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DW Christmas Special
No coherent thoughts, just two images. Because that ending just glowed.
Because remember this:
WILFRED: Oh, Doctor... What about you, now? Who've you got? I mean, all those friends of yours...?
THE DOCTOR: They've all got someone else. Still, that's fine. I'm fine.
And now... He doesn't just have friends, he has family. Who always set a place for him. I can't even. The look on his face as it sinks in... He has a place where he belongs! ♥ ALL THE LOVE.
The Doctor spends all his time trying to make others happy, he forgets about himself - I am so pleased that Santa Moff is looking after him, and making sure he is happy too.
ETA: I also liked Promethia's point that now he has a wife, the Doctor is even more like Santa Claus. This is very much of the good. ♥
ETA2: How did I forget? 'Caretaker' is my favourite new name for the Doctor. Because that's exactly what he is: The Caretaker of the universe. (And Caretakers aren't Great Warriors. They take care of things. With mops. See where I'm going with this? *g*)
ETA3: OK, one thought: The Doctor didn't really save anyone. All he wanted was to give a family a happy Christmas. He couldn't save the trees - although he obviously wanted to - and happily let Madge do it. Nor did he rant and rave against the people turning the trees into fuel - he was just happy that the trees were OK. Also, he didn't save Madge's husband (and didn't plan to either) - that came about through Madge's ready acceptance that she could save the trees, so she would. And because of that, because she was ready to embrace pain for the sake of someone/something else, she in the process got her husband back. Ditto the Doctor - by trying to give the Arwell family a happy Christmas, he was given one himself. I can't think of a better Christmas message. ♥
ETA4: Oh and re. the point about the Doctor not saving the day... That's because he's not The Hero. He's a Trickster, a Wizard - the one who facilitates other's journeys. To quote![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
malsperanza:
I especially like [the Trickster] because he is often not the protagonist or hero, but the other fellow--the catalyst or outsider whose unexpected arrival and unpredictable behavior turn the world upside down and get the story rolling. And sometimes even tell the story.
This Christmas Special was the perfect illustration of that.
ETA5: Nothing to do with the rest of the post, except it is Christmas related... I bought the girls the Doctor Who Annual 2012, and when flicking through it discovered that it contained 'Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday'. And it is AWESOME!!!! (Also, if this is typical of a Gallifreyan fairy tale - which it clearly is - then it is NO WONDER that the Doctor sees the world the way he does!)
Because remember this:
WILFRED: Oh, Doctor... What about you, now? Who've you got? I mean, all those friends of yours...?
THE DOCTOR: They've all got someone else. Still, that's fine. I'm fine.
And now... He doesn't just have friends, he has family. Who always set a place for him. I can't even. The look on his face as it sinks in... He has a place where he belongs! ♥ ALL THE LOVE.
The Doctor spends all his time trying to make others happy, he forgets about himself - I am so pleased that Santa Moff is looking after him, and making sure he is happy too.
ETA: I also liked Promethia's point that now he has a wife, the Doctor is even more like Santa Claus. This is very much of the good. ♥
ETA2: How did I forget? 'Caretaker' is my favourite new name for the Doctor. Because that's exactly what he is: The Caretaker of the universe. (And Caretakers aren't Great Warriors. They take care of things. With mops. See where I'm going with this? *g*)
ETA3: OK, one thought: The Doctor didn't really save anyone. All he wanted was to give a family a happy Christmas. He couldn't save the trees - although he obviously wanted to - and happily let Madge do it. Nor did he rant and rave against the people turning the trees into fuel - he was just happy that the trees were OK. Also, he didn't save Madge's husband (and didn't plan to either) - that came about through Madge's ready acceptance that she could save the trees, so she would. And because of that, because she was ready to embrace pain for the sake of someone/something else, she in the process got her husband back. Ditto the Doctor - by trying to give the Arwell family a happy Christmas, he was given one himself. I can't think of a better Christmas message. ♥
ETA4: Oh and re. the point about the Doctor not saving the day... That's because he's not The Hero. He's a Trickster, a Wizard - the one who facilitates other's journeys. To quote
malsperanza:I especially like [the Trickster] because he is often not the protagonist or hero, but the other fellow--the catalyst or outsider whose unexpected arrival and unpredictable behavior turn the world upside down and get the story rolling. And sometimes even tell the story.
This Christmas Special was the perfect illustration of that.
ETA5: Nothing to do with the rest of the post, except it is Christmas related... I bought the girls the Doctor Who Annual 2012, and when flicking through it discovered that it contained 'Snow White and the Seven Keys to Doomsday'. And it is AWESOME!!!! (Also, if this is typical of a Gallifreyan fairy tale - which it clearly is - then it is NO WONDER that the Doctor sees the world the way he does!)
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How many hundreds of years with no family, and now he has one? I'm getting a bit teary thinking about it. But I'm also dreading the inevitable end.
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And come on - he can always go round to the Ponds off screen. And he has CENTURIES AND CENTURIES with River. (Ending are sad but at least he won't be standing outside IN THE RAIN. All by himseeeeeeeelf!)
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Only complaint - not enough of the adorable Bill Bailey.
PS - husband got a fez for Christmas. I got a Dalek mug and a Moominmamma luggage tag, which just about sums me up.
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I call it 'Project Make the Doctor Happy'. And I love Moffat FOREVER. ♥
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Also, how awesome was the dual motherhood/feminism theme of Madge? I love that he basically said that femininity and motherhood can enhance a woman, whereas so much of the world right now insists that either of those things detract from being a Strong Woman (TM).
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And he respect them as women. *snickers* Oh, he's such a troll! (Although I never understood the criticisms - he seems to write nothing BUT strong female characters...)
Only complaint - not enough of the adorable Bill Bailey.
I KNOW! He'll have to come back!
PS - husband got a fez for Christmas. I got a Dalek mug and a Moominmamma luggage tag, which just about sums me up.
Those sound like PERFECT gifts. ♥
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I love that he basically said that femininity and motherhood can enhance a woman, whereas so much of the world right now insists that either of those things detract from being a Strong Woman (TM).
*nods* And she wasn't a saint - she was just a woman, with her own quirks and silliness.
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I saw someone say something similar on tumblr and Lol'd. Moffat has ALWAYS written women like Madge.
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Or by writing the men as somehow useless in relation to their "amazing" women. He's even got the Doctor being a "useless boyfriend."
Sorry, but there is such a dichotomy in the way he writes men and women, especially in relation to one another, that it seems like there is a bigger gender gap now than there ever has been in Doctor Who. And that seems really strange since we're now living in an age when men and women have more equal rights and opportunities than ever before.
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(Although useless HOW? Rory is the Last Centurion. The Doctor is... the most wonderful man in the universe, and has saved thew world more times than anyone can count (and comes to help when people make a wish! He's like Santa Claus!). Madge's husband is a RAF pilot. These are not useless qualities.)
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Despite being "the Last Centurion" for most of the time Rory is still depicted as being the rather lame, overly-patient, "follow along after Amy and don't argue much" boyfriend.
His role seems to be to do whatever Amy wants. He actually seems to be there to be her servant. Heck, we see them out shopping and he's carrying all the bags, like a porter.
The hundreds of years old Doctor is depicted as the "harried husband" or the "nervous virgin."
When relating to their "women" the men are generally depicted as somehow the "oppressed" or lamer gender.
The RAF husband was the only one who didn't seem cowed by his wife's awesomeness.
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ETA: Also, see comments above about people saying 'Oh finally the Moff is writing strong women!' (Or RTD's preemptive annoyance - in The Writer's Tale - about viewers v. predictable reaction to Donna coming back...) This is not a game the writers can ever win, because it is completely based on people's subjective views.
ETA2: Re. women being defined by being mums (or wives)... Moffat writes about families. S6 was awash with stories about men accepting (and gaining strength from) fatherhood, and the Doctor's story was pretty much all about learning to accept (and then gain strength from) being River's husband - especially that it wasn't about being The Big Man or Putting On A Show (which he is very, very good at - distraction could be his middle name), but just about loving and accepting her. This Christmas Special is the natural progression, in that it's about accepting that he has a family - people who love him - and that brings obligations. He isn't alone, and he shouldn't be alone. Willful loneliness is basically coded as selfishness in Moffat's world, I think. Not noble or tragic... And if there is a gender thing, then it's the fact that Moffat knows that women are, on the whole, far, far, far better at understanding these basic facts. Men run away. Women stay and just get on with it. <- ridiculous simplification, and yet not untrue. (Murphy's Law: Everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. Mrs Murphy's Law: And when it has gone wrong, it's the woman who has to put things right.)
I'm rambling because you made me think, and because we'll be leaving soon, and I'm not sure when we'll be back, so I'm just recording all the thoughts that tumble into my head.
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Well the mecha-pilot woman was neither of those. But I think I'd also like it if the story didn't focus on gender differences. I like Moffat but I have to roll my eyes at the men vs. women thing; he seems to use it as a humor crutch.
I was entertained though; I liked this story the way I liked season six; didn't quite all add up in the end, but worth it for the little moments :)
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Caretaker is a wonderful definition, Matt Smith is always a genius. ♥
As you say, Eleventh may be not a hero, but he's just the stuff that dreams are made of.
Awesome!
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And oh, S6... it was the greatest re-boot since RTD invented the Time War and did away with Gallifrey. <3 (Not without flaws, but still unbelievably impressive!)
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Happy Doctor is so much more affecting than Sad Doctor. <3
Caretaker is a wonderful definition, Matt Smith is always a genius. ♥
He really is!
As you say, Eleventh may be not a hero, but he's just the stuff that dreams are made of.
The Doctor is *supposed* to be a Trickster, or wizard... He can be heroic too, but that's not who he is. He's... like Santa Claus! :)
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Tiresias, although a mere spectator and not indeed a 'character', is yet the most important personage in the poem, uniting all the rest. Just as the one-eyed merchant, seller of currants, melts into the Phoenician Sailor, and the latter is not wholly distinct from Ferdinand Prince of Naples, so all the women are one woman, and the two sexes meet in Tiresias. What Tiresias sees, in fact, is the substance of the poem.
So very, very much of Doctor Who in that... As in, all the women can be seen as one woman, and all the men as one man - the mirrors are deliberate. And the Doctor can in many ways be seen as Tiresias - he is the storyteller, standing outside the story, observing. (And then in turn, River is his storyteller... Also see icon!)
And now I'm going to bed! I am literally half asleep. This is too much for a simple comment. *g*
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I love you/No you don't
or:
I love you/Don't
After everything we've been given - especially all the Night of the Doctor extras - oh, I'm not complaining. It would have been nice (and maybe there was even some cut lines somewhere, we don't know), but hey, I can live without. We've already got a feast. :)
ETA: Plus, we can have fun writing fic - because I'm sure River was in the kitchen. She's a good girl, after all, and good girls come home for Christmas.
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That is a very perceptive point. And goes so very against the grain of what we're used to seeing on tv that I feel like it almost slips by.
Love, love your little macro with the mop up there =D
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Yeah, I've not seen others comment on it. But I like it, and as a baseline it's lovely. It's like a show-don't-tell criticism?
Love, love your little macro with the mop up there =D
*g* It might have been inspired rather directly by the caretakers at work...