Raven's Nest: Something starting to bother me about Doctor Who.

22nd October 2011

Link reblogged from Raven's Nest with 19 notes

Raven's Nest: Something starting to bother me about Doctor Who. →

You must have been reading my mind, as I was thinking about this topic while washing dishes (well, how else can one get through such a mundane task?). Ten is, in many ways, the ultimate Control Freak Bad Boyfriend of the Universe. He demanded loyalty, trust, and love, and immediately got it from Rose as she desperately needed a father figure in her life. I’m not sure what Ten saw in Rose, or could explain why he fell for a council house chav given all that he has seen throughout multiple universes—it was simply presented as A Given Fact. The fact that Rose completely trusted Ten only fed into his larger-than-God ego and fueled his desire to be in control, a fact that was seen only mere hours after his regeneration when dealing with Harriet Jones: “Don’t you think she looks tired?” Ten’s relationship with Rose immediately led to Martha, whose major crime was Not Being Rose. Yes, she fell for him, but part of the controlling aspect of Ten was how he chose to respond. His response was not to acknowledge Martha’s feelings for him while simultaneously egging her on to continue feeling the way she did.

In Seasons 2 and 3, Ten had a reckless streak that could be traced back to his actions in the Great Time War. The survivor’s-guilt complex that Nine had in abundance was smooshed into non-existence. In its place was of callous disregard, massive mood swings, and demanding love and worship as if he were a deity without a need to reciprocate or explain himself. If Nine’s belief were, “I’ve destroyed my people, and their screams haunt me,” Ten’s belief was, “I’ve killed off my people, and I’ll kill again. *wiggles eyebrows* Allons-y!” In this way, you can link Ten with Six, as Six had elements of this belief, but much like how a slight twist of a seemingly familiar act can cause it to be viewed in a new light, so too with Ten. What seemed to be Fawltyesque in Six’s over-the-top actions rapidly lost its charms during Season 2 and especially Season 3. The Tinkerbell Jesus ending of “Last Of The Time Lords” was, for me, the show’s nadir.

Ten’s disappointment in his companions directly relates to how they respond to his belief in himself: Rose passed muster; Martha was the Not-Rose who could be strung along; Jack’s seeming immortality and time-traveling ease was a potential rival to his own existence. Donna openly expressed fright at the ease in which Ten dispatched the Rancoss in “The Runaway Bride,” and many times during her time as his companion, Donna often chastised Ten’s actions. She was mature enough to demand an explanation for how Ten acted, and I think that because of this show of spine, Ten had more respect for Donna than either Rose or Martha. Why did Donna get so lucky? Perhaps Ten got his god-like complex out of his system, or perhaps, after seeing his character reflected so well in the Master, he started to snap out of his need to always be in control. It is far too easy to see the Master and the Doctor flip-flopping roles during the “Utopia” trilogy, and maybe such a revelation finally got through Ten’s skull of just how close he lied toward the seemingly irredeemable evil that the Master represented.

Of course, Donna really got the shaft when it came time for her dismissal. When Donna became, for a brief time, the DoctorDonna (which also was the time of 10.5), Ten’s need for control kicked in with alacrity. The DoctorDonna helped to save the universe, yet her reward was to have her memory wiped of any knowledge of Ten, with her family always having to safeguard Donna from being exposed to any references to the Doctor lest Donna die. 10.5, supposedly embodying too many “human” emotions of vengeance, gets exiled with Rose in the parallel universe. Ten’s need for control overwhelmed him to the point where, in “The Waters Of Mars,” he attempted to break a fixed point in time since he was “Time Lord Victorious.” Even at the inevitable point of regeneration, Ten tried, one last time, to fight it off by saying, “I don’t want to go.”

I think it is a testament to not just the writing, but to David Tennant’s portrayal of Ten, that made his incarnation of the Doctor as popular as it was in spite of the glaring character flaws. Yes, the bombast of Ten often made Robin Williams look like a Dogme 95 character actor by comparison, but there was a method to this madness. There was a deliberate misdirection at play with Ten, one which is really best appreciated in hindsight as well as comparing him with Eleven’s current portrayal. I’ve already blabbed at length, but one lesson that Eleven has adopted comes directly from “The Waters Of Mars,” which is water always wins—see River Song and Amy Pond.

thedoctordonnastardis:

deadwomentellnotales:

When people say, “I like Donna because she was the only one not to fall in love with the Doctor.”

Like…what?

Since when is this, like, an actual reason to like somebody? We’re just gonna ignore all of Donna’s good qualities and character…

Tagged: doctor who Donna Noble

Source: deadwomentellnotales

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Raven's Nest: Something starting to bother me about Doctor Who. →