in herself was not strong enough. Perhaps by the end of the season - or the end of her time with the Doctor - it will be.
And indeed, it was strong enough and more besides. But I rather like that her arc (the arc of the season) was for the Doctor to earn back the trust he broke.
Anyway, it all leads to what I think might be the most beautiful scene I’ve ever seen, starting with the Doctor finally arriving only a few hours too late, finding little Amelia asleep on her suitcase. And it was just about then that my heart started to break into a thousand pieces.
To quote doomandnachos:
but...The Doctor's about to be erased from existence, and instead of scenery-chewing and swelling strings, we see him hunched over, whispering to a sleeping child.
But I’d like to add this quote by eve11 to it:
...maybe Ten's last act of saving Wilf was the catalyst for that kind of quiet self-sacrifice.
I love things that tie together, that make the different parts into a coherent whole, and this works incredibly well - Ten died for Wilf, and I love the idea that this helped inform who Eleven became. So this time, he will die - be erased - for the sake of a child that he loves. So he sits at her bedside and tells her a story...
"It's funny. I thought if you could hear me I could hang on somehow. Silly me. Silly old Doctor. When you wake up, you'll have a mum and dad, and you won't even remember me. Well you'll remember me a little. I'll be a story in your head. That's okay, we're all stories in the end. Just make it a good one, eh? 'Cause it was, you know. It was the best. A daft old man who stole a magic box and ran away. Did I ever tell you that I stole it? Well, I borrowed it; I was always gonna take it back. Oh, that box. Amy, you'll dream about that box. It'll never leave you. Big and little at the same time. Brand new and ancient, and the bluest blue ever. And the times we had, eh? Woulda had. Never had. In your dreams, they'll still be there. The Doctor and Amy Pond. And the days that never came.”
"The cracks are closing, but they can't close properly 'til I'm on the other side. I don't belong here anymore. I think I'll skip the rest of the rewind. I hate repeats. Live well. Love Rory. Bye-bye Pond."
For now I’ll just let the words speak for themselves, but I will come back to this, because it’s central to the whole season.
And really, have there ever been more beautiful last words? *sniff* Also love how quiet the whole scene is, and how all we see is the Doctor’s shadow moving over the wall, the focus still on little Amelia.
Who then grows up...
Must just take a moment to appreciate Amy’s family (her father calling her ‘Amelia’ is perfect) and her easy happiness. Notice how she tells Rory that she loves him, and that this is such a normal occurrence that he almost fails to respond. And I flash back to the teary Amy in ‘Amy’s Choice’ (“I loved Rory, and I never told him-”). *hugs happy!Amy*
It is the most wonderful thing to see her finally whole, to see that broken, defensive, angry young woman just living. And then - remembering.
“You told me a story...”
And this is the thing, one of the central themes of this season: The power of stories. I love that the whole season is about a little girl (re-)learning to believe in fairy tales. And how belief, faith, trust is what matters.
“Believe me. Just for twenty minutes!” the Doctor asks Amy in The Eleventh Hour.
“NO!” she shouts, furious, in return.
“It’s never been more important that you trust me,” he says in ‘Flesh and Stone’.
“But you don’t always tell me the truth,” she replies.
“If I always told you the truth, I wouldn’t need you to trust me...”
But it’s a two-way thing. He trusts her. We see these themes of trust and reality played out most overtly in ‘Amy’s Choice’ - two realities, but which is real? Both feel real, the bird song the link that ties them together. (There is birdsong in The Eleventh Hour when the Atraxi leave and Amy wakes up from her ‘coma’...)
In Amy’s choice both scenarios could have been real, and in the end neither was. The Big Bang mirrors this perfectly - there is the ‘ordinary life’, with the wedding, and the ‘extraordinary’ one, once contained in River’s Diary. And Amy chooses - both.
The Doctor (and oh, has he ever been more Doctor-y) mended the broken little girl, and she in turn once more believed in fairy tales, using all that determination to say “Yes I believe!”
It actually reminds me of one of the recurring themes of Buffy - Buffy often won through sheer determination. Emotions equalled power, love could move mountains, and was always worth it, despite the pain.
I love the Doctor’s plan, by the way. That he tries to save himself through a story, how he trusts that Amy will remember...
“No. She is dreaming about me because she can hear me!” he tells Prisoner Zero in ‘The Eleventh Hour’, and proceeds to direct Amy’s dream to where he needs it to go, to save the world.
Have I mentioned how much I love the continuity, the exquisite set-ups, this season? because:
“The cracks are closing, but they can't close properly 'til I'm on the other side.”
This directly calls back to ‘Flesh and Stone’, and the Angels asking the Doctor to sacrifice himself.
The Angel episodes, btw, are so full of foreshadowing, set-ups and parallels that I don’t even know where to start, so I’ll just touch on one thing. Namely: How can a girl’s memory bring people back? It’s of course touched upon in ‘The Pandorica Opens’ ("Nothing is ever forgotten, not completely. If something is ever remembered, it can come back."), but what struck me the other day was Amy’s specific story during the Angel two-parter. Remember this?
“The image of an angel itself becomes an angel.”
The angel, just an image on a screen, has the power to become real!
“The eyes are not the window to the soul, they are the door. Beware what might enter.”
It is no coincidence that it is Amy who carries an angel within her, threatening to break out, Amy who has to walk as if she can see.
‘The image of an angel itself becomes an angel.’
The image [bow tie, braces] - the story [something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue] - of a Doctor , in a girl’s mind itself becomes a Doctor?
(Not an ordinary girl: “That crack in your wall, all that time, the universe pouring into your head. You brought Rory back, you can bring them back too. Just remember, and they'll be there.")
Anyway, I don’t have much to say about his reappearance or the dancing or any of that, since it leaves me mostly just failing with happiness. (To quote calapine OMG THE DOCTOR'S DANCING. Clearly Nine is winning the Doctor Dance Off and Eleventy is LOSING BY A BILLION.)
It’s just so... joyful. ‘We saved the universe, and Amy brought everyone back who was missing and let’s PARTY and BE HAPPY!’ ♥ ♥ ♥ The thing is, before I fell for Rusty’s Doctor Who/Torchwood, I was a disciple of the Mighty Joss, and I don’t know how to handle a Happy Ending! I’ve not had one before. (I guess the S4 finale of BtVS might count, but I wasn’t invested in the show then, and - as a matter of fact - never watched those episodes it until years later.) So yeah, to quote the Doctor: I WAS NOT EXPECTING THIS!
But I love it. And I love we weren’t given things only for them to be taken away again for the sake of maximum pain. (Don’t get me wrong, I think that tragedy can be a wonderful thing. But Everyone Lives is almost more affecting...) And whatever happens in S6 we will always have this!
And then River. Beautiful, mysterious River. I’ve already written at length about her and the Doctor, so won’t say much about their final scene except that if I loved it any more I’d probably explode. Actually, no, that’s not true, there is one thing. The repeated ‘Yes’ is a very wonderful thing (and I remember discussing this with someone, promethia_tenk probably) - how she isn’t just coming onto him, but is also trying to teach him how their relationship works. Because it can only be like that - both of them continually saying ‘Yes, I want this’, without worrying about *where* they are in their different time streams. Maybe they’re both married, maybe only one of them is, maybe neither. But it doesn’t matter. As I said in my essay, the relationship transcends any labels or definitions.
And here is where I’m going to have to dig out the_royal_anna’s Spike/Buffy meta, because my goodness her words fit River and the Doctor:
I'm a spuffy fan. Do I believe Spike is Buffy's one true love? No, hell no. For me, that's kind of the point of being a spuffy fan. I don't have any romantic ideals about this relationship - or, if it comes to that, any relationship. And these two come back to each other, again and again and again, not because it is their destiny but because it is their duty. They share enough history to owe it to each other to be there for each other.
And, goodness, such a history it is, but the relationship is never defined by that history. If anything, it is defined by the mutual acknowledgment that their history establishes the basis for the relationship, but the relationship exists always and only in the here and now. They never stoop under the weight of their history. Buffy taking Dawn to Spike in Villains is one of many examples that illustrates that. There's always a back doorstep, if you like - always a place the two of them can find where they can sit, side-by-side, and put everything else behind them.
This is what River is trying to say. Yes I’m always here.
Also:
I think what I love most about Season 7 [of BtVS] is that over the course of it, Buffy and Spike become stronger and more dependent.
In a world that loves to tell us we should all be strong and independent there's something very extraordinary about that.
And this doesn’t just go for River and the Doctor - it goes for Amy and the Doctor, Amy and Rory, Rory and the Doctor... over the course of this season we’ve seen everyone forge strong bonds with each other - trusting each other to such a degree that when the universe ends, it can be saved by the strength of four people working together, trusting each other even though two of them are inveterate liars.
OK, that was another tangent, derailing me from the brilliant ending of the newly wed Ponds running away with the Doctor... and as a way of coming full circle from Amy running away the night before the big day, it is truly wonderful. The whole season taking place ‘in one night’ (and how fairytale [A Christmas Carol is the first that springs to mind] is that?).
Also MUST mention one of my favourite lines ever, when Amy talks about ‘her wedding’ and Rory corrects her with ‘Our. Wedding!’ Just the way he says it - it’s so utterly Rory, that quiet exasperation, and it makes me smile every time I remember it and want to hug him.
So. Married couple in the TARDIS. And an Egyptian goddess loose on the Orient Express. In Space.
Is it Christmas yet?
Fairy tales, Reality, Moffat and assorted other musings.
OTHER DAVE (to River): Who is he? You haven't even told us. You just expect us to trust him.
RIVER: He's the Doctor.
MR LUX: And who is the Doctor?
RIVER: The only story you'll ever tell - if you survive him.
promethia_tenk wrote a fabulous post about what kind of writer Steven Moffat is:
It seems a common thing to refer to Moffat as a “plot” rather than “character” writer, but I think this season has pretty firmly disproven that: he is neither. He is, instead, an idea writer, much like T.S. Eliot, and everything else, including plot and characters, works in service of ideas, themes, and artistic emotion (that is, the emotion raised by the artistic work itself, the feeling of experiencing the work, rather than the emotions of the characters and the situations presented in the work).
This is in stark contrast to RTD who was all about the characters. Or rather - RTD’s ‘thing’ is humanity. Our strengths and weaknesses, what makes us monsters or heroes, or even both at the same time (Waters of Mars, Children of Earth).
Moffat - as far as I can tell - is a storyteller fascinated by how stories work. Because stories aren’t real, stories are made up, and yet they can have the most extraordinary impact. if we believe, they become true.
Let me try to explain, first by looking back at the Library episodes:
DR MOON: Now, listen. This is important. There's the real world, and there's the world of nightmares. That's right, isn't it? You understand that?
THE GIRL: Yes, I know, Dr Moon.
DR MOON: What I want you to remember is this... and I know it's hard. The real world is a lie, and your nightmares are real.
So - is the Doctor real? Of course he isn’t. And yet... he is. Like Superman, or Winnie-the-Pooh, he is real because we remember him.
See stories might not ‘be true’ in the technical sense of the word, but they contain truth. I’m reminded of green_maia’s reaction post to Children of Earth (RTD’s stories contain a lot of truth, that’s why they are powerful):
I think, if I have one reaction to COE, it's this: yes. Yes, this is how the world works. Yes, this is how human beings work. Yes, this is how governments work. Yes, this is how group dynamics work. Yes, this is how families work. Yes, this is how human heroism works. Yes, this is how human evil works. Yes, this is how human despair works. Yes, this is how human hope works. Yes, this is the nobility of humanity. Yes, this is the monstrosity of humanity.
Yes, this is what is. This is what we are.
THAT is the truth we find in good stories, in fairy tales. And that is why they’re important:
We’re all stories in the end.
This point is also central to this season, to the show. Because this is it:
Doctor Who is a fairy tale, told to a whole country. A fairy tale for the age of television, and more powerful for that maybe? A story that today’s children are having told to them, just like their parents and grandparents had. A wonderful story about the daft old man who stole a magic box and ran away. And it is brand new (new Doctor, new Companion, new show runner, new logo, new theme) and at the same time very old (the TARDIS once more has its St John’s Ambulance sticker, the Doctor carries around a library card with a photo of his first face), small and personal (everyone has their Doctor), and huge, spanning a nation and generations, and the bluest blue ever (back when the show was in black and white Police Boxes were a common sight and everyone knew that it was blue). It changes, and yet stays the same, and everyone knows about the man with the blue box.
It’s the power of stories. And this *particular* story is important, because it’s a fairy tale, because it’s for children. (I love that we've had little Amelia this year, someone for children to truly identify with.) The Doctor isn’t a ‘hero’ as such, the Doctor is an adventurer. He doesn’t carry weapons, he doesn’t want to fight. But he stands up for people, and he tries to do the right thing, and he can travel anywhere in time and space in his magic box. What better imaginary friend could any child wish for?
Now at the end of Ten’s time, he stepped out of that role (and I admire RTD greatly for daring to go there btw.), but it was also problematic when it comes to the Doctor being someone to look up to. But (and this is something promethia_tenk touches upon in her post), Moffat seems to be very carefully re-assembling everything, including the Doctor. I was reminded of this when reading a post by rm wherein she talked about Octavian:
I'm working on something related to how sacrifice of one's life is the gold standard for heroism in the Whoniverse and how that prevents the show's narrative heroes (the Doctor and Jack, primarily) from ever being actual heroes by the show's own definition and wow this episode just handed me everything I needed on a platter with Octavian.
"Ready?" the Doctor asks.
"Content," comes the response.
The Doctor and Jack can never sacrifice themselves for anyone, can never be content!
But. The Big Bang gave us this. I’m not sure ‘content’ is quite the word for what the Doctor was feeling as he left little Amelia and stepped into the crack, never to have existed at all, but on some level, I think, he was at peace with his choice. (“I don’t belong here anymore.”)
And finally.
The meta in this season has been exquisite, especially when it comes to storytelling. Let me show you what I mean by re-using a bit of familiar dialogue:
Moffat to us: “It has never been more important that you trust me.”
Audience: “But you don’t always tell me the truth.” (Rory died, Amy died, the Doctor was erased...)
Moffat: "If I always told you the truth I wouldn't need you to trust me.”
Has there ever been a more wonderful message to the audience? I expect that by the time Mr Moffat bows out, and he wonders if maybe he should have done some things differently, if maybe the next guy should ret-con certain elements, we will all echo River:
Moffat: Time can be rewritten.
Us: Not those times. Not one line! Don't you dare!
And that’s all.
*collapses*