That Doctor, eh?

[selenak]

Spending a day in the train is curiously draining. It did give me the opportunity to rewatch some s2/28 episodes of Dr. Who, though, which was fun and relaxing preparation for the next part of the BSG saga. New Who (and old Who, God knows) is far from perfect, but there is so much to love about the show. The way it handles characters-of-the-week and recurring ones, for example. Whether it's the crew from Impossible Planet/ Satan's Pit or Jake and Mrs. Moore from Alt!Earth, or historical figures like Queen Victoria and Reinette aka Madame de Pompadour, the show brings them alive. As for Mickey and Jackie, I liked them in s1/27 already but really fell in love this latest season.

I tend to avoid debates about the Doctor/Rose relationship, mostly because I rarely 'ship in shows anyway, but also because of something I came to realize re: New Who this latest rewatch. The moments which tend to stay with me closests of this latest incarnation of the show aren't with the Doctor (either Nine or Ten) and Rose. They're of the Doctor with other people. Which might be a reason why, if put to a choice, I slightly prefer Ten. With Nine, the two most memorable moments to me were his conversation with Sabe the Tree Lady (aka the first scene that revealed to us the other Time Lords were all dead) in End of the World and the "Just this once, every body lives!" scene from The Doctor Dances. Which basically covers the two extremes of Nine.

The Ten scenes that come to mind if I'd be questioned about favourites, otoh, would be his unabashed delight in seeing Sarah Jane again and the farewell scene from School Reunion, but also him going goofy over K9 and cold (and slashy) with ASH's Headmaster in the same episode; the conversations with Mrs. Moore in Age of Steel and with Ida in Satan's Pit, where the focus is on them, not on him, which helps with the idea that the Doctor is interested in humans beyond saving their lives (and/or having intense relationships with a selected few), the hug with Zack in Impossible Planet, kissing Mickey on the head while running (no small feat) in Doomsday, the anger at gratitious deaths like the poor blackmailed henchman's of The Wire and of course Mrs. Moore's. (I know Tennant gets critisized for not playing the anger right, but while I'd concede you The Christmas Invasion, I'll defend his "You didn't have to kill her!" in Age of Steel to the death. The scene with Louis XV (and btw, kudos to the show for not making Louis into a caricature, which would have been easy), with both of them watching Reinette's coffin leave Versailles, in its still, quiet grief, not overdone, just right. And the unabashed admiration at the beauty of werewolves and automatons. And the ruthless and quite efficient way in which he manipulates Alt!Pete by using Jackie, which reminded me of my own absolute favourite incarnation of the Doctor, Seven. (Mind you, manipulation by itself isn't enough to make this admirer of Machiavellian guile approve; for example, when Nine did it with Rose in Aliens of London/WWIII, I just thought, good lord but he is damaged, isn't he? I guess the difference was that Nine wanted Rose to stay with him whereas Ten needed Pete to help saving the earth.)

I'm not sure whether I agree with iamsab, who in her Letter of Tennant praise, said: he's a fellow who's hop, hop, hopping for his life, in perpetual motion because if he ever stops, even for a second, he'll be forced to come to terms with the weight of his 900 years and all his angst and guilt , because I think if you locked Ten up and ordered him to contemplate the past he wouldn't necessarily brood as he would have done as Nine, he'd be more likely resort to some of his old skills and try and find out whether he somehow inherited Two's ability to play flutes. Nine was the one who had manic energy (and Eccleston does it beautifully); what Ten has is more like recovered joie de vivre, which isn't the same thing. But as incarnations of the Doctor go, I hope he'll stay with us for a while, until the inevitable Eleven comes along and makes us fall in love with another version of the Doctor all over again.

Comments

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

The moments which tend to stay with me closests of this latest incarnation of the show aren't with the Doctor (either Nine or Ten) and Rose. They're of the Doctor with other people.

Oddly enough, I was thinking about this from another angle today; the imminence of Torchwood put it into my mind that, while I was one of the apparently few people not enchanted by Jack Harkness, I did begin to miss him once he'd gone, because he helped to break up the relentless focus on the Doctor/Rose relationship. Despite the occasional sideways glances at Sarah Jane and Mme de P, that focus became quite oppressive for me in the last season, which is probably why I tended to be less irritated when Mickey was around, especially when he was allowed to develop as an independent character rather than just Rose's ex. I've no idea whether I'll like Jack as a lead, though.

[She's Jabe!]

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Oh, I wasn't sure whether I'd like Angel (whom I had liked but not loved on BTVS) as a lead when Angel the series came along, but as it turned out I did, muchly, so despite liking but not loving everyone's favorite Omnisexual Conman, I'm optimistic about Torchwood.

Re: focus - hm. Like I said, I just rewatched, and in entirely Mickey-less episodes like Impossible Planet and Satan's Pit, the focus is on the station, the people there, the menace, the Doctor and Rose interacting with the people. There is just one "couply" scene - the mortgage scene, and that's hard not to interpret as her proposing, and him declining - and these two are, after "School Reunion" and "Girl in the Fireplace", my favourites of the season...

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

That's not calculated to increase my optimism, because I thought Angel was the weak link in Angel! On the other hand, despite arriving in the penultimate season I gradually formed some sort of fannish relationship with Angel, which I never did with Buffy.

I quite liked The Impossible Planet, which I thought was the most Doctor Whoish episode in either season. And yes, it probably did help that the Doctor and Rose got separated (one of my objections to New Who is that the 45-minute format doesn't give the companion time to lead her own subplot, which is another factor making her look clingy), and that they had to spend time building up the characters of the team. And it definitely helped that Danny Webb, whom I adore, was playing the security chief. Unfortunately, any storyline in which There Really Is A Devil And He Looks Like This trips the suspension-of-disbelief switch in my head.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Angel is one of those characters whom I came to love instead of loving him instantly, but where said affection remained with me. Whereas I fell out of love with Wesley at the point when everyone else fell in love with him, which perhaps was a kind of inverted snobbery - i.e. I loved and defended him when he was an unpopular character, but everyone else going "guh, Wesley, hot!" somehow resulted in me going "eh".

Which of course has nothing whatsoever to do with Jack and his suitability as a lead. Sorry for sidetracking.

Re: Devil, I went through the Pagh Wraiths on DS9. 'Nuff said.

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Ah, the Pah Wraiths didn't bother me (apart from the silly name), because (a) they didn't Look Like That, and (b) despite his own mystical role, Sisko asserted that the Prophets and Wraiths weren't Gods and Devils, they were just a powerful alien race around whom the Bajorans had constructed a religion. This model was reinforced, sometimes explicitly, by the Vorta and the Jem'Hadar having formed a religion around the less powerful and less mysterious Changelings.

Well, we'll see what happens tonight.

[lilacsigil.livejournal.com]

I loved Nine very much, but he was extremely intense, and I must admit that Ten is more fun to watch. I also suspect that, as you say, Ten is the most like Seven, with his happy, playful exterior and truly ruthless, cold ability to manipulate and shape events and people.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

*curses the lack of a Seven icon again and resolves to do something about it*

Yes, exactly. Mind you, I'm happy we got Nine first. That made character sense. Heck, we're lucky RTD picked these particular two actors, full stop.