Now you make me wish I'd watched S5 more attentively, because there isn't really anything intelligent I can say re. the Ten/Eleven comparison. This is fantastic meta, but I can't do it justice at all. I do love the fire/water image, though...
the universe is once again nothing more than matter that can be manipulated, not a foe to defeat.
Hm. The thing is, I think it's precisely Ten's constant (futile) struggle against the universe that gave the impression of a vastness that wasn't really there any longer in S6. (For me, anyway.) The fact that even someone with so much power and such an ego constantly runs smack against something that simply doesn't care about him any more than about the next human being, but follows laws of its own. He may be able to change things more than the average human, but there still is the rigid logic of consequences (for others, for himself) even he can't escape from. The scale is different, but the struggle is an essentially human one. When he rails that life isn't fair to him in TEoT that's of course his ego talking, but (unless you believe in reincarnation) in the end life simply is unbearably unfair. I think maybe it's Eleven's acceptance of things combined with his paternal professor attitude that gives the impression of control, even when (as you pointed out) in reality he isn't.
the Doctor expects some kind of punishment in return for his actions.
Not punishment, IMO, but he is of course very aware that every action has its consequences. I think that's the ultimate law of RTD's DW/TW verse. Look at Jack in D5... that has nothing to do with Gods (Ellen Hunt believed, or wanted to believe, that) or punishment, it's just the consequences of actions and decisions. (Which of course is even crueller, because a God can also stop the sacrifice he demanded. Jack has to follow through, because it's necessary.)
I watched the S5 finale only with half an eye, but when you say Eleven 'can rewrite the whole universe, but he can’t save himself'... WoM was the closest Ten came to (possibly) rewriting the universe big time, and that was unambiguously wrong. And in the end he could have saved himself, but chose not to, a sort of voluntary submission to the laws of the universe, as well as the principles of humanity (in the literal sense, accepting mortality, and in the moral sense, sacrificing himself for Wilf), because that was the right thing to do.
Moffat doesn’t focus on the big picture, but the tiny miniature.
This, again, might be part of why the perception of S5 is so different, when objectively the themes maybe aren't so different at all. The writing style maybe makes more of a difference than the actual content.
(... and one of these days I'm really going to write about the religious themes in RTD's writing. But that will have to wait until after Miracle Day.)
no subject
the universe is once again nothing more than matter that can be manipulated, not a foe to defeat.
Hm. The thing is, I think it's precisely Ten's constant (futile) struggle against the universe that gave the impression of a vastness that wasn't really there any longer in S6. (For me, anyway.) The fact that even someone with so much power and such an ego constantly runs smack against something that simply doesn't care about him any more than about the next human being, but follows laws of its own. He may be able to change things more than the average human, but there still is the rigid logic of consequences (for others, for himself) even he can't escape from. The scale is different, but the struggle is an essentially human one. When he rails that life isn't fair to him in TEoT that's of course his ego talking, but (unless you believe in reincarnation) in the end life simply is unbearably unfair. I think maybe it's Eleven's acceptance of things combined with his paternal professor attitude that gives the impression of control, even when (as you pointed out) in reality he isn't.
the Doctor expects some kind of punishment in return for his actions.
Not punishment, IMO, but he is of course very aware that every action has its consequences. I think that's the ultimate law of RTD's DW/TW verse. Look at Jack in D5... that has nothing to do with Gods (Ellen Hunt believed, or wanted to believe, that) or punishment, it's just the consequences of actions and decisions. (Which of course is even crueller, because a God can also stop the sacrifice he demanded. Jack has to follow through, because it's necessary.)
I watched the S5 finale only with half an eye, but when you say Eleven 'can rewrite the whole universe, but he can’t save himself'... WoM was the closest Ten came to (possibly) rewriting the universe big time, and that was unambiguously wrong. And in the end he could have saved himself, but chose not to, a sort of voluntary submission to the laws of the universe, as well as the principles of humanity (in the literal sense, accepting mortality, and in the moral sense, sacrificing himself for Wilf), because that was the right thing to do.
Moffat doesn’t focus on the big picture, but the tiny miniature.
This, again, might be part of why the perception of S5 is so different, when objectively the themes maybe aren't so different at all. The writing style maybe makes more of a difference than the actual content.
(... and one of these days I'm really going to write about the religious themes in RTD's writing. But that will have to wait until after Miracle Day.)