Bob and Rose: Stayed up to finish watching it.

[butterfly]

Street corner. Two o'clock in the morning. Getting a taxi home. Did Paul Cornell watch Bob and Rose? Or is that a line that RTD slipped in?

Another repeated theme -- like with Nathan in QaF, it's unrequited love interest Holly who brings the two people involved in the unconventionally romantic relationship back together again. She finally gets it. She understands love and that frees her. She spent so much time standing still and trying to hold Bob in place with her. But we all move forward and trying to stop that just causes pain.

I love the way that Russell writes about love and... connection. It doesn't matter whether it's two best friends who don't shag, a gay man and straight woman (who definitely do) or, of course, the Doctor and Rose -- it's about two people connecting on a fundamental level. About two people seeing something in someone else that other people miss. A kind of bone-deep and yet nearly instinctive connection (implied in QaF when Hazel talks to Stuart about how Vince came home from school one day talking about this boy... this Irish boy and how they've been that close ever since; shown flat-out in the Bob/Rose and Doctor/Rose relationships). They're all distinctly different relationships, but the similarities that they share pull together this particular way of looking at love that I find quite appealing.

Bob never stops being gay. He likes looking at men. He's attracted to men. But he falls in love with Rose and he doesn't need anything else. Holly and Bob's ex-boyfriend try to frame that in terms of a sacrifice, that he's giving up something essential to be with Rose. But it becomes very clear to us during the period when he and Rose are broken up that, now that he's met her, he loses far more by not being with her. That emotional connection, that love, is more important. He loves Rose. He is in love with Rose. And that's enough for him.

Again, repeated theme -- Stuart in QaF has his friend, Vince. They don't shag. Vince is practically the only man in the city that Stuart hasn't shagged. What he gets from Vince, that emotional connection, is much more vital to his well-being than all the men that he sleeps with. Like Bob, during the period of time that Stuart is not seeing Vince, he's absolutely miserable. The emotional connection is more important than sex. Having Vince's friendship means more to Stuart than every naked man in the world.

That same kind of relationship has been, I believe, shown in Doctor Who with the Doctor and Rose. A spark and connection. An emotional bond. Friendship. Attraction. Something special. Rose is special to the Doctor, as Vince is special to Stuart and Rose is special to Bob. What that means in the long run depends on how long the run is. I don't think that Rose is the only person that the Doctor has or will ever love. But he loves her now. And that matters. Everyone dies. Everything turns to dust. Everything ends. That only makes the moments that we can have all the more precious.

I've never understood the great rush to have the Doctor get over Rose after Series Two. He's lived over nine-hundred years. He can take a couple of years mourning the loss of the life he never believed he could have. Loving again doesn't mean falling in love the second that you've lost someone. Just because I think it would be tacky for him to fall in love a year or two after he's lost someone dear to him doesn't mean that I think he should never love again. He loved her. He lost her. That matters.

When you find that connection with another person, on whatever level that it falls on, it's something beautiful. Our ability to connect, to communicate, with other people is what makes us human (something vividly illustrated, actually, in Russell's most recent DW episode, which is about what happens when that communication is subverted, copied, and mocked). And when we manage it, it can be the most powerful thing that exists.

(I've thought about doing a comparison of QaF to DW, full-out, but I need the rest of the series... and now that I've seen B&R, it would have to be part of the comparison, because it just fits in so well. I need to see the rest of RTD's stuff. Casanova (with David T.) and The Second Coming (which has Chris E. and Lesley S. in it!) -- is there anything else that he's created?)