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Doctor Who - done with Season 3
*flails*
*flails some more*
I love Martha so much right now that I could EXPLODE FROM SQUEE.
Because ... the first two seasons felt, to me, very much like the story revolved around Rose getting ever more dependent on the Doctor and obsessed with him. This was like -- it was like -- I don't want to say the anti-Rose, because that's not very nice, but it was as if everything I hated about the Rose storyline ... we got the exact opposite of that with Martha. I was honestly DREADING what was going to happen to Martha at the end of the season, because I knew she left the show and what I saw as the two most likely scenarios were 1) Martha dies heroically saving the world and/or the Doctor, or 2) the Doctor, building up his inner armor still higher after the thing with the Master, abandons Martha the same way he abandoned Jack on the satellite, and flies off by himself. In fact, at several points during the finale, I was absolutely convinced that one or the other of those was about to happen.
BUT NO! She saved the world BY HERSELF, and then after all of that, had the strength and courage to walk away -- away from being compared to Rose, away from a man she loved and admired who wasn't willing to open up to her and apparently would never be. And I just loved her so much at that moment that there are no words for it. I really haven't liked the overt shippiness this season, any more than I did with Rose and the Doctor, although I'm kind of getting resigned to the apparent fact that in New Who, this just IS how they're going to frame the Doctor-Companion relationship (as a sexual one) and I'd better get used to it. And then there's the rather overt comparing of Martha with Rose, which is something I never remember happening with any other Companion ... oooh, best not to go there really, because I don't dislike Rose even though I'm very unhappy with her role in the show, quite a different thing. I don't want to build this up as a Rose vs. Martha thing and I'm trying very hard not to do that in my head. But, that final scene? Martha walking away, not bitter, not unhappy, looking forward to her future and giving the Doctor her phone with a hope to stay in touch? AWESOME. And the same thing with Jack -- he's been used and abandoned, spent all those years chasing the Doctor ... and, same deal, walking away with his self-respect intact, still on friendly terms but not in the Doctor's orbit anymore. They are free. They are themselves. They know who they are and what they want, what they need. And ... they are happy.
♥ ♥ ♥
This is what I want! This is what I wanted last season. People who care about each other, and respect each other (well, sort of, because I'm not really sure how much the Doctor actually does respect any of the humans around him, but otherwise...), and rely on each other in a crisis -- but aren't dependent on each other. They have families. They have lives. They have jobs. They have self-respect. But when it matters ... they can be there. My pet fantasy right now (not sure how likely this actually is, but oh well) is that they all stay in touch -- that Martha calls Jack at Torchwood every so often, or that he shows up on her doorstep once in a while when he needs medical help and can't go through the usual channels; that the Doctor, having learned from the Sarah Jane situation, drops in every once in a while and has tea with Martha and they get caught up, and she tells him about her kids and he tells her about seeing galaxies explode and about the stupid thing that his latest Companion did, and they laugh...
The thing is, I don't blame the Doctor for the way he treated Martha and Jack and pretty much every other human on the show. He's not human, and I think I've come to terms with that on New Who. It was a little easier with the old show because Tom Baker (et al) weren't that easy to empathize with. It is easy to empathize with the new Doctors and so I think I was having trouble with the idea that the Time Lords don't see themselves on the same level as humans. My husband jokingly compared the Master's ambitions on Earth to "becoming the king of the termites", and that's a bit of an exaggeration, but, really -- even though the Doctor respects life, values all life, he does not consider humans his equals, and the way that he acts reflects that. And I think both Martha and Jack did actually come to realize that, and to accept who and what he is: an alien with whom they would always have an unequal relationship, someone who would never put them on the same level as himself. That's not something they can change about him. They love him, but they both need more. And they have the strength and self-respect to go out there in the world and find it.
(There is no way to analyze Rose's role in the show, with regards to the above, without sounding like I'm bashing the writers, so I'm going to enjoy my squee right now and not think about it too hard.)
I was so braced for an emotionally devastating ending to Martha's and possibly also Jack's roles in the show that now I'm just suffused with a warm glow of happy show-love. And now I can read Doctor Who meta without fear of spoilers ... though, I'm sort of afraid to at the moment, because I know there's been a lot of wank in the fandom and some very bitter ship wars (which, I can certainly understand because canon itself must have poured some pretty intense fuel on THOSE flames), and, as with Supernatural fandom, I wonder if this might be a fandom I might prefer to orbit from a very safe distance.
I'll just be squeeing quietly in the corner.
*squees*
*flails some more*
I love Martha so much right now that I could EXPLODE FROM SQUEE.
Because ... the first two seasons felt, to me, very much like the story revolved around Rose getting ever more dependent on the Doctor and obsessed with him. This was like -- it was like -- I don't want to say the anti-Rose, because that's not very nice, but it was as if everything I hated about the Rose storyline ... we got the exact opposite of that with Martha. I was honestly DREADING what was going to happen to Martha at the end of the season, because I knew she left the show and what I saw as the two most likely scenarios were 1) Martha dies heroically saving the world and/or the Doctor, or 2) the Doctor, building up his inner armor still higher after the thing with the Master, abandons Martha the same way he abandoned Jack on the satellite, and flies off by himself. In fact, at several points during the finale, I was absolutely convinced that one or the other of those was about to happen.
BUT NO! She saved the world BY HERSELF, and then after all of that, had the strength and courage to walk away -- away from being compared to Rose, away from a man she loved and admired who wasn't willing to open up to her and apparently would never be. And I just loved her so much at that moment that there are no words for it. I really haven't liked the overt shippiness this season, any more than I did with Rose and the Doctor, although I'm kind of getting resigned to the apparent fact that in New Who, this just IS how they're going to frame the Doctor-Companion relationship (as a sexual one) and I'd better get used to it. And then there's the rather overt comparing of Martha with Rose, which is something I never remember happening with any other Companion ... oooh, best not to go there really, because I don't dislike Rose even though I'm very unhappy with her role in the show, quite a different thing. I don't want to build this up as a Rose vs. Martha thing and I'm trying very hard not to do that in my head. But, that final scene? Martha walking away, not bitter, not unhappy, looking forward to her future and giving the Doctor her phone with a hope to stay in touch? AWESOME. And the same thing with Jack -- he's been used and abandoned, spent all those years chasing the Doctor ... and, same deal, walking away with his self-respect intact, still on friendly terms but not in the Doctor's orbit anymore. They are free. They are themselves. They know who they are and what they want, what they need. And ... they are happy.
♥ ♥ ♥
This is what I want! This is what I wanted last season. People who care about each other, and respect each other (well, sort of, because I'm not really sure how much the Doctor actually does respect any of the humans around him, but otherwise...), and rely on each other in a crisis -- but aren't dependent on each other. They have families. They have lives. They have jobs. They have self-respect. But when it matters ... they can be there. My pet fantasy right now (not sure how likely this actually is, but oh well) is that they all stay in touch -- that Martha calls Jack at Torchwood every so often, or that he shows up on her doorstep once in a while when he needs medical help and can't go through the usual channels; that the Doctor, having learned from the Sarah Jane situation, drops in every once in a while and has tea with Martha and they get caught up, and she tells him about her kids and he tells her about seeing galaxies explode and about the stupid thing that his latest Companion did, and they laugh...
The thing is, I don't blame the Doctor for the way he treated Martha and Jack and pretty much every other human on the show. He's not human, and I think I've come to terms with that on New Who. It was a little easier with the old show because Tom Baker (et al) weren't that easy to empathize with. It is easy to empathize with the new Doctors and so I think I was having trouble with the idea that the Time Lords don't see themselves on the same level as humans. My husband jokingly compared the Master's ambitions on Earth to "becoming the king of the termites", and that's a bit of an exaggeration, but, really -- even though the Doctor respects life, values all life, he does not consider humans his equals, and the way that he acts reflects that. And I think both Martha and Jack did actually come to realize that, and to accept who and what he is: an alien with whom they would always have an unequal relationship, someone who would never put them on the same level as himself. That's not something they can change about him. They love him, but they both need more. And they have the strength and self-respect to go out there in the world and find it.
(There is no way to analyze Rose's role in the show, with regards to the above, without sounding like I'm bashing the writers, so I'm going to enjoy my squee right now and not think about it too hard.)
I was so braced for an emotionally devastating ending to Martha's and possibly also Jack's roles in the show that now I'm just suffused with a warm glow of happy show-love. And now I can read Doctor Who meta without fear of spoilers ... though, I'm sort of afraid to at the moment, because I know there's been a lot of wank in the fandom and some very bitter ship wars (which, I can certainly understand because canon itself must have poured some pretty intense fuel on THOSE flames), and, as with Supernatural fandom, I wonder if this might be a fandom I might prefer to orbit from a very safe distance.
I'll just be squeeing quietly in the corner.
*squees*