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Doctor Who: Thoughts on The Ending (spoilers for Journey's End)
I knew as I was watching it that some people were absolutely going to hate it. Me, I'm a story junkie. Happy, sad, romantic, whatever. I love a powerful story. If it makes me feel, then I enjoy it. This actually gave me all possible endings and feelings.
Again, I can fully understand why some people don't like the way the stories for Donna and Rose ended (just as I can understand why many people hate that one Daniel/Vala scene in "Unending") but I'm going to lay out all the reasons why I adored them.
First, Donna.
I blink at "but she'll never realize how wonderful she is now" the same way I blinked at "the beach scene makes Rose look like she'll never do anything useful ever again" when that was being bandied around post-"Doomsday". The Donna Noble in that living room at the end has all the basic qualities of the Donna Noble that saved the universe in this episode and in "Turn Left". She can get there without the Doctor (we've already seen that she can). Especially now that Wilf and (especially) Sylvia are aware of how amazing she is. Donna can be magnificent without the Doctor. She will be.
That doesn't mean that this wasn't a great loss (as foretold by the server at the Shadow Proclamation) or that the Doctor wasn't being high-handed and arrogant when he took her choice away from her. Sadly, while the Doctor has changed and grown in the time that we've known him, there's an outside limit on how much he's allowed to change. RTD has to return him in a similar condition to how he found him.
Which, of course, feeds into the Rose ending. Again, the Doctor is being high-handed and arrogant. He plops them down there and expects Rose to just understand that this is the way it has to be (Donna has to prompt the New Doctor into explaining exactly what he's doing).
One problem -- which I mentioned in my review, though in a light, romantic, and humorous way -- is that the Doctor's rules are different for Rose. Rose eats the Time Vortex and changes Jack and, oh, commits genocide, and while the Doctor is willing to abandon Jack at a moment's notice, he never even considers that Rose should be considered wrong for doing what she did. Jack and Martha join up with military outfits and get a stern talking to by the Doctor. Rose joins up with Torchwood and is only shown pride. He is willing not only to die in "Father's Day" but to allow the world to be destroyed by Reapers, simply because he doesn't want Rose to lose her father again. He's willing to let the Dalek in "Dalek" loose because he can't 'kill' Rose a second time. Rose mentions that her Torchwood has been fucking around with a dimensional cannon and receives an indulgent grin and flirty teasing.
He would do anything for her. Anything. And he knows it. He'd destroy the Wire to see Rose's smile again and... the universe might be ending but it's worth it if it means that he gets to hold her in his arms again. He loves her. Completely.
He knows that if he actually talks this through with Rose, she'll convince him that it'll be okay. She can talk him into anything, given enough time. And then this universe would have two Doctors and only one Rose. He gets jealous of Mickey. Two of him and one Rose? He would drive himself crazy with jealousy over... himself. Both of him trying to get her complete attention. And one of them is more obviously and recently broken. And that more obviously and recently broken version of himself can give her a human forever. If they'd stayed and then Rose and one Doctor were fifty years old and the other one still looked the same and people started assuming that he was Rose's son, he'd hate it. He'd hate that they match (also -- note the clothing cues in the beach scene). He'd hate that that other version of himself could give Rose things (like growing older together and like a biological family) that he can't.
He can still hate those things, but they're an entire universe away and he doesn't have to watch as Rose falls in love with someone else (this is the Doctor -- the very few times that he shows insecurity tend to be about how Rose feels about him). This way, she can be happy but he doesn't have to watch as someone else gives her that.
Because they could never have abandoned the New Doctor in the parallel world by himself. The Doctor knows himself too well. He knows just how much he needed Rose's hand to hold during that darkness of recovering from being a killer. He's the only person truly capable of understanding how much he needs Rose. She held the darkness back for him once, until he was capable of trying to do it on his own. He knows that she can do it again.
As for Rose, I really do compare this to regeneration... but also to the John/Joan relationship. Joan wasn't capable of loving the Doctor because she believed that he was on too large a scale to care for her with the intense sweetness that John did. The audience, of course, had seen the Doctor display that sweetness in series two with Rose. We knew that he was capable of it, but his baggage is so heavy. He can't tell Rose that he loves her because knowing that she's going to grow old and die hurts him enough as it is and he's certain that expressing his love would make losing her hurt worse.
Joan wasn't capable of believing that a man and a Time Lord could love equally intensely.
Rose is. Rose loves the Doctor and, though it will be hard and strange and painful for her, she'll get through this because he does need her and she does love him. And they can be truly happy together (how many people can you really say that about?). And Rose and her Doctor will build a time machine (we already know that she can!) and a space ship and start exploring. And they'll probably have kids at some point. And they'll be happy.
Some part of the other Doctor will know that and that will bring him some measure of comfort.
Because he loves Rose enough that her happiness means more to him than his own.
no subject
For me, much of this seems to stem from Ten's conviction that he doesn't deserve happiness. It's also possible knowing that this new iteration of himself, who has his full background knowledge and yet still didn't hesitate to end the Daleks again (much like Donna didn't hesitate to kill the Vespiform at the end of TUaTW!) versus remaining The Man Who Never Would (as his original self was at the end of TDD), might swiftly come to hate himself even more than Ten hates himself... and that nothing good is likely to come of that, especially left unchecked.
no subject
Ooo. I kinda like that.
For me, much of this seems to stem from Ten's conviction that he doesn't deserve happiness. It's also possible knowing that this new iteration of himself, who has his full background knowledge and yet still didn't hesitate to end the Daleks again (much like Donna didn't hesitate to kill the Vespiform at the end of TUaTW!) versus remaining The Man Who Never Would (as his original self was at the end of TDD), might swiftly come to hate himself even more than Ten hates himself... and that nothing good is likely to come of that, especially left unchecked.
Good point. He hates himself for pulling the trigger at the first end of the Time War and has only made peace with himself since then by being The Man Who Never Would. A constant reminder that he once was and could be again a Man Who Could If Pushed Hard Enough would be painful all on its own.