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butterflyAKA: The Episode Where Rose is the Doctor.
"Everything's coming up Doctor!"
This is a mirror episode of The Idiot's Lantern. Set in the future rather than the past, dealing with a young female child instead of an older male character, one has an alien that shows its power through television and the other through drawing and, in both cases, one of our intrepid heroes ends up a victim of the alien's power.
In The Idiot's Lantern, Rose has her face taken away by the Wire. For the Doctor, seeing Rose treated this way makes 'everything very simple, because now no power on this earth can stop me'. When he figures out the solution, he remarks that it's just what Rose noticed at the beginning of the episode. At the end, he spies Rose from afar, face intact, and rushes toward her to sweep her up in a hug (and Rose gets the emotional moment of sending the boy to bond with his exiled father).
In Fear Her, the Doctor is turned into a child's drawing and Rose must figure it out herself (with only a little suggestive help from the Doctor, as she gave in TIL). She finds herself tools (pickaxe yay!), tries to talk the Isolus into being reasonable, saves the two 'ordinary' people by telling them how to be strong for themselves, and worries about the Doctor. Worries about his loneliness (and the Doctor gets the emotional torch lighting moment, when he sends the Isolus home -- Rose bonds with the human and the Doctor with the alien).
Before S3, this episode could be taken as Rose embellishing her own importance. Of course, the Doctor will find another hand to hold -- he always has before. But with S3, it's obvious that Rose was as perceptive as the Doctor always gave her credit for being.
The whole world isn't enough for the Isolus. It's still so lonely. Even with Rose Tyler, the Doctor is lonely. There are places inside him that no human can quite reach. But with Rose, those places didn't matter, because she was already touching him in so many ways that no one ever had before.
"Fear. Loneliness. They're the big ones, Rose. Some of the most terrible acts ever committed have been inspired by them. We're not dealing with something that wants to conquer or destroy."
Right now, the Doctor is in a very vulnerable place. He's lonely. He's afraid. He's downright suicidal. Rose was right to worry about him.
"There's a lot of things you need to get across this universe. Warp drive... wormhole refractors... You know the thing you need most of all? You need a hand to hold."
Not a generic hand. Not just anyone's hand. From the very beginning, the Doctor and Rose have held hands for comfort and caring and understanding, not just in the rush of danger. Rose intuitively understood him -- she understood his mania and his pain and his need. She shared them. She understood his desire to help and shared that.
I really do truly believe that Rose is the love of the Doctor's life. It took nine hundred years of phone box travel before he found her. He only had a brief span of time with her, but in that time, they shared so much joy and love. She's going to be his forever, even if he never sees her again.
That's one hell of an epic love story.
"Everything's coming up Doctor!"
This is a mirror episode of The Idiot's Lantern. Set in the future rather than the past, dealing with a young female child instead of an older male character, one has an alien that shows its power through television and the other through drawing and, in both cases, one of our intrepid heroes ends up a victim of the alien's power.
In The Idiot's Lantern, Rose has her face taken away by the Wire. For the Doctor, seeing Rose treated this way makes 'everything very simple, because now no power on this earth can stop me'. When he figures out the solution, he remarks that it's just what Rose noticed at the beginning of the episode. At the end, he spies Rose from afar, face intact, and rushes toward her to sweep her up in a hug (and Rose gets the emotional moment of sending the boy to bond with his exiled father).
In Fear Her, the Doctor is turned into a child's drawing and Rose must figure it out herself (with only a little suggestive help from the Doctor, as she gave in TIL). She finds herself tools (pickaxe yay!), tries to talk the Isolus into being reasonable, saves the two 'ordinary' people by telling them how to be strong for themselves, and worries about the Doctor. Worries about his loneliness (and the Doctor gets the emotional torch lighting moment, when he sends the Isolus home -- Rose bonds with the human and the Doctor with the alien).
Before S3, this episode could be taken as Rose embellishing her own importance. Of course, the Doctor will find another hand to hold -- he always has before. But with S3, it's obvious that Rose was as perceptive as the Doctor always gave her credit for being.
The whole world isn't enough for the Isolus. It's still so lonely. Even with Rose Tyler, the Doctor is lonely. There are places inside him that no human can quite reach. But with Rose, those places didn't matter, because she was already touching him in so many ways that no one ever had before.
"Fear. Loneliness. They're the big ones, Rose. Some of the most terrible acts ever committed have been inspired by them. We're not dealing with something that wants to conquer or destroy."
Right now, the Doctor is in a very vulnerable place. He's lonely. He's afraid. He's downright suicidal. Rose was right to worry about him.
"There's a lot of things you need to get across this universe. Warp drive... wormhole refractors... You know the thing you need most of all? You need a hand to hold."
Not a generic hand. Not just anyone's hand. From the very beginning, the Doctor and Rose have held hands for comfort and caring and understanding, not just in the rush of danger. Rose intuitively understood him -- she understood his mania and his pain and his need. She shared them. She understood his desire to help and shared that.
I really do truly believe that Rose is the love of the Doctor's life. It took nine hundred years of phone box travel before he found her. He only had a brief span of time with her, but in that time, they shared so much joy and love. She's going to be his forever, even if he never sees her again.
That's one hell of an epic love story.
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(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-01 03:33 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-01 04:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-01 03:53 am (UTC)Each of those last few episodes showed us how much more Rose had become -- she had become so much like the Doctor, while still putting her own spin on things. To me, it really showed how much RTD loved her because if he had to write her off the show, he did it in such a way that 1) there was always the hope that someday they'd be reunited (if only in fanfic) and 2) it was after Rose proved without a doubt that she had the skills to be so much more than what she'd been when the Doctor met her.
If we hadn't had those last several episodes -- Fear Her, The Impossible Planet, The Satan Pit -- we would have viewed Rose's revelation on the beach in a totally different light. "Oh, look at Rose ... off to work for Torchwood. But really now, Defender of the Earth is a bit of a stretch, don't you think?" But having seen what she can do on her own, how she has learned to channel her inner Doctor, how she can think on her feet, how she can rally the troops, we know that the Doctor wasn't exaggerating. She will have a fantastic life, even if it's more lonely and filled with quiet grief than it should have been. But in her career, in her quest to make her new world a safer, better place, there is no doubt that she will be a star. :)
And yes, I completely agree that she was the love of his life. Losing her was not his biggest tragedy -- if the man can survive the results of the Time War, he can survive this. But she was not just any companion, and he will never be the same after losing her. *sniff, sniff*
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-01 05:00 pm (UTC)Yes. After The Idiot's Lantern, the Doctor and Rose are completely a team of equals -- she is as mysterious and mythic a figure to her 'boys' as the Doctor was to Ida.
To me, it really showed how much RTD loved her because if he had to write her off the show, he did it in such a way that 1) there was always the hope that someday they'd be reunited (if only in fanfic) and 2) it was after Rose proved without a doubt that she had the skills to be so much more than what she'd been when the Doctor met her.
Yep. RTD left the door open (because the Doctor's been proven wrong before -- and, as he says in The Satan Pit, he keeps traveling in order to be proven wrong), but also left us with no doubt that Rose would be able to handle herself in whatever situation she ended up in. Rose Tyler may not get to pick the circumstances of her life, but she will never be a victim of those circumstances.
And yes, I completely agree that she was the love of his life. Losing her was not his biggest tragedy -- if the man can survive the results of the Time War, he can survive this. But she was not just any companion, and he will never be the same after losing her. *sniff, sniff*
Indeed. He'll survive losing her, I have no doubt. But her loss will profoundly mark him, just as the Time War did.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-01 03:58 am (UTC)And you're right. I've often thought that he doesn't need *a* hand to hold, he needs *her* hand to hold, which puts him where he is today in S3.
The Doctor's an insanely tough nut to crack. Just look at the Doctor and Rose's relationship - it was a very long process that when you look at it, needed both a firm hand and kid gloves when it came to the Doctor. He's just not your typical guy. Rose pushed at the right times as well as backed off at the right times, basically on instinct. That combined with them going into the relationship *without* the idea of "we're going into a relationship" really was this once-in-several-centuries formula with the Doctor.
Hmm. Somehow I got off the point. SURPRISING. But yes, I love their story just because it was one of these stories where you *can* believe in true, undying love. It's storytelling that's been around forever - it's grand and epic and now tragic. Why am I suddenly thinking of the Princess Bride? Of all things. But this quote popped into my head.
You truly love each other, and so you might have been truly happy. Not one couple in a century has that chance, no matter what the storybooks say. And so I think no man in a century will suffer as greatly as you will.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-01 05:12 pm (UTC)Thanks!
And you're right. I've often thought that he doesn't need *a* hand to hold, he needs *her* hand to hold, which puts him where he is today in S3.
This season really is pointing out that it was Rose that helped him, not Generic Companion.
The Doctor's an insanely tough nut to crack. Just look at the Doctor and Rose's relationship - it was a very long process that when you look at it, needed both a firm hand and kid gloves when it came to the Doctor. He's just not your typical guy. Rose pushed at the right times as well as backed off at the right times, basically on instinct. That combined with them going into the relationship *without* the idea of "we're going into a relationship" really was this once-in-several-centuries formula with the Doctor.
Indeed! It really did help both of them that Rose started out with a boyfriend, I think. It meant that neither of them brought romantic expectations into their relationship, romance just naturally formed as they become closer.
Hmm. Somehow I got off the point. SURPRISING. But yes, I love their story just because it was one of these stories where you *can* believe in true, undying love. It's storytelling that's been around forever - it's grand and epic and now tragic.
Yes. It's a classic story, one that has resonated for thousands of years. In some ways, it's the ultimate story -- the coming together of two equals, the forming of a bond between two epic characters. In the oldest stories, those bonds were only formed between two men (Alexander and Hephaestion -- which, now that I think about it, are a workable comparison to the Doctor and Rose*), but women have more than proven themselves capable of holding up their side of the story, these days.
* especially the part where Alexander's relationship with Hephaestion was considered odd because of its equality -- "He, too, is Alexander."
From Plutarch: "...at Ecbatana there fell upon Alexander a stunning blow, the loss of Hephaestion. His intimate boyhood love, Hephaestion was gone, the congenial enthusiastic nature which had been so much more to Alexander than Ptolemy's sagacity or Nearchus' careful courage, the friend, more than a friend, and closer than a brother, who alone awoke a gentler emotion in the breast of the lonely Conqueror....
For there come, alike in discouragement and exaltation, to all men, however strong of body or brain, moments of craving, in which the soul gropes blindly for another soul; and the most strong, if he owns this need most rarely, feels it most imperious."
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-01 04:04 am (UTC)Anyway, this was beautifully put. I absolutely agree. No wonder he's feeling what he's feeling. *sniffs*
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-02 04:43 am (UTC)Such a good point -- every story after that would have had the same dynamics of Fear Her. The Doctor and Rose were completely partners, completely equals, completely in love.
Anyway, this was beautifully put. I absolutely agree. No wonder he's feeling what he's feeling. *sniffs*
Thank you. And, yes, I completely understand the Doctor's pain.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-01 09:46 pm (UTC)And you know, the thing is that I don't even worry about Rose in her new life - as everyone's said, there's not a shred of doubt that she's going to make a fantastic life, albeit always incomplete without the Doctor. But after this most recent S3 episode, it's really worrisome watching the Doctor in so much pain, backsliding so far into yet another death-wish after, in his words, having "everything" taken from him again. I doubt he's ever needed anyone so much in his life.
Tragedy of epic scope indeed *sighs again*
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-02 04:45 am (UTC)Indeed. Rose is made of very strong stuff and she'll have a wonderful life. Some part of her will always be waiting for the sound of the TARDIS, but that doesn't mean that she won't fully enjoy the life that she does have.
But after this most recent S3 episode, it's really worrisome watching the Doctor in so much pain, backsliding so far into yet another death-wish after, in his words, having "everything" taken from him again. I doubt he's ever needed anyone so much in his life.
I really am worried about him. But, as RTD says that the series is ultimately about hope, I've decided to trust in his emotional journey.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-01 10:08 pm (UTC)I really love the idea of "Fear Her" as the counterpoint to "The Idiot's Lantern". I liked "Fear Her" and can't stand "The Idiot's Lantern", but somehow having a balance makes it easier to like both. (I groove on parallels, counterpoints and mirror images.)
However, I have to disagree with other parts of your analysis.
Even with Rose Tyler, the Doctor is lonely. There are places inside him that no human can quite reach. But with Rose, those places didn't matter, because she was already touching him in so many ways that no one ever had before.
Season 2 was like a fairytale, best friends having adventures in time and space, leaving the problems of the real world behind. Escapism. Rose was the Ninth Doctor's means of escape; he was lost after the war and she gave him new eyes through which to see the universe. And that continued, with more intensity, in season 2.
But it was a strange, brittle kind of escapism. The Doctor's pain is still there, as you say, but Rose -- much as he loved her -- was a distraction, nothing more. An emotional placebo.
I think the proof comes in "Gridlock", where the Doctor has tried and failed to create the same relationship with Martha. "I lied to her," he says, "because I liked it." Because the lie is easier to cope with than the truth, but avoiding emotional scars only causes more damage down the line.
Apparently, RTD said that season 2 was the fairytale, and season 3 is real life. The Doctor's placebo has been taken away.
It's not an epic love story, but that reading of the Ten/Rose relationship is quite fascinating to me. Sorry about going off in your LJ, though. I've been trying to articulate these feelings for a few weeks, and your post finally gave me the words I needed. (Thanks!)
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-02 05:38 am (UTC)I'm not really the meta-invested person to write a point by point analysis of that, but -- really? Every time in season 2 that they cared about people and their problems and helped them or saved them, that was leaving the problems of the real world behind?
I can see how one might view Rose as, to stretch a metaphor, the Doctor's "rebound girl" for all of Gallifrey, but I don't think that means his emotional attachment to her can be dismissed as nothing more than a distraction.
I'm also not certain that the Doctor is trying to create the same relationship with Martha that he had with Rose. There are many parallels (just watch Butterfly's vid Never Gone), and I'm not entirely sure what that means about the Doctor's efforts, but it doesn't feel at all to me like he's trying to fit Martha into Rose's shoes.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-05-02 07:36 am (UTC)I enjoy both, but the only episode that sets my teeth on edge is Girl in the Fireplace (I swear, if Moffat's episode this year plays like he still isn't in the loop, I'm writing a strongly-worded letter to Mr. Davies in Cardiff).
However, I have to disagree with other parts of your analysis.
No, worries. Even if we don't end up agreeing on anything, I like being able to clarify and refine my position. Plus, I really just like talking about DW. It's a marvelous show.
Season 2 was like a fairytale, best friends having adventures in time and space, leaving the problems of the real world behind. Escapism.
I guess I just really disagree with your definition of escapism. I think that the Doctor escaped very little when he let Rose Tyler into his life -- if anything, having her there brought him even more in the way of emotion, both good and bad. He still fully confronted the problems of the universe while she was there -- he also confronted his grief, telling her in only their second episode about losing his people and his planet.
That she gave him hope and reminded him of the wonder of the universe, I very much agree with, but hope and escapism are not the same thing.
Some clarity that would help -- when you say 'real world' what are you referring to? Because I don't see when the Doctor and Rose ever stopped with the pain and the reality that surrounded them.
The Doctor's pain is still there, as you say, but Rose -- much as he loved her -- was a distraction, nothing more. An emotional placebo.
I guess I just can't see comfort and hope as a placebo. She gave him space, gave him someone to talk to, was there when he needed reassurance. Everything that I, personally, could possible dream of having in a life companion.
I think the proof comes in "Gridlock", where the Doctor has tried and failed to create the same relationship with Martha. "I lied to her," he says, "because I liked it." Because the lie is easier to cope with than the truth, but avoiding emotional scars only causes more damage down the line.
But the Doctor didn't lie to Rose. He told her the truth about his people (more than that -- he showed her and made her feel it by taking her to her own world's ending). If anything, he was trying to make his relationship with Martha different with the lie -- trying to keep distance between them and keep his pain to himself. I can't think of anything in the Rose/Doctor relationship that's anything like the lie he tells Martha in Gridlock.
And he hasn't stopped lying to Martha -- she still doesn't know the circumstances of how Rose left. He's given the impression that Rose chose to leave and is hanging about with her family, happy as anything. Because he likes being able to believe it, I expect, the same as he did with Gallifrey. I don't think he would have told Martha the truth about Gallifrey if she hadn't confronted him and that only happened because the Face of Boe revealed that he was the last of his kind.
So far, the Doctor's relationship with Martha appears to be very different than the one he had with Rose.
Apparently, RTD said that season 2 was the fairytale, and season 3 is real life. The Doctor's placebo has been taken away.
If there's any chance that you could source this, I would love to read the quote. I searched for the terms on google and came up with nothing relevant. The last I heard from Russell T Davies was him saying "Rose met the most fantastic man in the universe who actually thought that she was the most fantastic woman in the universe and that doesn't really happen often," in the DW Confidential for Smith and Jones. If he's said something about their relationship since, I'd be interested to read it.
It's not an epic love story, but that reading of the Ten/Rose relationship is quite fascinating to me.
No worries! I've had that same thing happen to me before -- happening upon someone who feels very differently about something can help me clarify my own views on the matter.