Doctor Who: 3x08 -- Human Nature

[butterfly]

adventurer, daredevil, madman

John Smith has dreams. Smith is a man who, in his everyday life, seems quite normal. He's mostly normal, completely human.

But he has these dreams. Dreams with monsters and odd devices and a girl that's always walking away. In these dreams, he's nothing like the serious, staid teacher that he is -- instead, he's a traveler and sharply brilliant.

John Smith quite normal, definitely normal. Despite the odd fact that his personal past before the last two months is oddly spotty and he speaks of things that are impossible. He's definitely human, no matter how he dreams of having two hearts.

He's afraid of being taken for mad, because he sees these images and he writes down these words and they don't make any sense, so he calls them 'fiction'.

John Smith is a man of his time -- no coddling of children, no familiarity with household staff, horrible spelling, mind as full of weapons and war as any other man.

Children who don't perform well are beaten. Servants (particularly ones not the right color) aren't all that intelligent. Men are made for fighting and women don't quite understand. Man of his time, John Smith.

Odd how, in his dreams, he travels in a police box and feels like a fugitive. Odd how, in his dreams, he sees all sorts of mad and adventurous things.

Odd how, in his dreams, there's this girl. This immodestly-dressed girl, this girl that stays in his head, always walking away, who seems to disappear.

she keeps walking away

The title of the journal is 'A Journal of Impossible Things'. Things like changing your face. Like a ship that's bigger on the inside than the outside. Like gas-mask people and blue people and plastic people and people made of clockwork and a strange, significant pocketwatch.

Like a girl. A perfect girl, named Rose. How tragic and lovely, that this girl named Rose makes it into his journal of impossible things. Utterly out of reach.

beautiful monsters, always smiling

John Smith's dreams are not his own.

The Doctor bleeds through. At night, when John is asleep, the Doctor is still there. In the day, when someone is in trouble, the Doctor's there. Little bits of him bleed through, memories and hopes and madness.

Like falling in love with a woman who looks a bit like Rose, who makes him feel lost and giddy and alive the way that Rose did, but one older and wiser and widowed, as he is. Someone that he can talk to and share himself with and trust, as he did with Rose.

There's a whole lot to love in this episode that wasn't John Smith (Freema was quite good and Martha was in such a horrible position, all of the guest-acting was spot-on, and the whole vibe of the episode was incredibly perfect for the place and time it's set in), but he's what remains on my mind after. David Tennant does a perfect job here, absolutely perfect.

Comments

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

Impossible dreams. So very true. And isn't it Joan that tells him he wants to be this person? He wants these dreams, not as just dreams, but as his reality.

Seems he's written nothing of the pain. Those moments are only reflected in distant, melancholy words. Like with Reinette - "I've left something behind again" and with Rose "she keeps walking away." So it might be that becoming the Doctor again will not be as hard as he doesn't remember the pain.

One thing I think is interesting is the Reinette reference, which seems to encapsulate what he does with companions. "And I've left something behind again, I've left someone behind and I'll never get her back, I've set something on fire and it's away up the chimney and I'll never see it again." But in contrast, Rose is the one walking away from him. He's trying to find her, trying to talk to her, but she is out of reach.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Impossible dreams. So very true. And isn't it Joan that tells him he wants to be this person? He wants these dreams, not as just dreams, but as his reality.

She does. She says that she thinks that he wants to be 'this Doctor'. And he does... he wants to be this Doctor, the one that he's dreaming about. I don't think it's a coincidence that the vast majority of the pages are about the times he shared with Rose and what he encountered with her. He wants to be that Doctor again, the one that traveled with his 'perfect Rose'.

And the thing that I'm wondering about right now is the pages that are torn out -- there's a couple just before the page about The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances.

John Smith: "I sometimes think how magical life would be, if stories like this were true."
Joan: "If only."

Seems he's written nothing of the pain. Those moments are only reflected in distant, melancholy words. Like with Reinette - "I've left something behind again" and with Rose "she keeps walking away." So it might be that becoming the Doctor again will not be as hard as he doesn't remember the pain.

Yes, it's all about the beauty and splendor of it all. In some ways, they're giving us a glimpse of the Doctor in the distant future, when the ripping agony of his grief has faded and he remembers the beauty more than anything else. When thinking of his adventures with Rose will make him nostalgic but ultimately glad that he at least has the memory, rather than bitter and sad.

One thing I think is interesting is the Reinette reference, which seems to encapsulate what he does with companions. "And I've left something behind again, I've left someone behind and I'll never get her back, I've set something on fire and it's away up the chimney and I'll never see it again." But in contrast, Rose is the one walking away from him. He's trying to find her, trying to talk to her, but she is out of reach.

Right -- even with the distance of dreams and faded memories, he wants to reach her. I think that he'll always want that, because for all the trouble and pain that he went to talk to her, he didn't get closure. He didn't get to tell Rose Tyler that he loved her. He's stuck in the middle of a sentence that he doesn't think he'll ever get the chance to finish.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

She does. She says that she thinks that he wants to be 'this Doctor'. And he does... he wants to be this Doctor, the one that he's dreaming about. I don't think it's a coincidence that the vast majority of the pages are about the times he shared with Rose and what he encountered with her. He wants to be that Doctor again, the one that traveled with his 'perfect Rose'.

Who could blame him? Life was just so rosey (pardon the pun) while they were together. They were the stuff of legend. Who wouldn't want that?

And the thing that I'm wondering about right now is the pages that are torn out -- there's a couple just before the page about The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances.

Well, Father's Day and Dalek were before that. Not exactly plesant stuff. Dalek having to do with the Time War and Father's Day having them getting into a fight.

Hmm. Did the journal start with adventures with Rose? If so, would further my idea of him starting a whole new life in the new series. You get the former incarnations, but that comes later. After all that stuff with Rose, *then* he can start looking at his past again.

Yes, it's all about the beauty and splendor of it all. In some ways, they're giving us a glimpse of the Doctor in the distant future, when the ripping agony of his grief has faded and he remembers the beauty more than anything else. When thinking of his adventures with Rose will make him nostalgic but ultimately glad that he at least has the memory, rather than bitter and sad.

Good point.

Right -- even with the distance of dreams and faded memories, he wants to reach her. I think that he'll always want that, because for all the trouble and pain that he went to talk to her, he didn't get closure. He didn't get to tell Rose Tyler that he loved her. He's stuck in the middle of a sentence that he doesn't think he'll ever get the chance to finish.

:(

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Did the journal start with adventures with Rose? If so, would further my idea of him starting a whole new life in the new series. You get the former incarnations, but that comes later. After all that stuff with Rose, *then* he can start looking at his past again.

Hmm. Let me go look.

It starts out with the inside of the TARDIS and the details of the console and the sonic screwdriver. Then... oh, those actually look a bit like the top of the Torchwood logo (two rows of hexagons, though it's incomplete) and the words "why? why?" and tiny drawings of circular symbols (they look like the Gallifreyan writing that on the notes all over the TARDIS and it says 'symbols have to draw') and then we have the ripped out pages and go right to gas mask zombies in TEC/TDD. A Dalek is after that, then the Moxx of Balhoon, the Autons, the Clockworks, and then the page after that is Rose, which is interesting. We get the Cybermen right after Rose and then more on the 'magic box' and then we get the page with all the faces of his past self, and then the last page we see has the pocketwatch from this episode on it.

[mrv3000.livejournal.com]

It starts out with the inside of the TARDIS and the details of the console and the sonic screwdriver. Then... oh, those actually look a bit like the top of the Torchwood logo (two rows of hexagons, though it's incomplete) and the words "why? why?"

Oh God. The Doctor starts remembering himself, and the first actual occurrence he recalls is Doomsday and Torchwood? Makes sense since it's *such* a huge source of pain this series, but still. That's heartbreaking - that beyond the basic mechanics of "the Doctor" (the TARDIS and the screwdriver), *that's* the first thing. That's what's been pressing against him. It really is his driving force this series, isn't it?

and tiny drawings of circular symbols (they look like the Gallifreyan writing that on the notes all over the TARDIS and it says 'symbols have to draw') and then we have the ripped out pages and go right to gas mask zombies in TEC/TDD.

I revise my statement then. They were most likely fairly disturbing things, enough for those pages to be ripped out and discarded.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Oh God. The Doctor starts remembering himself, and the first actual occurrence he recalls is Doomsday and Torchwood? Makes sense since it's *such* a huge source of pain this series, but still. That's heartbreaking - that beyond the basic mechanics of "the Doctor" (the TARDIS and the screwdriver), *that's* the first thing. That's what's been pressing against him. It really is his driving force this series, isn't it?

It really does make sense. And it explains why there are pages ripped out, which was something that I was wondering even on the first run-through. He's able to talk about it all fairly easily, but the way he writes in that thing... the repetition, the way he writes over everything -- it's all incredibly erratic and stressful-looking. If this is a look into the Doctor's subconscious, there's quite a lot of darkness in there (I'm thinking of going through, bit by bit, and working out as much of the text as I can, because I saw something about shadows and darkness).

John Smith isn't as far from the Doctor as he'd like to be -- his attraction to Joan, his precision with the cricket ball, his casual disregard of people who aren't being interesting... these are all things that stem from the parts of him that are still the Doctor.

[dettiot.livejournal.com]

I so love this post--I wittered on for ages to get the same points across that you did, but you did it so elegantly.

There's a whole lot to love in this episode that wasn't John Smith (Freema was quite good and Martha was in such a horrible position, all of the guest-acting was spot-on, and the whole vibe of the episode was incredibly perfect for the place and time it's set in), but he's what remains on my mind after. David Tennant does a perfect job here, absolutely perfect.

And this sums up my reaction to the episode--it's really a showcase for DT, and he nailed it. Doesn't it just make you happy, to see that? Makes the fact that it was an amazing episode that much better.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

And this sums up my reaction to the episode--it's really a showcase for DT, and he nailed it. Doesn't it just make you happy, to see that? Makes the fact that it was an amazing episode that much better.

David is doing such a fantastic job this year. Which only highlights, to me, how much I just accepted his giddiness and joy last year as part of the character. What he's doing this year makes last season feel even richer and better, because proves that it was about character interaction and where his character was, and not David's enthusiasm for the show bleeding through.

[dettiot.livejournal.com]

What he's doing this year makes last season feel even richer and better, because proves that it was about character interaction and where his character was, and not David's enthusiasm for the show bleeding through.

[nods emphatically] In fact, before series 2, I wondered a bit about the transition from Nine to Ten; I thought that DT seemed too comical, too giddy. But it was so infectious that I got swept up in it, and I loved Ten. But this series, I'm seeing so much of that wounded, damaged, vulnerable side, that I'm just in awe. I might complain about the way some things are developing this series, but I can't complain at all about DT's work this series.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Indeed. DT is just doing a stellar job.

[gene-lee.livejournal.com]

Like yourself, I really enjoyed Human Nature, but my honest opinion... while I completely understand the Rose reference in this episode--in fact, its the first I felt was appropiate--I think Russell's continued idealization of Rose and etching her with the words "perfect" do more harm to her character than good. I think this post-Doomsday Sainthood does more to alienate a fanbase than it does to attract fans to her. JMO~

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Well, I think the question is, is Russell idealizing Rose or is the Doctor?

Because the Doctor adored Rose. Considered her 'the best', absolutely believed in her to get herself out of danger in The Satan Pit, wanted her to see him as a 'man' capable of dating and dancing. And he lost her -- after she'd come back to him, after he'd accepted that she'd chosen him over her family and that it was an irrevokable choice -- he lost her because she was saving the world.

He burns up a sun to day good-bye to her and never gets to finish his last sentence. He doesn't have closure, he's fully aware that he has to talk himself into believing that she'll be happy without him, and because of the way he lost her, he's lost faith in humanity.

Because of the way he loved her and because of the way he lost her, idealization of their time together actually seems like a perfectly natural reaction. And I really admire Russell for going there and not worrying about whether or not people will like it. Ever since QAFUK, I've admired him for being emotionally honest with his characters and I really admire him for doing that here and now, with a character as well-known as the Doctor.

[goldy-dollar.livejournal.com]

Like falling in love with a woman who looks a bit like Rose, who makes him feel lost and giddy and alive the way that Rose did, but one older and wiser and widowed, as he is. Someone that he can talk to and share himself with and trust, as he did with Rose.

Oh, yes! Thank you for expressing *exactly* how I felt about John and Joan. Their romance felt far more natural to me than the one in GitF.

This episode was just so lovely. I want to wrap it up inside a box with a bow and just give it a giant hug. I like that things weren't glossed over. That there will be pain. That it was actually set to *period* instead of just being: "Whee, let's meet Shakespeare!" There's a LOT to like, including the Rose reference. And, yes, David Tennant was perfect. :D

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes! Thank you for expressing *exactly* how I felt about John and Joan. Their romance felt far more natural to me than the one in GitF.

I've just gone with 'celebrity crush' for GitF. That's the only thing that makes sense. It was only a romance from Reinette's point of view.

John and Joan felt real and honest.

This episode was just so lovely. I want to wrap it up inside a box with a bow and just give it a giant hug. I like that things weren't glossed over. That there will be pain. That it was actually set to *period* instead of just being: "Whee, let's meet Shakespeare!" There's a LOT to like, including the Rose reference. And, yes, David Tennant was perfect. :D

Right -- all the surrounding details of this episode felt so real. Maybe because, for the first time, Martha is getting a hard look of what being in the past can be like. Before now, she was in shallow giddy mode, but after two months of hiding as a servant, it wore off a bit.

[sizequeen.livejournal.com]

Did you notice how when the Doctor and the Matron were doing that funny book juggling that their banter was pure Rose/Ten. i don't think the woman looks a thing like Rose, but she can see into the Doctor the way that Rose did and she understands him. Martha loves the Doctor and she sees the wonder of him, but Martha doesn't see into his soul.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

Yeah -- they had the adorable banter thing down. And he was so nervous around her at that moment, which actually reminded me a bit of 'resonating concrete' from Nine.

I loved her reaction to seeing his journal -- it was such a Rose reaction. "I'd be very interested." And she's so sweet and understanding of his fantastical dreams.