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Doctor Who: S4 Spoilery Stuff
In light of the good news about Billie, I'm linking to my semi-recent post about Rose mentions in S3. Just to stand as a quick reminder that Rose's return hardly comes out of the blue (also, it reminded me that I never wrote the post about the many indirect references that the show made to Rose in S3 -- as I'm planning a rewatch of the show, I'll do that at some point before S4, though likely after Voyage of the Damned).
Plus, of course, there was the recent leak of The Stowaway, the song from this year's Christmas special. Shippy overload, really. Both of the previous Christmas songs were linked to the Doctor/Rose relationship, both in what happened on-screen and in what was said in the behind-the-scenes information. This song reuses words that were set-up in the previous songs and it plays very much as a progression of that storyline.
Song for Ten plays very much as the first blush of love and of realizing that that love is requited. "And I started to walk... pretty soon I will run, and I'll come running back to you. 'Cause I followed my star and that's what you are. I've had a merry time with you." (and then there's the second verse that was added post-Doomsday that made it very blatant that the song was about Rose)
Love Don't Roam is all about committment and longing and a deep, deep loss. "My body's tired of traveling and my heart don't wish to roam."
Each of these songs very much fits the general theme of the season to follow. S2 is about the Doctor's merry time with Rose (and then his resigned pain at losing her, as the added second verse shows). S3 is about how tired he is of doing the same things all over again (without her to make them feel shiny and new). About how his heart is a fixed point ("You took me in. You stole my heart. I cannot roam no more.") and how much that tears him up inside because she's gone ("all I have's this anguished heart, for you have vanished too").
The Stowaway, however, bursts at the seams with hope and determination.
"I'll run and I'll roam, I'll cover the ground. This Christmas I'll see you, I'll be around."
He isn't resigned to her loss anymore. He wants to fight it, to fight for her. Which is likely wrapped up (in part) in his "Utopia" epiphany. At the beginning of the season, he says that she's safe, she's happy, she's 'with her family'. He says the same sort of thing to Jack when he first talks about her being gone.
And then... we have the radiation room scene. "She's gone, Jack. She's not just living on a parallel world. She's trapped there. The walls have closed."
He finally admits that she isn't better off. 'Trapped' is not a word you use when someone is in a place that they'd want to be -- the Doctor has always known better than that, but couldn't stand to even think of it. Because his own pain was enough. To think of her pain, being stolen away not just from him but from the life that she adored and thrived on... I can understand why he wanted to live in denial. It's like what he said to Martha about Gallifrey -- he lied because he liked it, because it let him believe in a fairy tale where the brave girl's parents are reunited and she gets to be happy with them. Believing in that story was easier than living the truth that the love of his life was forever out of his reach and as unwilling about the separation as he was.
He reaches a place where he obviously wishes he could settle down (his offer to the Master which, like much of S3, broke my heart). He's tired of living the same life over and over. Tired of people swanning in and out of his life. Tired of talking about psychic paper and timeships and how everything works. His body's tired of traveling. That's made clear over and over in S3.
And now we hear that Rose is returning in S4. All of these things are leading somewhere -- this thread has been there from the very beginning of New Who ("I've never had a life like that," he says in "Father's Day"). Her family became his ("I don't do families," but he joined hers for Christmas and took her back there whenever she needed to go). She gave him light and hope when he needed it most. S3 made it clear that the Doctor/Rose love story hadn't ended with "Doomsday". I must admit that I'm very curious about the next chapter.
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I do understand why they couldn't have her be that woman sooner -- they wanted the Doctor's dark spiral -- but I was so thrilled to see her strength and her belief in herself in that moment. Martha doesn't need the Doctor's approval to be considered awesome. She just needs to be awesome.
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I hope so. I liked her, quite a bit, even though she didn't have all that much to do.
Mickey and Jackie each got strong character arcs of their own, reasons to exist outside of the Doctor and Rose's story.