"I wasn't talking about myself."
Sep. 18th, 2011 06:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
andrasteI have two thoughts about The God Complex:
1. I loved it to bits.
2. It's part of a pattern that I hope is going to end soon.
For five seasons now, the idea that the Doctor ruins people's lives - and especially those of his companions - has been a strong theme in the show. I think that was a valuable thing to explore, and I really wish it would stop now.
I'm especially bothered by the implication that everyone who travels with the Doctor gets messed up, because that simply isn't true. There's a relative handful of companions in the classic series who end up worse off for having known the Doctor. Certainly Katarina and Adric, since they died. (Mind you, since they both stowed away on the TARDIS and he had no way of returning them to whence they came, this is not entirely his fault.) Sara Kingdom is arguable. While she does die, being one of Mavic Chen's security officers wasn't exactly a safe job anyway and she grew a lot in the Doctor's company. Kamelion would hardly have been better off if he'd stayed with the Master, so I'm not sure we can blame that one on the Doctor.
Other than that - I think there's every chance Dodo was damaged by her time in the TARDIS, given the brainwashing and that she doesn't come to say goodbye. One could argue that Tegan may have been as well, given how traumatized she was after Resurrection. Peri was definitely worse off. No matter what you think happened to her, the Doctor made an awful mess of her life.
The rest, though? For all that they went through a lot and some ended up in strange places, I don't think most of his companions would trade their time in the TARDIS for anything. Even the new series companions that the Doctor is so guilty over have all turned out all right in the end! (No, I haven't stopped being angry about what happened to Donna, but I see no reason to think that she's not basically happy. She's got a husband she loves and millions of dollars, so I imagine she's making the best of things.) If you look at the extended universe you see a similar pattern - a few dead companions, a few traumatized companions, but mostly people who had lots of adventures and then went home. Although possibly not to the place they'd called home before.
What I'm hoping for is a resolution to this arc where the Doctor realises that he hasn't ruined Amy's life (it doesn't seem very ruined to me) and he can get emotionally attached to people again without spending the whole time terrified that he's going to screw them up and/or get them killed. The fiftieth anniversary of the show is coming up, and it stars a character who's got thousands of people killed while saving billions. I would like to see the show acknowledge that the balance is in his favour.
(My favourite part of the episode was 'what do Time Lords pray to?' Because even if you don't remember The Curse of Fenric and know already, I think the answer is there in his face *g*.)
1. I loved it to bits.
2. It's part of a pattern that I hope is going to end soon.
For five seasons now, the idea that the Doctor ruins people's lives - and especially those of his companions - has been a strong theme in the show. I think that was a valuable thing to explore, and I really wish it would stop now.
I'm especially bothered by the implication that everyone who travels with the Doctor gets messed up, because that simply isn't true. There's a relative handful of companions in the classic series who end up worse off for having known the Doctor. Certainly Katarina and Adric, since they died. (Mind you, since they both stowed away on the TARDIS and he had no way of returning them to whence they came, this is not entirely his fault.) Sara Kingdom is arguable. While she does die, being one of Mavic Chen's security officers wasn't exactly a safe job anyway and she grew a lot in the Doctor's company. Kamelion would hardly have been better off if he'd stayed with the Master, so I'm not sure we can blame that one on the Doctor.
Other than that - I think there's every chance Dodo was damaged by her time in the TARDIS, given the brainwashing and that she doesn't come to say goodbye. One could argue that Tegan may have been as well, given how traumatized she was after Resurrection. Peri was definitely worse off. No matter what you think happened to her, the Doctor made an awful mess of her life.
The rest, though? For all that they went through a lot and some ended up in strange places, I don't think most of his companions would trade their time in the TARDIS for anything. Even the new series companions that the Doctor is so guilty over have all turned out all right in the end! (No, I haven't stopped being angry about what happened to Donna, but I see no reason to think that she's not basically happy. She's got a husband she loves and millions of dollars, so I imagine she's making the best of things.) If you look at the extended universe you see a similar pattern - a few dead companions, a few traumatized companions, but mostly people who had lots of adventures and then went home. Although possibly not to the place they'd called home before.
What I'm hoping for is a resolution to this arc where the Doctor realises that he hasn't ruined Amy's life (it doesn't seem very ruined to me) and he can get emotionally attached to people again without spending the whole time terrified that he's going to screw them up and/or get them killed. The fiftieth anniversary of the show is coming up, and it stars a character who's got thousands of people killed while saving billions. I would like to see the show acknowledge that the balance is in his favour.
(My favourite part of the episode was 'what do Time Lords pray to?' Because even if you don't remember The Curse of Fenric and know already, I think the answer is there in his face *g*.)
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-18 03:15 pm (UTC)I'm pretty sure that you're going to get your wish. I can't believe that Amy and Rory are going to be written out, and for them to be reinstated as the Doctor's companions would seem to require what you suggest.
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-18 03:22 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-18 03:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-20 05:55 am (UTC)Diona the Lurker
(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-19 08:54 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2011-09-20 06:35 am (UTC)I wonder, though, if we’ll see it wrapped up this season. I mean, can he really deal with it adequately in a 45 minute finale? And while Amy and Rory will apparently be back next season, it looks like they’ll only be semi-regulars, which makes me fear that the Doctor has been frightened off having a companion travel with him. I suppose we could get a new companion, but there hasn’t been any sign so far that one’s been cast.
BTW, the SJS story Death of the Doctor says that Tegan is now an Aboriginal activist, so I think it's clear that her life turned out well in the end. And Katarina didn’t stow away on the TARDIS; when Steven was wounded in the sack of Troy, she helped the Doctor get him on board, and chose to stay (in any case, she had nowhere else to go, and if she’d tried to leave, Odysseus, who’s attempting to steal the TARDIS at the time, might have killed or captured her). And if you accept what the Short Trips story Katarina in the Underworld says, in the afterlife Katarina makes it to the Elysian Fields, where the souls of the blessed go, so things didn’t go badly in the end for her either.
Diona the Lurker