Doctor Who and Romance: Everything dies

[butterfly]

So, I'm reading the TWoP recaps of Doctor Who, which I find interesting, partly because Jacob doesn't really recap like anyone else on the site. In a recent season two recap, he said something that struck me -- that they are, in some ways, telling the same story thirteen different ways.

Which is to say -- everything ends. Everything dies. They've said it explicitly several times already -- Sarah Jane in School Reunion says it to the Doctor when he's being tempted by the Headmaster, the Doctor says to the Queen (after she tells him that anyone who own the Koh-I-Noor is fated to die), that anything you own, if you own it long enough, could predict your death, because everything dies. Cassandra dies at the end of New Earth.

And in the first tenth Doctor episode -- no second chances. The old things pass away, so that the new things can come. Nobody gets out unscathed. That's life.

That's the lesson that the Doctor and Rose learn and teach, over and over, in the second season. Rose makes the choice to stay with the Doctor, to never choose to leave, but that doesn't mean that she gets to stay. Everything ends, whether you want it to or not.

Everything changes -- with the death of something old, comes the birth of something new. The ninth Doctor died, but the tenth is here now. Cassandra is dead, but she helped to create a new people. Sarah Jane has said her good-byes to the Doctor, but there's a Smith in the TARDIS again now.

Television is life compressed, cut down and intensified. They can't show us Rose and the Doctor travelling together for fifty years. But they can show us both sides wanting to.

The same kind of thing happened in Buffy -- romance and life compressed. Because every relationship ends. By death or choice or pain. There is no romance that lasts forever, no happiness that is not eventually ended. This is as true in life as it is in television... it's just that television tends to work in a shorter timeframe.

If she stayed with him eighty years, still, one day, the Doctor would lose Rose (or she would lose him again) and it would be forever and it would be impossible to fix. You can't fix life.

Everything ends.

That said, does that make the choice to love and to promise forever any less meaningful? Only if it does so in our world as well. Just because Rose can't stay with the Doctor forever doesn't mean that she shouldn't stay as long as she is able. Just because the Doctor knows that 'forever' can't actually mean 'forever', it doesn't render the words meaningless. Their depth of affection is such that they are willing to live as if they could have forever together, as if they could stay with each other until every sun has burned up every planet and the universe is cold and dark (even here, in forever, everything ends). Rose's choice is no less fool-hardy than anyone else's.

No love affair can last forever -- all are ended, by death or irreconcilable differences.

In the Lord of the Rings, eventually, Aragorn will die and Arwen will stand by his tomb, weeping. Yet, knowing this, she makes the choice to be with him regardless. "If I leave him now, I will regret it forever." Pain comes and love dies. That doesn't make the choice to love any less important or any less true.

Rose loves the Doctor and, loving him, chooses to be with him. She knows that he's lonely and offers her company. She listens and speaks and gives him hugs and affection and trust. Over and over, the choice is presented to her and she chooses to stay.

That choice says a lot about how she feels about him, about Rose as a person. Her choice was the Doctor, always. As they both go on, from this point, they will both remember that. And the choice to stay matters, regardless of whether or not she actually could stay.

Comments

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

"she is uniquely special to him"

This is why fights happen on the internets. :(

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is - and though I like avoid fights, I do love having material that is complex and rich and emotive enough to arouse strong feelings in fan and leave lots of textual evidence for reinterpretation.

I will not even raise the possibility that one person may have different people in his or her life who are all uniquely special - in different ways.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

I will not even raise the possibility that one person may have different people in his or her life who are all uniquely special - in different ways.

I'd go with that. Sarah's not Rose, but Rose isn't Sarah. Both are more special than the other.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Both are more special than the other.

That's how I see it - different women, different roles, and both important to him.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

I just still have twitch from people writing off everyone else, soz. :(

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Understandable. This is one of the differences I have noticed - a sort of divide between fans of the old show and those who have only seen the "New Doctor Who" - the relative importance of Rose. In fact, when I watched the show, I was surprised to see that she was as much the protagonist as he was. I thought a companion would be a kind of sidekick. Not so.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

*nod* It's great. The pro side of fandom sort of learned that over the years when it were off the telly and in novels and such. The companion needs to be a major protagonist because it makes them more interesting and in any case there's only so much you can do with the Doctor, because he's a bit of a static character. Kind of what they did with Ace, but more willing to go "a bit soapy" with it.

The family stuff's nice too. People were complaining about Martha having a family and I was like "But... squee for new recurring characters we can grow to love as with Mickey and Jackie!"

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I see the Companion as a viewpoint character, and as such, they have to be interesting or their viewpoint will be pointless. The Doctor is (and ought to be) fascinating, but that only comes across if his Companion is interesting too, and fully part of the action. I don't see the Doctor as static, but I think he needs strong characters to interact with to bring out the full range of his personality.

And I love the family stuff. Mickey? Jackie? Pete? Love 'em all. I just wish we'd met Shireen.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

Static as in there's only so far he can be fixed? I doubt they'll ever fix the loneliness, for instance. And he's already the hero, while the companion can get an arc where they find their strength and so on. I'm all squee about getting a new one because it'll be a new dynamic and new characters and basically just a lot of shiny newness. Like the regeneration only more so.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I doubt they'll ever fix the loneliness

No, for various reasons - it's humanizing, for one thing. And it's a consequence of being the last of your kind - though I gather the Doctor was a bit of a misfit among his kind even when they existes. It's also a consequence of immortality, and of being a constant traveller and explorer. All these concepts are part and parcel of the basic identity of the Doctor, and I don't think they will ever 'fix' him beyond his own characteristics. Nor should they. To make him 'normal' would be to make him ordinary. Who'd want that? Not you, not me.

I'm all squee about getting a new one because it'll be a new dynamic and new characters and basically just a lot of shiny newness.

Me too. There's this whole world of new possibilities and directions. It doesn't even matter what Martha is like, though I look forward to finding out. Whatever she's like will be interesting.

Like the regeneration only more so.

I've only really witnessed one regeneration and I have mixed feelings about it. But at the same time there's something invigorating and liberating about it.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

Me too. There's this whole world of new possibilities and directions. It doesn't even matter what Martha is like, though I look forward to finding out. Whatever she's like will be interesting.

I am losing hope that she will be a ninja-pirate, but there are other things almost as good like lion-tamers and even other than that she's the Shiny New Toy and a whole new person to meet and find out about. The appeal of novelty if nothing else.


I've only really witnessed one regeneration and I have mixed feelings about it. But at the same time there's something invigorating and liberating about it.

Death of your first Doctor? Ow. It was fun trying to work Ten out and seeing how he worked with Rose and with Jackie and Mickey.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I am losing hope that she will be a ninja-pirate

Awww - never say never! She must have ninja-pirate potential in her somewhere!

a whole new person to meet and find out about. The appeal of novelty if nothing else.

I agree absolutely, but I have enough faith in the writers here to believe she will have more to her than that. Probably several levels of appeal.

Death of your first Doctor?

Yes, ow. And I adored Nine.

It was fun trying to work Ten out and seeing how he worked with Rose and with Jackie and Mickey.

It was also fun to see how he was a mix of the familiar and the unfamiliar - the aspects of the Doctor that transcended incarnation, and the aspects of him that were all exclusively Ten.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

Awww - never say never! She must have ninja-pirate potential in her somewhere!

That could be her arc! Becoming a ninja-pirate!


Yes, ow. And I adored Nine.

Mine got randomly shot by Americans for no good reason. :( *misses Seven*


It was also fun to see how he was a mix of the familiar and the unfamiliar - the aspects of the Doctor that transcended incarnation, and the aspects of him that were all exclusively Ten.

I have fallen hard for Ten. He is many kinds of awesomeness.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

That could be her arc!

Wouldn't it be a great one?

Mine got randomly shot by Americans for no good reason.

How... grotesque. (Shudder.)

*misses Seven*

That was, um... Sylvester McCoy? (Counting on my fingers. I don't always get it right. I try.)

I have fallen hard for Ten.

Me too.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

That was, um... Sylvester McCoy? (Counting on my fingers. I don't always get it right. I try.)

Ys. The small manipulative Scottish one.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Small? Manipulative? Scottish?

Makes me think of Francis Crawford. Whew: I think I might like this man. Sounds just like my type.

I really wish David Tennant used his natural accent for the Doctor.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

I believe that the love of one's first Doctor knows no logic. I love Seven to silly degrees and people tell me he can't act and I go "Bah! You just don't appreciate his amazingness, you Philistine!" Seven'n'Ace, srsly, I am batshit crazy for those two.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Seven'n'Ace? I've heard the names but I don't even know if Ace was a boy or a girl.

I will learn. Eventually.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

She was my first proper companion, because I hated Mel when I was wee. I would of CRIED if she'd left rather than been cancelled by the BBC. And probably hated her replacement with a seething passion.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Sort of like Rose being succeeded by Martha?

I can understand the sense of loss and betrayal, even though I don't feel it, and welcome the change.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

Sort of like Rose being succeeded by Martha?

Yep. I can understand why some people are gonna stop watching with Rose gone, cos she's what they started out with and we've already had the change from Nine to Ten so it's a lot of change in a short space of time. And the sadness. I'm not quite over Jackie leaving. I know she's the wrong one to miss, but I loved her so.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I love Jackie too, but I'm not against change, at least in this case. I'm looking forward to meeting Martha's family.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

One of them could be a pirate-ninja maybe?

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

...Played by Keith Richards?

I think whatever we get will be fun.

[coneyislandbaby]

Oh make me die of utter squee.

Keith for the win!