I'm with you on the sad understanding and resignation: it's all been building towards this, imo. I don't like it, and I want to hide him away in my bedroom until it's all over, but I think we've had enough warning about it coming to this.
I will be very very angry if they turn him into a villain, but I honestly don't believe that they will.
Your fear regarding the finale is now mine; I hadn't thought of that before.
I am in total agreement with you regarding the extreme goddam gorgeousness of Tennant in this episode; it was most distracting, which is probably a good thing.
I don't think he's being turned into a villain. He's already realized, faced with his unexpected!Ood hallucination, that he went to far. (He even said that, right?) So I don't think he'll continue down the same crazy road, but what he did in that moment of CRAZYPANTS TIMELORDVICTORIOUS has already sealed his fate. That's how I'm reading it, with the Cloister bell ringing at the end. Admittedly, I don't really understand why the Cloister bell was ringing or what his final "No" meant, as he was starting to pull levers on the TARDIS. I need to think about that.
I'd just like to butt in and say that I concur. Without that bit at the end where he realises what he's done, and realises he's gone too far and sees portentous!Ood, then I'd have said there was a possibility for a villainous or evil Doctor showing up in the specials. But having him already, almost immediately after he'd done it, see the enormity of his actions and have a moment of self-awareness, I don't think that means he's going to be made into a villain. He's made an enormous, enormous mistake, he's teetering on the edge of insanity, but that does not make him evil.
Just watched the Confidential and it gelled all this for me further. The Doctor who steps out of the TARDIS on Earth is on a road to crazytown, to ripping time apart for his own ends. But Adelaide's suicide puts a stop to all that. He's already realized that he's made a terrible mistake.
I still need to watch the Confidential, but yeah, it was that end part that was throwing me. I was interpreting the sequence of events as CRAZYPANTS!DOCTOR/"Oh wait, I've gone too far."/NO! CRAZYPANTS!DOCTOR! I like your interpretation better, although I still think it'd be bullshit if he gets smacked by karma just for this one fuck up which in the grand scheme of things did not really change history and was not anywhere near as messed up as what he did to the Racnoss.
I don't think they will make him evil just so that we can deal with his regeneracion easily, I think he's just a bit (ok, a lot) crazy, and maybe he'll still be crazy in the other two episodes, but I just can't believe RTD will want Ten getting out of the series as a villain
Yes, I'm with you...I've calmed down a bit since yesterday and I think I was just misunderstanding the end sequence quite a bit, although I'm still upset (not in a "SCREW YOU GUYS!" way, but in an "Ouch, that hurts" kind of way) about this turn of events.
I think RTD loves Ten too much to do anything stupid with him, he'll want him to be remembered as the great Doctor he's been for all this time, this mental breakdown he's having now is just a logical step for the character. Nobody can suffer as much as he has and stay sane, he's lost everything he's cared about, and without a human to take his mind off it he's just gone mad, but he's the Doctor, he's a good guy, he'll get over it...I hope
RTD loves, loves, LOVES this character. I can't seem him turning the Doctor into something ugly for long. The Doctor will either redeem himself, or someone will do it for him. Perhaps that will be how he dies, not as a villain,but as the hero we all know and love. I refuse to worry.
Yes, but it certainly hasn't stopped him from torturing the hell out of the poor guy this whole time. I don't honestly believe he'd make the Doctor a Bad Guy, but I do believe he'd take a perverse glee in throwing him through the wringer one last, horrible time, and that makes me worry.
Okay, I understand. We love him and don't want to see him in pain (or crazytown). I bawled through like 2/3rds of the episode "42" because the writers were hurting him. I actually yelled at the screen for them to stop.
However, (and please don't take this the wrong way), I'm pretty sure that he wasn't going to die by being licked to death by kittens. Something horrible kind of has to happen to him in order for him to regenerate. I'm holding out hope that he does so in a redemptive, heroic, go down in history, kind of way. But I also know I'm going to cry, because New Series Doctor Who finales always (wait let me think about this one...yup, ALWAYS) make me cry. It just proves how excellent a show it is.
I understand what you're saying, and I'm certainly not naive enough to think that he was going to regenerate in some fluffy, happy way. However, look at Nine. That was about as damn cool and loving death as you could possibly wish for for a character you care about...he died saving the woman he loved, and his last line was just Epic. Just the thought that Ten's death might focus more on the pain and agony and vengeance and Bad Feelings makes me sad. :(
I think they trod really, really close to the not-appropriate-for-the-audience line with this one. I can't envision the BBC letting them take the ending Specials even darker.
This is the first episode of New Who that I've categorically said that my oldest (who is 5) will NOT be watching it anytime soon. And it isn't the monsters - it's the concepts at the end. I don't think I have it in me to explain to him what Adelaide did, or why the Doctor is acting that way.
RTD took this one very very close to CoE territory - which, as an adult viewer, I think is fantastic storytelling. But when I put my parent hat on, I think that it's a little too advanced for a kindergartner.
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I will be very very angry if they turn him into a villain, but I honestly don't believe that they will.
Your fear regarding the finale is now mine; I hadn't thought of that before.
I am in total agreement with you regarding the extreme goddam gorgeousness of Tennant in this episode; it was most distracting, which is probably a good thing.
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However, (and please don't take this the wrong way), I'm pretty sure that he wasn't going to die by being licked to death by kittens. Something horrible kind of has to happen to him in order for him to regenerate. I'm holding out hope that he does so in a redemptive, heroic, go down in history, kind of way. But I also know I'm going to cry, because New Series Doctor Who finales always (wait let me think about this one...yup, ALWAYS) make me cry. It just proves how excellent a show it is.
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*sigh*
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RTD took this one very very close to CoE territory - which, as an adult viewer, I think is fantastic storytelling. But when I put my parent hat on, I think that it's a little too advanced for a kindergartner.
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