Obsession - and it feels good!
Dec. 15th, 2023 10:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shivverOmg I need new icons, especially of Fourteen and Donna.
I watched the 60th for the third time, this time in episode order - TSB on Wednesday night and WBY and TG back-to-back last night. Though to be honest, that might have been the fourth watch of WBY. They are better and better on each viewing, and also more enjoyable taken as a whole, the entire story of the Fourteenth Doctor.
romanajo123 and I were chatting and she wondered what the actual, in-universe reason for that face to come back, since it wasn't actually said in TG, not like Twelve's reason was stated in "The Girl Who Died". (Insert my obligatory rant about how Twelve learned the wrong thing from "Just save someone".) As she noted, "coming home" and "the story isn't done" aren't really reasons. I replied back that "the story isn't done" is, in a way, the actual reason.
Ten was the most conflicted of the modern Doctors (and probably all of the Doctors), with his Time War scars, his boiling rage, the Time Lord Victorious simmering just beneath the surface, and his guilt about ruining all of his companions. He fought against his impending regeneration every step of the way, from the moment he was told that his song was ending; yes, he didn't want to go because he felt he could do so much more (probably to repay his guilt), but he certainly didn't go gracefully. The three Doctors after him dealt with all of that, putting the Time War behind them (though the method really was a cheat), exploring what being "good" meant to themselves, creating a family for themselves to ground them and deal with their loneliness, and starting to deal with the revelation that they're more than they ever thought. Thus, Ten came back as Fourteen to resolve all of this for himself.
Fifteen is starting off fresh, new, and optimistic because Fourteen and the three previous Doctors fixed Ten. Fourteen is a very different Doctor than Ten. He's loving and expressive and enjoys close relationships with his found family. He's hopeful and carefree. He's focused on helping and protecting. It's notable that he never lost his temper, that he's never once the Oncoming Storm. After they defeat the Toymaker, the thing that Fourteen is upset about is that so many people died. And when the Toymaker shot him, he embraced the regeneration.
All this character growth is demonstrated by the stories, rather than explicitly stated in an introspection speech, which is one of the reasons these episodes have entranced me.
It's also significant that Fourteen's main antagonist is the Toymaker, who, as was pointed out multiple times, exists according to a set of rules that he cannot break, because Ten also behaved according to a set of personal rules that he strove not to break, even when they'd be stupid to follow or they endangered him or put him at a disadvantage. Fourteen, though, grew beyond them. He tried to show mercy to the Meep and to the not-things in WBY, rather than thunder, "No second chances!" and stalk off.
More to the point, though, he still offers the Toymaker a choice - one of his core rules - but openly and freely, without any underlying motive of maneuvering his opponent into a trap and without anger and pride, as Ten would have done. It's not even a desperate stab at a solution, as it was when he made the same offer to the Master in "The Sound of Drums" (and the contrast between the delivery of the similar lines is telling). Fourteen willingly offered to sacrifice himself to both protect the Earth and give the Toymaker what he wanted, an interesting opponent through all eternity.
So yes, Ten's story wasn't done: he came back so that he could heal.
On a more personal level, I've noticed one more thing about the effects of the 60th: I've actually been writing! And not the stuff I recently posted - those were already written and waiting. I'm working on new stuff as well as one story I'd discarded back in 2018 but reinvigorated. I don't really know why. None of this stuff is related at all to the 60th, or even canon Ten and Donna. I guess I feel like the DW that I fell in love with - the style, the themes, the wonder - has returned, and that's got my writing brain going again.
The one thing that's been bothering me about the 60th is whether or not this is going to last - if I'm going to decide, in a year or two, that it was awful. I fell in love with the 50th when it came out. Yeah, there were things about it that bugged me, and I'm not even talking about DT's hair - most particularly I didn't like how Clara insulted Ten and War and said that Eleven was the Doctor. But otherwise, I loved it. In the first month after its premiere, I watched it twenty-one times. Yes, I counted. And I'm sure I've seen it upwards of fifty times. It was the best thing ever.
Then, over time, the plot holes and the poor characterizations started to eat at me, as well as other things about it (I'm not going to discuss it all here), and now I can't stand it. I really don't want this to happen with the 60th. I doubt that WBY will drop out of my favorites list, because it's simply a superb episode and the least important to the 60th story arc, but I'm so scared about the other two. Like the Doctor at the glass door in WBY, I can't stop thinking about them, analyzing every detail, and I really don't want them to fall apart like TDotD did.
I watched the 60th for the third time, this time in episode order - TSB on Wednesday night and WBY and TG back-to-back last night. Though to be honest, that might have been the fourth watch of WBY. They are better and better on each viewing, and also more enjoyable taken as a whole, the entire story of the Fourteenth Doctor.
romanajo123 and I were chatting and she wondered what the actual, in-universe reason for that face to come back, since it wasn't actually said in TG, not like Twelve's reason was stated in "The Girl Who Died". (Insert my obligatory rant about how Twelve learned the wrong thing from "Just save someone".) As she noted, "coming home" and "the story isn't done" aren't really reasons. I replied back that "the story isn't done" is, in a way, the actual reason. Ten was the most conflicted of the modern Doctors (and probably all of the Doctors), with his Time War scars, his boiling rage, the Time Lord Victorious simmering just beneath the surface, and his guilt about ruining all of his companions. He fought against his impending regeneration every step of the way, from the moment he was told that his song was ending; yes, he didn't want to go because he felt he could do so much more (probably to repay his guilt), but he certainly didn't go gracefully. The three Doctors after him dealt with all of that, putting the Time War behind them (though the method really was a cheat), exploring what being "good" meant to themselves, creating a family for themselves to ground them and deal with their loneliness, and starting to deal with the revelation that they're more than they ever thought. Thus, Ten came back as Fourteen to resolve all of this for himself.
Fifteen is starting off fresh, new, and optimistic because Fourteen and the three previous Doctors fixed Ten. Fourteen is a very different Doctor than Ten. He's loving and expressive and enjoys close relationships with his found family. He's hopeful and carefree. He's focused on helping and protecting. It's notable that he never lost his temper, that he's never once the Oncoming Storm. After they defeat the Toymaker, the thing that Fourteen is upset about is that so many people died. And when the Toymaker shot him, he embraced the regeneration.
All this character growth is demonstrated by the stories, rather than explicitly stated in an introspection speech, which is one of the reasons these episodes have entranced me.
It's also significant that Fourteen's main antagonist is the Toymaker, who, as was pointed out multiple times, exists according to a set of rules that he cannot break, because Ten also behaved according to a set of personal rules that he strove not to break, even when they'd be stupid to follow or they endangered him or put him at a disadvantage. Fourteen, though, grew beyond them. He tried to show mercy to the Meep and to the not-things in WBY, rather than thunder, "No second chances!" and stalk off.
More to the point, though, he still offers the Toymaker a choice - one of his core rules - but openly and freely, without any underlying motive of maneuvering his opponent into a trap and without anger and pride, as Ten would have done. It's not even a desperate stab at a solution, as it was when he made the same offer to the Master in "The Sound of Drums" (and the contrast between the delivery of the similar lines is telling). Fourteen willingly offered to sacrifice himself to both protect the Earth and give the Toymaker what he wanted, an interesting opponent through all eternity.
So yes, Ten's story wasn't done: he came back so that he could heal.
On a more personal level, I've noticed one more thing about the effects of the 60th: I've actually been writing! And not the stuff I recently posted - those were already written and waiting. I'm working on new stuff as well as one story I'd discarded back in 2018 but reinvigorated. I don't really know why. None of this stuff is related at all to the 60th, or even canon Ten and Donna. I guess I feel like the DW that I fell in love with - the style, the themes, the wonder - has returned, and that's got my writing brain going again.
The one thing that's been bothering me about the 60th is whether or not this is going to last - if I'm going to decide, in a year or two, that it was awful. I fell in love with the 50th when it came out. Yeah, there were things about it that bugged me, and I'm not even talking about DT's hair - most particularly I didn't like how Clara insulted Ten and War and said that Eleven was the Doctor. But otherwise, I loved it. In the first month after its premiere, I watched it twenty-one times. Yes, I counted. And I'm sure I've seen it upwards of fifty times. It was the best thing ever.
Then, over time, the plot holes and the poor characterizations started to eat at me, as well as other things about it (I'm not going to discuss it all here), and now I can't stand it. I really don't want this to happen with the 60th. I doubt that WBY will drop out of my favorites list, because it's simply a superb episode and the least important to the 60th story arc, but I'm so scared about the other two. Like the Doctor at the glass door in WBY, I can't stop thinking about them, analyzing every detail, and I really don't want them to fall apart like TDotD did.
