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Meta on the Doctor and River.
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promethia_tenk!
The Doctor
I know a lot of people (initially at least) felt that Eleven was... a bit of a letdown after Ten’s intensity. Eleven was all happy-go-lucky - what had happened to the all that darkness which threatened to break through Ten at any moment?
Firstly, I shall quote Matt Smith who has touched on this with great insight:
And secondly, allow me to quote a couple of snippets from Moffat’s very first Who-story ‘Continuity Errors’, which features the Seventh Doctor (published in the 1996 Virgin Books anthology Decalog 3: Consequences):
For those of you who have not read it - it is one of the single most chilling things I have EVER read. The Doctor isn’t ‘evil’ - his aims are genuinely good, and all his actions are positive. And yet... his methods, the sheer power he wields because he can rewrite time - and through that people - is absolutely terrifying. I read that story before S6 aired, and it is quite clear to me that Moffat is pursuing the same idea, but on a much grander scale.
Now going back to Ten and Eleven, I shall quote Promethia, because she said it best (and she said it post S5 so she’s quite the prophet too):
The danger with Ten was always that he’d lose it. The danger with Eleven is that he won’t.
Ten was broken, clinging to people and praying that they could save him from himself, and Waters of Mars is an exquisite portrayal of someone profoundly damaged finally reaching tipping point and losing it completely. Whereas Eleven... Eleven is far more controlled. And far more dangerous because of it. Which isn’t to say that the two aren’t connected, far from it. As a matter of fact I think Moffat is very busy dealing with all the lose ends RTD left lying about.
Allow me to use something I made last year:
You see? I’ve talked about this before, but Ten (after Adelaide shoots herself) has some very interesting lines:
DOCTOR: I've gone too far.
He turns and sees Ood Sigma is standing in the road. The Doctor falls to his knees.
DOCTOR: (to Ood Sigma) Is this it? My death? Is it time?
He expects punishment, expects there to be consequences. He knows he will die, and now he thinks he knows why. Except Ood Sigma is there on a completely different errand. This annoyed me somewhat at the time, since it seemed as if the Doctor’s instincts, and the consequences of his actions, were... well, brushed aside in favour of The Big Damn Finale.
(I have also elsewhere complained that it came across as if [the laws of] time/the universe was somehow sentient and would punish the Doctor for his actions. This irked me no end, because if you operate in a world without gods, you can’t smuggle them in by the back door. The laws of time aren’t like gravity, they’re more like criminal laws - they have to be upheld and adhered to, unlike, say gravity, where you don’t get to choose whether to fall or not if you step off a cliff. /end grumble)
But Moffat. Oh Moffat. Moffat has gone straight back to it. Because someone who wields that kind of power, unchecked, is a danger, even if he is the nicest man in the universe. There are hints now and again during RTD’s Who - f.ex. Queen Victoria’s banishment & the founding of Torchwood - but mostly the Doctor is Mr Wonderful, and anyone who opposes him is in the wrong. (I mean, just look at Wilf. I adore Wilf, but why does Wilf love the Doctor so much? Why does he not resent the Doctor for what he did? No really. Think about it.)
Moffat however has turned this around. In The Big Bang all the Doctor’s enemies (and some of his friends - hi there Silurians!) gathered to save the universe from the Doctor, and now there is another alliance fighting him, going so far as to create and then steal a baby Timelord of their own. And River, the ultimate victim of their plotting... defends them. And the best thing is that this is on a Watsonian level, not a Doylist one:
And she’s not wrong. Back when Ten saw Ood Sigma, he wasn’t wrong. His judgement and death were coming. Not just a regeneration, but final death, because if you grasp this kind of power someone will call you on it:
THE DOCTOR: You get one warning. That was it.
‘School Reunion’
~~
DOCTOR: This ends today. I'll tear down the House of Calvierri, stone by stone.
‘Vampires of Venice’
Yet on the other hand... Let me illustrate with a few pictures, because this ties in with everything that the Silence, and the Doctor’s fight against them, represents:
The text/quotes are from The Beast Below. What the Doctor did in ‘Day of the Moon’ is what he always does. ‘Protest or forget’ is what every hero-centric show hinges on. Will the hero protest and fight, or will he turn away? Of course the Doctor will try everything in his power to come to a peaceful solution, but if he can’t? If he can’t, then he will step up and do what needs to be done.
Up to and including destroying his own people.
It’s a terrible catch-22 (see ‘Torchwood: Children of Earth’ for this catch-22, exquisitely and unflinchingly, taken to the extreme), and it is one we see the Doctor acknowledge in AGMGTW:
VASTRA: You're giving up? You never do that.
DOCTOR: (turns, angrily) Don't you sometimes wish I did?
I think this is the story of S6. That the Doctor has to face what he’s become, what he’s done, what’s he’s capable of. And that there are people out there who will not let him get away with it, because he has become, to them, the creature in the Pandorica. And yet, all that's needed for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing...
There is also the very interesting observation to be made that whereas Davros’ ultimate victory over the Doctor was to point out that he turned those he loved into weapons, we’ve now moved a step further:
The Doctor’s reputation turns people into weapons. Against himself.
Which is why Lorna is so important. She is the little girl who had an adventure with the Doctor, and she grew up to fight him, just to meet him again, and then died (bravely. They’re always brave). Which actually reminds me of a Sontaran way of looking at the world: If I can’t be your friend, I can be a worthy opponent.
Anywya, this brings me to this summary of ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’:
In the desperate search for Melody Pond, the TARDIS crash lands in 1930s Berlin, bringing the Doctor face to face with the greatest war criminal in the Universe. And Hitler. The Doctor must teach his adversaries that time travel has responsibilities - and in so doing, learns a harsh lesson in the cruellest warfare of all.
‘The greatest war criminal of all’. Now who could that be? It makes names like ‘Dream Lord’ and ‘Valeyard’ pop up in my mind, and generally causes me to rub my hands together a lot!
Which would mean that the Doctor goes to his death in order to stop his future self from becoming evil, and which would make him both the protagonist and the antagonist. (Hello there shoutout to Jekyll!)
One of the main reasons I love this is because this has nothing to do with what has ~happened~ to him, but makes it about his own choices and where they have brought him. Because it is people's choices that define them, that take them down certain paths. And some paths, if followed for long enough, will make turning around virtually impossible - and you don't get to blame circumstances, or history, or the situation. There is always a choice, and you need to own it.
Now there are two sides to this. The first one I shall illustrate with this quote from Angel:
Where did this story start? When the Doctor crash landed in a young girl’s garden? When he was twelve years late returning? When he insisted on bringing Rory with them? (I still love that this simple act of decency is what so much of the story turns around.) Or did it start in the Library? Or is that where it ends?
Spoilers, Sweetie. Just do the best you can at any moment, and hope.
Now for the other side I shall use two different quotes. First of all this one, from Buffy:
It’s the struggle between character and story, basically. Events, large and small, constantly interfere in the characters’ lives, changing the course they try to set. But the characters still have agency of their own, and through their choices make their own bed. Let me illustrate this with another juxtaposition. This time the text is from ‘Serenity’, but it’s a perfect fit.
Now the interesting thing is that these two are sides of the same coin. All of RTD’s finales (apart from S3) centred aroundplot points Bad Guys falling out of the sky and the Doctor having to fight them. The plot was something that happened to the characters (and even S3 had shades of this, although the Master was obviously a personal foe). Whereas with Moffat the characters are the plot. The ‘Bad Guys’ are fighting the Doctor because of his own actions. And because of the timey-wimey, in some instances because of actions he has not yet committed...
Which reminds me of the Comic Relief sketch, and how that simple little story touches on so many of the things we are now dealing with in S6. I mean, Older!Doctor sending himself and his companions letters is essentially walking through the door and telling himself he needs to pull the wibbly lever writ large. Not to mention that they were stuck in conceptual space, and in S6 something has gone wrong with time. (There are contradictions in the narrative; someone has been doing a great deal of rewriting...)
However I shall save all that for a speculative post. What I'm talking about for now is that the Doctor started a war to get Amy and Melody back. He called in old favours and assembled an army. Because what he’s become, what he is, is a Mighty Warrior...
Ten ran from this. Ran and ran and ran, and tried to avoid all the implications. But as this fic puts it (achingly perfect btw), where Eleven is talking about Ten:
Eleven finds that everything is catching up. And he has to face who and what he is. And his accuser is not an enemy, not a stranger, nor a lunatic or an evil mastermind. No - this time his accuser calls him ‘My Love’.
The Doctor and Doctor Song
And here’s the interesting thing. The Doctor has always treated River as an equal - a reaction to the fact that she treats *him* as an equal, I think. We see how she is the only one of his friends that he will a) Trust with tasks only he could otherwise do (say, fly the TARDIS) and b) not hold back with (emotionally).
For example, when she turns up after baby Melody has been stolen for good, he is furious that she arrives so late. And then she launches her counter attack. Essentially she says what Vastra and Dorium were pointing out earlier on, but River isn’t polite. River doesn’t try to be delicate. River doesn’t hint or gently point towards the truth:
DOCTOR: Why would a Time Lord be a weapon?
VASTRA: Well... they've seen you.
DOCTOR: Me? (sits down, stunned, almost tearful)
DOCTOR: I am so... sorry. (goes to hug her but she backs away)
JENNY: Amy... it's not his fault.
AMY: (crying) I know, I know.
No. River says: ‘This is your fault! All of it!’
And it is then that the Doctor demands to know who she is. And it’s not ‘Who are you?’, but ‘Who are you that dares speak to me like this?’ Because much as he adores all the different species out there, much as he loves all his friends, he is still a Time Lord, the last of the greatest race in the universe. And unless you are a Time Lord too, you mind how you speak to him.
Oh wait...
Not suprisingly I love the fact that River is a Time Lady. But I also love how it was done. People have for years been speculating who (what) she is, wondering if she was the TARDIS, or Romana, or the Rani etc. But what Moffat did was he created a Time Lord. Slowly and painstakingly and with great care. And I appreciate that very, very much. If you’re going to add something like that to canon, with all the implications that follow, it needs to be earned, y’know? River is one of a kind, and her creation was complex and heartbreaking and has had, and will have, consequences stretching far and wide.
It is a worry, of course, that her life is so completely dependent on him (she wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the Doctor), and we've yet to really see this aspect tackled. Although it is somewhat counterbalanced by the fact that she is ahead of him, and has so far always held all the cards. What happens when the roles are reversed... Hmm. I'm looking forward to finding out. And I have a feeling it won't be as simple as 'Handsome man saved me from the monsters.' (/Angel quote) I think it will be a lot darker, a lot more complex than that.
Because she’s not ‘just’ a companion. She’s his equal. She sees the world the way he does. And she was made to destroy him.
All of which has a lot of wonderful implications/consequences:
a) I always loved the Doctor/Master dynamic, but the one drawback was that it invariably cast the Doctor as the good guy, as opposed to the Master’s villain. The Doctor/River relationship, on the other hand, is on a far more even playing field. Neither innocent, neither wholly black or white, they balance each other out. Capable of stopping each other should one of them go too far.
b) The Doctor is no longer alone. This really is huge. Of course it also makes River’s death even more tragic, but... for a long, long time he will not be alone. And actually, I think the show has gone out of its way to prove this in as many ways as possible:
And it’s interesting that it’s not until the Doctor has basically accepted that he is not alone, that he finds out who River is.
c) A lot of us laughed at the Doctor’s utterly befuddled reaction to River’s kiss in Day of the Moon, considering the way he’d been flirting with her throughout those episodes. But I think it’s actually very telling. The kiss takes him by surprise, but it’s a lot to do with the fact that River takes it for granted. And I think that he quite simply doesn’t go there with ‘lesser species’. I mean - I think he is hugely aware of how much more gifted and intelligent he is than others, and how this would mean that a human could never really be on equal footing with a him. (‘You grow old, I regenerate.’) Just look at Rose - he absolutely loved Rose, and yet he always kept her at arm’s length, and I think this is why. When it comes to River, however, that main obstacle has been removed. (Not saying he might not sleep with people, but that’s different from an ongoing relationship.)
d) Trust. This is an interesting one. I’ve already touched on how the Doctor has automatically treated River as an equal, trusting her to do things he’d only ever do himself, and (surprise, surprise) I’m going to pull out a lovely Buffy quote, which illustrates my thoughts perfectly:
Buffy will trust her friends to act on her behalf up to a point – but if they don't see it through the consequences are hers to pick up. Spike is one of the few people Buffy will ever hand control over to. There's always been that lovely irony where trust is concerned in their relationship – in a sense, Spike is the last person in the world Buffy would choose to put her trust in, but his physical strength makes him more trustworthy than anyone when she needs him to help out.
the_royal_anna
Of course in River’s case it is not her *physical* strength, but the parallel still holds beautifully. The Doctor even directly addresses this in ‘The Impossible Astronaut’ (‘but trust you...’), yet his actions belie his words.
e) Mirroring. This is on such a ridiculously high level now that I’m not even sure what to say. I mean, they slept in the same cot. (Which is why it had to be the Doctor’s cot, not one of his children’s.) They've seen each other die. They are both the most dangerous person in the universe. They are both ready to throw their lives away for the sake of saving others. They both had lonely, unhappy childhoods. They know each others (true) names. They are both Doctors. They can save the day with a kettle and bits of string.
(ETA: We also get things like River literally taking the Doctor's place, sacrificing herself in his stead in the Library. And she was willing to throw herself into the crack to seal it, on the Byzantheum, and she could have, because she too is a CSTE - a Complex Space Time Event. Not to mention the fact that the Alliance believe that 'Only the Doctor can pilot the TARDIS.' If she was any more like him, she'd have to wear a bowtie...)
OK, stopping now, partly just because I’ve said everything before. I had a whole big section about the fact that I am 99.9% certain that River kills the Doctor (and NOT Rory - I can post it if people want to know my reasons. But I have to warn you that I can’t get my head around the idea what River would kill her father) - however, I shall just use this part:
The music. (S3 has the Master's theme running through it like a red thread. And in Utopia 'This is Gallifrey, Our Childhood, Our Home' plays pretty much every moment Yana is on screen.) The music is important. These four scenes all have the same theme:
Trust the music. Always, always, always trust the music.
~~~
River is Melody, she is a song, she is a story... and if we go back to A Christmas Carol we can hear it sung. Because Kazran and Abigail are mirrors for River and the Doctor, and that episode a bit like the show in miniature (but that is another essay, one which will involve A Waste Land and a lot of metaphors):
When you're alone, silence is all you see.
When you're alone, silence is all you'll be.
Give me your hand and come to me.
When you are here, music is all around.
When you are near, music is all around.
Open your eyes, don't make a sound.
Meet in the shadow, meet in the shadow,
Meet in the light of your bright shadow.
Meet in the shadow, meet in the shadow.
Meet in the light of your bright shadow.
It's all there already, you see. It's just a matter of reading the metaphors. And the question is not 'what?' (because we know that - River dies, the Doctor dies), it's 'how?' and 'why' and ‘when’ and ‘where?’ The story is the point, not the ending.
promethia_tenk!I know a lot of people (initially at least) felt that Eleven was... a bit of a letdown after Ten’s intensity. Eleven was all happy-go-lucky - what had happened to the all that darkness which threatened to break through Ten at any moment?
Firstly, I shall quote Matt Smith who has touched on this with great insight:
"That's what interests me about The Doctor because, actually, look at the blood on the man's hands... Which is why I think he has to make silly jokes and wear a fez. Because if he didn't, he'd hang himself."
And secondly, allow me to quote a couple of snippets from Moffat’s very first Who-story ‘Continuity Errors’, which features the Seventh Doctor (published in the 1996 Virgin Books anthology Decalog 3: Consequences):
With the wealth of historical evidence now unearthed, few people still doubt that the time travelling Doctor is more than simply a myth or, as has been claimed, a conspiracy of historians on drugs very late at night. He's real and he's out there. The question is - do we want him?
The sole surviving Morthoid from the Dark Planet once remarked, ‘Never argue politics with the Doctor. He'll just nip down a ventilation shaft, destabilise your political infrastructure, and blow up your solar system.’
[...]
Understand this. The Doctor is not a person in any sense we understand. He is what I like to call a CSTE - a Complex Space Time Event. In fact, I believe he is the most complex space time event there has ever been anywhere. And like all such events he cannot easily be studied because his very presence alters the way you think.
Extract from Professor Candy’s lecture notes (The Luna University, The Hammerstein Building, smaller lecture theatre. 2643.)
For those of you who have not read it - it is one of the single most chilling things I have EVER read. The Doctor isn’t ‘evil’ - his aims are genuinely good, and all his actions are positive. And yet... his methods, the sheer power he wields because he can rewrite time - and through that people - is absolutely terrifying. I read that story before S6 aired, and it is quite clear to me that Moffat is pursuing the same idea, but on a much grander scale.
Now going back to Ten and Eleven, I shall quote Promethia, because she said it best (and she said it post S5 so she’s quite the prophet too):
The danger with Ten was always that he’d lose it. The danger with Eleven is that he won’t.
Ten was broken, clinging to people and praying that they could save him from himself, and Waters of Mars is an exquisite portrayal of someone profoundly damaged finally reaching tipping point and losing it completely. Whereas Eleven... Eleven is far more controlled. And far more dangerous because of it. Which isn’t to say that the two aren’t connected, far from it. As a matter of fact I think Moffat is very busy dealing with all the lose ends RTD left lying about.
Allow me to use something I made last year:
You see? I’ve talked about this before, but Ten (after Adelaide shoots herself) has some very interesting lines:
DOCTOR: I've gone too far.
He turns and sees Ood Sigma is standing in the road. The Doctor falls to his knees.
DOCTOR: (to Ood Sigma) Is this it? My death? Is it time?
He expects punishment, expects there to be consequences. He knows he will die, and now he thinks he knows why. Except Ood Sigma is there on a completely different errand. This annoyed me somewhat at the time, since it seemed as if the Doctor’s instincts, and the consequences of his actions, were... well, brushed aside in favour of The Big Damn Finale.
(I have also elsewhere complained that it came across as if [the laws of] time/the universe was somehow sentient and would punish the Doctor for his actions. This irked me no end, because if you operate in a world without gods, you can’t smuggle them in by the back door. The laws of time aren’t like gravity, they’re more like criminal laws - they have to be upheld and adhered to, unlike, say gravity, where you don’t get to choose whether to fall or not if you step off a cliff. /end grumble)
But Moffat. Oh Moffat. Moffat has gone straight back to it. Because someone who wields that kind of power, unchecked, is a danger, even if he is the nicest man in the universe. There are hints now and again during RTD’s Who - f.ex. Queen Victoria’s banishment & the founding of Torchwood - but mostly the Doctor is Mr Wonderful, and anyone who opposes him is in the wrong. (I mean, just look at Wilf. I adore Wilf, but why does Wilf love the Doctor so much? Why does he not resent the Doctor for what he did? No really. Think about it.)
Moffat however has turned this around. In The Big Bang all the Doctor’s enemies (and some of his friends - hi there Silurians!) gathered to save the universe from the Doctor, and now there is another alliance fighting him, going so far as to create and then steal a baby Timelord of their own. And River, the ultimate victim of their plotting... defends them. And the best thing is that this is on a Watsonian level, not a Doylist one:
RIVER: “This was exactly you. All this, all of it. You make them so afraid. When you began, all those years ago, sailing off to see the universe, did you ever think you'd become this? The man who can turn an army around at the mention of his name? Doctor? The word for healer and wise man, throughout the universe. We get that word from you, you know. But if you carry on the way you are, what might that word come to mean? To the people of the Gamma Forests, the word "Doctor" means mighty warrior. How far you've come.”
And she’s not wrong. Back when Ten saw Ood Sigma, he wasn’t wrong. His judgement and death were coming. Not just a regeneration, but final death, because if you grasp this kind of power someone will call you on it:
THE DOCTOR: You get one warning. That was it.
‘School Reunion’
~~
DOCTOR: This ends today. I'll tear down the House of Calvierri, stone by stone.
‘Vampires of Venice’
Yet on the other hand... Let me illustrate with a few pictures, because this ties in with everything that the Silence, and the Doctor’s fight against them, represents:
The text/quotes are from The Beast Below. What the Doctor did in ‘Day of the Moon’ is what he always does. ‘Protest or forget’ is what every hero-centric show hinges on. Will the hero protest and fight, or will he turn away? Of course the Doctor will try everything in his power to come to a peaceful solution, but if he can’t? If he can’t, then he will step up and do what needs to be done.
Up to and including destroying his own people.
It’s a terrible catch-22 (see ‘Torchwood: Children of Earth’ for this catch-22, exquisitely and unflinchingly, taken to the extreme), and it is one we see the Doctor acknowledge in AGMGTW:
VASTRA: You're giving up? You never do that.
DOCTOR: (turns, angrily) Don't you sometimes wish I did?
I think this is the story of S6. That the Doctor has to face what he’s become, what he’s done, what’s he’s capable of. And that there are people out there who will not let him get away with it, because he has become, to them, the creature in the Pandorica. And yet, all that's needed for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing...
There is also the very interesting observation to be made that whereas Davros’ ultimate victory over the Doctor was to point out that he turned those he loved into weapons, we’ve now moved a step further:
The Doctor’s reputation turns people into weapons. Against himself.
Which is why Lorna is so important. She is the little girl who had an adventure with the Doctor, and she grew up to fight him, just to meet him again, and then died (bravely. They’re always brave). Which actually reminds me of a Sontaran way of looking at the world: If I can’t be your friend, I can be a worthy opponent.
Anywya, this brings me to this summary of ‘Let’s Kill Hitler’:
In the desperate search for Melody Pond, the TARDIS crash lands in 1930s Berlin, bringing the Doctor face to face with the greatest war criminal in the Universe. And Hitler. The Doctor must teach his adversaries that time travel has responsibilities - and in so doing, learns a harsh lesson in the cruellest warfare of all.
‘The greatest war criminal of all’. Now who could that be? It makes names like ‘Dream Lord’ and ‘Valeyard’ pop up in my mind, and generally causes me to rub my hands together a lot!
Which would mean that the Doctor goes to his death in order to stop his future self from becoming evil, and which would make him both the protagonist and the antagonist. (Hello there shoutout to Jekyll!)
One of the main reasons I love this is because this has nothing to do with what has ~happened~ to him, but makes it about his own choices and where they have brought him. Because it is people's choices that define them, that take them down certain paths. And some paths, if followed for long enough, will make turning around virtually impossible - and you don't get to blame circumstances, or history, or the situation. There is always a choice, and you need to own it.
Now there are two sides to this. The first one I shall illustrate with this quote from Angel:
FRED: Will it make a difference? We really are just pieces being moved around a board.
GUNN: Then we'll kick it over and start a new game. Look, monochrome can yap all he wants about no-name's cosmic plan, but here's a little something I picked up rubbing mojos these past couple of years. The final score can't be rigged. I don't care how many players you grease, that last shot always comes up a question mark. But here's the thing—you never know when you're taking it. It could be when you're duking it out with the Legion of Doom, or just crossing the street deciding where to have brunch. So you just treat it all like it was up to you—the world in the balance—'cause you never know when it is.
Where did this story start? When the Doctor crash landed in a young girl’s garden? When he was twelve years late returning? When he insisted on bringing Rory with them? (I still love that this simple act of decency is what so much of the story turns around.) Or did it start in the Library? Or is that where it ends?
Spoilers, Sweetie. Just do the best you can at any moment, and hope.
Now for the other side I shall use two different quotes. First of all this one, from Buffy:
WHISTLER: No one asks for their life to change, not really. But it does. So what are we, helpless? Puppets? No. The big moments are gonna come. You can't help that. It's what you do afterwards that counts. That's when you find out who you are.
It’s the struggle between character and story, basically. Events, large and small, constantly interfere in the characters’ lives, changing the course they try to set. But the characters still have agency of their own, and through their choices make their own bed. Let me illustrate this with another juxtaposition. This time the text is from ‘Serenity’, but it’s a perfect fit.
Now the interesting thing is that these two are sides of the same coin. All of RTD’s finales (apart from S3) centred around
Which reminds me of the Comic Relief sketch, and how that simple little story touches on so many of the things we are now dealing with in S6. I mean, Older!Doctor sending himself and his companions letters is essentially walking through the door and telling himself he needs to pull the wibbly lever writ large. Not to mention that they were stuck in conceptual space, and in S6 something has gone wrong with time. (There are contradictions in the narrative; someone has been doing a great deal of rewriting...)
However I shall save all that for a speculative post. What I'm talking about for now is that the Doctor started a war to get Amy and Melody back. He called in old favours and assembled an army. Because what he’s become, what he is, is a Mighty Warrior...
JENNY: You keep insisting you’re not a soldier. But look at you! Drawing up strategies like a proper general.
DOCTOR: No no, I’m trying to stop the fighting.
JENNY: Isn’t every soldier?
DOCTOR: Well. I suppose. But that’s… that’s… technically...
[...]
JENNY: And now you’ve got a weapon!
DOCTOR: It’s not a weapon.
JENNY: But you’re using it to fight back! (she laughs) I’m gonna learn so much from you, you are such a soldier!
[...]
JENNY: What happened?
DOCTOR: There was a war.
JENNY: Like this one?
He laughs at the absurdity of the comparison.
DOCTOR: Bigger. Much bigger.
JENNY: And you fought? And killed?
DOCTOR (darkly): Yes.
JENNY: Then how are we different?
~~~
LORNA: The only reason I joined the Clerics was to meet the Doctor again.
JENNY: You wanted to meet him, so you joined an army to fight him?
LORNA: Well, how else do you meet a great warrior?
AMY: He's not a warrior.
LORNA: Then why's he called the Doctor?
~~~
RIVER: Doctor? The word for healer and wise man, throughout the universe. We get that word from you, you know. But if you carry on the way you are, what might that word come to mean? To the people of the Gamma Forests, the word "Doctor" means mighty warrior. How far you've come.
Ten ran from this. Ran and ran and ran, and tried to avoid all the implications. But as this fic puts it (achingly perfect btw), where Eleven is talking about Ten:
“...The more I looked, the more it seemed like the Doctor was a fairy tale that a very bad man told himself so he could sleep a little easier. And comforting lies don't survive regeneration."
Eleven finds that everything is catching up. And he has to face who and what he is. And his accuser is not an enemy, not a stranger, nor a lunatic or an evil mastermind. No - this time his accuser calls him ‘My Love’.
And here’s the interesting thing. The Doctor has always treated River as an equal - a reaction to the fact that she treats *him* as an equal, I think. We see how she is the only one of his friends that he will a) Trust with tasks only he could otherwise do (say, fly the TARDIS) and b) not hold back with (emotionally).
For example, when she turns up after baby Melody has been stolen for good, he is furious that she arrives so late. And then she launches her counter attack. Essentially she says what Vastra and Dorium were pointing out earlier on, but River isn’t polite. River doesn’t try to be delicate. River doesn’t hint or gently point towards the truth:
DOCTOR: Why would a Time Lord be a weapon?
VASTRA: Well... they've seen you.
DOCTOR: Me? (sits down, stunned, almost tearful)
DOCTOR: I am so... sorry. (goes to hug her but she backs away)
JENNY: Amy... it's not his fault.
AMY: (crying) I know, I know.
No. River says: ‘This is your fault! All of it!’
And it is then that the Doctor demands to know who she is. And it’s not ‘Who are you?’, but ‘Who are you that dares speak to me like this?’ Because much as he adores all the different species out there, much as he loves all his friends, he is still a Time Lord, the last of the greatest race in the universe. And unless you are a Time Lord too, you mind how you speak to him.
Oh wait...
Not suprisingly I love the fact that River is a Time Lady. But I also love how it was done. People have for years been speculating who (what) she is, wondering if she was the TARDIS, or Romana, or the Rani etc. But what Moffat did was he created a Time Lord. Slowly and painstakingly and with great care. And I appreciate that very, very much. If you’re going to add something like that to canon, with all the implications that follow, it needs to be earned, y’know? River is one of a kind, and her creation was complex and heartbreaking and has had, and will have, consequences stretching far and wide.
It is a worry, of course, that her life is so completely dependent on him (she wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the Doctor), and we've yet to really see this aspect tackled. Although it is somewhat counterbalanced by the fact that she is ahead of him, and has so far always held all the cards. What happens when the roles are reversed... Hmm. I'm looking forward to finding out. And I have a feeling it won't be as simple as 'Handsome man saved me from the monsters.' (/Angel quote) I think it will be a lot darker, a lot more complex than that.
Because she’s not ‘just’ a companion. She’s his equal. She sees the world the way he does. And she was made to destroy him.
All of which has a lot of wonderful implications/consequences:
a) I always loved the Doctor/Master dynamic, but the one drawback was that it invariably cast the Doctor as the good guy, as opposed to the Master’s villain. The Doctor/River relationship, on the other hand, is on a far more even playing field. Neither innocent, neither wholly black or white, they balance each other out. Capable of stopping each other should one of them go too far.
b) The Doctor is no longer alone. This really is huge. Of course it also makes River’s death even more tragic, but... for a long, long time he will not be alone. And actually, I think the show has gone out of its way to prove this in as many ways as possible:
And it’s interesting that it’s not until the Doctor has basically accepted that he is not alone, that he finds out who River is.
c) A lot of us laughed at the Doctor’s utterly befuddled reaction to River’s kiss in Day of the Moon, considering the way he’d been flirting with her throughout those episodes. But I think it’s actually very telling. The kiss takes him by surprise, but it’s a lot to do with the fact that River takes it for granted. And I think that he quite simply doesn’t go there with ‘lesser species’. I mean - I think he is hugely aware of how much more gifted and intelligent he is than others, and how this would mean that a human could never really be on equal footing with a him. (‘You grow old, I regenerate.’) Just look at Rose - he absolutely loved Rose, and yet he always kept her at arm’s length, and I think this is why. When it comes to River, however, that main obstacle has been removed. (Not saying he might not sleep with people, but that’s different from an ongoing relationship.)
d) Trust. This is an interesting one. I’ve already touched on how the Doctor has automatically treated River as an equal, trusting her to do things he’d only ever do himself, and (surprise, surprise) I’m going to pull out a lovely Buffy quote, which illustrates my thoughts perfectly:
Buffy will trust her friends to act on her behalf up to a point – but if they don't see it through the consequences are hers to pick up. Spike is one of the few people Buffy will ever hand control over to. There's always been that lovely irony where trust is concerned in their relationship – in a sense, Spike is the last person in the world Buffy would choose to put her trust in, but his physical strength makes him more trustworthy than anyone when she needs him to help out.
the_royal_annaOf course in River’s case it is not her *physical* strength, but the parallel still holds beautifully. The Doctor even directly addresses this in ‘The Impossible Astronaut’ (‘but trust you...’), yet his actions belie his words.
e) Mirroring. This is on such a ridiculously high level now that I’m not even sure what to say. I mean, they slept in the same cot. (Which is why it had to be the Doctor’s cot, not one of his children’s.) They've seen each other die. They are both the most dangerous person in the universe. They are both ready to throw their lives away for the sake of saving others. They both had lonely, unhappy childhoods. They know each others (true) names. They are both Doctors. They can save the day with a kettle and bits of string.
(ETA: We also get things like River literally taking the Doctor's place, sacrificing herself in his stead in the Library. And she was willing to throw herself into the crack to seal it, on the Byzantheum, and she could have, because she too is a CSTE - a Complex Space Time Event. Not to mention the fact that the Alliance believe that 'Only the Doctor can pilot the TARDIS.' If she was any more like him, she'd have to wear a bowtie...)
OK, stopping now, partly just because I’ve said everything before. I had a whole big section about the fact that I am 99.9% certain that River kills the Doctor (and NOT Rory - I can post it if people want to know my reasons. But I have to warn you that I can’t get my head around the idea what River would kill her father) - however, I shall just use this part:
The music. (S3 has the Master's theme running through it like a red thread. And in Utopia 'This is Gallifrey, Our Childhood, Our Home' plays pretty much every moment Yana is on screen.) The music is important. These four scenes all have the same theme:
Trust the music. Always, always, always trust the music.
~~~
River is Melody, she is a song, she is a story... and if we go back to A Christmas Carol we can hear it sung. Because Kazran and Abigail are mirrors for River and the Doctor, and that episode a bit like the show in miniature (but that is another essay, one which will involve A Waste Land and a lot of metaphors):
When you're alone, silence is all you see.
When you're alone, silence is all you'll be.
Give me your hand and come to me.
When you are here, music is all around.
When you are near, music is all around.
Open your eyes, don't make a sound.
Meet in the shadow, meet in the shadow,
Meet in the light of your bright shadow.
Meet in the shadow, meet in the shadow.
Meet in the light of your bright shadow.
It's all there already, you see. It's just a matter of reading the metaphors. And the question is not 'what?' (because we know that - River dies, the Doctor dies), it's 'how?' and 'why' and ‘when’ and ‘where?’ The story is the point, not the ending.
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I wish there was something I could do, other than offer virtual hugs. If there's anything, just let me know.
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I had a thought -- and I'll have to go back and watch. When River dies in the Library, what happens to her body? Now that we know she is a Time Lady, is there any chance that after the Doctor leaves, she may have regenerated?
!!???
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Thank you. And I am almost physically incapable of writing meta without Whedon verse quotes... (These shows all hit the same buttons. Makes me happy.)
I had a thought -- and I'll have to go back and watch. When River dies in the Library, what happens to her body? Now that we know she is a Time Lady, is there any chance that after the Doctor leaves, she may have regenerated?
Unfortunately not:
DOCTOR: Easy! We beam all the people out of the data core, the computer will reset and stop the countdown. Difficult, Charlotte doesn't have enough memory space left to make the transfer. Easy! I'll hook myself up to the computer and she can borrow my memory space!
RIVER: Difficult! It'll kill you stone dead!
DOCTOR: Yeah, it's easy to criticise.
RIVER: It'll burn out both your hearts and don't think you'll regenerate!
See? Moffat knew what she was even then. (EVERYTHING comes back to the Library episodes. EVERYTHING!)
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Your thoughts on the Doctor reminded me of this recent quote by SM:
"...[The Doctor is] just a lunatic who’s capering around trying to have lunch somewhere nice, and all these people think that he’s this massive, mighty foe... I think that’s a fun thing to play with. Because we know he isn’t. We know he hasn’t even got a plan. He can’t even drive the box. We know that’s not true. So I think that makes it a fun thing to play with. It’s a dangerous card for the Doctor to play because the more he makes his enemies fear him, the more powerful they will become in response to what is, in fact, an unarmed man who can’t drive."
Also I think the "war criminal" is totally River. In what way have they not been mirrored yet? Mass destruction of a people... And she was TRAINED to be a weapon in war, and has a massive reputation throughout the Universe that I don't think you earn just from killing one dude. I'm sure there's a lot more to it than that...
I might might have to mull over the rest of this and add some more later...
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There's a thought, hmmm . . . *fondles*
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<3 back atcha!
It’s a dangerous card for the Doctor to play because the more he makes his enemies fear him, the more powerful they will become in response to what is, in fact, an unarmed man who can’t drive.
OH MOFFAT! *genuine LOL*
Also I think the "war criminal" is totally River. In what way have they not been mirrored yet?
Hmmm. Well one of my thoughts is that she takes on his reputation, and this is how the Doctor can continue to gallivant around and have fun, so that could fit rather well. Must ponder more...
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*blushes* I've never been called that before. Thank you.
This meta just . . . it makes me want to WRITE. That's really the best way to describe how compelling all this was and how you presented it.
*dances* That's like... the best compliment anyone could pay me! (And I've yet to read your long fic! *cries*)
If you are ever in my area of the world, let me take you out to lunch and talk Doctor Who meta, because -damn, you're good.
*blushes some more* And I'm totally taking you up on that if the occasion arises. You don't feel like come to England, do you?
And you make me see the show in new, fascinating, relevant ways.
\o/
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Plus, and I think this is a direct result of why I never liked them removing the Time Lords. Always before he had this same power, but he had the Time Lords there to watch him, to curtail him with enforceable laws. To make sure he didn't interfere to that extent.
But once the Time Lords were gone, there was no one to stop him. No one to remind him that there are many very good reasons for flying under the radar, for only going so far and no farther.
It was only after they were gone, after he no longer had any checks on him, and no cultural background left to remind him of the consequences of his tampepring, that he started becoming a godlike figure, started believing in his own hype, and started losing himself in the "if you're looking for a higher authority, there isn't one" mindset.
The Time Lords kept him from that for the most part, because he wasn't the biggest player in the room. He was the red-haired stepchild. A bit dense, but with potential.
And that kept him on a more even keel. He'd bend the laws as far as he dared, but he still knew he could only go so far.
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I've always been very rabidly against the idea of the Doctor being in a romantic relationship with his Companions. For many different reasons. But the greatest has always been that he isn't human, and I don't want him reduced to the normal banality of human responses and relationships, I think he should be a bit different as someone who is very old, beyond a level of maturity that humans will ever achieve, and from an alien and very ancient civilization who may have very different ideas and lifestyles.
But with River, as she is being developed so far, as you said, she treats him as an equal, and he treats her one, even unconsciously. Even when he thought she was "only human" she was never less than a full partner in whatever they were doing. She's not "dependent" on him in the way that most humans are, even the older humans. River can make her own way in space and time, she doesn't "need" him in the same way the others do. He's not her tour guide and protector in the strangeness of other worlds, instead she's a fellow traveller, one who understands.
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Totally my pleasure! And it's interesting to have these ideas play out on screen, and for the show to delve into them. *nom nom meta*
And sometimes getting what you deserve is the scariest thing of all.
I don't know if you're a fan of the Buffy 'verse, but the word 'deserve' is one of the key words there, and pings all my meta senses! :)
The Time Lords kept him from that for the most part, because he wasn't the biggest player in the room. He was the red-haired stepchild. A bit dense, but with potential.
So much word. Only passed his final exams on his second attempt, with 51%... Which is one reason I love River so much. She keeps his ego in check! *g*
And that kept him on a more even keel. He'd bend the laws as far as he dared, but he still knew he could only go so far.
Not that the Timelords weren't corrupt or stagnant or difficult, but they were *there*. And now we have Kovarian and the Alliance etc. It's good that someone's watching him.
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As a matter of fact I think Moffat is very busy dealing with all the lose ends RTD left lying about.
I have always thought this. Furthermore, he's looking at the consequences of the Time War-- not from what it did to the Doctor, but what it did to the universe's perception of him. Right now, a lot of people saw him destroy his planet, and fear what he will do next. And how do fearful people react to something they see as a threat? They get weapons to bring it down.
I think this is the story of S6. That the Doctor has to face what he’s become, what he’s done, what’s he’s capable of. And that there are people out there who will not let him get away with it, because he has become, to them, the creature in the Pandorica.
Yes, yes, yes. And will he be able to heed that right away? I doubt it, because he's used to thinking of himself as the authority. (Though I also think Eleven is far more stable than Ten, knows he isn't the authority, and is afraid of himself and what he can do. But he's still an arrogant Time Lord.) It will take time-- nearly two hundred years possibly-- and it could be one of the reasons he willingly walks to his death.
The plot was something that happened to the characters (and even S3 had shades of this, although the Master was obviously a personal foe). Whereas with Moffat the characters are the plot. The ‘Bad Guys’ are fighting the Doctor because of his own actions.
Thank you so much for articulating this. My sister and I have been debating, and she just doesn't see Moffat as a character writer, whereas I think he is. And that is why.
“...The more I looked, the more it seemed like the Doctor was a fairy tale that a very bad man told himself so he could sleep a little easier. And comforting lies don't survive regeneration."
What fic is this from?
I love that "YANA" macro. The Doctor has a family again. (As much as I like the Tylers, he never fit in or felt truly welcomed. His family then was Rose, and Jackie was someone he had to put up with.) And I think Ten was incapable of seeing his other companions as family, no matter what Sarah Jane told him.
Trust the music. Always, always, always trust the music.
I do. I can't see metaphors that well, but the music is something that's right there.
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That's a really excellent point, and it brings up a very fundamental part of human nature (in my opinion)--that humans are fearful. If something becomes "too" powerful, we fear that it will be turned against us. The best of human nature prepares a way to defend itself against it--the worst, which so often comes into play, then strikes preemptively to defend itself. It's difficult to say which we're seeing play out here, because it's impossible to tell if a future!Doctor has already done something to cause these people to strike back, or if they're just striking because they fear he will.
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*flails*
I've been reading your other meta, but don't have much to say (except that I love that you pointed out the skirt dichotomy Moffat can't win).
Heh. I worried about addressing it, but...
Right now, a lot of people saw him destroy his planet, and fear what he will do next. And how do fearful people react to something they see as a threat? They get weapons to bring it down.
*nods* Kovarian doesn't see herself as the bad guy, and that's what makes it interesting.
(Though I also think Eleven is far more stable than Ten, knows he isn't the authority, and is afraid of himself and what he can do. But he's still an arrogant Time Lord.) It will take time-- nearly two hundred years possibly-- and it could be one of the reasons he willingly walks to his death.
My thoughts exactly.
Thank you so much for articulating this. My sister and I have been debating, and she just doesn't see Moffat as a character writer, whereas I think he is. And that is why.
My pleasure! :)
What fic is this from?
Boxing Day. Eleven and Wilf. AMAZING. (Have been meaning to rec it. Meta got in the way...)
I love that "YANA" macro. The Doctor has a family again.
\o/ I have close to zero graphic skills, but sometimes things just NEED illustrating.
As much as I like the Tylers, he never fit in or felt truly welcomed. His family then was Rose, and Jackie was someone he had to put up with.
I think this is probably partly because Nine was very stand-offish, and 'didn't do domestic'. Ten was much better, but because everyone got off to a bad start it was always complicated.
And I think Ten was incapable of seeing his other companions as family, no matter what Sarah Jane told him.
Especially since he ended up ALL ALONE five minutes later...
I do. I can't see metaphors that well, but the music is something that's right there.
It's wonderful. When Vastra and Dorian point out how everyone sees the Doctor as dangerous, the Pandorica theme starts playing... ♥
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As always, your meta is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. How gorgeous!
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♥ ♥ ♥
I've been pretty bitter about some stuff involving Ten, mostly because I didn't feel like he got called on it. But if I can view Moffat's run as the Doctor getting called on this stuff, I feel like it might renew my love of RTD's stuff, which would be glorious. I need to mull on that a bit more.
I absolutely think that's what's happening. I mean, Moffat has said so! :)
As always, your meta is a thing of beauty and a joy forever. How gorgeous!
Awww. It sorta wrote itself. And this is the shortened version...
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re:Lorna, she as a character fascinates me very much. I've seen a lot of people complaining about her story, her death, her use as a "token character of color to be killed off" (seriously, wat?), but I think her role is powerful and fantastic. To me, she reads as someone who did not meet the Doctor and then go off to fight the Doctor, but an incredibly condensed and brutal summary of the story of all of the Doctor's companions. She meets him, just once--and she spends her life looking for him. She joins an army and fights a war she doesn't have to be a part of because she thinks that that has the best chance of bringing her to the Doctor's attention--and, when the "great warrior" she remembers doesn't notice her, she goes to fight him directly, with the intention of betraying the army of which she is a part just to join him. And as a consequence, she dies. Just, the parallels~
Another of the things I am enjoying immensely about Moffat's Who is watching the Doctor sort of unravel as the series goes on, something you've touched on very well here, and someone River unflinchingly forces him to do. The role of unveil-er--mirror, if you like--is one that I have always believed to be of great importance in River's character (I explored it some in fic form here, long before AGMGtW). I love how you've written about it here, putting it in such sharp contrast with how other people speak to/treat him.
Also I love that River is a Time Lady~ I've sort of always had the feeling that she must, but after getting shot down over it so often when I was new to the fandom, I sort of gave up until I found the spoilers that she was Amy's daughter. I love every bit of how Moffat made River a brand new Time Lady without delving too deeply into the past and without revealing any more about the Time War (I prefer that to be a nice, dark mystery). Mostly I just want to give Moffat a large, squishy hug (forget the stars. If I ever meet the group, I'm hugging Moffat first).
Re: why you think she kills the Doctor and not Rory, DO WANT. After AGMGtW I was firmly in the group that expected River to kill Rory, but as more is revealed about series six B, I find it less and less likely. At the same time, I still think that AGMGtW placed very significant emphasis on the fact that the Doctor was not "a good man", which forms the basis of my belief. I have several theories as to why River might kill Rory, but upon reconsideration at least half of them would almost certainly not be explored in a show with a large audience of children.
I'd love to read the Christmas Carol meta as well~ I love all the meta. :3
Also, though I assume the likelihood of you showing up in Texas is slim to none, let me extend
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No offense to you or your post, this is just something that bugs me. I'm so tired of every show I see having to have some "tragic" hero. I used to love that the Doctor was a hero, who had all the normal human foibles; he got things wrong, he was clumsy, arrogant, intolerant, goofy, not necessarily good looking, said the wrong things, was childish and pouty and all those normal everyday human foibles that make us so imperfect.
Yet, underneath it all, he was a mature, well adjusted, adult. He didn't need to be "tragic" he didn't need to be "unravelled" in order to be interesting. And I really enjoyed that. I could look up to the Doctor, because he was someone who'd lived long enough to figure things out. He did what had to be done, but he didn't angst about it all the time. And the show wasn't all about how screwed up he was.
I appreciate what Moff is doing, with trying to tie off some of the threads left by RTD, and trying to "fix" some of the literary problems which would make future stories a bit harder to write. Such as the Doctor being so famous that bad guys just run from him on sight. Giving him River as a check and counter-check and a substitute for the Time Lords in a way.
But, I'm really tired of all this navel gazing as the main focus of the "drama" there's plenty of dramatic potential in adventure stories that doesn't revolve around having to deconstruct the characters or have the Companions all end up with a shitty fate, such as getting locked away in a different dimension, be traumatised, mindwiped, or having their baby or wife stolen.
We've had this kind of focus for over 5 years now. Where far too much of the "drama" is based mostly on making everyone emotionally miserable. I'm tired of it. I just want some fun, tense, scary, intelligent, clever, outragous, adventures and mysteries and conundrums that require the Doctor to be clever, his friends to be brave, and nobody end up broken at the end.
I'm sorry, but it's a trend in TV that I'm really, really, really, tired of. Depression masking as drama. Pessimism masquerading as plot. And virtually every show taking the pure, wholesome heroes and making them psychologically screwed up.
I like that the Doctor is eccentric, but whole. There's something in that to admire. There's more than enough "broken" heroes out there to fill anyone's bill. Why do they have to "break" the Doctor?
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Not at all. Quote away! *is honoured*
re:Lorna, she as a character fascinates me very much. I've seen a lot of people complaining about her story, her death, her use as a "token character of color to be killed off" (seriously, wat?), but I think her role is powerful and fantastic. To me, she reads as someone who did not meet the Doctor and then go off to fight the Doctor, but an incredibly condensed and brutal summary of the story of all of the Doctor's companions.
*nods* And how dark things can turn... I also have a horrible suspicion that he's not met little!Lorna yet. :(
I love how you've written about it here, putting it in such sharp contrast with how other people speak to/treat him.
Again there are a lot of Buffy/Spike parallels here (and Spike/Angel) - people who are alike, who know each other so well that they can speak uncomfortable truths and be heard and not shut out.
I love every bit of how Moffat made River a brand new Time Lady without delving too deeply into the past and without revealing any more about the Time War (I prefer that to be a nice, dark mystery). Mostly I just want to give Moffat a large, squishy hug (forget the stars. If I ever meet the group, I'm hugging Moffat first).
Heeee! I know just how you feel. And yeah, River as sekkrit!Time Lady is awesome. So very convoluted, yet so simple...
Re: why you think she kills the Doctor and not Rory, DO WANT.
How ODD. If I post it, I shall make sure to sign post it. But I can't see River killing Rory as making ANY kind of sense. OK, so Rory killing Amy kinda came out of the left field, so never say never, but why would you WANT that? (You don't need to answer. But - to me - all the metaphors say that she kills the Doctor. I don't know how it'll work, but plot shmot. She is Chekovs gun.)
I'd love to read the Christmas Carol meta as well~ I love all the meta. :3
Well Promethia was supposed to write it... *coughs*
Also, though I assume the likelihood of you showing up in Texas is slim to none, let me extend
Aw, thank you. And you're welcome in Yorkshire too! :)
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River Song has slowly been growing on me.
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And I've loved River unconditionally ever since this moment... *points to icon*
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A very well written meta post.
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*nods a lot* Everything is connected. What happens now doesn't just impact the future, it also helps explain the past. (Mostly I wish I could create 3D diagrams to show how everything fits together...)
Because that's always how Moffat writes, and to form a full picture you have to look at all of it, way beyond the obvious, and then it all makes sense and it's beautiful.
It really is. (The beginning is the end is the beginning.)
A very well written meta post.
Thank you. It's what I do! :) (Just to sound totally big headed. Really it's more that I can't not write meta...)