The Vindication of Harriet Jones
I managed to get through Shore Leave without being spoiled for the last four episodes of Doctor Who, and planned to watch them as they came on SciFi, but mrwubbles sent me teasing text messages that made it impossible for me to stay away. So I used BBCBitorrent to mainline the last of the lot this afternoon. And, oh yes, I have reaction.
In short order, I expect I will begin to process the relationship aspect of these eps, which is 99% of why I'm in fandom. But right now, I am stuck on the meta of the Doctor's politics.
Truly, I love Ten. He's charming. He's beautiful. He's broken, but trying to heal. Lost, but trying to find his way. He deeply cares for his companions, putting their welfare ahead of his own. He's willing to sacrifice himself for us (as the savior imagery of Last of the Time Lords amply demonstrated).
But I've also been troubled by his philosophy of self-defense and just war, particularly how his pacifist critiques conflict with his own actions. In The Christmas Invasion, he states that he won't be giving any second chances. Yet when Harriet Jones, the democratically elected leader of the people he has most cherished, follows just that doctrine, he brings her down with a whisper campaign (in a brief piece that as far as I am concerned is canon, author Meredith gives Harriet her moment to confront the Doctor over his double standard in Sic Semper Tyrannis). Indeed, in his first few hours, Ten declares himself a benign dictator ("I’m the Doctor. And if you don’t like it, if you want to take it to a higher authority, there isn’t one. It stops with me."), and not only is he very sure of his own views on violence and what constitutes acceptable self-defense, he makes it clear he views these as universal rules, and appoints himself enforcer.
I understand that after his actions in the Time War (committing genocide against both the Daleks and his own people) he is deeply conflicted about war and violence. Though it enabled him to save the universe, the cost was so great he wants to forswear it. To rely solely on his wits and conjuring tricks, neatly escaping evil without the need to the tactics that left him alone and crushed with guilt. This is a very logical conflict for his character.
But I've also felt, especially over the last three years, that we the audience were meant to see the conflict, but to come to the appropriate, politically correct conclusions: that killing is never necessary, that guns are bad, that the people in the military are mindless buffoons, etc., no matter how many times events prove otherwise, and despite that fact that, in real life, a god-like alien is not waiting in the wings to save us. The Doctor put Martha in UNIT, then spent two episodes acting unbearably rude and capriciously toward its officers (even though the Valiant and UNIT help win the day in The Poison Sky). The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords stands for the proposition that weapons are an unnecessary distraction, yet Rose beams into The Stolen Earth wearing the most enormous piece imaginable and proceeds to use it to rescue Donna's family. Meanwhile, Mom and Micky are busy saving Sarah Jane with their big guns. Without the willingness to take up arms and fight evil, all of the companions would be dead. They must be the weapons the Doctor has (consciously or unconsciously) forged, or cease to be at all.
In Journey's End, confronted with just the same dilemma as he faced in the Time War, the Doctor demonstrates his ambivalence about war and the problem of evil by literally splitting himself in two. The version of himself that is part human is capable of killing the Daleks, and because of this, saves the entire universe. I was shocked that RTD went there, as these actions and their result are a stunning rebuke of what the Doctor has been preaching for the past four seasons. The human Doctor saves all of time and every life in the universe by his willingness to eradicate the Daleks. The companions (and dear, wonderful, inimitable Harriet Jones) put the human Doctor in a position to save all of time and every life in the universe by contemplating and planning for the defense of Earth--a capable, independent defense that does not revolve around the Doctor. Harriet Jones is not redeemed, but vindicated.
And then, like The Year That Never Was, RTD undoes it all by having the fully alien Doctor exile his human version to an alternate universe for therapy, to overcome the very aspects of his personality that permitted them to win the day, that allows that reality and all others to exist.
The Doctor is willing to sacrifice himself for us. But it's not enough for the Doctor to be willing to die for what he believes in. He has to be willing to kill for it, too. Not capriciously, not as a first resort. But evil cannot be defeated with sacrifice alone. Just as the finale replays the scenario of the Time War, eventually the Doctor will be back in precisely the same situation he faced in the finale. What then will he do? He must find a way to live with the choices that come with the power that he holds and the responsibilities he has taken on.
The Doctor states that he has come far since he first met Rose, and credits her with helping him to change. But his actions in the finale demonstrate he has not resolved the conflict between his ideals and the problem of evil. Instead, he has resorted to denying the conflict and refusing to address it. Davros did reveal the Doctor's soul to him, and once again, he's running away.
In short order, I expect I will begin to process the relationship aspect of these eps, which is 99% of why I'm in fandom. But right now, I am stuck on the meta of the Doctor's politics.
Truly, I love Ten. He's charming. He's beautiful. He's broken, but trying to heal. Lost, but trying to find his way. He deeply cares for his companions, putting their welfare ahead of his own. He's willing to sacrifice himself for us (as the savior imagery of Last of the Time Lords amply demonstrated).
But I've also been troubled by his philosophy of self-defense and just war, particularly how his pacifist critiques conflict with his own actions. In The Christmas Invasion, he states that he won't be giving any second chances. Yet when Harriet Jones, the democratically elected leader of the people he has most cherished, follows just that doctrine, he brings her down with a whisper campaign (in a brief piece that as far as I am concerned is canon, author Meredith gives Harriet her moment to confront the Doctor over his double standard in Sic Semper Tyrannis). Indeed, in his first few hours, Ten declares himself a benign dictator ("I’m the Doctor. And if you don’t like it, if you want to take it to a higher authority, there isn’t one. It stops with me."), and not only is he very sure of his own views on violence and what constitutes acceptable self-defense, he makes it clear he views these as universal rules, and appoints himself enforcer.
I understand that after his actions in the Time War (committing genocide against both the Daleks and his own people) he is deeply conflicted about war and violence. Though it enabled him to save the universe, the cost was so great he wants to forswear it. To rely solely on his wits and conjuring tricks, neatly escaping evil without the need to the tactics that left him alone and crushed with guilt. This is a very logical conflict for his character.
But I've also felt, especially over the last three years, that we the audience were meant to see the conflict, but to come to the appropriate, politically correct conclusions: that killing is never necessary, that guns are bad, that the people in the military are mindless buffoons, etc., no matter how many times events prove otherwise, and despite that fact that, in real life, a god-like alien is not waiting in the wings to save us. The Doctor put Martha in UNIT, then spent two episodes acting unbearably rude and capriciously toward its officers (even though the Valiant and UNIT help win the day in The Poison Sky). The Sound of Drums/Last of the Time Lords stands for the proposition that weapons are an unnecessary distraction, yet Rose beams into The Stolen Earth wearing the most enormous piece imaginable and proceeds to use it to rescue Donna's family. Meanwhile, Mom and Micky are busy saving Sarah Jane with their big guns. Without the willingness to take up arms and fight evil, all of the companions would be dead. They must be the weapons the Doctor has (consciously or unconsciously) forged, or cease to be at all.
In Journey's End, confronted with just the same dilemma as he faced in the Time War, the Doctor demonstrates his ambivalence about war and the problem of evil by literally splitting himself in two. The version of himself that is part human is capable of killing the Daleks, and because of this, saves the entire universe. I was shocked that RTD went there, as these actions and their result are a stunning rebuke of what the Doctor has been preaching for the past four seasons. The human Doctor saves all of time and every life in the universe by his willingness to eradicate the Daleks. The companions (and dear, wonderful, inimitable Harriet Jones) put the human Doctor in a position to save all of time and every life in the universe by contemplating and planning for the defense of Earth--a capable, independent defense that does not revolve around the Doctor. Harriet Jones is not redeemed, but vindicated.
And then, like The Year That Never Was, RTD undoes it all by having the fully alien Doctor exile his human version to an alternate universe for therapy, to overcome the very aspects of his personality that permitted them to win the day, that allows that reality and all others to exist.
The Doctor is willing to sacrifice himself for us. But it's not enough for the Doctor to be willing to die for what he believes in. He has to be willing to kill for it, too. Not capriciously, not as a first resort. But evil cannot be defeated with sacrifice alone. Just as the finale replays the scenario of the Time War, eventually the Doctor will be back in precisely the same situation he faced in the finale. What then will he do? He must find a way to live with the choices that come with the power that he holds and the responsibilities he has taken on.
The Doctor states that he has come far since he first met Rose, and credits her with helping him to change. But his actions in the finale demonstrate he has not resolved the conflict between his ideals and the problem of evil. Instead, he has resorted to denying the conflict and refusing to address it. Davros did reveal the Doctor's soul to him, and once again, he's running away.