Current mood:

geeky

This evening's viewing, and some ponderings on the Doctor [Spoilers for NuWho, S4, Ep6]
Viewing of DW was delayed, as a result of John Barrowman being so excruciating to watch on the preceding game show (the guy managed to make every single utterance - including the "exciting" announcement of the round titles - sound like a third rate am-dram actor reading from an autocue. This may in part have been because he was, in fact, reading from an autocue...) that I flipped over to Five, and got hooked on the Danny DeVito film they were showing. I stuck with that to the end, stayed on through Five News ("WHAT?!? On top of food, shelter, and every other basic necessity, the dying multitudes also get denied their *vote*?!?", and on to the NCIS double bill (reruns of Season 3). Two great episodes, I thought.

The DW ep. has now fully torrented, however (I've given up on the BBC's annoyingly flaky and uncontrollable "watch again" viewer), and so...



As I suspected, the meaning of "my daughter" was *not* "Susan's mum", nor even "the Doctor's daughter from long ago who's always been around and who somehow survived the Time War and stayed hidden, and we've just never met/heard of her before". I was a bit startled, though, to have her origin not only explained, but actually *played out in full* before the opening credits even rolled! =:o> And so, the focus of the ep. was not "where does this mysterious daughter come from?" (which as plots go would have been a bit run-of-the-mill, frankly), but rather, "Now that she's here... what would the Doctor's daughter be *like*?". And of course, this is complicated by the fact that she's been pre-programmed to be something the Doctor would never want her to be: A soldier.

Halfway through the ep.: "Ooh, she's *fun*! Can we keep her?" =:o>

Near the end of the ep.: "You *BASTARDS*!!" =>:o{

End of the ep.: "Yayyyyyyyyyyy!!!!!" [BIG HAPPY BOUNCY SQUEEFUL BOUNCE-BOUNCE TYPE BOUNCY THING]

(P.S. You're still bastards, though.)

Some obvious thematic follow-through from the preceding Sontaran two-parter: The Doctor was seen there to be not just disapproving (as of old) but actually quite *hostile* to soldiery. Here, it's pointed out why: He became (in some sense or other) a soldier himself, in the fateful Time War, and bitterly regrets it.

Another thematic follow-through that I wasn't so happy with: Declaring himself as the foundation stone for a new society.

The 10th Doctor spent his first two years angsting about the temptations of godhood. He was "born" as a consequence of taking the Vortex (temporarily) into himself from Rose. On recovering from his regeneration, his first conscious hour is full of frantic self-enquiry: "what kind of man am I?" - and he seems to find an answer: "No second chances. I'm that kind of a man." And he seems grimly resigned to it.

Then we see the worried look he gets when Novice Hame talks of "the Lonely God"...

In "The Family of Blood", we see him enact a terrible judgement upon the eponymous Family. (Although note: We only hear a version as told by one of the Family members. Reliable narrator? You decide.)

In Utopia, he finally explains to Jack what Rose did that led to Jack's immortality, and observes: "If a Time Lord did that, he'd become a god. A *vengeful* god." And this, of course, is what he fears has in fact happened to him, at least a bit. Or could be happening to him, inch by inch...

And so in the S3 finale, after suffering the year that never happened, we seem him hell-bent (!) on being, if he has to be any kind of god at all, a *different* kind of god: A merciful one.

But there's a problem. However noble his intention, the Doctor is still a deeply flawed individual. And while he may have largely come to terms with his part in the War, and the destruction of Gallifrey, he's still somewhat damaged by it.

Now, a flawed god can be OK, if he's part of a rich pantheon: Lots of differently-imperfect gods, all their flaws pulling against each other to achieve some balance. But when the only god in town is someone like the Doctor? Someone who of late has let self-obsession blind himself to the nuances of every relationship he's in, never mind those taking place around him? Olympus, we have a problem.

"Let the foundation of your society be a man who never would". Sounds OK... except that they will inevitably remember other things about this man too, and doubtless try to emulate those. And they'll all remember or interpret those things differently, or prioritise them differently, or just be unaware of the unconscious ways they have filtered what he said through what they are pre-programmed or post-educated to hear and believe... And sure as eggs is eggs, a few generations down the line (nearly a whole day, then?) there will be people putting other people to the sword because "He just meant we should never use a *gun*, you silly heretic!"

He doesn't want to be a vengeful god... But he's already succumbed more than once to the temptation of vengeance. He doesn't want to be the lonely god... But he clings to his identity as "last of the Time Lords", refusing to consider - despite having been proved wrong once already - that others may be out there, hidden from him in cloaks of humanity or shields of other kinds. He doesn't want to be a god at all... but when situations crop up where being a god seems to provide a solution, he steps into the role all too easily.

The Ood told him that "your song will be ending soon". Could it be a reference to that "same old song" he sings: "I'm the last of my kind, boo-hoo"?

I hope so. =:o} Partly 'cos I'm tired of hearing it; Partly 'cos any sane fan wants to hear that Romana survived... but mostly because when he finally realises he's wrong about that, he *might* realise he's wrong about being being damned to godhood, too.