![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
DW 4.2
Just very quick thoughts. (meta, as usual)
I have links to longer and more in-depth reviews below. For me *this* stood out:
Doctor: "Don't you think I've done enough? History's back in place and everyone dies."
OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH! We really see the consequences of S3 here, and I love it. He lives to save, and yet he can't save those he most wants - couldn't save the Time Lords, couldn't save the Master. And then of course we get Donna, whom I adore so very much, and who I really think needed the cuteness and happy solution of the Adipose, because she - more than any of the other companions so far (bar Jack maybe, but that's different) - gets to see the dark side of the Doctor, and has since the beginning. And she is just so wonderfully human:
Donna: "Not the whole town - just save *someone*."
And I think he does it for her.
Because this *also* ties in with 'Voyage of the Damned':
"But if you could decide, Doctor, who lives and who dies... that would make you a monster." [from memory, sorry if it's inaccurate]
There is a sense of 'damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't'... if he saves someone on a whim, what does that make him? I think this is why he needs a Companion - someone to be his moral center, because he is totally messed up, and he knows it. He knows what he has to do, but when it comes to what he *can* do, it gets complicated.
This of course again ties in with the Master storyline in S3, and what happens when a Time Lord decides to play god for real. Yes, the Master was evil and insane, but what he did the Doctor *could* do. (Of course I dealt with this at great length in this essay, so won't do so here.) Where to draw the line is the problem - he has so much power, but using it without becoming a monster (and oh, we saw him cross that line in 'Family of Blood') is the balancing act he keeps trying to get right.
Finally, I LOVE the waterpistol - can't you just see little kids running around playing Doctor Who all summer? "I bloody love you!" indeed! :)
Obligatory pimp:
Review by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
neadods.
Review byselenak.
Both really excellent, go check them out!
wendymr has been converted to Donna here. :)
I have links to longer and more in-depth reviews below. For me *this* stood out:
Doctor: "Don't you think I've done enough? History's back in place and everyone dies."
OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH OUCH! We really see the consequences of S3 here, and I love it. He lives to save, and yet he can't save those he most wants - couldn't save the Time Lords, couldn't save the Master. And then of course we get Donna, whom I adore so very much, and who I really think needed the cuteness and happy solution of the Adipose, because she - more than any of the other companions so far (bar Jack maybe, but that's different) - gets to see the dark side of the Doctor, and has since the beginning. And she is just so wonderfully human:
Donna: "Not the whole town - just save *someone*."
And I think he does it for her.
Because this *also* ties in with 'Voyage of the Damned':
"But if you could decide, Doctor, who lives and who dies... that would make you a monster." [from memory, sorry if it's inaccurate]
There is a sense of 'damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't'... if he saves someone on a whim, what does that make him? I think this is why he needs a Companion - someone to be his moral center, because he is totally messed up, and he knows it. He knows what he has to do, but when it comes to what he *can* do, it gets complicated.
This of course again ties in with the Master storyline in S3, and what happens when a Time Lord decides to play god for real. Yes, the Master was evil and insane, but what he did the Doctor *could* do. (Of course I dealt with this at great length in this essay, so won't do so here.) Where to draw the line is the problem - he has so much power, but using it without becoming a monster (and oh, we saw him cross that line in 'Family of Blood') is the balancing act he keeps trying to get right.
Finally, I LOVE the waterpistol - can't you just see little kids running around playing Doctor Who all summer? "I bloody love you!" indeed! :)
Obligatory pimp:
Review by
neadods.Review by
selenak.Both really excellent, go check them out!
wendymr has been converted to Donna here. :)
no subject
I agree, and great tie-in to Voyage of the Damned. The Doctor has always had to navigate between the extremes, with the Master at one end of the scale - i.e. when you use the full power of a Time Lord and don't care who gets hurt by it - and the Time Lords on Gallifrey on the other; in the story which introduced them at the end of the Second Doctor's era, The War Games, he argues passionately that it's immoral to do nothing if one has the power they all do. (Their response back then to this is basically that he's right in that he can't not interfere, so they ground him on Earth, where he can help people but only on a human scale, since they took his ability to travel in time away.) But now both extremes are gone, there is really no one else to measure himself against, and that's why he needs Companions as a moral compass more than ever. And Donna works so well because as you said, she more than any other New Who companion has been exposed to his dark side, and while she likes him, she is not in love with him and so that doesn't influence her judgement. Also, I really think the age factor helps; she's an adult and not looking for his approval.
(Rose and Martha both were, though with Martha it changed during the Year That Wasn't. Jack of course is an adult, too, but he's also struck with a case of hero-worship and yes, he does want the Doctor's approval. "In your honor" and all that.)
One of the many things Donna did that I loved - that gesture of putting her hand on the lever, and pushing together. Sharing that awful responsibility. Which I don't think we've seen before.
no subject
I do love getting the Old Who perspective on things - I dearly wish they'd re-broadcast it, because otherwise I don't know how I'll ever get to watch it. (Can't even afford to buy New Who, Old Who is completely out of the question.) Anyway, I really like the fact that he used to have those two opposites to measure himself against, and that this is why he is so unsure now. Thank you.
And Donna works so well because as you said, she more than any other New Who companion has been exposed to his dark side, and while she likes him, she is not in love with him and so that doesn't influence her judgement. Also, I really think the age factor helps; she's an adult and not looking for his approval.
*nods* I am really looking forward to Martha & Jack showing up, to see how they will behave now. (Also wonder how on earth they're going to pry Jack away from Torchwood, 'cause I can't see him leaving.)
One of the many things Donna did that I loved - that gesture of putting her hand on the lever, and pushing together. Sharing that awful responsibility. Which I don't think we've seen before.
Yes, I loved that too. And, as someone (you?) mentioned, it echoes 'Parting of the Ways' wonderfully.
How to watch...
1) Borrow
2) Youtube is ever so useful in this regard. Remember when in this review post, I linked to two scenes from Mind of Evil (aka one of the two slashiest Master/Doctor tales in Old Who ever, and the two scenes I linked are proof why)? If you check out the link, the poster has put a lot of Third Doctor eps on YouTube (broken up in about 18 pieces for size reasons, but you can watch one after another).
Re: How to watch...
Will also check out the You Tube stuff - that would make life easier! :)
Re: How to watch...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81gFI9aNSlo
Re: How to watch...