Doctor Who: Journey's End...

[fajrdrako]

Well. End of another series. I'm going to miss this show very much indeed.

I watched this with Sheila. We had a bit of a marathon, starting with "Turn Left" and then "The Stolen Earth" before watching "Journey's End". It was nice to see the continuity.

Brief comments on 'Journey's End':

1. Russell T Davies does seem to be plugging the holes and bringing back themes and plot points from all his previous seasons. Lots of 'reset' buttons being pushed.
   
   
2. Loved the events at Torchwood - a time-locked fortress within Cardiff. And Tosh's doing, too - she saves them again from beyond the grave. I love it too that Jack had total faith they'd be alive when he got home, despite all indications.
   
   
3. Captain Jack was wonderful in this episode. Just the way I like to see him. Well, actually, I'd have liked much more focus on him, and something more personal with the Doctor, but that's all right. The Doctor showed both appreciation and respect for him, the personal connection was there. My craving for the relationship between them elicited all sorts of good signs, even an implication that the Doctor, in his own flighty fashion, stays in touch with Jack.
   
   I was disappointed that the Doctor sabotaged the vortex manipulator again. Why's he so determined to keep Jack in one time? I also think Jack can fix the wristband, so it's a moot point. I am not unhappy.
   
   
4. Does this mean Mickey will join Torchwood? I'm not sure I like that. I liked Mickey's role in Doctor Who mainly because of his connection with Rose. There is an interesting rationale for him on Torchwood: he's had experience in the other universe. Do I like Mickey enough to want him there? So far, no, but it all depends on the writing and the characterization. This is not the Mickey of series 1. Must remember that.
   
   
5. The Doctor removed Donna's memories of him. Did we know he could do that?
   
   
6. nina_ds had talked about 'noisy' episodes in this show, especially as finales, and I think it was. I liked it - even liked its noisiness - but there were so many pyrotechnics, so many wild tricks - I would have liked a quiet moment somewhere. I was moved, but it was all... in a big way.
   
   
7. So did Donna become a sort of Bad Wolf herself? The Time Lord human? As a woman with a Time Lord brain, she was funny. I loved her as a companion, and will miss her.
   
   
8. Jackie didn't have much of a role. I can't think why her presence was necessary to the story. Just for nostalgia's sake?
   
   
9. Loved the explanation, hinted at before, that a TARDIS is meant to be run by six people. So why doesn't the Doctor travel with five companions? Perhaps because he likes his independence - one or two companions is good company, but more than that would crimp his style.
   
   
10. Rose now has her Doctor. I'm not sure I like the implication that a mortal can only love or live with another mortal - Ianto and Jack are doing fine with their asymmetrical affair. Our Doctor couldn't tell Rose he loved her because she would then never have left him. I'm not sure why she had to go back to her other universe, but I'm not sorry she did.
    
    I have always liked the implication that the Doctor was upset by their parting in "Doomsday" not so much because they wereseparated (though he missed her) but because she had gone to that universe unwillingly, and was desperately unhappy with it. Now she can be content there. Though if I was her, I'd still prefer to be with the Time Lord, travelling in time and space.
    
    
11. Loved it that Donna fancied Jack.
    
    
12. Loved Gramps better than ever, and it was nice to see Sylvia sticking up for Donna. I love it that Gramps will remember the Doctor and Donna's adventures with him.
    
    
13. Loved Action!Martha. I find it interesting that Tom Milligan was not so much as mentioned in this episode or last. It's the end of the world, and Martha subconsciously chooses to be with her mother and not her fiancé? That strikes me as odd.
    
    
14. Is Dalek Caan still alive? He was not recreated from Davros' body, so I would assume he is. And the Daleks may return in future.
    
    
15. The human Doctor destroyed the Daleks. Another connection, I assume, between humans and violence? Again, the Doctor is exculpated? Or is he? In this case, he didn't kill Daleks... he mostly just observed what was going on.
    
    I loved the discussion of his guilt: Davros pointing out that he may not use weapons but he has more or less trained humans as weapons. But they have their own free will, and the Doctor has his own guilty conscience. I loved all of that.
    
    I found Davros more interesting here than in "The Stolen Earth".
    
    
16. I loved the force-filed prisons and the time-lock shields and so many of the alien-tech gimmicks. Including especially the use of the TARDIS. Tossing it into the incineratior! Woo.
    
    
17. Loved it that Jack used his inability to die to outwit the Daleks, or try to.
    
    
18. Am I right that Martha still has her teleportation device? Cool.
    
    
19. I can hardly wait for more Sarah Jane Adventures. I hope we see more of Martha, too. Though I generally like the way Rose was used in series 4, I'm just as happy if we don't see her again. And Donna? They seem to have effectively written her out - though not necessarily. She could always meet the Doctor again. Two coincidental meetings - why not a third? Which she would think was the first.
    
    Though of course even without other workings of Destiny, their second meeting wasn't by chance: she'd been looking for him in the likely places for more than a year.
    
    
20. I cried. I can't remember when I cried, but I did. Not at the end. Somewhere in the middle.
    
    
21. The hand grew into the human Doctor, right? And no longer exists as a hand. Pity. I liked that hand.
    
    
22. So what do I do now? Watch series 4 over again? Better still, watch series 1, 2, 3 and 4 again, topped off with Sarah Jane Adventures and Torchwood? It feels like a long time till I'll get anything new.
    

Comments

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

did you just reply to this, or did LJ just totally fail on the e-mail alert?

[blush] I just replied to it. See, I have a bunch of really fascinating messages that I just totally failed to have time to respond to at the time they were made, so at the risk of confusing people utterly I'm answering now. Or, well, working on it.

I'm still fascinated by the same conversations. Why does life get in the way?

Re Jack as a still point: I would agree with you (because your answer is utterly canonical) but I'd love to find a loophole. It implies, for example, that Nine would have the same reaction to Jack now that Ten has - I have some trouble with that. It also implies that the situation is insoluble, which I don't want to believe. And thirdly, it doesn't answer the question of why the Doctor has a problem with Jack but not with the Face of Boe.

I also think that when Jack called the Doctor on this attitude as a 'prejudice', the Doctor tacitly acknowledged that he was right. A prejudice can be changed, whatever its origins. We have seen the Doctor change his mind before.

Moreover, this explanation doesn't fit my "grand unified theory about Ten and his relationships" which is, of course, a work in progress. It doesn't contradict it either. It's... another aspect for consideration.

As a slash fan who most loves the Jack/Doctor pairing, I have every vested intersted in arguing my way out of this somehow. Which means looking beyond the words... not contradicting them, but building on them.

You know those elements at the end of the periodic table? Those ones that get created, exist for like a second, and then go poof? Those are also more stable than Ten.

Ah. Yes. Valid point.

As for Jack: I guess your Jack is not my Jack. I see him as deeply sane, more than those around him. (Albeit inconsistently written.) "Sane" in not just a medical and psychological sense, but in a deeply spiritual, supernatural and metaphysical sense.

if you accept the Face of Boe thing, then obviously something at some point went right. Maybe it was that.

Maybe. Hmm. You are sparking ideas. Food for thought. Most interesting!

The waste of potential that is Torchwood's take on Captain Jack Harkness really inspires my tl;dr side.

I would agree with that. And I'm probably spending too much time thinking and writing about it for my own sanity, but I don't even care - I'm having too much fun with it.

[catslash.livejournal.com]

It implies, for example, that Nine would have the same reaction to Jack now that Ten has - I have some trouble with that.

Hmm. I don't think it would be the same. I don't think Nine would be so overtly hostile as Ten was in Utopia, for starters. I think he'd be more aware of the fact that it isn't Jack's fault, and that would inform his reactions, too. That "UGH" would still be there, but he'd respond to it differently. He's better at rational than Ten.

It doesn't answer the question of why the Doctor has a problem with Jack but not with the Face of Boe.

It just didn't have time to come up? He didn't have a lot of, uh, face time (sorry) with Boe, and - oh, Jesus, I hate that plot point. I know what I said in my last post, but frankly the only way I can deal with it is imagining that Jack was just messing with the Doctor. Which is illogical in both timing and execution and STILL isn't nearly as insulting to a person's intelligence. I can't even pretend to fanwank any further than that. I'm sorry.

As for Jack: I guess your Jack is not my Jack.

Yeah, your Jack and my Jack appear to be parallel opposites. Which suits our opposing approaches to fandom quite nicely, really. *g*

Maybe. Hmm. You are sparking ideas. Food for thought. Most interesting!

Thank you! That would be my theory if I were at all able to buy the Face of Boe thing, which I am not. But I thought it might appeal to you - it is a much kinder look at the Doctor's motivations.

I'm having too much fun with it.

Seriously. You would not know from this post that Jack is actually not one of the characters in the Whoniverse who really catches my attention as a fan - I don't feel nearly the sort of connection to him that I do to, say, Owen or Martha. He just interests me because of what he could be if the writers had any clue about writing decent characters. And I can't seem to leave that alone.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I don't think Nine would be so overtly hostile as Ten was in Utopia, for starters.

Very hard to imagine! He reserves that sort of reaction for Daleks.

He's better at rational than Ten.

And on the whole, better at patience and tolerance. Ten simmers and stews. Nine was able to be mellow, at least on occasion. Ten can be forgiving but I'm not sure what triggers that reaction, since on the whole, he does not forgive naturally or easily.

He didn't have a lot of, uh, face time (sorry) with Boe

Heh. Maybe that's it. He never did get to the room party I'm convinced Boe was holding in "The End of the World".

Jesus, I hate that plot point.

Yeah, I do too. And I'm never sure whether to try to find a way to deal with it, or just to go into denial and say it was a joke.

the only way I can deal with it is imagining that Jack was just messing with the Doctor. Which is illogical in both timing and execution and STILL isn't nearly as insulting to a person's intelligence.

Or that the Doctor was somehow messing with Jack? Someone's joke, either way. But that makes no sense.

I can't even pretend to fanwank any further than that. I'm sorry.

I have the same problem. Listed under "problematical aspects of the show" for ongoing consideration at various points.

[catslash.livejournal.com]

Listed under "problematical aspects of the show"

Personally, I have it categorized under "EPIC FAIL" right alongside "Jack and his coat survive nineteen hundred years of being buried alive with no bigger problems than artistic smudges of dirt."

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I have it categorized under "EPIC FAIL"

LOL. That is the category I use only when I've given up on a show entirely. I'm far from that point. So: still poking and prodding the awkward bits.

right alongside "Jack and his coat survive nineteen hundred years of being buried alive with no bigger problems than artistic smudges of dirt."

This one doesn't bother me in the least; I revel in it. It's one of the things I loved most in series 2. (Well, along with dozens of other things. But it was a plus, and no problem for my imagination at all.)

But then, I'm into superheroes. I like the superheroic and supernatural aspects of Jack.

[catslash.livejournal.com]

I haaaaaaate it. So much. It's the straw that broke my back. Unless they pull off a casting coup rivalling Derek Jacobi showing up in Utopia for sheer awesome, I won't be back for series three. I can't even find a place to BEGIN with the stupid that is "Exit Wounds" (excepting, obviously, the amazingness of Burn and Naoko, like, way to write your two best actors off the show, guys), except to say that if they HAD to rip Angel off so unashamedly, couldn't they have picked a season that didn't suck?

*cough* /rant

Yeah, I didn't really like that episode. And for some reason, of all the myriad things that had me WTFing all over the place, it was the nineteen hundred years that just destroyed me. I don't think I will ever be able to explain why. It just DID.

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

They ripped off Angel in "Exit Wounds"? No, no, don't tell me, I've just started watching Angel and don't want to be spoiled. Really. I've already seen dozens of Torchwood/Angel parallels. And I expect to see more.

"Exit Wounds" was a really stupid story and it's too bad, since it could have been great. But I loved the bit about Jack's burial: that redeemed the episode for me. That and a few other details and scenes and bits of character that I liked. But the story was badly written, and Gray and Captain John were wasted, stupidly wasted, and that's a shame.

But for reasons which confound understanding, I still love Torchwood with a passion I can't justify, I can just sit back and enjoy.

[catslash.livejournal.com]

They ripped off Angel in "Exit Wounds"?

Yes. Yes they did. You'll recognize it when you see it, believe me. I was so appalled. It is a charming sort of symmetry, though, since "End of Days" was a rip-off of BtVS. I wonder if the series three victim will be Firefly?

Ah, Gray. Yet more of a waste. Could have been SUCH A GOOD STORY.

Oh, Torchwood. You are silly scifi cheese and I really don't take you that seriously, so how is it that you turn me into a crazy person?!

[fajrdrako.livejournal.com]

I wonder if the series three victim will be Firefly?

Maybe!

Could have been SUCH A GOOD STORY.

Yes. Really a pity what failed to happen.

You are silly scifi cheese and I really don't take you that seriously, so how is it that you turn me into a crazy person?!

LOL - I can't answer that. I have no idea why I love this silly show so much. And the associated fandom in all its facets. I don't understand it, but I'm enjoying every minute of it.