http://shivver13.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] shivver13.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] shivver 2019-01-16 05:27 pm (UTC)

To be honest, I was hoping a plot bunny would be born out of this for someone. :)

I didn't clarify a lot of points for this because it was meant to be about the Doctor's decision, not Wilf's decision. As far as the defense mechanism goes, I don't think it's an issue. It's pretty obvious from the show that it takes a hell of a lot to get it to fire: everyone in the world, including her Mum and Shaun, turning into the same insane-looking man and Donna fleeing in terror was not enough. It didn't fire until she was being mortally threatened in an obviously alien situation - and I expect that's probably the exact trigger the Doctor planted. In my opinion, it was a protection against extraordinary events, knowing that as his former companion, Donna may become the target of unsavory alien menaces. I really don't think he'd allow it to go off just because Donna saw a wasp, even if it was alien and/or flippin' enormous. (If it was just about to kill her, sure.) Unless she's in the habit of getting into situations where she's about to be killed in an alien situation, it will probably never go off again in her lifetime. And that's part of Wilf's point, too, that Donna's life is no longer exciting like that.

I'd also be surprised if, in the handful of moments that he has to take the decision out of the Doctor's hands, Wilf remembers the defense mechanism going off and makes the connection that the Masters who were hurt by it had reverted to actual humans. This also assumes that he knows what happened - he was only on the phone with Donna and would have heard the whoosh and Donna falling to the ground. He didn't see the scene like we did. (And from what he heard, he could easily conclude that Donna was the one that got hit by whatever energy weapon was being used; he only has the Doctor's conjecture (since he didn't see it either) that Donna had prevailed. But we have to go with what happened in the episode, so we know that he believed that Donna won.) He has no idea what actually happened or if anyone actually got hurt. For all he knows, she might have teleported to a safe place. Anyway, the point is, that standing there in the nuclear bolt chamber watching the Doctor wrest with himself over who to save, I doubt Wilf will think about the unknown number of people who were chasing Donna down on the previous day.

And this, this, is why you don't want to be canon-paralyzed like me. Everything is analyzed and over-analyzed. I'd be surprised if you even got as far as reading this paragraph. :D


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