Doctor Who: Series One (Ninth Doctor)

[butterfly]

So, I've now seen all thirteen episodes of the first series of the new DW. First off, wow. Okay, and what follows is basically me thinking a few things out, feeling my way around the series.

Second off, the Doctor really is completely gone on Rose. I mean, wow. Completely gone. He caters to her whims, tries his best to protect her in insane circumstances and then, when the situation looks fatal, sends her (and only her) out of the way.

I realize that the whole "the Doctor loves Rose" thing isn't exactly a secret -- RTD and Chris E. have both mentioned it in interviews, I believe, but just seeing it all, playing out, it's incredibly powerful. He really forms this incredibly intense bond with her. And it makes sense, it does all make sense, which I love.

Because he's lost everything. He's lost his people and he's just hanging onto the idea that they died for a reason (to destroy the Daleks) and that maybe that makes it worth it. So, he's just trying to do his best to still be the Doctor.

And he goes off to face the Autons in Rose and he meets this girl. A girl who asks questions. Who wants to know what's going on. Someone with curiosity and courage. Someone who will argue with him and save his life. Who got into danger because she kept asking questions (presumably, the Doctor ran into her for the third time for the same reason as the first two -- he was following the plastic) and then gets into trouble. She really is quite jeopardy-friendly.

She's someone who notices things and then wants to know more about them. And that's something she really shares in common with the Doctor. And she cares.

They made a point of that in the second episode, The End of the World. I read someone's theory somewhere that in TEofW, the Doctor is, in some ways, testing her fitness as a companion and also letting her experience the same thing that he's going through -- losing their whole world. He gives her an opportunity here, to see through his eyes (which is something that continues throughout the series). He's lost his entire race, but he's found someone who maybe has the ability to understand something of what he's feeling. And she does, to a remarkable degree, even to the point of realizing that knowing that things die only makes the life that you have now all the more precious. The Doctor really emphasizes the importance of here and now because that is all that matters (to cross fandoms, I'm reminded of Angel's Epiphany -- if nothing we do matters, then all that matters is what we do). Again, this is something that is stressed throughout the first series (the second series, so far, seems to have a completely different theme, which is fitting). Everything dies. Even planets. Even doctors.

I loved the way the series was organized, the way we got hints of what had happened, hints of what was to come. The first series does feel quite like a unified whole to me, as though it is precisely as long as it should have been (because to be longer would have destroyed the message of the Ninth Doctor -- everything ends, so live life to the fullest while you have it).

The third episode again brings in that theme, but we also get a much strong hit of another series-long theme. Bad Wolf (which is mentioned in passing in TEofW but really pointed out with a spotlight in The Unquiet Dead). It goes right along with the second half of who the Ninth Doctor is, what he gives. He gives people the opportunity to be heroes, to be better than they think they can be.

Rose hammers home that message -- "she's just a servant girl and she saved the world." Rose could very well be talking about herself in Rose there. She was just a shop girl, but she saved the Doctor. She saved the world. But both in The End of the World and in The Unquiet Dead, the people who sacrifice to do the right thing end up dead while helping the Doctor.

Rose didn't. Rose doesn't.

In the next set of episodes, Aliens of London and World War Three, I've heard that the thing that happens there hasn't happened before, in DW history -- the Doctor takes his companion home for a visit, just a visit. He interacts with her mother, with her possibly ex-ish boyfriend. He takes her home and then takes her back with him -- makes certain that she decides to come back with him by mentioning something wonderful that she'd miss if she decided to stay or wanted him to. It's blatant emotional manipulation and he's aware that he's doing it. He needs Rose and he knows it ("I could save the world but lose you.").

What's special about Rose Tyler?

And along comes Dalek, which is the episode that most recently aired over here in the U.S. And this episode shows us exactly why, by having Rose do the same thing to the Dalek that she did to the Doctor -- she wakes him up, she gives him her humanity. She's curious about new things and can be incredibly brave, and these things 'infect' the Dalek the same way that they've infected the Doctor. He's the last of his people, but the end can also be the beginning. The end of one thing can mean the beginning of something else (amusingly enough, this was exactly the theme of the Classic Who episode set that I watched -- City of Death is all about how the death of one species can start the beginning of another).

The Dalek can't handle this change, it can't adapt to caring again. But the Doctor can. He can kill Rose once, but he won't kill her a second time. He puts Rose first here (which is quite dangerous, as we end up seeing in Father's Day). She's 'the woman he loves', whatever type of love that you want it to be (at least at the moment).

In The Long Game, we get to see what makes Rose a good companion (not just better than Adam, but a good companion, period). She's brave here and caring and funny. And we see the Doctor catering to her here (the info he gives her at the beginning so that she can impress the cute boy, yeah, like that). He wants Rose to be happy.

And in Father's Day, we see where that can go wrong. "Your wish is my command, but be careful what you wish for." He puts time and space in jeopardy, so that she can see her dad. Then, even though he knows the solution right from the beginning, he doesn't tell her what it is, because he doesn't want her to watch her dad die again. They have a huge fight and she's bringing about the end of the world, but all she has to do to make him forgive her is to tell him that she's sorry she did it.

The next set of episodes is really great for the Doctor, because he gets a completely unqualified success (everybody lives!). In every other story so far in the series, someone has died (granted, in the last episode, he was supposed to be dead, but it was still trauma). And he dances with Rose, makes a point of telling Rose that he knows how, that he's capable.

Boom Town makes a point of mentioning that the Doctor normally skips out on the consequences of his actions. But his entire ninth life is spent in the shadow of his actions, he lives under the death of his people every moment. He takes on a companion who doesn't quite give up her ties to her people at home. He keeps going back to the same places and times.

He wants to get it right (like he gets to do in The Doctor Dances). He doesn't want to be a killer, but feels that he is, every moment.

When he thought Rose was dead in Dalek, he blamed himself, and when he found out that she was alive, he said that he couldn't kill her again. In Bad Wolf, when he sees her die again, he pretty much completely shuts down for a while. Her death devastates him. And that leads us back to his choice in Parting of the Ways, when he sends her out of danger, against her own wishes (he makes the choice here -- not her. This one person can be safe, I can do at least that much).

But she refuses to stay gone. "I create myself." Rose has the choice to make her own decisions, has the right to make her stand. This is love the best way that it can be -- love that motives and inspires, love that moves mountains. And just as Rose makes the decision to do whatever it takes to save the Doctor, even if it means her own life, he makes that same decision.

And here, many things come full circle. It's the end of the world all over again, and Rose gets to see through the Doctor's eyes ("that's what I see, all the time"). Even though she can't hold it, though she can't remember it, her heart is strong enough for her to make the attempt. Love is strong enough to cross any distance, breach any barrier, and even survive death. Because death is just another word for change.

And that's why the new series has to have a different theme from the old one. This Doctor spent his entire (short) life trying to decide who he was, who he had to be, in the wake of his people's death. Once he'd made his decision, he changed who he was. By the quirk of the show, that change can literally show in his body and his future behavior. He's healed the rift between who he is and what he's capable of doing. He knows (again) just who he is and just what that means.

Lovely, lovely series.

Comments

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Aw, that's wonderful to hear.