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Ten's Heart of Darkness (brief meta thoughts)
How the hell did RTD turn the Doctor into Kurtz? On paper it seems madness, yet it's all right there. Mr Davies, I am in awe. Brief musings below the cut. Well, not so much musings, as letting the thing speak for itself...
I'll just do some straight copying from the book, with screencaps added for emphasis:
And this part needs no explanation - it is, quite simply, the most stunningly accurate description of what happened to Ten on Mars that I've ever read:
Finally, this part also struck me quite forcibly.
Next up - Dante!
I'll just do some straight copying from the book, with screencaps added for emphasis:
The International Society for the Suppression of Savage Customs had intrusted him with the making of a report [...] The opening paragraph, however, in the light of later information, strikes me now as ominous.
'By the simple exercise of our will we can exert a power for good practically unbounded,' etc., etc. From that point he soared and took me with him. The peroration was magnificent, though difficult to remember, you know. It gave me the notion of an exotic Immensity ruled by an august Benevolence. It made me tingle with enthusiasm. This was the unbounded power of eloquence - of words - of burning noble words. There were no practical hints to interrupt the magic current of phrases, unless a kind of note at the foot of the last page, scrawled evidently much later, in an unsteady hand, may be regarded as the exposition of a method. It was very simple, and at the end of that moving appeal to every altruistic sentiment it blazed at you, luminous and terrifying, like a flash of lightening in a serene sky:
The curious part was that he had apparently forgotten all about that valuable postscriptum, because, later on, when he in a sense came to himself, he repeatedly entreated me to take good care of 'my pamphlet' (he called it), as it was sure to have in the future a good influence upon his career.
And this part needs no explanation - it is, quite simply, the most stunningly accurate description of what happened to Ten on Mars that I've ever read:
Finally, this part also struck me quite forcibly.
Whatever he was, he was not common. He had the power to charm or frighten rudimentary souls into an aggravated witch-dance in his honour; he could also fill the small souls of the pilgrims with bitter misgivings; he had one devoted friend at least, and he had conquered one soul in the world that was neither rudimentary nor tainted with self-seeking. No; I can't forget him, though I am not prepared to affirm that the fellow was exactly worth the life we lost in getting to him.
Next up - Dante!
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I'm curious--why is that? (Or will this come up in the brewing meta you alluded to in your above comment to a_phoenixdragon?)
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But more than that, then this quote sums it up:
'Cause you know the Doctor, he's wonderful, he's brilliant, but he's like fire -- stand to close and people get burned.
Martha, like Marlow, has a dual view of the Doctor, and she, like Marlow, can't choose.
(It will appear in the meta, although not in great depth - if you want something deeper, I actually delved into the whole thing in this fic. Written before I read this book, but it deals very much with perceptions and lies and stories and dualities and how Martha (and Mickey) relates to the Doctor.)
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I'm just out the door, but I'll have to come back with some coherent thoughts!
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And from "Mistah Kurtz, he dead" to The Hollow Men, and I was going to post some quotes, but now I'm thinking someone should do a Doctor Who vid set to that poem... Preferably the one read, in-character, by Marlon Brando in Apocalypse Now. At which point the universe may well fold in on itself and end. With a bang, of course.
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My Big Meta is on The Hollow Men, since that is Ten's poem through and through and through. (And is indeed quoted by him.)
ETA: I had not heard of Brando's recital, so I went and looked it up. 'Tis quite, quite awesome. Although I now know the poem so well that the few (minor) deviations stuck out... Am being eaten alive by poetry.
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It just struck me that in my last Doctor Who fic, I had Martha quote The Hollow Men... or rather, I had her quote Neville Shute quoting The Hollow Men in On The Beach. Huh.
that is Ten's poem through and through and through
With the British colonialism theme, I think there's a lot of connections to be made to the Family Of Blood two-parter - including hollow men of straw, behaving as the wind behaves...
...Oh, and isn't there something distinctly Hamletian about the whole "Between the motion and the act" bit?
I had not heard of Brando's recital
But I assume you've seen Apocalypse Now? He reads a few lines of it in the movie as well. (Incidentally, Coppola's other main influence in that movie was Werner Herzog's Aguirre - The Wrath Of God, which ties very nicely into the Heart Of Darkness/Mighty Whitey descending into native hell trope as well... Sometimes I think Herzog has spent his entire career filming The Hollow Men.)
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Clearly great minds think alike. :) Also I think I missed that fic - I can has link please?
With the British colonialism theme, I think there's a lot of connections to be made to the Family Of Blood two-parter - including hollow men of straw, behaving as the wind behaves...
Totally. And Lazarus & the Doctor quote The Hollow Men in The Lazarus Experiment, so I think RTD was very aware of the connotations. Esp as John Smith was quite literally hollow... And, of course, it's ALLLLL about death, which is what Ten is steeped in. (This has been eating my brain for over a week, and will for a good while to come.)
...Oh, and isn't there something distinctly Hamletian about the whole "Between the motion and the act" bit?
*nods a lot*
But I assume you've seen Apocalypse Now?
I must have done, but the memory is hazy - so I wouldn't have picked up on it [the poem] at all.
Sometimes I think Herzog has spent his entire career filming The Hollow Men.
Well it's certainly a rich vein!
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Bernard's Rules (DW/Black Books xover)
And now I'm pondering if there are any outright Apocalypse Now nods in RTD's Who - as the most well-known adaptation of Heart of Darkness, there probably should be. Hmmm.
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And as for outright nods then I'm not sure. Although Harold Saxon/the Master could also read as Kurtz. (And looking back, then I watched The Lazarus Experiment at the beginning of March, so it's been ticking away for a long time. Mmmm.)