Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?

[kerravonsen]

Doctor Who: Bad Wolf/Parting of the Ways

Oh my oh my oh my! Talk about ending with a bang! I am going to miss the 9th Doctor terribly!

Transendence! Self-sacrifice! Everyman! Even though I'd been slightly spoiled for some bits of it, I was still sitting on the edge of my seat during "Parting of the Ways"

Cool things about Bad Wolf:

• the sinking feeling when we find out that the actions in "The Long Game" actually made things worse.
• "Where did you hide that?"
  "You don't want to know."
• The Doctor's complete unresponsiveness when he thought Rose was dead. Angst!
• "My masters fear the Doctor" -- and that she dies happy because the Daleks are going to be destroyed because the Doctor is here.
• The Doctor saying "No" at the end! (Yes!)

Cool things about Parting of the Ways:

• The Daleks backing away from the Doctor because they feared him.
• The "Weakest Link" android zapping three Daleks
• "If I am god, what does that make you?"
• Both the Doctor and Rose were willing to give up their life to save the other.
• The Doctor chose not to "say the Deplorable Word"
• The whole scene where Rose was saying that the Doctor had taught her how to stand up for what's right, say "no", take a stand.
• The real reason for "Bad Wolf". I'm glad to say that that took me by surprise. When the Emperor Dalek said that "It was not of my design," it was a shivver down the spine: what, there's someone else out there?

There was a lot of fittingness here. That the Time War was ended through the intervention of Time. That transcendence occurs but briefly and has a huge cost. That "greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for a friend". And that it was mutual, and that it was that that saved the day. That it was the ordinary people who made a difference, not just the "professional heros". That all the losers were on Floor Zero. That actions have consequences. That the end doesn't justify the means.

And the trancendence... Deus-Ex-Machina literally! Was it Rose or the TARDIS together with Rose? Because there were some bits where it felt like both of them. But they better not ever use that again, because, like, it would get old, and that would spoil everything. Though it was fascinating with the "I can feel the past, future, all that could be" and "I can too!" for three reasons: (1) it harks back to the bit in "Rose" where the Doctor says he can see the world turning; (2) it's another odd-and-alien thing about the Doctor (which they can't give us too many of, because then one gets into the problem of "he's a superhero, why doesn't he use his powers?", and we don't want the Doctor to be a superhero, just a slightly trancendent hero; (3) one wonders if Rose will retain anything from the experience, whether she will become more the Doctor's equal.

I'm gonna miss the 9th Doctor!

---

I wonder if the Dalek in "Dalek" was a new-style Dalek or an original? Actually I think it was an original, because (a) it wasn't afraid of the Doctor (b) it used the customary Dalek greeting ("You are the Doctor! You are an enemy of the Daleks! You must be exterminated!") (c) it didn't know what had happened to the Dalek fleet at the end of the Time War.

Comments

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

Van Statten does show himself ready to sacrifice unlimited numbers of his own kind as long as his own survival is guaranteed. Goddard says 200 have died, and van Statten is finally swayed by the threat to his own life, not to the entire population of Salt Lake City. So perhaps the Doctor senses that van Statten is as capable of genocide - even of his own race - as the Dalek, he's just less honest in admitting it. So he's worse because he combines genocide and hypocrisy.

I was one of those who would have liked the Dalek as a Companion, or at any rate a temporary alliance between Doctor and Dalek to escape van Statten's clutches before they resumed their own duel. But I suppose, apart from his previous history making it impossible to work with a Dalek, the Doctor's thought is that the Dalek's personal potential for destruction is greater than van Statten's, in the immediate future at least, and therefore it must be stopped at all costs, even if that means a temporary alliance with van Statten before resuming that duel.

Though I did also toy with the idea that the Emperor could originally have been van Statten, in a peculiar result of his mindwipe, or Adam, who has connections with both the Dalek and Satellite Five. Haven't worked those out in detail though.

[kerravonsen]

I was one of those who would have liked the Dalek as a Companion, or at any rate a temporary alliance between Doctor and Dalek to escape van Statten's clutches before they resumed their own duel.

I agree that the Doctor's previous history would make it impossible for him to work with a Dalek, but the idea did intrigue me when I saw it in a comment on a Who post in somebody's LJ (and maybe it was a comment by you in astrogirl2's LJ, but it's too much work to track it down). And looking at a few of your Who posts just now, I see you didn't like the dea-ex-machina of Parting of the Ways either. I can see why you didn't like it, yet at the same time, I was caught up in the drama and angst and wonder of it all; I did like it. I liked the thematic resonance of it, the contrast between the "false god" of the Emperor Dalek, and the "angel" of Rose. Transcendence versus corruption.

However, it may be thanks to you that I'm now currently writing a Bad-Wolf-less AU, inspired by somebody's remark that it would have been much more interesting if Rose had spent years figuring out how to fly the TARDIS... Well, perhaps "interesting" is not the word; the word is probably "challenging". In more than one sense.

Dang it, it's after midnight. That's what I get for trying to transcribe more bits of "Parting of the Ways".

[kalypso-v.livejournal.com]

I'm now currently writing a Bad-Wolf-less AU

Some good comes of all things!

Thinking about it over lunch, I saw another connection between "Dalek" and "Parting of the Ways" - the Doctor tells Rose the Daleks mustn't get their hands, er, plungers on the Tardis technology. Likewise, having discovered that van Statten's basically an asset-stripper, he wouldn't want van Statten to get his hands on Dalek technology, which would greatly increase his capacity for destruction.

I also came up with a theory that the Doctor accusing van Statten of being worse than a Dalek was in part a reaction to being told he'd make a good Dalek himself ("maybe I'm bad, but he's worse"). Unfortunately, though I haven't played the tape back to check, the various online synopses suggest the quotes occur in the wrong order for that to work. Oh well.