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Doctor Who - some observations, questions, and wild crack!theories
Okay, so The Stolen Earth. Whoa.
I've been enjoying this season overall, even if I haven't felt many urges to post about it. Donna is a breath of fresh air, and a nice fun departure from all the angst that seemed to crop up on the show since Ten first emerged. (If it wasn't twu-wuv angst, it was jealousy angst, or lonely angst, or bitterness angst, . . .) I probably haven't enjoyed an entire season overall since Eccleston was the Doctor.
Of course, now that the season's end is upon us, it brings up a lot more to post about. I should mention in advance that I'm unspoiled for the finale and am not an active enough member of fandom to have heard any theories besides my own. But I did have a few observations that I felt needed to be made.
Some of you may have your own ideas, so feel free to voice them if you like! But pretty please no actual spoilers. It's better not to know. :)
1) First off, Left Turn was awesomecakes! (Especially the last 5 minutes.) All the Bad Wolf references seemed to imply that Rose had left a lot more road signs while controlling the Time Vortex. (She did say that she could see "all that ever could be." Perhaps she just didn't remember the extent until now.)
2) There have been many references this season made to something unfortunate happening to Donna. Obviously next week will be when it all comes to a head. I'd like to think it's less tragic than we are being led to believe - misdirection is a common tactic, after all - but still monumental. (Her constant refrain of "I'm nothing special" seems to lend itself to the theory that the complete opposite is true.)
3) RTD really can't do a full season without a Dalek appearance, can he? :)
4) I loved the assembling of all the other characters. It may have been a little cheesy, but it was also extremely fun. The appearance of Harriet Jones was especially good. I always felt the Doctor was a little too quick to judge her, and it's good to see he was wrong. (Also, off-topic, but they really have an awful lot of unrelated people with the last names "Smith" and "Jones" on this show, don't they? You'd think someone would suggest to vary it -- at least a little, to avoid confusion.)
5) Also cheesy, yes, but I couldn't help but love the running-toward-each-other while the epic orchestration swells in the background. There's a reason things like that are cliché -- people *like* it! And I can be as superficial as the next person when it comes to how I like my TV. Besides, you can't have deep and symbolic all the time; it's a show about time travel, for crying out loud! Of course, what happened afterward was also a bit predictable. But that certainly didn't stop me from being upset by it.
6) I'd wondered, however, once we saw that the Doctor wasn't immediately dead from his injuries (which would happen to anyone else shot by a Dalek), why Rose was so upset. She was obviously aware he would be regenerating, not dying. He'd be essentially the same man, but with a different body. Would she really miss his face that badly? Or was she afraid she might not be as lucky this time and that any new personality he developed might not like her as much?
7) When the Doctor was shot, a conscious effort was made to show us that only half his body was grazed by the blast (the left half of his chest, that arm, and his head, to be specific – so maybe only one of his hearts stopped beating). It makes me wonder if this will influence his regeneration in any way. His daughter had a kind of "mini-regeneration" and didn't change her appearance. That may have been a foreshadowing device for this event.
8) Dalek Caan called the Doctor "the threefold man." That implies more than one of him. I can see that happening if only the part of him that is dying actually regenerates. So the Doctor splits into two: one wholly new version, one re-built Ten, and then with all the residual energy floating around, that hand in a jar (which has been featured so prominently) grows another Nine – because THAT would just make me do the Dance of Joy! And there. That's all I'd need to see. Roll credits.
9) Who wants to take bets that Mickey is going to save Sarah Jane? C'mon. Rose can't have been the only one to have crossed over from the other universe. Plus she's talking to somebody at "control."
10) When all is said and done, we probably won't get a regeneration this time around. (Or at least not one that doesn't get re-set by the end.) After all, this Doctor still has to meet River Song.
I've been enjoying this season overall, even if I haven't felt many urges to post about it. Donna is a breath of fresh air, and a nice fun departure from all the angst that seemed to crop up on the show since Ten first emerged. (If it wasn't twu-wuv angst, it was jealousy angst, or lonely angst, or bitterness angst, . . .) I probably haven't enjoyed an entire season overall since Eccleston was the Doctor.
Of course, now that the season's end is upon us, it brings up a lot more to post about. I should mention in advance that I'm unspoiled for the finale and am not an active enough member of fandom to have heard any theories besides my own. But I did have a few observations that I felt needed to be made.
Some of you may have your own ideas, so feel free to voice them if you like! But pretty please no actual spoilers. It's better not to know. :)
1) First off, Left Turn was awesomecakes! (Especially the last 5 minutes.) All the Bad Wolf references seemed to imply that Rose had left a lot more road signs while controlling the Time Vortex. (She did say that she could see "all that ever could be." Perhaps she just didn't remember the extent until now.)
2) There have been many references this season made to something unfortunate happening to Donna. Obviously next week will be when it all comes to a head. I'd like to think it's less tragic than we are being led to believe - misdirection is a common tactic, after all - but still monumental. (Her constant refrain of "I'm nothing special" seems to lend itself to the theory that the complete opposite is true.)
3) RTD really can't do a full season without a Dalek appearance, can he? :)
4) I loved the assembling of all the other characters. It may have been a little cheesy, but it was also extremely fun. The appearance of Harriet Jones was especially good. I always felt the Doctor was a little too quick to judge her, and it's good to see he was wrong. (Also, off-topic, but they really have an awful lot of unrelated people with the last names "Smith" and "Jones" on this show, don't they? You'd think someone would suggest to vary it -- at least a little, to avoid confusion.)
5) Also cheesy, yes, but I couldn't help but love the running-toward-each-other while the epic orchestration swells in the background. There's a reason things like that are cliché -- people *like* it! And I can be as superficial as the next person when it comes to how I like my TV. Besides, you can't have deep and symbolic all the time; it's a show about time travel, for crying out loud! Of course, what happened afterward was also a bit predictable. But that certainly didn't stop me from being upset by it.
6) I'd wondered, however, once we saw that the Doctor wasn't immediately dead from his injuries (which would happen to anyone else shot by a Dalek), why Rose was so upset. She was obviously aware he would be regenerating, not dying. He'd be essentially the same man, but with a different body. Would she really miss his face that badly? Or was she afraid she might not be as lucky this time and that any new personality he developed might not like her as much?
7) When the Doctor was shot, a conscious effort was made to show us that only half his body was grazed by the blast (the left half of his chest, that arm, and his head, to be specific – so maybe only one of his hearts stopped beating). It makes me wonder if this will influence his regeneration in any way. His daughter had a kind of "mini-regeneration" and didn't change her appearance. That may have been a foreshadowing device for this event.
8) Dalek Caan called the Doctor "the threefold man." That implies more than one of him. I can see that happening if only the part of him that is dying actually regenerates. So the Doctor splits into two: one wholly new version, one re-built Ten, and then with all the residual energy floating around, that hand in a jar (which has been featured so prominently) grows another Nine – because THAT would just make me do the Dance of Joy! And there. That's all I'd need to see. Roll credits.
9) Who wants to take bets that Mickey is going to save Sarah Jane? C'mon. Rose can't have been the only one to have crossed over from the other universe. Plus she's talking to somebody at "control."
10) When all is said and done, we probably won't get a regeneration this time around. (Or at least not one that doesn't get re-set by the end.) After all, this Doctor still has to meet River Song.