The End of Time, pt. 2

[rm]

If given what we were given in part 1, this was pretty close to what I would have done with part 2. That's a little goddamn weird.

1. The redemption of the Master was AWESOME. I do have to confess I was disappointed we didn't get any Harold SAxon-esque musical numbers this time though. I LOVED that.

2. Also, yes, thank you for dialing back on the cracky.

3. The performances were great. Just people's eyes. The Doctor (more bondage for the win!) and the Master specifically.

4. The Doctor's utter love and admiration for the Master.

5. Rose, returned, again -- in a way that didn't suck or lessen the impact of the Rose narrative. Win.

6. Jesus fucking Christ the Weeping Angels reference. Oh god, they are something horrible related to the Time Lords. Oh god oh god oh god. These things get WORSE AND WORSE and I'm writing a story about them EATING JACK'S EYES.

7. So let's talk about this Jack thing.

I think it was adorable and interesting and thorny and I loved it. We don't know how long it's been since CoE. We don't know if he's still grieving or is having a bad night after he's mostly over it or what.

We don't know if the Doctor is getting Jack laid or if the Doctor is telling Jack something bigger with "His name is Alonso." What does the pronoun stand for? "The guy who's about to sit down next to you" or "the guy that's going to help you heal" or "the next person you're going to fall in love with"?

It's wonderfully open-ended, and because Alonso is young and has a lot of similar features to Ianto (personality and facial), it creates a lot of potential issues for the fannish mind to consider -- does Jack fuck him then freak out? Do they get into a several week fling and Alonso can see that Jack is broken about something and asks? Do they get into a relationship and Jack eventually explains and then hey have lots of fights because Jack isn't seeing Alonso but Ianto?

These are all MARVELOUS questions, but they also don't address the way this moment also speaks wonderfully to the Jack/Doctor relationship. Is this an apology from Ten? Or a recognition that Jack is in pain? Is he telling Jack to get on with things? Is he giving him permission? How much knowledge is this gesture made with? And look at Jack, after everything, taking it and latching on to it.

I know a lot of people don't like Barrowman's performance in this moment or the way the direction was handled, but I loved it -- it was like someone using muscles they are out of practice with -- look at Jack, nervous and overcompensating and unsure and a little queasy -- we haven't seen this since he asks Ianto on a date in Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and those were different wounds.

Look, people, I thought it was AWESOME.

8. Time Lords blow.

9. Wilf! We all love Wilf, but I also love the function Wilf serves. Doctor Who does a lot of romanticizing of war, but it also spends a lot of time trying to de-romanticize it in various ways. Wilf is the quietest of these ways, the most ordinary, and I think the writing there is consistently spectacular.

10. Ten saying goodbye to all those companions. And them sensing it, somehow. Great great great.

11. Martha & Mickey -- WTF? I'm so WTF the on this. We liked Tom; Martha liked Tom, and I like Mickey (and he looks GREAT with the facial hair) but I'm Just Not Getting that. WHAT THE FUCK? WHAT THE FUCK? WHAT THE FUCK FUCK FUCK WAS THAT? Also what were they doing? Are they rogue Torchwood agents now? WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT? AAAAAAAARGH!!!

12. The Ood. The Ood may be one of the best things the new series has brought us. So lovely, so elegant. And the line about the story. ALL TIMES ARE NOW, MOTHERFUCKERS. Ood!

13. So, Matt Smith, eh? I don't even watch old Who and I feel like we're in for a real throwback with Eleven. Very mad and wacky. It could work. But it's the human interactions that make this show go for me, so until he's saving the world, until he's sad, until he's running from himself, I won't really have a verdict.

Comments

[dskasak.livejournal.com]

1. I wasn't sure whether the Master died during his battle, or if he was whisked away with the rest of the Time Lords back into the Time Lock.

1a. RASSILON? The hell? I guess it makes sense for the Time Lords to bring back their greatest person, just as much as it made sense for the Daleks to revive Davros. As it is, the Forever Time War changed both sides to the point where their actions are indistinguishable from each other (Davros wanted to end reality, while Rassilon wanted to end time).

1b. Those who have read more of the New Adventure books or heard the Big Finish audios could comment better on this than I can, but I wonder if the return of Rassilon was a nod toward the idea that the Doctor (aka The Other) was a much more important figure in Gallifrey history than he's let on. Near the end of the original series, Sylvester McCoy and John Nathan-Turner appeared to be leaning more along these lines of increasing the Doctor's powers while deepening the mystery of his origins, but the show ended before these plots could be carried out.

4. The Doctor is the yang to the Master's yin.

5. I knew Rose was going to return, but I didn't mind how it was carried out. No sappiness, no melodrama, just one final glance before regeneration.

6. I saw the trailer for Season 5, and the Weeping Angels are back. I'd love to see how they are tied into Time Lord or Gallifrey history.

7. As soon as I saw Ten giving Jack the note, I immediately thought of you. :)

8. Indeed. As neotoma said, the fact that the Doctor (Eight, most likely) had to kill his own people to prevent them from carrying out their plans says a lot about how war can change a society for the worse. Nine had, as you've said, survivor's guilt for living after the War, which is something Ten suppressed throughout most of his incarnation.

8a. Ten was the most controlling and manipulative of all the Doctors. He wanted to be not just in charge, but loved for his actions. The ruthlessness that you've commented upon in the past stems from Ten's need to always win out, to be in charge (with the notable exception of his feelings for Rose). At best, someone could be an equal to him--Donna, Jack, Wilf--but there was usually a way in which Ten would remind his "equals" that he's in command. "The Waters Of Mars" gave Ten a no-win scenario; his actions of breaking the First Law of Time backfired in ways he didn't anticipate, which shook him to his foundations. Likewise, Ten's fear of death is his reaction to the no-win situation of regeneration, and to my knowledge, Ten was the only incarnation of the Doctor who resisted the idea of regeneration, even right up to the very second it started.

9. Wilf was a great companion, and I'm glad he was there for Ten. I certainly didn't see Wilf as the person who would knock four times.

10. Two minor quibbles: a) I would have liked a better good-bye with Donna to prove that she's now OK, and she won't die if she sees the Doctor; b) Sarah Jane could have, in 30 seconds, given Ten some words of encouragement about regeneration; she was there during the Three/Four switch.

13. After seeing the Series 5 preview, I'm fearing "Geronimo!" Eleven looks to be more physical than Nine or Ten, and I hope that his boyish looks will mask a very old soul who may be able to put aside any guilt without suppressing it or needing to be in control all the time.

[logansrogue.livejournal.com]

Ten was the only incarnation of the Doctor who resisted the idea of regeneration, even right up to the very second it started.

It's really bugging me, that. Cause it's kinda flying in the face of canon. The switch is nowhere near as bad as he's making out. I mean, Romana I turned into Romana II like she was trying on a new DRESS for fuck's sake. And she had pretty much the same personality, if not a little more playful, which one can imagine her doing if she's trying something new.

I just see it as RTD doing his thing, which I'm thoroughly glad to see the back of.

[amberite.livejournal.com]

I thought the First Doctor also fought it like mad.

[dskasak.livejournal.com]

I can understand the First Doctor fighting it, as regeneration would have been a new process for him to contemplate. He would have had a legit excuse to be scared of it, while with Ten, regeneration should have been an experience he would have expected.