mezzanineview (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mezzanineview) wrote2009-11-18 12:35 pm
mezzanineview) wrote2009-11-18 12:35 pm
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Finally had to (I say it like watching Doctor Who is a chore, oh noes!) watch The Waters of Mars again, now reaching the end of my Ten rewatch, and came up with some thingies about our poor Doctor.
Rusty's layering a number of the lines in TWoM, so it's a lot less self-contained than I initially thought it would be. The commentary by Rusty, Julie, and Daaaaaavid had amazing insight, and really proves how much they think about every single aspect of Doctor Who and make very conscious decisions about where they go with what.
David mentioned that the Doctor's actions, running back into the base and doing all those things, being every inch the Doctor in those moments, was at once the right and wrong thing to do. In saving those people, he's breaking one of the major rules of Time and railing against his imminent death, trying to defy Time by sheer force of will. He's breaking all the rules that make him what he is and attempting to redefine what it means to be the Doctor, what it means to be a Time Lord, too blinded by his arrogance to see that Time is setting him up.
Even Adelaide seems to know it. This inescapable sense of wrongness is imbued in a lot of the dialogue. Some quotes:
Adelaide: "It can't be stopped. Don't die with us."
Doctor: "Someone told me just recently, they said I was going to die. They said he will knock four times and I think I know what that means and it doesn't mean right here, right now. Cuz I don't hear anyone knocking! [pause as there are three loud thumps]
[viciously] Three knocks is all you're getting!"
again, the Doctor, thinking he can take control of a fixed event, even when earlier he knew, he knew that no matter what he did, he'd "make it happen". This exchange in particular is very telling that he's trying to save himself more than he's trying to save the remainder of the Mars crew. It's strange logic, even by the Doctor's standards: if by intrinsically changing a fixed event, he changes history forever, he can defy his prophesied death? Bold beyond measure, and conceited as hell. He needed a good slap.
Oh I WISH Donna was there :( Very likely, it's because of his decision to stop taking on traveling companions that heralds the Doctor's demise. No one's there to stop him. Adelaide tries, and gets smacked down.
Doctor: "If I have to fight you as well, I will!"
Fighting Time, fighting History, even fighting the people he's trying to save. Ultimately, two of the crew are terrified of him, rather than awed at his rescue. And he doesn't really react to anything but Adelaide--the "little people", in that moment, didn't matter to him, and that's possibly the scariest thing of all.
Doctor: [about Gadget] "He's lost his signal. Doesn't know where he is."
Feels like that's not just about the robot, doesn't it?
Adelaide: "Is there nothing you can't do?"
Doctor: "Not anymore."
Including the horrifyingly hubristic actions and speech he'd taken on. "Anything", here, can cut both ways.
This is the most intensely self-preservative we've ever seen this iteration of the Doctor, but why is that? Does he believe he'll truly die, rather than having the chance to regenerate? If he knows what the four knocks mean, is that what makes him believe this will be his final death, before his time (meaning all his regenerations) is up?
But here's a strange thing: I don't think the Doctor is going completely off the deep end. Adelaide's actions, and seeing Ood Sigma there at the end, very visibly shocked him back into his conscience. Part of the exchange in the airlock foreshadows this:
Adelaide: "You die here too."
Doctor: "No."
Adelaide: "What's going to save you?"
Doctor: "Captain Adelaide Brooke."
Quite literally, Adelaide's actions, taking the timeline into her own hands and setting it right with her death, made the Doctor realize that he'd gone too far. He was saved, not from his own death (as his actions in the episode sealed the deal), but from losing sight of who he was. It was the smack in the face he needed to comprehend exactly what he'd done and push him back down into his place in the universe. In fact, in the preview for his final story, he says, very matter-of-fact, "I'm going to die." Because of Adelaide, he can accept his death. That's...extraordinary.
I do think he'll still be a little touched in the head--once you go that far off the reservation, there's little to do after you realize the fact other than to reel it in as much as you can. The Master is going to have a big surprise when he runs into the Doctor, y/n?
Dearest wishes for Ten's last episodes:
Don't make the Doctor unrecognizable. I am in love with dark!Ten as much as the next person, but this is still the same shiny happy Doctor that geeked out over the clockwork droids on the Pompadour ship, the same one that hugged Rose when they were trapped on a base underneath a black hole with no way out, the same one that lives in the moment, at the heart of the storm, smiling and running and just being magnificent. He's still that Doctor that examined his new self in his wardrobe mirror all those years ago and ascended to brilliance. I don't want what happens in "The End of Time" to change that.
Don't let him die alone. Especially since RTD likes to make his characters and audiences suffer. Dear god, no. He's already spent so much of his time alone lately and I just don't think I could bear even picturing him somewhere, dying without so much as one person to care ;__;
Rusty's layering a number of the lines in TWoM, so it's a lot less self-contained than I initially thought it would be. The commentary by Rusty, Julie, and Daaaaaavid had amazing insight, and really proves how much they think about every single aspect of Doctor Who and make very conscious decisions about where they go with what.
David mentioned that the Doctor's actions, running back into the base and doing all those things, being every inch the Doctor in those moments, was at once the right and wrong thing to do. In saving those people, he's breaking one of the major rules of Time and railing against his imminent death, trying to defy Time by sheer force of will. He's breaking all the rules that make him what he is and attempting to redefine what it means to be the Doctor, what it means to be a Time Lord, too blinded by his arrogance to see that Time is setting him up.
Even Adelaide seems to know it. This inescapable sense of wrongness is imbued in a lot of the dialogue. Some quotes:
Adelaide: "It can't be stopped. Don't die with us."
Doctor: "Someone told me just recently, they said I was going to die. They said he will knock four times and I think I know what that means and it doesn't mean right here, right now. Cuz I don't hear anyone knocking! [pause as there are three loud thumps]
[viciously] Three knocks is all you're getting!"
again, the Doctor, thinking he can take control of a fixed event, even when earlier he knew, he knew that no matter what he did, he'd "make it happen". This exchange in particular is very telling that he's trying to save himself more than he's trying to save the remainder of the Mars crew. It's strange logic, even by the Doctor's standards: if by intrinsically changing a fixed event, he changes history forever, he can defy his prophesied death? Bold beyond measure, and conceited as hell. He needed a good slap.
Oh I WISH Donna was there :( Very likely, it's because of his decision to stop taking on traveling companions that heralds the Doctor's demise. No one's there to stop him. Adelaide tries, and gets smacked down.
Doctor: "If I have to fight you as well, I will!"
Fighting Time, fighting History, even fighting the people he's trying to save. Ultimately, two of the crew are terrified of him, rather than awed at his rescue. And he doesn't really react to anything but Adelaide--the "little people", in that moment, didn't matter to him, and that's possibly the scariest thing of all.
Doctor: [about Gadget] "He's lost his signal. Doesn't know where he is."
Feels like that's not just about the robot, doesn't it?
Adelaide: "Is there nothing you can't do?"
Doctor: "Not anymore."
Including the horrifyingly hubristic actions and speech he'd taken on. "Anything", here, can cut both ways.
This is the most intensely self-preservative we've ever seen this iteration of the Doctor, but why is that? Does he believe he'll truly die, rather than having the chance to regenerate? If he knows what the four knocks mean, is that what makes him believe this will be his final death, before his time (meaning all his regenerations) is up?
But here's a strange thing: I don't think the Doctor is going completely off the deep end. Adelaide's actions, and seeing Ood Sigma there at the end, very visibly shocked him back into his conscience. Part of the exchange in the airlock foreshadows this:
Adelaide: "You die here too."
Doctor: "No."
Adelaide: "What's going to save you?"
Doctor: "Captain Adelaide Brooke."
Quite literally, Adelaide's actions, taking the timeline into her own hands and setting it right with her death, made the Doctor realize that he'd gone too far. He was saved, not from his own death (as his actions in the episode sealed the deal), but from losing sight of who he was. It was the smack in the face he needed to comprehend exactly what he'd done and push him back down into his place in the universe. In fact, in the preview for his final story, he says, very matter-of-fact, "I'm going to die." Because of Adelaide, he can accept his death. That's...extraordinary.
I do think he'll still be a little touched in the head--once you go that far off the reservation, there's little to do after you realize the fact other than to reel it in as much as you can. The Master is going to have a big surprise when he runs into the Doctor, y/n?
Dearest wishes for Ten's last episodes:
Don't make the Doctor unrecognizable. I am in love with dark!Ten as much as the next person, but this is still the same shiny happy Doctor that geeked out over the clockwork droids on the Pompadour ship, the same one that hugged Rose when they were trapped on a base underneath a black hole with no way out, the same one that lives in the moment, at the heart of the storm, smiling and running and just being magnificent. He's still that Doctor that examined his new self in his wardrobe mirror all those years ago and ascended to brilliance. I don't want what happens in "The End of Time" to change that.
Don't let him die alone. Especially since RTD likes to make his characters and audiences suffer. Dear god, no. He's already spent so much of his time alone lately and I just don't think I could bear even picturing him somewhere, dying without so much as one person to care ;__;
no subject
I'd love for Donna to be there for him, but part of me thinks she's too human, she'd cloud everything with her own fear.
Part of me thinks Wilf would be a good idea, he's an old man who's seen many horrors in his life, he'd understand the Doctor's actions more than any of his companions.
I'd lovelovelove for the Master to be the one with him when he dies. Or for them to go out together somehow, but because the Master is 'evil' I figure they won't go down this route.
no subject
Wilf, yeah, he'd be amazing. He already connects with the Doctor on a pretty base level. That comment about Wilf looking up at the stars and thinking of the Doctor hit close to home. The Doctor shouldn't have the need to hold anything back with Wilf, esp. if he's dying right there and then.
THE MASTER YESSS. Just because they understand one another, being the same species :) Unlikely, given he's an enemy, but then again the Doctor's openly wept over his body. Given their relationship, it wouldn't be too far of a stretch.
Hell, I'd even take Jack :D
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