Doctor Who: Going back to "The Last of the Time Lords..."

[fajrdrako]

auriaephiala came over this evening and we watched three Doctor Who episodes she'd never seen before: "The Sound of Drums", "The Last of the Time Lords" and "Tooth and Claw".

Which means I got up the nerve up to see "The Last of the Time Lords" again, and it was easier on the nerves, and easier to watch, and more coherent, than it seemed the first time round. It was fun both times, but the first time round was a bizarre combination of pleasure and horror. Maybe it was because I'd been feeling unwell when I'd first watched it, or because I hadn't expected it to be as bizarre as it was, or maybe it was improved by knowing exactly what to expect. Maybe it was that I now know that Martha Jones will come back after the Christmas special and I know her story isn't over. I was certainly able to relax and enjoy Captain Jack more.

But the substitution of ancient/gnomish creatures for beautiful David Tennant? Nothing makes that okay! Nothing!

A few quick thoughts:

1. One of the things that bothered me the first time round was that the fate of the Master seemed paradoxical/contradictory to me. Initially, I was under the impression - from what fragments I knew, or thought I knew, of Doctor Who continuity - that the Master's bad attitude came from the fact that he was at his final regeneration and didn't want to die, so he wanted someone else's less-used-up body. So theoretically the Master would be on a final regeneration, right?

And then, first the Doctor says he wouldn't kill himself - okay, that fits what I knew - and it seems to be true because the Master surrenders to him. Then Lucy shoots him and the Master refuses to regenerate and I'm thinking WTF because this looks like suicide - which the Doctor said the Master wouldn't do - but it seems he will do it just to spike the Doctor, and that seems nicely in character too. And the Doctor might just have been wrong. Then we see the bit with the ring at the end, and I conclude he has somehow managed to regenerate into the ring without the Doctor's knowledge. And that fits too, because he said the Time Lords resurrected him - a resurrection isn't the same as a regeneration, even with Time Lord technology (or magic). So maybe he starts over will a dozen lives now stretching ahead of him.

Or maybe this is a retcon to show us that the number of regenerations a Time Lord can have is open-ended.

Or maybe there's just scads of background there that I know nothing about.

2. From everything I'd heard, the Master used to be scary. Here... I didn't find him scary at all. I found the situation he created to be scary, but that's different. He still reminded me of some of the Batman antagonists, but I find the Joker, for example, much more terrifying.

3. Though there isn't enough of it, I liked the interplay between Jack and the Doctor.

4. I tried to get a good look at Lucy's hands through the episode, and it was tricky, but she does seem to have bright red fingernails, so I return to my first impression that she is the one who has the ring.

5. I liked seeing Francine and Clive get together again, I really did. They had to go to hell and back to do it but it was cool.

6. beccaelizabeth and others were wondering about the logistics of the TARDIS and the Paradox Machine - how the Doctor could fix it when the Master couldn't, and so on. This time that didn't bother me at all: I am perfectly capable of believing that where his TARDIS is concerned, the Doctor can sabotage the the mechanism with a wave of the sonic screwdriver and a bit of psychic power, and then convert it back to itself from being a shot-to-bits Paradox Machine, because he is just that good. Really. And all that psychic power has to count for something.

7. I conclude now that when the Doctor told Jack and Martha that he had a plan, he also told him that it involved Jack living in chains and eating much for a year (with TLC from Tish), and Martha teleporting all over the world while the people of the Earth were being killed wholesale. And that they were okay with that because the Doctor said it was the right thing to do. Myself, I'd probably have gone back to Jack's original plan of 'break the Master's neck'. It would have prevented a lot of suffering, even if that suffering was sort of re-imagined out of existence in the end.

8. So... after the Paradox Machine was destroyed, the Paradox couldn't happen, and that year never happened even though the Doctor and Jack and the Jones family can remember it, so that means... what? That nobody went to Utopia a hundred trillion years from now? Or they went to Utopia and there was no Master to greet them so they all lived happily ever after and recreated the universe? or found a new one? or just died?

9. What happened to Leo Jones?

10. Didn't Jack say he was from a place called Boe Sheng? Or was I mishearing because that's the only name I know offhand that begins with "Bo"? Bo Sheng is a character in Karin Lowachee's novel Cagebird.

11. Russell T. Davies has no sense of restraint at all. After we watched it, auriaephiala said to me, "Aren't the British supposed to be reserved?" They claim to be, but, really, it's totally a lie. Totally.

12. Watching "Tooth and Claw" right after "The Sound of Drums" and "The Last of the Time Lords", the Doctor seemed very different, but I was having trouble pinning down what the differences were. Hair? That he is less manic, less frenetic? The humanizing influence of Rose? I'm still not sure. Big different, however elusive.

Comments

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

I certainly wouldn't call it "soap opera". But I think the programme has 'grown up', to consider the emotional and psychological consequences on the characters of their time/space-crossing adventures. The old series was, with rare exceptions (such as Turlough's development), quite simplistic in its characterisations.

For me, "sense of wonder" is what I get from art.

I dislike the idea of genre fiction, with boundaries that are policed by fans. It seems to me that it's all about not going beyond comfort zones, and crying 'heresy' against anyone who violates the rules. It seems to me very adolescent. Indeed, I think some people who fixate on a particular genre (and don't read anything else, certainly not literary fiction) often are stuck at 14 or 15 inside: whether it's the romance fan who cannot face the possibility of tragedy, even in fiction, or the sf fan who can relate to androids and spaceships, but not the grown-up emotional stuff.

To me, fiction should not be about boundaries, categories, rules. The only caveat I place on that is if you are writing about real people/events (past or contemporary), where accuracy is a matter of ethics.

I think you're right about them not liking change. The changes in casting and writing-style have affected the relationship-dynamics, especially between the Doctor and his companions, and that seems to be what they resent, judging by comments such as these:

- "But I don't watch Doctor Who, a tale of infinite possibilities in time and space, to see overblown infatuation between a young woman and some bloke approximately a thousand years her senior.
Give us an old looking Doctor again, and see how plausible the emotions are then; but they won't do it."

- "I have no problem at all with Buffy, and have recently been acquiring it on DVD. :) That's a situation where you would expect a lot of emotional entanglements; it's an integral part of the setup.
I also have no problems with the interesting relationship between O'Neill and Carter in Stargate, nor those in Battlestar Galactica because they're not rammed down the viewers' throats the way it is in Dr. Who nowadays."

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I certainly wouldn't call it "soap opera".

No, for many reasons. This reminds me of my friend Lionel - who, ironically, was the first person to ever show me a Doctor Who episode, back in the 1980s. I don't know what he thinks of the current series, but he's very much a techie, and he has a horror of any show that contains what he calls 'drama' - by which he generally means 'any kind of personal interaction'. He loves space battles.

all about not going beyond comfort zones

Hmm. Interesting point.

It seems absured to me to say that Battlestar Galactica doesn't 'ram' relationships down viewer's throats but Doctor Who does. In fact, Battlestar Galactica is much more about relationships and characterization as both motivation and plot-drivers. Obviously this commentator doesn't even see that! Is it because the show has more hardware to focus on? Planes and guns and militarism?

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of my friend Lionel - who, ironically, was the first person to ever show me a Doctor Who episode, back in the 1980s. I don't know what he thinks of the current series, but he's very much a techie, and he has a horror of any show that contains what he calls 'drama' - by which he generally means 'any kind of personal interaction'. He loves space battles.

Yes: these 2 friends of mine both work in computing, are both gamers, and are what I would call "techies".

It seems absurd to me to say that Battlestar Galactica doesn't 'ram' relationships down viewer's throats but Doctor Who does. In fact, Battlestar Galactica is much more about relationships and characterization as both motivation and plot-drivers. Obviously this commentator doesn't even see that! Is it because the show has more hardware to focus on? Planes and guns and militarism?

I haven't seen Battlestar Galactica, but from what I've read about it, it certainly sounds very much centred on some very tangled relationships, far more than Doctor Who, I'd say! Far more soap-opera-ish, in fact! But you're right, I suspect she's probably focusing more on the planes and military action.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

it certainly sounds very much centred on some very tangled relationships, far more than Doctor Who, I'd say! Far more soap-opera-ish, in fact!

Oh, absolutely - with plots devoted to these themes. And this is true of just about every one of the many characters - the President who is struggling with cancer and religious issues, the often-troubled relationship between Adama and his son Lee, heavy-drinking Commander Tigh and his drunken troublemaking wife whom he adores, Starbuck who has emotional problems and the most messed-up personal life I've ever seen on TV (including soap operas), the politically-tinged relationship between Helo and his wife and missing child... and so on and so on.

But there are shiny spaceships and battles to distract the more technically inclined.

[silverwhistle.livejournal.com]

Exactly. That sounds like Dallas with spaceships!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

Absolutely! While though Doctor Who has some of the best character development I've seen on TV, and doesn't stint on the characters inner lives, each episode is very plot-and-situation oriented.
Looks to me like the best of all worlds.