Just wanted to expand on a couple points, since you got me thinking (a dangerous pass time, I know)...
On that subject of the reoccurring references to fire/burning, it all ties back to The End of the World, when the Doctor brings Rose back from Platform One.
Doctor: You think it'll last forever, the people and cars and concrete. But it won't. One day it's all gone, even the sky. My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's rocks and dust before its time.
The Doctor didn't just destroy Gallifrey--he incinerated it, fully expecting to die in the fire as well. From Dalek:
Diana Goddard: It fell to earth on the Ascension islands, burned in its crater for three days before anyone could get near it and the whole time it was screaming. Must have gone insane. The Doctor: It must have fallen through time, the only survivor. Diana Goddard: You talked about a war? The Doctor: The Time War, the final battle between my people and the Dalek race. Henry Van Statten: But you survived too. The Doctor: Not by choice.
There's a bit of religious subtext here; for the Doctor, the fires were meant to be cleansing, wiping out his past sin of failing to destroy the Daleks when he had the chance by literally throwing himself (and his people) on the pyre. Only, as with most slash and burn retreat tactics, it didn't destroy the enemy or discourage them, it just set them back for a time. A phyrric victory, only with the black twist of not being a true victory after all. It seems poetic (and I wouldn't put it past RTD to make the tie-in) that the Doctor's regeneration in PotW was caused by fire, the Time Vortex burning him from the inside out.
Actually, now I think about it, many of the Doctor's closest brushes with death all through the new series have been by fire--the molten plastic of the Nestene, the solar radiation on Platform One, the explosion of the gas to destroy the Gelth, the missile in WWIII, the bomb in The Doctor Dances (although, arguably that one brushed way closer to Jack than the Doctor), burning with the absorption of the Vortex, the encounters in The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit (the black hole being surrounded by a ring of burning matter just before it's consumed, and the Beast being enshrouded in flame, smoke, and brimstone), being possessed by the living star in 42, not to mention his perpetual fondness for explosions (methinks Ace rubbed off on him just a bit). It seems, from my perspective anyway, that he's chasing the fire, attempting to find a way to be consumed in the same manner as his people.
Tying in to that is the inevitable Phoenix imagery--fire as rebirth and renewal. After regenerating from Nine to Ten, the Doctor became more youthful, and (until he lost Rose) a lot of the weight of his past actions was lifted from his shoulders. Even after getting shot, the Master chooses to go up in a ball of flame, and emerges young and bouncy. Knowing the Master (because those two just manage to get into each other's heads so beautifully), he was counting on the Doctor starting that funeral pyre at the end of TLoTT, facilitating his coming back some other way.
As for the Lucy thing, I was actually reminded of the character of Lucy in the musical Jekyll & Hyde. Although Lucy in J&H is a jaded prostitute, she's essentially a good woman who ends up being consumed by her darker impulses, as embodied by her disastrous affair with and eventual murder by Hyde. In our Lucy's case, she's drawn in to Harry's insanity (arguably, she was more than a touch insane to begin with, which only exacerbates her situation) and is consumed by it, becoming a shadow and a puppet to the Master. There's more than a little love for him on her part, which just makes it that tiny touch more tragic. Plus which, one of Hyde's lines about Lucy in J&H is also terribly appropriate to Lucy/Harry.
Hyde: Lucy, you'll never escape me. I'm here, I fear, and you will pay dear, my dear.
no subject
On that subject of the reoccurring references to fire/burning, it all ties back to The End of the World, when the Doctor brings Rose back from Platform One.
Doctor: You think it'll last forever, the people and cars and concrete. But it won't. One day it's all gone, even the sky. My planet's gone. It's dead. It burned like the Earth. It's rocks and dust before its time.
The Doctor didn't just destroy Gallifrey--he incinerated it, fully expecting to die in the fire as well. From Dalek:
Diana Goddard: It fell to earth on the Ascension islands, burned in its crater for three days before anyone could get near it and the whole time it was screaming. Must have gone insane.
The Doctor: It must have fallen through time, the only survivor.
Diana Goddard: You talked about a war?
The Doctor: The Time War, the final battle between my people and the Dalek race.
Henry Van Statten: But you survived too.
The Doctor: Not by choice.
There's a bit of religious subtext here; for the Doctor, the fires were meant to be cleansing, wiping out his past sin of failing to destroy the Daleks when he had the chance by literally throwing himself (and his people) on the pyre. Only, as with most slash and burn retreat tactics, it didn't destroy the enemy or discourage them, it just set them back for a time. A phyrric victory, only with the black twist of not being a true victory after all. It seems poetic (and I wouldn't put it past RTD to make the tie-in) that the Doctor's regeneration in PotW was caused by fire, the Time Vortex burning him from the inside out.
Actually, now I think about it, many of the Doctor's closest brushes with death all through the new series have been by fire--the molten plastic of the Nestene, the solar radiation on Platform One, the explosion of the gas to destroy the Gelth, the missile in WWIII, the bomb in The Doctor Dances (although, arguably that one brushed way closer to Jack than the Doctor), burning with the absorption of the Vortex, the encounters in The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit (the black hole being surrounded by a ring of burning matter just before it's consumed, and the Beast being enshrouded in flame, smoke, and brimstone), being possessed by the living star in 42, not to mention his perpetual fondness for explosions (methinks Ace rubbed off on him just a bit). It seems, from my perspective anyway, that he's chasing the fire, attempting to find a way to be consumed in the same manner as his people.
Tying in to that is the inevitable Phoenix imagery--fire as rebirth and renewal. After regenerating from Nine to Ten, the Doctor became more youthful, and (until he lost Rose) a lot of the weight of his past actions was lifted from his shoulders. Even after getting shot, the Master chooses to go up in a ball of flame, and emerges young and bouncy. Knowing the Master (because those two just manage to get into each other's heads so beautifully), he was counting on the Doctor starting that funeral pyre at the end of TLoTT, facilitating his coming back some other way.
As for the Lucy thing, I was actually reminded of the character of Lucy in the musical Jekyll & Hyde. Although Lucy in J&H is a jaded prostitute, she's essentially a good woman who ends up being consumed by her darker impulses, as embodied by her disastrous affair with and eventual murder by Hyde. In our Lucy's case, she's drawn in to Harry's insanity (arguably, she was more than a touch insane to begin with, which only exacerbates her situation) and is consumed by it, becoming a shadow and a puppet to the Master. There's more than a little love for him on her part, which just makes it that tiny touch more tragic. Plus which, one of Hyde's lines about Lucy in J&H is also terribly appropriate to Lucy/Harry.
Hyde: Lucy, you'll never escape me. I'm here, I fear, and you will pay dear, my dear.