Doctor Who
Dec. 10th, 2015 06:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethI rewatched the last two episodes of Doctor Who back to back. Full of feels this time. I still don't like where it went but it did go there in style.
Was thinking about the Doctor's beginnings: The old lady in the veils, who inspired the grey stalking death. He mentions her at the start, and then when it's his turn to die he says Time Lords take forever to die and other races always get it wrong, so Time Lords prefer to die among their own kind, they know not to bury them too early. Reckon the lady in the veils was the Time Lords' usual response to death, to cover her up, but not too much, so she's comfortable in the day and a half or whatever it takes to get all the way gone. Except she was all gone right away, so leaving her in the sun for a day, flies. So why would the Time Lords make such a mistake? Because she's either not their kin or not their kind.
Two possibilities, both of them with story in them: most Gallifreyans don't get the magic of regeneration, or, she was a human living on Gallifrey.
Either way, the Doctor comes from a background where they never expected him to be a Time Lord, and when he goes back the people from round his way look raggedy compared to the Citadel. They're also very much on his side, even with guns pointed at them, even with their children in danger. Could be just about the Time War. Would be local boy makes good. But there's a big discrepancy between how those were living and how the Time Lords live. Choice? Or inequality?
I'd actually be a bit annoyed if the all powerful Time Lords with the most advanced technology who of all people should live in a post scarcity economy turn out to have a bunch of poor people they just let live and die on their doorstep. Sure there's story in it, politics even, lords temporal of our own country being very much a real thing, along with life expectancy inequality, but the science fiction setting ought to rule it out. But of course Doctor Who isn't primarily science fiction in some senses. So, it's very probably inequality as an elite power grab.
But if it's just the Doctor's mum? If she died alone among strangers who didn't even understand what death was? If the Doctor was left with her, probably meant as a mercy, a last chance to talk, the loose ends being wrapped up that everyone thinks of, dying among their loved ones... if he was left with her corpse because they purely didn't understand she was gone... well that's a reason to run. Reason to be scared. Not just of these cold people who let it happen, but of his own ending. I've liked for a while the idea that the Doctor didn't know for sure he could regenerate. That makes running away make all the sense. Every other Time Lord would have thought him too new, too young, why rush hurry? But he thinks he's plain old mortal and the end is catching up. So he has a family, and he takes one of them and runs away, to see it all while he can. And by the time he knows he's got time he's fallen in love with it all, far too much to just go back.
That last is why it never made sense to me to need an explanation for why the Doctor keeps coming back here. Not one that goes back to species, anyway. Because we saw why. He met Ian and Barbara and the experience changed him utterly. He started out a cranky old man on the run, just a tourist in space and time, but they made him get involved, they wouldn't take a Time Lord's answers when he said time could not be rewritten, they got stuck in and cared so much they made him care too. By the time they left he was a different person, one who never met anyone who wasn't important.
... when Rassilon said there was no one out in the dry lands, no one important? Even a new viewer knows, don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Of course the other explanation for the Doctor's recurring fascination with Earth is that we have, generously, fifty years of his life, and he's about a thousand before Moffat played with really large amounts of time. That's 950 years of being somewhere else, a lot of somewhere else, probably not Earth. We don't even know all the people he's travelled with, as Big Finish seem determined to find places to fit extra companions in even when we saw them join and leave him in relays. So he's had friends we've never dreamed of and gone places we've never known. Not difficult.
But I like the idea he got here and fell in love. Not kissing love, necessarily, but passionate just the same. Because he saw how we cared.
Ashildr bothers me. Well, 'Me' bothers me, but that looks so daft to type. First off, how is she the most immortal of immortals? Even Jack can die. And the second square got used on someone who apparently did not make it to the end of the universe. If that tiny bit of tech can keep her going forever but not the other guy then how is that supposed to make sense?
But okay, it's not a plot hole, it's a story generator.
But then there's how she's sitting in the last five minutes of time, the last life form standing, with two chairs and a chess board.
Chess. Board.
I actually don't have a 7 icon but it would go here.
Never trust a chess player. Especially one who thinks there's just two sides. And those were fancy bird shaped chess pieces, they put some work in there.
The Matrix also made it to the last five minutes, so hey, maybe she's playing with ghosts. But there's so many other possibilities, just from classic canon.
If she did 4.5 billion years the hard way there is no way she's the same manner of being she was at the start. Though I guess the 'infinite lifespan, finite memory' bit would be teh get out clause on that one. Only then she shouldn't be able to accumulate skills.
Stacks and stacks of story.
Oh, also, I liked how 'Me' seemed older by the end of the universe, just by the actor doing a thing. I don't know how actors tune their apparent age but I've seen it done and it's nifty.
Recent seasons of Doctor Who have bothered me frequently and from many angles. The niggly feeling their politics is not my politics is... distressing.
But Doctor Who remains a story generator par excellence, so there's always more and more interesting stuff to do with the toolkit as presented.
And this season end certainly opened up the possibilities.
Even if it seems a frustrating aesop, all things considered.
Was thinking about the Doctor's beginnings: The old lady in the veils, who inspired the grey stalking death. He mentions her at the start, and then when it's his turn to die he says Time Lords take forever to die and other races always get it wrong, so Time Lords prefer to die among their own kind, they know not to bury them too early. Reckon the lady in the veils was the Time Lords' usual response to death, to cover her up, but not too much, so she's comfortable in the day and a half or whatever it takes to get all the way gone. Except she was all gone right away, so leaving her in the sun for a day, flies. So why would the Time Lords make such a mistake? Because she's either not their kin or not their kind.
Two possibilities, both of them with story in them: most Gallifreyans don't get the magic of regeneration, or, she was a human living on Gallifrey.
Either way, the Doctor comes from a background where they never expected him to be a Time Lord, and when he goes back the people from round his way look raggedy compared to the Citadel. They're also very much on his side, even with guns pointed at them, even with their children in danger. Could be just about the Time War. Would be local boy makes good. But there's a big discrepancy between how those were living and how the Time Lords live. Choice? Or inequality?
I'd actually be a bit annoyed if the all powerful Time Lords with the most advanced technology who of all people should live in a post scarcity economy turn out to have a bunch of poor people they just let live and die on their doorstep. Sure there's story in it, politics even, lords temporal of our own country being very much a real thing, along with life expectancy inequality, but the science fiction setting ought to rule it out. But of course Doctor Who isn't primarily science fiction in some senses. So, it's very probably inequality as an elite power grab.
But if it's just the Doctor's mum? If she died alone among strangers who didn't even understand what death was? If the Doctor was left with her, probably meant as a mercy, a last chance to talk, the loose ends being wrapped up that everyone thinks of, dying among their loved ones... if he was left with her corpse because they purely didn't understand she was gone... well that's a reason to run. Reason to be scared. Not just of these cold people who let it happen, but of his own ending. I've liked for a while the idea that the Doctor didn't know for sure he could regenerate. That makes running away make all the sense. Every other Time Lord would have thought him too new, too young, why rush hurry? But he thinks he's plain old mortal and the end is catching up. So he has a family, and he takes one of them and runs away, to see it all while he can. And by the time he knows he's got time he's fallen in love with it all, far too much to just go back.
That last is why it never made sense to me to need an explanation for why the Doctor keeps coming back here. Not one that goes back to species, anyway. Because we saw why. He met Ian and Barbara and the experience changed him utterly. He started out a cranky old man on the run, just a tourist in space and time, but they made him get involved, they wouldn't take a Time Lord's answers when he said time could not be rewritten, they got stuck in and cared so much they made him care too. By the time they left he was a different person, one who never met anyone who wasn't important.
... when Rassilon said there was no one out in the dry lands, no one important? Even a new viewer knows, don't let the door hit you on the way out.
Of course the other explanation for the Doctor's recurring fascination with Earth is that we have, generously, fifty years of his life, and he's about a thousand before Moffat played with really large amounts of time. That's 950 years of being somewhere else, a lot of somewhere else, probably not Earth. We don't even know all the people he's travelled with, as Big Finish seem determined to find places to fit extra companions in even when we saw them join and leave him in relays. So he's had friends we've never dreamed of and gone places we've never known. Not difficult.
But I like the idea he got here and fell in love. Not kissing love, necessarily, but passionate just the same. Because he saw how we cared.
Ashildr bothers me. Well, 'Me' bothers me, but that looks so daft to type. First off, how is she the most immortal of immortals? Even Jack can die. And the second square got used on someone who apparently did not make it to the end of the universe. If that tiny bit of tech can keep her going forever but not the other guy then how is that supposed to make sense?
But okay, it's not a plot hole, it's a story generator.
But then there's how she's sitting in the last five minutes of time, the last life form standing, with two chairs and a chess board.
Chess. Board.
I actually don't have a 7 icon but it would go here.
Never trust a chess player. Especially one who thinks there's just two sides. And those were fancy bird shaped chess pieces, they put some work in there.
The Matrix also made it to the last five minutes, so hey, maybe she's playing with ghosts. But there's so many other possibilities, just from classic canon.
If she did 4.5 billion years the hard way there is no way she's the same manner of being she was at the start. Though I guess the 'infinite lifespan, finite memory' bit would be teh get out clause on that one. Only then she shouldn't be able to accumulate skills.
Stacks and stacks of story.
Oh, also, I liked how 'Me' seemed older by the end of the universe, just by the actor doing a thing. I don't know how actors tune their apparent age but I've seen it done and it's nifty.
Recent seasons of Doctor Who have bothered me frequently and from many angles. The niggly feeling their politics is not my politics is... distressing.
But Doctor Who remains a story generator par excellence, so there's always more and more interesting stuff to do with the toolkit as presented.
And this season end certainly opened up the possibilities.
Even if it seems a frustrating aesop, all things considered.
no subject
Date: 2015-12-10 10:59 pm (UTC)Also a creepy point about Ashildr and the chess board. Of course, that makes me instantly go to Sandman crossover fanon.