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Doctor Who - the geekery continues
Things have been so busy around here that I haven't really watched much more Doctor Who -- when I have time, my husband doesn't, and vice versa. But we've made it up to 2x06, so I figured I'd post about it again.
My squee got dampened a bit at the end of the first season, but I'm really enjoying it again. I think where I am right now on Doctor Who is that it's a show that I appreciate for the gestalt as much, or more, than the individual characters -- like with a science fiction novel, the story arcs, the sense of wonder and grandeur, and the way that ideas bounce off each other, are at least as important as following a given character from episode to episode.
Case in point, Mickey's arc, which I'm pretty sure is wrapped up with the last episodes we watched (the Cybermen two-parter). I really liked that ending for Mickey, given all the ways that I thought his part in the series was going to conclude. He's finally shown his stripes as a hero (I always knew he had it in him), won over the other rebel guy (whose name completely escapes me at the moment) and won Rose and the Doctor's respect, more or less. It's pretty clearly the end of Mickey's part in the show (aside from flashbacks, time travel or whatnot), but it's an ending that leaves him poised on the brink of more adventures, the one man who can clean up the world. Yes. I like powerful, bittersweet-yet-hopeful endings, and that one was.
And "School Reunion" -- that episode was just -- *squeak*! That's the one that really got me back into loving the series, because it actually addressed so many of the issues I'd had with the show, and did it so well, plus all the nods to the show's long history. The overt acknowledging of the Doctor's constant stream of Companions, and the way previous ones are never acknowledged, and the pyschological issues that this raises for both him and them .... it just explains so much about him, and in a not-too-blatantly-retconning kind of way. Because, it's fairly evident that the whole Companion thing must have started out on the show for fairly standard TV-show reasons (you can't really have just one main character; he's got to have someone to interact with) and the changing cast members, and not referring back to previous ones, is, again, pretty much standard operating procedure for TV. But it just makes such perfect sense that the Doctor would cope with loneliness by drawing people into his orbit, and cope with their limited lifespans by not allowing himself to think of them after they'd gone -- regardless of the consequences to them, or him.
(Plus! Anthony Head! Evil! *geek*)
And Rose getting knocked down a peg ... I really don't dislike Rose, at all, but I find her much easier to sympathize with when she's having to flounder and struggle a little bit. Her insecurity about her relationship with the Doctor, and her jealousy of Sarah Jane, made her much more sympathetic for me, and much easier to like.
My squee got dampened a bit at the end of the first season, but I'm really enjoying it again. I think where I am right now on Doctor Who is that it's a show that I appreciate for the gestalt as much, or more, than the individual characters -- like with a science fiction novel, the story arcs, the sense of wonder and grandeur, and the way that ideas bounce off each other, are at least as important as following a given character from episode to episode.
Case in point, Mickey's arc, which I'm pretty sure is wrapped up with the last episodes we watched (the Cybermen two-parter). I really liked that ending for Mickey, given all the ways that I thought his part in the series was going to conclude. He's finally shown his stripes as a hero (I always knew he had it in him), won over the other rebel guy (whose name completely escapes me at the moment) and won Rose and the Doctor's respect, more or less. It's pretty clearly the end of Mickey's part in the show (aside from flashbacks, time travel or whatnot), but it's an ending that leaves him poised on the brink of more adventures, the one man who can clean up the world. Yes. I like powerful, bittersweet-yet-hopeful endings, and that one was.
And "School Reunion" -- that episode was just -- *squeak*! That's the one that really got me back into loving the series, because it actually addressed so many of the issues I'd had with the show, and did it so well, plus all the nods to the show's long history. The overt acknowledging of the Doctor's constant stream of Companions, and the way previous ones are never acknowledged, and the pyschological issues that this raises for both him and them .... it just explains so much about him, and in a not-too-blatantly-retconning kind of way. Because, it's fairly evident that the whole Companion thing must have started out on the show for fairly standard TV-show reasons (you can't really have just one main character; he's got to have someone to interact with) and the changing cast members, and not referring back to previous ones, is, again, pretty much standard operating procedure for TV. But it just makes such perfect sense that the Doctor would cope with loneliness by drawing people into his orbit, and cope with their limited lifespans by not allowing himself to think of them after they'd gone -- regardless of the consequences to them, or him.
(Plus! Anthony Head! Evil! *geek*)
And Rose getting knocked down a peg ... I really don't dislike Rose, at all, but I find her much easier to sympathize with when she's having to flounder and struggle a little bit. Her insecurity about her relationship with the Doctor, and her jealousy of Sarah Jane, made her much more sympathetic for me, and much easier to like.
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"School Reunion" is fantastic in so many ways, not least because - look at the Doctor's face light up when he sees Sarah Jane, it's... I've never seen Old Who; I didn't recognize her as a character, but that one moment where he first sees her, and then when he's waiting for her by the TARDIS - I didn't need more explanation after that. And then the issues they dealt with... oh, Doctor. And his Companions, and what his interruption of their lives do to them, and how he can't dwell on it. (Especially since he does have the means at his disposal to go back and pick someone up just where they left off. Then it would quite possibly destroy the fabric of space and time, but - the possibility is always there, and I can't imagine living with the temptation of that. I don't think he can, either, I think that's one of the many reasons he tries to close those past relationships off once his companions have gone.)
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