Doctor Who: Journey's End

[andraste]

I have occasionally been annoyed with RTD's Doctor Who, but it's never made me genuinely angry before. Screw you, show!

In The War Games, the mindwipe worked because it was a horrible outcome of the situation the Doctor was forced to put his companions in. Here, the only reason it's inevitable is that Rusty wants the audience to cry. I didn't shed a tear, though, because I was too busy being FUCKING FURIOUS.

There's no clear reason that the cloned half-human Doctor would be able to survive having a Time Lord mind better than half-human DoctorDonna. There's even less reason why the Doctor should have to remove two years worth of memories of himself to take the Time Lord bits from Donna's brain. So all that character development gets undone in a flash, and Donna gains nothing from meeting the Doctor.

Every other companion - even Jamie and Zoe, who at least remember their first adventures - has been changed by their time in the TARDIS. Not always for the better, maybe, but they had the chance to learn and grow. Donna, who has learned and grown more than most, gets sent straight back to square one. It hurts even more after watching every other new series companion walk away into a brighter future. Normally I like tragic endings, but this felt completely arbitrary and tacked-on, as if they couldn't think of a better way to write out Catherine Tate.

Now, apart from that, I really enjoyed the episode. Yes, even the cheesy Rose/Extra Doctor stuff! It wouldn't normally be my cup of tea, but for reasons I may go into some other time it actually did work for me here. So, you know, I am going to do my best not to let Donna's fate sour me on the whole thing.

(And the Doctor might want to go warn Sarah Jane, Jack, Martha, etc. about Donna's exploding brain! It would be perfectly natural for one of them to remind her if they ever happened to run into her again.)

I am also reminding myself that two years ago, Rose was sealed in an alternate universe where she could never see the Doctor again, and we all saw how that turned out *g*. I choose to believe that some time, somehow Donna's memories will be safely restored.

Comments

[andraste]

Looks like I'm the only one not furious at all, probably because I had half expected the amnesia solution.

Given that the audience appreciation index was an outstanding 91, I'd say you're not alone *g*. Keeping an eye on who_daily, fandom seems divided on this one.

Given that a) Catherine Tate was available for only one season, b) there was no way Donna would have left voluntarily - she enjoyed travelling, she had a happy, angst-free relationship with the Doctor, and c) amnesia can be undone far more easily than death if they can get Catherine Tate back. Doesn't mean it didn't break my heart, but I understood it.

I am also glad that Donna didn't die! I do not think that would have been a good ending, either. But I think there are more options than death or completely forgetting every moment she spent with the Doctor. Off the top of my head ...

a) Given that they knew from the beginning of the season that they'd only have Catherine Tate for one season, they didn't have to set her up as another companion who wanted to travel with the Doctor forever. Personally, I liked that aspect of her characterisation and wouldn't have changed it, but they could have taken her in another direction had they wanted to. After her experiences in The Fires of Pompeii and Planet of the Ood, I certainly wouldn't have blamed Donna if she'd decided that her travels with the Doctor should end at some point. She could have then decided to do any number of things - left to work for UNIT, found another planet she liked, fallen in love, founded Noble Enterprises for real, decided after Forest of the Dead that she wanted to have children ...

b) They could have had the Doctor remove Donna's Time Lord aspect without giving her total amnesia about her time with him. It's only the technobabble that irretrievably connects the two. Having him fully remove her Time Lord mind instead of just suppressing it at the cost of her memory would have been equally plausible, IMHO. This could have been sufficiently traumatic that Donna would have left voluntarily. Still a tragic ending, but one that would have given Donna more agency in her own fate.

c) The DoctorDonna could have decided that one TARDIS was too small for the two of them, and taken off into the universe on her own. OK, not very likely *g*.

d) The DoctorDonna could have regenerated! Hey, that hand grew a whole new half-human Doctor and rewrote Donna's mind, who knows what it could have done to her DNA?

I have no problem with horrible, tragic things happening to characters I love. I could hardly be a Blake's 7 or Londo Mollari fan otherwise :). I just really don't think this ending emerged naturally from the story that proceeded it. To me, it felt tacked on for the sake of maximum Doctor emo. Donna didn't get any choice about what happened to her, and the Doctor didn't have any choice about how to deal with it.

And I didn't see the character development in vain, either. We know what Donna can become, she did it twice, she will do a third time.

I'm sure she will. For the Doctor, her family, and the audience Donna's character development had a huge impact. Yet until such time as her memories are restored, it has no impact on Donna herself! And I want her to know that she's the most important woman in the universe :(.

As it currently stands, all she's gained from her time in the TARDIS is a Swiss cheese memory - how are her family going to explain to everyone why she's suddenly forgotten what happened at her own wedding? - and a mother who might finally acknowledge how brilliant she is. The latter is not trivial, but it hardly makes up for the former.

Now, mind you, I don't agree with those fans who are criticising the Doctor for choosing to wipe Donna's mind instead of standing there and watching her die. It was the equivalent of a life-saving medical procedure, and I wouldn't have expected him to do anything different. I'm just frustrated that the story put him in that position in the first place.