Grown-ups of Time

I recently finished Series 4 of the revived Doctor Who. In many ways, the finale wrapped up and tied together the last four years of programming, as Russell Davies is moving on to other projects. The finale was a slam-bang affair, one comparable to ST:TNG’s “The Best of Both Worlds” in breathtaking moments and an edge-of-the-seat cliffhanger. However, the finale underscored certain themes of Davies that I hope to see put to rest.

Originally, the Doctor was a political fugitive from his people, but he eventually evolved into a crusader of Time and Space, saving individuals and entire planets from oncoming disaster. His fourth incarnation sacrificed himself to save the existence of the universe from one man’s foolishness. The Doctor was clearly fulfilled by his never-ending quest.

When the Doctor returned to television, he was in some ways a broken man. He had been at least partially responsible for the destruction of his race in an attempt to prevent an apocalypse (a futile attempt, as it turned out). Other characters made much about the Doctor as the bringer of Death. Of course, he repeatedly staves off even greater death and destruction, but apparently one gets minimal points for that.

Rose Tyler’s love healed the Doctor, and in fact he began to return the emotion openly for the first time in the 40-year history of the show. But he then regenerated into a new body and personality, and Rose was forced to leave him, and he sank into depression and despair. The crusader of Time and Space was replaced by a sad, lonely immortal who kept on keeping on mainly because he didn’t have anything better to do.

When the villain of the finale mocks the Doctor for creating a band of “Children of Time”, willing tools who will aid our immortal in the destruction of lives and worlds, it’s completely unfair, and yet the Doctor shows hurt and shame. What he’s really done, of course, is give a succession of companions a broader perspective, the skills and the confidence to defend themselves and their loved ones, and the ability to make the awful decisions at times when the Doctor isn’t around. They are “Grown-ups of Time” now, but the Doctor is too busy wallowing in failure to deal with that.

The new helmsman, Steven Moffat, has written episodes that temporarily bring back the crusader. While Moffat’s Doctor in these tales retains a vulnerability that the older series did not give him, he remembers his role as the defender of Life, and revels in the challenge. I absolutely hope that future seasons return to that philosophy, as the worn-out, depressed Doctor is a shadow of the beings he once were, and I become sadder with every episode in which he flails about desperately.

Why have I gone on at length about this? Because the older Doctors, the Fourth especially, represent in many ways the person I’ve always wanted to be. Assertive, cheerful, full of wonder, and up to the challenges of life. Frankly, the Doctor these days has a far emptier life than I do, and it’s hard to see the fictional hero I’ve felt so connected to suffer so. I guess this is something of a “Get Well” card to my old hero.

Talking more about the actual episodes: it’s worth noting that the Doctor himself takes very little action in the finale. Much of the plot is supported by random chance, and the eventual saviors of the day are his Grown-ups: Sarah, Rose, Jack, Martha, Donna, and (in an awesomely heroic scene) Harriet Jones, former PM. (You know who she is.) We can’t discount his human clone, though the Doctor seems almost angry that the clone was willing to do something… that, well, he was willing to do an incarnation or two ago. (I’d say to much better effect, but let’s face it, the Daleks are just ‘resting.’)

Also, I’m amazed that we are to take seriously Davros’ curse naming the Doctor as “The Destroyer of Worlds”. Once more, let’s state for the record that the Doctor (and friends) have prevented the destruction of an infinity of worlds. In fact, all that is destroyed is the Dalek spaceship and it’s inhabitants – which as Donna points out, is a direct result of his attempt to kill her. There’s not an ounce of guilt due the Doctor… but he seems to find some and accept it anyway.

Now, I certainly squeeee’d like a fanboy every time old companions appeared – especially the one that Davies doesn’t even have the rights to! But when all was said and done, there were more characters than the episode could comfortably hold. On the gripping hand, the continuity nods were lovely – Davros recognizing Sarah, the TARDIS flying gracefully and precisely under control of six pilots as it’s designed for, mention of Mr. Cooper from the Titanic episode. Nice.

The fanboys who were so angry at the Eighth Doctor’s claim to be half-human should be thrilled that the Tenth contradicts that – though there may still be weasel room in the contradiction if necessary. Personally, I thought the concept explained a lot.

The end of Donna’s tenure as a companion… infuriates me. We’ve just thrown away an entire season of character arc so that Tennant could wear that sad mooning look on his face at the end. Rose could be the freaking Bad Wolf and survive, but Time Lord intellects are speshul, and oh gosh the Doctor has to kill the Donna that traveled with him to save her life. Oh grief! Oh angst! Oh get over yourself, Davies.

(And really – the Sun and Moon disappear. 26 alien planets fill the sky. Daleks shoot holes in cities all over the world, and kill uncounted people. There are news stories, web sites, pictures, video, missing friends… and Donna is supposed to think that the whole thing was a put-on by her drinking buddies? Did the Doctor make her a complete moron when he retrieved his noggin? (I know she deluded herself out of remembering previous invasions… but there comes a point.))

Let’s end this on a high note. The return of Davros was well handled, and he’s absolutely the type to wipe out every Universe ever just to show ’em all. It was great to meet the Shadow Proclamation, and thrill upon thrill to see all the old companions return. Rose especially showed herself ready to take up Earth Defense, reminding me a bit of the literary version of Ace. Three cheers to Martha for facing down her Kobayashi Maru: If the human race is going to die anyway, why not save reality in the process? Insane Dalek Caan lent a wonderful note of surreality, foreshadowing that things might not play out as planned; and DoctorDonna had me nearly howling in delight. What a shame it is to lose her!

Ah, well. Another season over. I hear this year’s Christmas Special will have Cybermen.

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6 Comments

  • jsciv says:

    Tate and Tenant’s scenes in the TARDIS were absolutely wonderful. And as usual Tate’s performance was great. Most of the strongest scenes in the finale were Tate. The group scene in the TARDIS was so much fun, and yeah, the moment with Davros and Sarah Jane was a really wonderful touch.

    The thing that bugs me the most about Donna’s departure is that it felt more like a writer being cruel than an organic ending. Donna has been the best new companion IMO, and while I realize that Tate was only in for a year and that part of the reason Donna was amazing was because Tate is the kind of talent who isn’t going to be able to stay with a single TV show like DW for the long term, it just isn’t good storytelling IMO to end her like that. As you note, Rose sucked a TARDIS into her head, how is Donna sucking up a Time Lord so much worse? The season had been foreshadowing her loss over and over and we knew Tate was leaving. Still, I felt a bit cheated on that.

    But at least the Rose/Ten shippers got their kiss scene. Eh.

    EDIT: I forgot to mention that at least the saving grace is knowing that with the flimsy writing for her exit should the public demand more Donna or should Tate want to return it should be trivial to write her back in. 🙂

  • stori_lundi says:

    Yeah, the Donna ending was a little cheap as did the Rose ending (back in the parallel universe as opposed to saying with Doctor v. 2.1) but there are only so many ways you can end a companion’s time on the show in a final way without completely killing them off.

  • rubinpdf says:

    I enjoyed it more on second viewing than the first… possibly because of things I fear would happen.

    !!!!Spoilers follow!!!!!

    I suspected that the regeneration was just a ruse. But then I’d read that during filming of the Christmas special not only was there an actors chair for “The Doctor” (occupied by David Tennant), but also one for “The Other Doctor.” It got me thinking how brilliant a subterfuge it would be to have Tennant at the filming of the Xmas special, but not actually be the Doctor any longer. I think that line of thought made the regen on first viewing seem much more of a cop out. (Don’t get me wrong I’m very happy that Tennant is staying…)

    Before my first viewing, I was also thinking that knowing how much Davies seems to like the Universal reset button, that: the regen would happen (new actor); but because Donna was special in some manner; she’d travel to the time war; stop Dalek Caan; events never occur; Tennant Doctor again (still); Donna goes insane (like Caan); dies (foreshadowing) or is made to forget.

    It was very entertaining and emotionally satisfying, but not without faults.
    The Bad:
    – The techno-babble was in the highest concentrate I can remember in the entire new series. Doctordonnas solution to the whole Dalek problem was pushing buttons for long adjectives and big words – It felt very Next Gen Trek (closer to Voyager), and not in a good way – not gratifying in the slightest. Funnily enough, I nearly posted recently about how little techno-babble there’s been in series four (and how pleased I’ve been because of it).
    – The sudden appearance of the warp star necklace – it felt too useful for so little set up.
    – Not sure how they can ratchet the danger up in any future series than destroying all the universes.

    The good (at least some):
    – Tennant remains.
    – The Davros/Sarah Jane encounter.
    – There should be no more, Rose needs to come back because they love each other (blah…blah…blah). She is finally really gone now (a feeling due more to new fandom rather than the series itself).
    – The Tate/Human Doctor interaction
    – German speaking Daleks!
    – Wilfs promise to the Doctor.
    – Donna pushing Sarah Jane out of the way to hug Jack.

    Other comments you had:
    take seriously Davros’ curse naming the Doctor as…
    In Davros’ mind, the Doctor is the destroyer of worlds.

    …Doctor is too busy wallowing in failure to deal with that.
    I disagree. By his nature as a traveler, he is a lonely figure. No matter how long he travels with someone, he knows that they’ll leave him. In The Pyramids of Mars, when asked by Sarah Jane about being distant the 4th Doctor responds, “I’m a timelord, I travel in infinity”… so the lonely Doctor is not a new concept to the series.

  • jsciv says:

    At least the Warp Necklace made a tiny bit more sense when you knew who SJ got it from. The bad to me was more the ‘shippy ending of Rose, the cruelty to Donna and the rather pulpit-like writing from Davros. But overall, better than The Year That Never Was….

  • rubinpdf says:

    You mean the Veran(sp?) soothsayer?
    Since I don’t recall that race ever being mentioned before in either series, it seemed a bit too convenient for her to have. I would have bought it more if it were the Doctor that produced it from no-where, since he frequently pulls odd things out of his pockets.
    I know it was all hand-waving, but it was easier to believe the hand growing into another Doctor because it had been around for a while.

    shippy ending of Rose
    I had expected the shippy ending for Rose as soon as there was a second Tennant Doctor, so it didn’t bother me (and as I said, I like that the shippers can shut up about her now).

    the cruelty to Donna
    I don’t buy into it being cruel. The Doctor couldn’t let himself let her die. I also liked the comparison I read to Agatha Christie memory loss. Even though Christie had no conscious memory of the events in The Unicorn and the Wasp, they unconsciously seeped in to inspire her to write some of her future novels. I think it suggests that Donna will be the same – and that she’ll make better choices than she would have otherwise.

    the rather pulpit-like writing from Davros
    I liked this Davros more. He seemed a much better insane genius. The dialog and the acting just clicked for me. I really liked the delivery of his final “I blame you, Doctor.” I believe that if (when) we see him again, it will be a more personal vendetta against the Doctor, rather than I want my creations to rule supreme.

  • nanoreid says:

    As much fun as I have had with the new Doctor Who, I still miss Tom Baker. Someday, a future incarnation of the Doctor needs to go back and help The Doctor and Sarah Jane wire those explosives correctly. I’m really getting tired of the whole “The Daleks are gone forever. Nope, some of them got away.” BS. They were cool for awhile but they are becoming tiresome.

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