Doctor Who 4:13 (spoilers ahead)
First, I want to thank everyone who sent well-wishes for my brother and friends who were struck head-on by a drunk driver after the fireworks and a late dinner early Saturday morning. Nearly everyone is out of the hospital, including my brother, and they'll all more or less be fine. Some concussions, two broken sternums, his girlfriend's wrist repair surgery, and a lot of cuts/bruises. That being said, once things calmed down, I did allow myself the freedon to watch the s4 finale yday. Twice.
I had my meta for this 90% written when my daughter came to sit on my lap, bumped a key, and stupid LJ ate it. Grrrrrrr!
Let's try this again.
I am not going to lie. I had very high expectations for this episode, and the first time round, I hated it. I felt like it was some BBC conspiracy because they wanted to keep Tennant the Cash Cow and wouldn't let Rose have the real Doctor despite the love story Uncle Rusty's been unfolding over the past four years. In my perfect vision, DoctorDonna was supposed to temp in our universe while Ten and Rose got her lifetime together. They would get their magical impossible ending just like Jackie and Pete. He would heal from the Time War, and have little time-lordlings, and bring back his race, giving Moffat his clean slate. I preconceived that he'd start up with either a much older Ten or a newly regenerated Eleven, perhaps traveling with a grandchild, thus giving us One & Susan redux history nod without all of that baggage that was RTD's emo creation. I really liked my version and hated what we got on screen. The characterizations felt off. It felt like a cop out. And in the end, with the exception of the the wonderful scene with Wilf, I was left emotional numb and supremely disappointed. How could Ten just leave?? Why didn't Donna smack some sense into him? Why the hell did Rose kiss the man she knew was not Ten? WTF was this asshattery that I had just wittnessed?
And then...I watched it again.
And something occurred to me that I completely missed the first go round: The Children of Time won the battle, but the Daleks won the war.
Davros thought he had been betrayed by Dalek Caan. But he hadn't been. Davros was a pawn used to defeat the Time Lords once and for all. As was Donna. As was Rose. In one fell swoop, Caan orchestrated and took away everything that had meaning to the Doctor. He turned cheeky, plucky, empathetic Donna into a weapon, just like everyone else he's touched over the years. He committed genocide--again, if only by proxy. And this time, his separation from Rose was voluntary. Caan was the one who made it possible for Rose to come back. He was why her machine suddenly started working. It's why she was required to be there. To break the Doctor completely.
We are told (and shown) over and over again how much Rose means to him. In "Turn Left" we're given indisputable proof that without her, he wanted to die, and in fact, had a death wish pretty much the whole way through Series 3. Rose is constantly present in her absence. Donna, as witness in "The Runaway Bride" groks this inherently, and when she comes back in "Partners in Crime" she pretty much snaps him out of his melancholy. We see Ten/Donna as truly having fun again, probably for the first time since he lost Rose. Donna is good for him in a completely different way than Rose was. Donna calls him on his bullshit. She also empathizes with him deeply. She knows what Rose means to him. So does Martha, who even at the end of the world, possibly at her own hands, takes time to awe and wonder at the Doctor finding his Rose again. Mickey makes it clear that even with a universe between Ten and Rose, Rose will never settle for Mickey. She will always belong to the Doctor and will be less than happy without him.
Indeed, we see in Ten himself how happy he is to see her. He talks about her, looks for her constantly in The Stolen Earth. We see his pure unbridled joy as he runs to her, his impossible thing. She is his hope for the future, his reason to live. He stays wholly himself for her when he regenerates. On the crucible ship, they hold hands for as long as they're allowed. And I am pretty damned sure he wanted to tell her more than simply, "and you were...brilliant."
And yet we see Ten literally break before our eyes, with Rose right next to him, no less, as his soul is revealed. Ten is deeply ashamed. As much as we think he's healed from the Time War, he hasn't. He is filled with utter self-loathing. The DonnaDoctor with his gun, and later genocide of the Dalek race was merely icing on the cake. The Doctor has been made to remember implicitly that he is a destroyer of worlds. That the people he likes best are weapons in his hands, doing his dirty work for him. That he is a bad bad man. That he does not deserve a happy ending with Rose. By the time they're all back on the ship, he doesn't touch her or seek her out, with the notable exception of the acknowledging Gwyneth/Gwen nod to "The Unquiet Dead." Once the earth is safely back in place, and everyone is hugging each other, we do not see Ten hug Rose. Also, given that Mickey is staying, there's really no reason for Rose to go back. Jackie yes--Rose no. But sending away Rose and the hope she represents is his penance.
Ten is an unbelievable masochist for taking her (and himself, er, selves) back to Bad Wolf Bay. And it's in this scene that the episode went pear shaped for me the first viewing. And that's because Donna was totally out of character. Donna Noble, Human, would not have let Ten get away with not telling Rose that he loved her. Donna Noble, Human, would have made sure he at least said goodbye. Donna Noble, Human, would have known how much it hurt him, how much it cost him, to leave his Rose behind with another man wearing his face, to see him say the words he wouldn't allow himself for fear of never being able to leave her, to see her instinctively react to him and kiss him as if he really was Ten. To know that eventually she would never try to find the real him again. That it really was over. And Donna Noble, Human, would know that bouncing about the TARDIS was the last thing on his mind. But Ten had a bigger problem. He realized well before we see Donna's tic that he had already lost her, too.
And so, in the end, we see the Doctor totally alone. Even when Donna doesn't know him any more, he still seeks her out to say goodbye. And the rain, yet again, is the proxy for the tears he cannot allow himself to cry, just like we saw in "The Runaway Bride." He has lost Rose, again. He has lost a dear friend who understood him better than anyone else has in a long time. He has sent all of his friends, all those people willing to die for him, away. He is utterly alone. And more broken than we saw him in Series One.
One of my problems with this on the first viewing was that it made no sense to hand over EmoDoctor to Stephen Moffat. But around 5am this morning (yeah, I could barely sleep last night as a result of this) it occurred to me that Uncle Rusty still gave Moffat a clean slate. It just wasn't the one I expected. Ten post-Journey's End is not the same Ten we saw post-Doomsday or post-LotTL. He is someone who has finally learned the lesson not to let people in. Not to open his heart. Companions can be totally casual again, but for a totally different reason this time. Ten's capacity for love (and self-hate) are such that he will not let his heart be broken again. And this makes sense from what we saw of Moffat's character, River Song. This is why future-Ten kept her at arm's length. It's probably also the only reason why he told her his name; so he would trust her in his past.
So yeah, the Daleks won the frakking war. They broke my beloved Ten. They robbed Ten (and the show) of his constant: Hope. And I must grudgingly admit that Uncle Rusty told me a better bedtime story than I first thought.
EDITED TO ADD: I have further thoughts about my problems with the episode and a new theory about why we were given this episode with its inherent problems here.
I had my meta for this 90% written when my daughter came to sit on my lap, bumped a key, and stupid LJ ate it. Grrrrrrr!
Let's try this again.
I am not going to lie. I had very high expectations for this episode, and the first time round, I hated it. I felt like it was some BBC conspiracy because they wanted to keep Tennant the Cash Cow and wouldn't let Rose have the real Doctor despite the love story Uncle Rusty's been unfolding over the past four years. In my perfect vision, DoctorDonna was supposed to temp in our universe while Ten and Rose got her lifetime together. They would get their magical impossible ending just like Jackie and Pete. He would heal from the Time War, and have little time-lordlings, and bring back his race, giving Moffat his clean slate. I preconceived that he'd start up with either a much older Ten or a newly regenerated Eleven, perhaps traveling with a grandchild, thus giving us One & Susan redux history nod without all of that baggage that was RTD's emo creation. I really liked my version and hated what we got on screen. The characterizations felt off. It felt like a cop out. And in the end, with the exception of the the wonderful scene with Wilf, I was left emotional numb and supremely disappointed. How could Ten just leave?? Why didn't Donna smack some sense into him? Why the hell did Rose kiss the man she knew was not Ten? WTF was this asshattery that I had just wittnessed?
And then...I watched it again.
And something occurred to me that I completely missed the first go round: The Children of Time won the battle, but the Daleks won the war.
Davros thought he had been betrayed by Dalek Caan. But he hadn't been. Davros was a pawn used to defeat the Time Lords once and for all. As was Donna. As was Rose. In one fell swoop, Caan orchestrated and took away everything that had meaning to the Doctor. He turned cheeky, plucky, empathetic Donna into a weapon, just like everyone else he's touched over the years. He committed genocide--again, if only by proxy. And this time, his separation from Rose was voluntary. Caan was the one who made it possible for Rose to come back. He was why her machine suddenly started working. It's why she was required to be there. To break the Doctor completely.
We are told (and shown) over and over again how much Rose means to him. In "Turn Left" we're given indisputable proof that without her, he wanted to die, and in fact, had a death wish pretty much the whole way through Series 3. Rose is constantly present in her absence. Donna, as witness in "The Runaway Bride" groks this inherently, and when she comes back in "Partners in Crime" she pretty much snaps him out of his melancholy. We see Ten/Donna as truly having fun again, probably for the first time since he lost Rose. Donna is good for him in a completely different way than Rose was. Donna calls him on his bullshit. She also empathizes with him deeply. She knows what Rose means to him. So does Martha, who even at the end of the world, possibly at her own hands, takes time to awe and wonder at the Doctor finding his Rose again. Mickey makes it clear that even with a universe between Ten and Rose, Rose will never settle for Mickey. She will always belong to the Doctor and will be less than happy without him.
Indeed, we see in Ten himself how happy he is to see her. He talks about her, looks for her constantly in The Stolen Earth. We see his pure unbridled joy as he runs to her, his impossible thing. She is his hope for the future, his reason to live. He stays wholly himself for her when he regenerates. On the crucible ship, they hold hands for as long as they're allowed. And I am pretty damned sure he wanted to tell her more than simply, "and you were...brilliant."
And yet we see Ten literally break before our eyes, with Rose right next to him, no less, as his soul is revealed. Ten is deeply ashamed. As much as we think he's healed from the Time War, he hasn't. He is filled with utter self-loathing. The DonnaDoctor with his gun, and later genocide of the Dalek race was merely icing on the cake. The Doctor has been made to remember implicitly that he is a destroyer of worlds. That the people he likes best are weapons in his hands, doing his dirty work for him. That he is a bad bad man. That he does not deserve a happy ending with Rose. By the time they're all back on the ship, he doesn't touch her or seek her out, with the notable exception of the acknowledging Gwyneth/Gwen nod to "The Unquiet Dead." Once the earth is safely back in place, and everyone is hugging each other, we do not see Ten hug Rose. Also, given that Mickey is staying, there's really no reason for Rose to go back. Jackie yes--Rose no. But sending away Rose and the hope she represents is his penance.
Ten is an unbelievable masochist for taking her (and himself, er, selves) back to Bad Wolf Bay. And it's in this scene that the episode went pear shaped for me the first viewing. And that's because Donna was totally out of character. Donna Noble, Human, would not have let Ten get away with not telling Rose that he loved her. Donna Noble, Human, would have made sure he at least said goodbye. Donna Noble, Human, would have known how much it hurt him, how much it cost him, to leave his Rose behind with another man wearing his face, to see him say the words he wouldn't allow himself for fear of never being able to leave her, to see her instinctively react to him and kiss him as if he really was Ten. To know that eventually she would never try to find the real him again. That it really was over. And Donna Noble, Human, would know that bouncing about the TARDIS was the last thing on his mind. But Ten had a bigger problem. He realized well before we see Donna's tic that he had already lost her, too.
And so, in the end, we see the Doctor totally alone. Even when Donna doesn't know him any more, he still seeks her out to say goodbye. And the rain, yet again, is the proxy for the tears he cannot allow himself to cry, just like we saw in "The Runaway Bride." He has lost Rose, again. He has lost a dear friend who understood him better than anyone else has in a long time. He has sent all of his friends, all those people willing to die for him, away. He is utterly alone. And more broken than we saw him in Series One.
One of my problems with this on the first viewing was that it made no sense to hand over EmoDoctor to Stephen Moffat. But around 5am this morning (yeah, I could barely sleep last night as a result of this) it occurred to me that Uncle Rusty still gave Moffat a clean slate. It just wasn't the one I expected. Ten post-Journey's End is not the same Ten we saw post-Doomsday or post-LotTL. He is someone who has finally learned the lesson not to let people in. Not to open his heart. Companions can be totally casual again, but for a totally different reason this time. Ten's capacity for love (and self-hate) are such that he will not let his heart be broken again. And this makes sense from what we saw of Moffat's character, River Song. This is why future-Ten kept her at arm's length. It's probably also the only reason why he told her his name; so he would trust her in his past.
So yeah, the Daleks won the frakking war. They broke my beloved Ten. They robbed Ten (and the show) of his constant: Hope. And I must grudgingly admit that Uncle Rusty told me a better bedtime story than I first thought.
EDITED TO ADD: I have further thoughts about my problems with the episode and a new theory about why we were given this episode with its inherent problems here.