selenak

You know what this reminds me of? Tanith Lee's Blake's 7 episode Sarcophagus and to a lesser degree her episode Sand. She only wrote these two scripts for B7, and they are very much a love or hate case in the fandom, especially Sarcophagus. Me, I'm on board for the psychedelic ride.

The moment we saw "One year later" I knew for sure we'd get a reset at the end, because very obviously, this is Dr. Who, BBC show orginally intended for children, not new Battlestar Galactica, and Earth permanently occupied or even recovering from brutal occupation is just not on. However, having Martha and her family, Jack, the Doctor, the Master and Lucy remember removed what problems I otherwise have with reset buttons. The one year that never was also was necessary in terms of logistics (in as much as DW has same), because there was no way Martha could have become a legend and spread another legend in a few days or a week or however much an episode usually takes.

I am bursting with Martha love right now and must remember to keep this short, because I'll go into more details in my Post of Martha Praise yet to come and don't want to repeat too much, so suffice to say: the finale showcased what has been her character throughout the season - her intelligence, quiet strength and ability to build and have trust. Her patience. Her being a healer. I think my post will be called "Becoming a Doctor", because that was her arc, "doctor" both in the medical sense and in the DW "hero" sense. The Martha who had the ability to listen to stupid racist school boys sneer at her without either getting broken or jumping up in anger, thus endangering her mission, that's the Martha who allows herself to be captured by the Master, kneels in front of him, listens to his taunts and then delivers her blow. She's not flamboyant; she is subtle, and she has patience. The Martha who figured out how to buy precious time by remembering movies and submarines in Gridlock, the Martha who is a Harry Potter reader and uses Expelleriamus in The Shakespeare Code? That's the Martha who knew the Master would go for a story like the weapon with four different components spread across the continents. (Undoubtedly, she remembered HBP and the hocruxes.) Martha who uses her knowledge, trivia and medical alike, to save the world. And she did.

So did the rest of humanity. Say what you want about the cheesiness (and yes, of course it was, but in a very DW way), but I loved the fact that the episode presented both the worst and the best of what humans can be, and allowed humanity to become its own saviour, yes, channelled by the Doctor, but he was their instrument; he was literary empowered by them. It also ties very well with the season themes - the power of faith - again, see Gridlock and the people on the motorway there, and the Face of Boe, about whom more in a moment, giving his last energy to save them, with the Doctor acting as transferer and enabler (and he himself pointed out it was the Face of Boe who saved them), not as origin of the power. It was a great balance to the very grim revelation that was one of last week's guesses proven true: that the Toclafane were the humans the Doctor and Yana thought they had saved in Utopia. I said to

honorh that if they were indeed the Utopia humans, Creet (the boy who bonded with Martha) would recognize her as a Toclafane, and was delighted in a grim way when this turned out to be true. So yes, humanity, in the end, will become the futurekind, devouring itself, will become what the Doctor always tried to save them from, the Daleks (Terry Nation would be thrilled, and so would Davros who made the Khaled into the Daleks in the show), i.e. with just the worst instincts left, encapsuled in machines. But those same humans are also capable of every virtue the Doctor has ever praised them for, and they save the day.

Lucy Saxon as a Dark Companion, if you like: even more obvious this week. Rose and Martha saw the end of earth and the end of the universe respectively, but it only made them more determined to help in the present; Lucy saw the end of humanity, and it made her crack, if her one scene with lines is any indication. "What's the point?" (Lucy clearly hasn't watched Angel.) I can't make up my mind about whether her shooting the Master was part of the Master's back-up plan or her own idea, and if the later, whether she did so because she didn't want him to be a prisoner, because she didn't want him to be with the Doctor, or because of disillusionment (the last I think the least likely), but I actually like this ambiguity (fodder for fanfic). No matter the reason, though, her gleefulness from the previous episode is gone throughout (including occasions when the Master kisses her), and I guess it's not just because the Master has other women massage him in front of her. Which is why I didn't see Lucy joining in to the "Doctor" chorus as ooc - it was one flicker of species solidarity after a year of watching the overlord plan that had sounded so exciting to her actually in place.

(We're clearly meant to think it's Lucy who grabs the ring at the end, which is why I doubt it; I know my Dracula movies from the Hammer studios, of which this scene is a direct rip-off, and it's never the most obvious candidate who does that.)

Anyway, Lucy mirrors Chantho in shooting the Master, and also Martha in changing seeming defeat into victory (of a sort). It's an epitome of how utterly and completely fucked up their relationship is that the Master refuses to be with the Doctor on the Doctor's terms (as opposed to his own, see the previous year), and risks final death if it allows him to win. I say "risk final death" as opposed to "rather finally dies than" because come on. This is the Master. Returning from the deader than dead is his trademark; he came back from being burned utterly and completely before (the burning happened with the Fifth Doctor, the return with the Sixth). Also, giving the ring the echoing laughter previously housed by the fob watch (btw, is that still Ainsley's voice, or Simm's?), should cue you in even if you never watched the English Draculas from the 50s and 60s. As the Master tried to goad Francine into shooting him even before the Doctor made his "come spend eternity with me" offer, I'm assuming he had his emergy transfer into the ring planned out just in case, though I'm not yet sure whether or not Lucy was part of the plan.

This being said, I think he was aware there was the possibility that nobody would bring him back this time, ring or no ring, and he still went through it rather than accept the Doctor's terms, because he's crazy and they're screwed up like that. Also, it allowed him to hear the Doctor beg, and die in his arms. And I shall be very sad that we won't see Simm! Master again because JS was so great in the role and had mad chemistry with David Tennant. (Though then again, maybe we will. The Master has a history of bodysnatching and keeping his old look anyway.)

There was no way this storyline was going to end happily for the Doctor. Obviously, the day would be won, humanity would be saved, but no matter whether the Master lived or died, it would be tragedy for the Doctor. And observe the irony: Mr. "No Second Chances", he who scared the hell out of Donna at Christmas Eve when committing on screen genocide on the Raccnoss (when said Raccnoss were about to eat the human race, admittedly) and used immortality as a punishment for the Family of Blood (and eternal imprisonment for the witches, and oh, the Angels) really truly goes out of his way to save one of the most merciless villains around. I think the Master would have loved it if the Doctor had gone all Oncoming Storm on him, because he could have flattered himself that at last he got the Doctor to unleash his dark side, that he truly broke the Doctor and had him on his terms; but "I forgive you" was the line he really really did not want to hear. It's not all he got to hear from the Doctor. I must quote

astrogirl2 here, because she said it perfectly:

I must admit, given how rife this fandom has been with shipwars, and how much bad fanfic I know is out there about the Doctor and Rose realizing their soulmateyness and settling down to have Time Babies, I'm currently finding myself chuckling madly over the fact that we actually get to hear him say, with all apparently sincerity, "Maybe I've been wandering too long. Maybe it's time to settle down, now that I've found someone to care for," and he's talking about the freaking MASTER. I'm doubly amused, because I would have filed that under the heading of "lines I'd never, ever expect to hear on Doctor Who and which would make me gag on my own vomit if I did," but given the twistedness of the context, I actually loved it. Definite points for taking a bad fanfic line and making it work.

Exactly. Because he means it. He means every word of it. He's willing to spend eternity - and they really have a lot of it - with a complete psychopath, and not just to make sure said psychopath doesn't get to set his next murderous scheme in motion at the expense of other people. Oh, Doctor. You're just this side of insane yourself, but we knew that.

Otoh, he didn't stop Francine from shooting the Master because of the Master. (At this point, he had no reason to believe the Master wouldn't just regenerate.) He stopped her because of Francine. He did not want Francine to become a killer, no matter how much the Master deserved it. The long silent look exchanged between Francine and the Doctor near the end, through the Jones' window, is one of my favourite things about the episode, because to me, it was about this most of all.

Martha saying goodbye: I hope Martha will become the New Who version of the Brigadier, i.e. an UberCompanion who stays on Earth most of the time but is the one the Doctor comes back to for several incarnations, steadying him. It makes sense, not just because RTD chose to give her the unrequited love thing and had to wrap that up, but because Martha, whose doctor-ness is such an essential part of herself, really would not leave her traumatized family after such a year (that happened for all of them). She originally went on adventure; then she fell for the man providing it; but she never made a life time commitment, or intended to make it. Not to the Doctor. To being a doctor. And that's who she is, and what she is.

Lastly: Titanic, huh? You know, this makes me wonder whether the infamously commitment shy Christopher Eccleston has been persuaded to grace the screen for the Christmas Special. Because among other things, from the moment the Doctor said "Gallifrey" out loud on screen in The Runaway Bride, this season has been a love declaration to Old Who, and Old Who every now and then did these Doctor-meets-Doctor(s) very special episodes, depending on how many of the older actors they still had available. Considering that in Rose, it's stated Nine was on the Titanic, this might be just the thing for Christmas. (Also, he was there before meeting Rose. Which means no Rose explanations will be necessary if Nine should meet Ten. Thank Rassilon.)

All in all: I loved this season. The finale itself, as an episode, was not as good as "The Sound of Drums", but it worked for me very well indeed. Bring on the Christmas special and the next season. And most of all, bring back Martha as the new Brigadier.