Doctor Who: More thoughts on Fires of Pompeii

[butterfly]

Warning: It's Doctor Who season. This means that every other thought that I have is about Doctor Who. This will not change until the series finale airs (and then I start being on pins and needles for the Christmas special, but I will only think about it every tenth or twentieth thought or so). Just, you know, fair warning.

Again, like my deeper thoughts last week, these focus pretty heavily on Rose. I just don't want to mention that above the cut because of spoiler issues.

This episode had a lot of emotional callbacks to the first series of the new Doctor Who (as other folk have pointed out). There's the Doctor pulling the 'armless' pun. There's a big lever to push that will kill without prejudice. There's the Doctor having to choose knowing that he and his companion could die (and his companion letting him know that saving the world comes first). There's a huge ethical dilemma that the Doctor tries to convince his companion that he, naturally, is on the right side of by virtue of being a time-travelling alien (and her having none of it). The vibe between the Doctor and Donna is very similar to the testing, pushing, bantering vibe of the Doctor and Rose during their early episodes together. She isn't quite sure that she's fully on board with his way of doing things and he's not sure that she can wrap her head around the enormity of the problems that he deals with.

We know how Rose ends up dealing with that issue -- she swallows the Time Vortex, becomes Bad Wolf, and literally understands the types of choices that the Doctor makes with the same kind of vision and understanding that he naturally has as a result of being a Time Lord.

Before that, though, we have the episodes where she's trying to understand what makes up the Doctor and him being impatient about the fact that she doesn't understand right away ("It's a new morality. Get used to it or go home."). That same impatience also shows up in his early episodes with Martha. Even in first series, the Doctor was getting tired of explaining himself to people.

And so Rose, in one shining, perfect moment, completely and fully understands the Doctor... and he kisses that understanding out of her (to save her life). I see series two as Rose doing the Bad Wolf moment the hard way. She acts more and more like the Doctor as the series passes and understands him better and better (I felt quite vindicated when Billie Piper mentioned that she was acting more like the Doctor on purpose). Check out The Idiot's Lantern -- her wide, mad smile and her lean when she interrogates Magpie are nearly identical to the Doctor's. The most interesting thing about them is that she changes him in the same ways -- as she become more like him, he becomes more like her and adopts her family as his own. They end up mirroring each other (something that has lasted into their separation, as becomes apparent in Partners in Crime -- the look on Rose's face is dead-on close to the look on the Doctor's face in the moments when we have it confirmed that he's thinking of Rose, such as the dance scene in The Runaway Bride).

I also quite enjoyed the prophecy in The Fires of Pompeii  -- "She is returning," which I believe to be about Rose for three reasons:
1. Emotional importance to the Doctor (much as 'you are not alone' pretty much had to be about the Master, Romana, or the Rani for the strongest emotional impact... and of those three, most likely the Master as he's the best known)
2. Proximity. We just saw someone who appears to be in the process of returning.
3. The epic nature of Rose (as established by Bad Wolf and the show's callbacks to Rose over S3) which would warrant her being the subject of a prophecy. She's the 'stuff of legends'.

And there's the eerie thing that he said to Donna -- "There's something on your back," which I am not spoiled about and am happy to be surprised by when we find out what it means.

We've got humor, pathos, and a mystery. All in all, I'm very much looking forward to where this series will take us.

Comments

[a-white-rain.livejournal.com]

And there's the eerie thing that he said to Donna -- "There's something on your back," which I am not spoiled about and am happy to be surprised by when we find out what it means.
Me too. I'm not even tempted to look.

And yes. I really loved that Rose understood the Doctor in that one moment. And the look on his face when he got it - it was like someone had taken off some of the burden for him.

As for the prophecy... I'm thinking it's Rose. But I wonder if it's going to be twisted, because didn't they just see one future that the Doctor changed? Though I think I'm most interested in the terrible choice - I think that's going to be a running theme in the series.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I'm very curious about what the running themes of the series are going to end up being -- we have 'lost planets' and the Shadow Proclamation being mentioned in both of these episodes, plus the Rose thread and the family threads. It's... interesting.

[madame-parker.livejournal.com]

As always, I enjoy your meta thoughts on DW so much. While I'm not the biggest Rose fan ever, I do like reading what people think about the character, I guess it's the writer in me. :)
But really, this new season has me so happy with glee at how good it's already turning out to be, Donna is too wonderful for words and I'm so glad she joined the Doctor.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you can enjoy my thoughts even though you aren't as much of a Rose fan as I am. It's comforting to know that they make sense outside the particular lens that I view the show with.

This season is definitely shaping up to be very good. I'm really looking forward to more of the Doctor and Donna interacting. They're a lot of fun together!

[nic]

Just wanted to say that I'm LOVING your posts on Doctor Who. I've got one simmering in my head but it's so hard to find the time!

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I love the show so much that I never really run out of things to say about it.

[monanotlisa.livejournal.com]

Interesting. I watch the show through much less Rose-coloured glasses, but looking at your arguments, this is a good point--and certainly the season opener established that yes, Rose will play an important role, not just on a personal but most likely an arc level.

Even made a Rose icon but need to upload it. *g*

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

It really does seem like she'll be important on the story-level as well. Which thrills me because, much as I love the Doctor and Rose together, I also fully adore Rose all by herself and I love that she's an epic character.

[mekare-enra.livejournal.com]

I love reading your Doctor Who posts.

x

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[pluckyyounggirl.livejournal.com]

Warning: It's Doctor Who season. This means that every other thought that I have is about Doctor Who. This will not change until the series finale airs (and then I start being on pins and needles for the Christmas special, but I will only think about it every tenth or twentieth thought or so).

There should be a t-shirt. I'd buy it.

It's crazy how Doctor Who can take over your life like that. But I've missed it. Obsessive fandom, while exhausting, is a beautiful, beautiful thing. :-)

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

So true. Tiring, but fun.

[thehornedgod.livejournal.com]

3. The epic nature of Rose (as established by Bad Wolf and the show's callbacks to Rose over S3) which would warrant her being the subject of a prophecy. She's the 'stuff of legends'.

Totally. That's part of what I love about her. She's so human, so real, but through travelling with the Doctor she transcends her limitations and becomes this huge, mythic figure in her own right.

[blackcat-1.livejournal.com]

An excellent analysis.
Whilst watching the episode, I noticed how a number of the situations mirrored S1 and I think I've read a comment by someone else recently too, about there being many echoes of S1 and 2 so far this series.
Totally agree with all the Rose bits. I think she was being set up to be pretty much like the Doctor in S2 and ironically, that was when some areas of fandom started turning against her...
I think she is going to be a major factor in this installment of the multi-series arc (and she was a pretty big factor in last year's, despite BP's absence!) I just hope that things don't go awry at the end of the series. I have such high hopes and I don't want to feel either
a) cheated or,
b) broken!

[cookie2697.livejournal.com]

Would it be okay if I friended you? I've been getting linked to a lot of your S4 posts through my flist and I've been really, really enjoying your thoughts on the season. I don't have a lot to comment and add to it, but it's very cool to read through them!

Just thought I'd ask before friending ;)

[sundaydriver.livejournal.com]

I really have loved all the first season parallels and I do believe that this is all leading to something pretty spectacular with Rose by the end of this season/series.

I can't think of anything deeper to say, except for the fact that I love your analysis and that I'm very, very excited about the series/season so far. :)