Doctor Who - School Reunion
Apr. 29th, 2006 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ravenOh, that was lovely. So lovely. Definitely my favourite so far, of this year, and up with The Doctor Dances from last year. It was even worth my running like an idiot from the wrong end of Cornmarket all the way to Holywell Manor at ten past seven, in my ruby slippers, finally collapsing into the TV room to find the DocSoc had saved the fangirl couch for me and ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
narahttbbs. Bless them all.
I must warn you, though, I've got nothing but squee for this episode. Perhaps I won't think so on another viewing, but right now I'm thinking that was flawless. Itemised for your reading pleasure:
-I think this is the first new Who episode I've seen where the action picks up in the middle, so to speak. Yes, first of all we get Anthony Head being evil - there is a death even before the opening credits! - but I liked how the Doctor and Rose were already in place. The Doctor coming in and putting on his glasses led to a general squee from the assembled DocSoc.
-Oh, Doctor. As a teacher, he is adorable. The glasses make him adorabler, which is not a word but I made it up to be emphatic. "Correctamundo! I have never used that word before and hope never to again." Gleeeee!
-Rose as a dinner lady really, really makes me giggle. Heh. And yay for Mickey, in this. He's less of an idiot this series, and much less of an idiot with this Doctor. The Torchwood reference was much more subtle in this, and thank god for that. On that note - no RTD = subtlety. Yay for that.
-Sarah Jane! Oh, Sarah Jane. I echo what I've been saying all this time, but seriously, Lis Sladen has not changed at all since The Five Doctors, and not that much since the seventies. She's lovely throughout this. I have a mini-girlcrush. Very mini. More of a librarian folly, really. Moving on.
-The moment of gobsmacked!Doctor at the sight of her was well-done. She's got no clue, and he's pretending so well, and... sigh.
-the whole of the in-school-after-dark scene was wonderful. Every single bit of it. Mickey's fab at infiltration, he is. But I was less interested in Mickey and Rose than I was in Sarah Jane, and having her find the TARDIS was a wonderful touch. It was all beautifully, beautifully done, and I love the shot where the Doctor emerges from the dark behind her. I'd seen the cap - it's in this icon, for heaven's sake - but it didn't compare to seeing it properly. "Hello, Sarah Jane." Ohhhh.
-"You look... incredible." She's human. She's bound to think the Doctor's rather pretty these days. Nice to have an acknowledgement of it, though. Heee.
-Actually, I'm going to digress here and talk lots and lots about Sarah Jane and Rose and the Doctor, if no one minds. I am so, so impressed with how the script dealt with Sarah Jane. She's delighted to see the Doctor, she's angry with him for never saying goodbye, she's a little jealous of Rose, Rose is a lot jealous of her, she was afraid he was dead... oh, I am going to start flapping my hands about and going "eeeee!" in a minute.
The whole thing is, basically, tragic. The conversation with Sarah Jane and the Doctor in the little café over K9 makes me want to cry a little bit. She's asking, so calmly, why he never came back, why he never said goodbye.
(ALSO: it wasn't fucking Croydon he left her in! Aberdeen isn't as quite as bad as it might have been, but given she had no money and no way to get home... yes, I digress.)
And all he can say is, "I couldn't." Because he's the Doctor, he's not allowed to be vulnerable, he can't be anything but whimsical, he can't tell her who and how he loves.
The counterpoint is with Rose, of course. She's finally, finally understanding that the Doctor is nine hundred years older than she is and more, and how does he put it? "You can spend the rest of your life with me. But I can't spend the rest of mine with you." (paraphrased; I don't have this downloaded.) I like how this throws a spoke in the wheel of the really fanatical, OTP Doctor/Rose shippers. Because although he tacitly admits he loves her, he's saying he loves her and he loved Sarah Jane (and Liz? Jo? Romana? Ace?) and he loves all of them and that's why he leaves them - so he doesn't have to watch them grow old, wither and die.
-Sarah Jane, too, understands it, and I loved her attempts to make Rose understand. Rose doesn't come off well in this, but it's well-written, it's how she (and most people) would react. The little bitch fight they have is genius. "Mummies!" "Ghosts!" "Killer robots!" "The Loch Ness Monster!" "Seriously?" Heee. And them falling about laughing in time to majorly unsettle the Doctor is just darling. But there's a serious undercurrent to it, and I love that, I love it.
-Going back to the episode in general, Mickey is the "tin dog". GLEEE. Also, Mickey doing "surveillance". Bless his heart.
-A brief something I should have mentioned before - making Anthony Head unattractive, even next to David Tennant, must have been a fairly strenuous task.
-The reconstruction of K9. I was expecting him to be much, much more irritating. He really wasn't. That goes for the whole plot. I was expecting a Demon Headmaster re-run, really, and I was pleasantly surprised.
-the Doctor, the lonely god, the new architect of the universe. Yes, the other great theme of the episode, and possibly of the series as a whole. You can see the weakness in this Doctor so clearly - all he wants is to make things better, and he's getting tired of people always being in his way. I found his quiet, almost bored tones chilling in: "I am so old now. I used to have so much mercy." He is old now, and you can hear that again when he's trying to explain to Sarah Jane about the war, about how he is the last Time Lord left. It's sad and scary at the same time.
-And then again, standing there with the green lights flashing and being offered the chance to make it all better. David Tennant's eyes are very large anyway, and they looked bloody enormous there (and so, so, fucking sexy and really I have resisted on commenting on the terminal attractiveness of the man for almost a page now please give me some credit), and they did a lovely job of showing him consider it, consider taking the power and just... running with it. And I think it's worth noting that it's Sarah Jane, not Rose, who knows enough of "pain and loneliness" to get through to him, save him. Also, she uses his own words, more or less. "Everything has its time, and everything ends.
Nine in End of the World: "Everything has its time, and everything dies."
-Also, interesting note for the Doctor's hubris - we have the religion theme, of course, with the bat-things wanting to be "as gods", and the Doctor himself being referred to as a "lonely god" once again, but it's interesting that here the Doctor's hubris isn't showing as much. A bit when he threatens the Headmaster by the pool, but if they took hubris to its natural conclusion then Sarah Jane wouldn't have been able to get through to him.
-Throwing the chair. Was LOVE. Yes.
-The kid, Kenny! So cute and bright and knows how to attack bats when the Doctor doesn't and looks so sweetly surprised when Mickey charges through the doors. Hee, K9 - "We are in a car." Perfect.
-Sarah Jane/Doctor hand porn! EEEE! But still so sad, because even when they blow up the school and they've won and everything's dandy, he's holding her while Mickey holds Rose.
-Kenny is the hero! Yay!
-The final scene is, in some ways, the best of the entire episode. I like the continuing theme of the Doctor's past incarnations/companions coming into the console room and criticising the new decor, but of course the rest of it isn't as nearly as light. I think the important bit is Sarah Jane asking Rose to remember her, in the future. She doesn't have to come out and say it, of course. But I think this is the first time the new series has addressed the fact that the Doctor is going to leave Rose behind, one day, he is, OTP or no OTP, because he loves her but he's loved all of then, and then Rose will need Sarah Jane. Sigh.
-And she won't come travelling again; she's finished waiting for the Doctor, she's going on with her life. That's the tragedy - that the Doctor shows his companions a new life, a different life, but they always, always come back. Siiiigh. Sad, but again, so well done. Also, Sarah Jane Smith and Mickey Smith! Heee, because the TARDIS needs a Smith. I wonder if that was intentional?
-Oh, so sweet, at the end. I melted as the Doctor picks Sarah Jane up and says goodbye properly, this time. And off she goes as the TARDIS disappears. This one was about her, more than anything. She's what Rose will be.
In short - I loved it. I really, really loved it. Three episodes gone already, how?
narahttbbs. Bless them all.I must warn you, though, I've got nothing but squee for this episode. Perhaps I won't think so on another viewing, but right now I'm thinking that was flawless. Itemised for your reading pleasure:
-I think this is the first new Who episode I've seen where the action picks up in the middle, so to speak. Yes, first of all we get Anthony Head being evil - there is a death even before the opening credits! - but I liked how the Doctor and Rose were already in place. The Doctor coming in and putting on his glasses led to a general squee from the assembled DocSoc.
-Oh, Doctor. As a teacher, he is adorable. The glasses make him adorabler, which is not a word but I made it up to be emphatic. "Correctamundo! I have never used that word before and hope never to again." Gleeeee!
-Rose as a dinner lady really, really makes me giggle. Heh. And yay for Mickey, in this. He's less of an idiot this series, and much less of an idiot with this Doctor. The Torchwood reference was much more subtle in this, and thank god for that. On that note - no RTD = subtlety. Yay for that.
-Sarah Jane! Oh, Sarah Jane. I echo what I've been saying all this time, but seriously, Lis Sladen has not changed at all since The Five Doctors, and not that much since the seventies. She's lovely throughout this. I have a mini-girlcrush. Very mini. More of a librarian folly, really. Moving on.
-The moment of gobsmacked!Doctor at the sight of her was well-done. She's got no clue, and he's pretending so well, and... sigh.
-the whole of the in-school-after-dark scene was wonderful. Every single bit of it. Mickey's fab at infiltration, he is. But I was less interested in Mickey and Rose than I was in Sarah Jane, and having her find the TARDIS was a wonderful touch. It was all beautifully, beautifully done, and I love the shot where the Doctor emerges from the dark behind her. I'd seen the cap - it's in this icon, for heaven's sake - but it didn't compare to seeing it properly. "Hello, Sarah Jane." Ohhhh.
-"You look... incredible." She's human. She's bound to think the Doctor's rather pretty these days. Nice to have an acknowledgement of it, though. Heee.
-Actually, I'm going to digress here and talk lots and lots about Sarah Jane and Rose and the Doctor, if no one minds. I am so, so impressed with how the script dealt with Sarah Jane. She's delighted to see the Doctor, she's angry with him for never saying goodbye, she's a little jealous of Rose, Rose is a lot jealous of her, she was afraid he was dead... oh, I am going to start flapping my hands about and going "eeeee!" in a minute.
The whole thing is, basically, tragic. The conversation with Sarah Jane and the Doctor in the little café over K9 makes me want to cry a little bit. She's asking, so calmly, why he never came back, why he never said goodbye.
(ALSO: it wasn't fucking Croydon he left her in! Aberdeen isn't as quite as bad as it might have been, but given she had no money and no way to get home... yes, I digress.)
And all he can say is, "I couldn't." Because he's the Doctor, he's not allowed to be vulnerable, he can't be anything but whimsical, he can't tell her who and how he loves.
The counterpoint is with Rose, of course. She's finally, finally understanding that the Doctor is nine hundred years older than she is and more, and how does he put it? "You can spend the rest of your life with me. But I can't spend the rest of mine with you." (paraphrased; I don't have this downloaded.) I like how this throws a spoke in the wheel of the really fanatical, OTP Doctor/Rose shippers. Because although he tacitly admits he loves her, he's saying he loves her and he loved Sarah Jane (and Liz? Jo? Romana? Ace?) and he loves all of them and that's why he leaves them - so he doesn't have to watch them grow old, wither and die.
-Sarah Jane, too, understands it, and I loved her attempts to make Rose understand. Rose doesn't come off well in this, but it's well-written, it's how she (and most people) would react. The little bitch fight they have is genius. "Mummies!" "Ghosts!" "Killer robots!" "The Loch Ness Monster!" "Seriously?" Heee. And them falling about laughing in time to majorly unsettle the Doctor is just darling. But there's a serious undercurrent to it, and I love that, I love it.
-Going back to the episode in general, Mickey is the "tin dog". GLEEE. Also, Mickey doing "surveillance". Bless his heart.
-A brief something I should have mentioned before - making Anthony Head unattractive, even next to David Tennant, must have been a fairly strenuous task.
-The reconstruction of K9. I was expecting him to be much, much more irritating. He really wasn't. That goes for the whole plot. I was expecting a Demon Headmaster re-run, really, and I was pleasantly surprised.
-the Doctor, the lonely god, the new architect of the universe. Yes, the other great theme of the episode, and possibly of the series as a whole. You can see the weakness in this Doctor so clearly - all he wants is to make things better, and he's getting tired of people always being in his way. I found his quiet, almost bored tones chilling in: "I am so old now. I used to have so much mercy." He is old now, and you can hear that again when he's trying to explain to Sarah Jane about the war, about how he is the last Time Lord left. It's sad and scary at the same time.
-And then again, standing there with the green lights flashing and being offered the chance to make it all better. David Tennant's eyes are very large anyway, and they looked bloody enormous there (and so, so, fucking sexy and really I have resisted on commenting on the terminal attractiveness of the man for almost a page now please give me some credit), and they did a lovely job of showing him consider it, consider taking the power and just... running with it. And I think it's worth noting that it's Sarah Jane, not Rose, who knows enough of "pain and loneliness" to get through to him, save him. Also, she uses his own words, more or less. "Everything has its time, and everything ends.
Nine in End of the World: "Everything has its time, and everything dies."
-Also, interesting note for the Doctor's hubris - we have the religion theme, of course, with the bat-things wanting to be "as gods", and the Doctor himself being referred to as a "lonely god" once again, but it's interesting that here the Doctor's hubris isn't showing as much. A bit when he threatens the Headmaster by the pool, but if they took hubris to its natural conclusion then Sarah Jane wouldn't have been able to get through to him.
-Throwing the chair. Was LOVE. Yes.
-The kid, Kenny! So cute and bright and knows how to attack bats when the Doctor doesn't and looks so sweetly surprised when Mickey charges through the doors. Hee, K9 - "We are in a car." Perfect.
-Sarah Jane/Doctor hand porn! EEEE! But still so sad, because even when they blow up the school and they've won and everything's dandy, he's holding her while Mickey holds Rose.
-Kenny is the hero! Yay!
-The final scene is, in some ways, the best of the entire episode. I like the continuing theme of the Doctor's past incarnations/companions coming into the console room and criticising the new decor, but of course the rest of it isn't as nearly as light. I think the important bit is Sarah Jane asking Rose to remember her, in the future. She doesn't have to come out and say it, of course. But I think this is the first time the new series has addressed the fact that the Doctor is going to leave Rose behind, one day, he is, OTP or no OTP, because he loves her but he's loved all of then, and then Rose will need Sarah Jane. Sigh.
-And she won't come travelling again; she's finished waiting for the Doctor, she's going on with her life. That's the tragedy - that the Doctor shows his companions a new life, a different life, but they always, always come back. Siiiigh. Sad, but again, so well done. Also, Sarah Jane Smith and Mickey Smith! Heee, because the TARDIS needs a Smith. I wonder if that was intentional?
-Oh, so sweet, at the end. I melted as the Doctor picks Sarah Jane up and says goodbye properly, this time. And off she goes as the TARDIS disappears. This one was about her, more than anything. She's what Rose will be.
In short - I loved it. I really, really loved it. Three episodes gone already, how?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
on 2006-04-29 08:32 pm (UTC)(And you've got a mini formatting glitch in the middle of your post.)
no subject
on 2006-04-29 08:32 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-04-29 08:34 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-04-29 08:34 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-04-30 12:35 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-04-29 08:57 pm (UTC)*flails* All that, yes.
no subject
on 2006-04-30 12:36 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-04-29 09:02 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-04-30 12:47 am (UTC)Physics teacher Ten is a joy. *g*
no subject
on 2006-04-30 08:46 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-04-29 09:12 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-04-30 12:35 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-04-30 09:09 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-04-29 09:53 pm (UTC)I thought ASH was so very persuasive in that scene - truly evil, not in the OMIGOD SO!EVIL way, but because he believed he was doing the right thing, the sensible option and very very nearly persuaded the Doctor of the fact.
I also loved the way that the Doctor so very nearly explicitly said he loved/s his companions but couldn't quite do it - shows that he's not as different to repressed!nine as we might have thought. He loves them all, but he must leave them all. Again, we see just how *other* the Doctor is, but that only makes him more human. He does care, it does hurt and he is unspeakably lonely. His race is dead, his companions die, he alone lives on. *hugs* *cries*
no subject
on 2006-04-30 12:54 am (UTC)*wanders off, sniffling*
Boings in from NEw_who again
on 2006-04-30 11:54 am (UTC)Which taps right into the base level of human spirituality- he is the Sacrificial God, the one who has to die to save us all, and then do it again. And again. Actually, the (euro-celtic) pagan symbolism is huge- Even the fact that the Companions are generally young women (the Maiden) who mature through his tutelage, and often seem to end up supporting him through his re-birth (the Mother), and then leave him/are left by him, but carry the knowledge and wisdom that they've learnt with them (the crone*).
Cripes. He's Herne...
*crone being an unfortunate word, but in this case meaning physically mature wise woman...
no subject
on 2006-04-29 10:17 pm (UTC)It was beautiful, it was just so so moving and wonderful and well handled, and yes, me and the boi did cry our eyes out.
Also, I've met Liz Sladen and she's LOVELY.
xx
no subject
on 2006-04-30 12:55 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-04-30 12:30 pm (UTC)Also LMAO when I came to this post, the top of the window reads, "Philosophy supernatural nude - doctor who" XD
xx
no subject
on 2006-04-30 04:38 am (UTC)Yeah, and she called him on it. I snerk.
Oh, God, I loved this episode. Must rewatch... must make icons... must do -- fic-type things....
no subject
on 2006-04-30 09:10 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-04-30 03:16 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-04-30 09:10 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2006-04-30 09:57 pm (UTC)Your Raven icon, though: http://www.geocities.com/aletain/arabel.gif ...
Am I right?
no subject
on 2006-05-01 01:02 am (UTC)no subject
on 2006-05-01 07:00 am (UTC)Excuse me, I have to go off and decay somewhat.