I can has trailer?

[selenak]

Somewhat belatedly, due to dashing to and thro on the weekend:



Which at this point probably everyone else has posted, but I'm still in the process of catching up and answering emails, tags, etc. So, firstly, the second half of season trailer is eerie and suspenseful, as a trailer should be. Obviously, it picks up two hints planted in the first half of the season, big time: planets/stars going missing, and Rose returning. Now, concerning the later, let me reiterate some observations which I think I made elsewhere, not in this journal:

a) The first glimpse of Rose in Partners of Crime, teasing us, is also intriguingly staged: it struck me that if you didn't know who Rose was, you'd assume this is the introduction of the season's villain.

b) "She is coming back" in "Fires of Pompeii" actually is pronounced among a series of negative or at least negative-sounding announcements - the Doctor's planet burning, Donna having "something on her back". It's not delivered as a happy promise. In the same episode, "someone will have to make a terrible choice" is made a main theme.

c) In the very brief glimpse we catch in The Poison Sky, it's up to debate whether Rose mouthes "Doctor" or "Donna". At any rate, she looks like she's desperately trying to tell something.

Now, the trailer. In which we see warrior!Rose, and when we finally hear her, she is definitely talking to Donna, not the Doctor. We also get the clip where Donna says "but Rose is coming back - that's good, isn't it?", and a loooong glimpse at the Doctor looking anything but convinced, very serious and concerned in fact, before at last switching to standard pleased grin and saying "yes".

What all of this leads me to believe: no, not that Rose is the season's villain or will be Evil!Rose, actually. Though I think they'll play with the possibility as a red herring to the audience. What I do think is that Rose's return is about her defender-of-Earth role, and not about a romantic reunion. I also think there will be a double twist: first as the audience and Donna will expect Rose - when she finally has made contact with the current Team TARDIS - wanting to reunite with the Doctor at once, she will actually seemingly do something to push him away/harm him/banish him/capture him. Something like that, a seemingly big betrayal. Then the second twist will be that this actually is necessary to save the universe from whatever is causing the planets to disappear, and that it will, in the end, also contribute to saving the Doctor.

(Oh, and at the end of the season, Rose will return to the Alt!verse by her own decision, but that's not a speculation caused by the trailer, simply by the fact that the Rose-and-the-Doctor story is basically told and I doubt Billie Piper would be available for more than guest spots anyway.)

More trailer thoughts:

- that Moffat two-parter looks creepy as hell. Can't wait.
- Wilf saying "the stars are going out" - sometimes RTD really manages neat planting of things that come useful later. Wilf's stargazing hobby from Partners in Crime being a case in point.
- some of the guest actors in future eps look familiar; it'll probably come to me.

Comments

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

I agree with you wholeheartedly. Especially that she'll probably betray him to save him, and that at the end, they'll seperate on the beach... a bit more like the end of Casablanca (or His Dark Materials, again) with the lovers separated by their duties, a little wiser for having loved at all.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

As long as it's by mutual consent (Rule of Aquisition is my favourite Casablanca rip-off because it's NATIMA who decides instead of Quark giving her the Bogart speech), I'd consider that a good ending.

[shezan.livejournal.com]

I'd forgotten Rules of Acquisition! LOVED that ep!

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

I'm really terrified that it's because she's going to 'dump' him and the wangst about the whole thing will coat the walls of fandom. So it might just be my hopes for avoiding all that.

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

- that Moffat two-parter looks creepy as hell. Can't wait.

Have you seen the clip yet? There was an awesome clip...

Re: guest stars: I recognized Colin Salmon, who played Helen Mirren's lover/sergeant in one of the Prime Suspects, and M.'s much younger sidekick in Die Another Day (a role that cheerfully rotates and was played by Tobias Menzies in Casino Royale. M. has great taste in "assistants.")

[selenak.livejournal.com]

No, I haven't - link, please?

And hey, M would have have. I want someone to write that fanfic where Bond started out as her intern...

[wee-warrior.livejournal.com]

Here you are. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bq3EsTlS9xk&feature=related)

I want someone to write that fanfic where Bond started out as her intern...

Indeed!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Oooooh, that is very cool. *anticipates* Thank you!

It isn't quite an intern fic, but...

[dandelionteeth.livejournal.com]

Are you familiar with Shalott's fic, Queen of Spades? If not, here is the address:

http://intimations.org/fanfic/jamesbond/Queen%20of%20Spades.html

Sorry, I don't know how to make the link hide behind text.

Re: It isn't quite an intern fic, but...

[selenak.livejournal.com]

No problem, but I am familiar with the (splendid) story.*g* Thanks anyway!

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

I think the implication for the "that's good isn't it" grim look is that Rose being able to crossover from the alternate universe means that he knows that it would only be possible if something universe-threatening were weakening the "barriers".

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Agreed, though I think the Doylist reason why they're using that clip is to make the prospect of Rose returning more ominous to the audience as well.

[greenpear.livejournal.com]

I agree that making Rose look like the Big Bad is a red herring. It has to "look" like Rose will betray him but will stay true to her being a "good guy".

But that prolonged "worried" look after Donna mentions Rose says he Doctor is worried about something. I don't think it's the same thing we're made to believe from the trailer but as you said, omething wrong with the universe that's allowing Rose to cross over again.

Overall I've been very satisfied with this season.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

So have I. There hasn't been a single episode I didn't rewatch. Of course some were stronger than others, but each has given me a lot to enjoy. I'm completely in love with season 4.

[lakrids404.livejournal.com]

My little pet theory (I have not seen the trailers or heard any spoilers). Is the Rose we have seen is not really the Rose, who got left in the alternate universe. The Rose we have seen is the Bad Wolf Rose. When Rose mixed with the time vortex she became part of the time stream. The Bad Wolf Rose could make a string, of clues through time, that made its birth possible. It is that fact who seems to indicate to me, that the Bad Wolf Rose is a paradox, who could only be if it had always been.

Most likely is my "theory" wrong, but worldbuilding can be fun.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I like this. There's definitely something a bit off about trailer!Rose

[skywaterblue.livejournal.com]

I think that the Void didn't work the way the Doctor thought it did, and she's been fighting Daleks all this time while he thought she was safe as houses. Thus it's not that she's still Bad Wolf Rose (except maybe it is, since she's her universe's protector and a badass at fighting Daleks), it's that she's now changed the way that the Time War changed the Doctor.