Then there are the rest of the shows on television, with which I am super-critical and usually don't watch because they annoy me so.
Hee. Good call.
I am not generally a romantic sort of person. I can be, certainly - I am just as capable of being reduced to a pile of mush as anyone - but overall I tend to take a more pragmatic view of things. I'll excuse flaws more easily in something I like (see: our previous discussion of Moffat's storytelling), but if a show leads to me to expect a high level of quality, I come to hold it to very high standards indeed. If it starts consistently failing to live up to those standards, I will start ripping at it.
My interpretation of the Doctor's character is fairly complex, which suits a complex character. Nine was, I think, more prone to moments of kindness, but he could also be quite harsh (Adam stranded with a forehead that opens at the snap of someone's fingers? Appropriate in a poetic sort of way, maybe, but harsh). Ten seems oblivious to other people, and he is sometimes; not always, though, and not as often as he seems to be, I don't think. He affects obliviousness as it suits him, consciously or not. He knows this about himself, too, as indicated by his regret over Martha.
And while the whole thing with the wristband is indeed a writerly manipulation for TW's sake (it must be, because I doubt it would be difficult to convince Ten that teleportation technology could prove to be the vital difference in a mission someday), we're stuck with finding a way to make it work on a character level for ourselves. For me, with my more cynical take on the Doctor, it's because there is some deeply buried level on which he simply doesn't trust Jack and probably never will just because of what Jack is. There are a million things he will entrust Jack with without hesitation, yes, but at the same time, he wants to keep Jack where he can see him.
Frankly, I don't disagree with him here. Jack is, by the very nature of his unnatural state of being (the human mind is not built to live forever) and everything he has gone through, an unstable individual. It's not a bad idea at all to ensure that he stays "captive" and able to wreak havoc on only one planet and one time period for as long as possible.
None of this is at all to say I dislike the Doctor, or Ten, or Nine. I love them. As I said, the Doctor is a complex character, and I enjoy seeing what he'll do or say next, even if I don't always like what it is. He's a wonderful creation precisely because there are things about him that kinda suck. If he were perfect, he'd be boring.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2008-07-07 03:38 am (UTC)Hee. Good call.
I am not generally a romantic sort of person. I can be, certainly - I am just as capable of being reduced to a pile of mush as anyone - but overall I tend to take a more pragmatic view of things. I'll excuse flaws more easily in something I like (see: our previous discussion of Moffat's storytelling), but if a show leads to me to expect a high level of quality, I come to hold it to very high standards indeed. If it starts consistently failing to live up to those standards, I will start ripping at it.
My interpretation of the Doctor's character is fairly complex, which suits a complex character. Nine was, I think, more prone to moments of kindness, but he could also be quite harsh (Adam stranded with a forehead that opens at the snap of someone's fingers? Appropriate in a poetic sort of way, maybe, but harsh). Ten seems oblivious to other people, and he is sometimes; not always, though, and not as often as he seems to be, I don't think. He affects obliviousness as it suits him, consciously or not. He knows this about himself, too, as indicated by his regret over Martha.
And while the whole thing with the wristband is indeed a writerly manipulation for TW's sake (it must be, because I doubt it would be difficult to convince Ten that teleportation technology could prove to be the vital difference in a mission someday), we're stuck with finding a way to make it work on a character level for ourselves. For me, with my more cynical take on the Doctor, it's because there is some deeply buried level on which he simply doesn't trust Jack and probably never will just because of what Jack is. There are a million things he will entrust Jack with without hesitation, yes, but at the same time, he wants to keep Jack where he can see him.
Frankly, I don't disagree with him here. Jack is, by the very nature of his unnatural state of being (the human mind is not built to live forever) and everything he has gone through, an unstable individual. It's not a bad idea at all to ensure that he stays "captive" and able to wreak havoc on only one planet and one time period for as long as possible.
None of this is at all to say I dislike the Doctor, or Ten, or Nine. I love them. As I said, the Doctor is a complex character, and I enjoy seeing what he'll do or say next, even if I don't always like what it is. He's a wonderful creation precisely because there are things about him that kinda suck. If he were perfect, he'd be boring.