Midday maunderings

[neadods]

I'm beginning to think that some of my sickness is starvation - the worse I feel, the less I eat. Will be steaming up a big bowl of non-nutritional whiteness tonight because even at death's door I can eat chicken breast and buttered rice.

The Dark is Rising - Comparison of book to movie IOW, "Chris Eccleston is the only possible reason to see this, ever."

Thanks to the fabulous tchwrtr, a list of restaurants around the Maryland Renaissance Festival Google map and spreadsheet with URLs. (Tchwrtr? I'm going to have to give you the info for that Jaspers on 450, aren't I? If you go back 450-301, there's a Jaspers, which will theoretically bring to your car, although I've always had to go in and sweat at them. Also, I am vastly amused by your "type" for Melting Pot.)

Me, I'm planning on swinging by Whole Paycheck and picking up something from the hot bar for Monday's bento. I won't be at faire all day, 1) because I will presumably still feel like the bottom of a birdcage, 2) it's going to be 90+ damn degrees, and 3) I want to come home early enough to see the cheap show of "Becoming Jane" at the Greenbelt. I'm only going because it's opening weekend, I can see much of what I want to see while sitting quietly at the Globe all day, and I want to buy another skirt from Bullseye. Last year I picked up a part-polyester black skirt, and if a woman can't get stupendous mileage out of an non-wrinkling, A-line, ankle-length black skirt, she's not even trying. I want another one, in another nice neutral color so that this one isn't doing sole duty at faire/at the office/at the theater/sclepping at home/etc.

Am still trying to get my sluggish brain to wrap around a top-post I want to make about Ninth vs Tenth Doctors. It seems that Ten is usually seen as "Rose's Doctor," I think because David and Billie make a cuter couple. But it was Nine who fixated on Rose. She was the first one he asked into the TARDIS after the war - he even made a point about saying how he traveled on his own now... a point he broke to ask her, twice, to join him. (If she'd said no again, I could imagine that he'd be hounding her every few minutes until she said yes!) During the rest of Nine's run, no other companion was asked aboard except by Rose. Mickey's turned down invite? Rose. Adam? Rose, specifically brought on by the Doctor because "he's your boyfriend." Jack? Rose again, asking what his final message meant.

Lynda might have broken the pattern; Nine was definately giving her the pre-invite sniff-around, but she died.

Ten, on the other hand, has all but installed a revolving door, and brought on companions even when Rose was specifically telling him "NO!" Rose, again. Mickey, over Rose's objections. Donna. Martha. That's four companions before the middle of his second season and he wasn't through yet, asking Jack along (repeatedly) even after he made a huge effort to run away from him.

He fell in love with Reinette and Joan, and invited them both along, both times dumping the companion who was faithfully sticking by him. ETA to clarify - no, he was not replacing Rose or Martha at this point... but he was willing to let Rose and Mickey be stuck on the spaceship with the robots while he took the leisurely slow route back to them. The very leisurely slow route. And as for Joan - it's the ultimate in the Doctor's emotional neediness that he's willing to bring her along because the part of him that was John still cares for her but without realizing what it would do to her to be ripped from her time to careen through space with the man who only vaguely resembles her lost love and with a woman who she has every prejudice (as a black and as a servant) against - prejudices that *he* was aiding and abetting only hours previously.

He offered to give up racketing through time and space and go domestic for the Master.

That's not mentioning Sarah Jane, who he went completely incoherent over, and put immediately back into "my companion" mode, giving her the sonic screwdriver to work with (then giving her K-9 to keep) and listening as she lectured him.

Nine admitted he was needy, and focused on only one person. Ten, aside from a casual line about wanting a hand to hold, is avoiding thinking about his loneliness but is throwing just about every warm body he finds in to try to fill the gaping hole. How bad he's going to get now that he's lost his people AGAIN is a little scary.

And furthermore, the really freaky/needy part of this is how careless he is with his companions these days. Oh, he keeps them physically safe, he always has, but he's using them to try to plug his needs with very little regard to theirs.

Sarah Jane had to demand the goodbye she'd been craving for 30 years. Ordered him to say it while he tried to squirm out of it.

Rose is strung along; even while he told her they wouldn't be together forever he couched it in such terms ("You can spend the rest of your life with me") as to read that he's going to make an exception for her, then he drops it completely. She is tossed into an alternate universe without a by-your-leave by the Doctor; when she comes back but is about to drop into hell itself he does nothing more than call after her. Dimly remembering from Sarah Jane that closure might be necessary, he again jerks Rose around, showing up months later, blowing off her declaration of love, and piffling around until it is too late for him to either reciprocate or tell her what I think she really needed to hear - the order to have a good life. Nine thought she would need to hear that. Ten didn't think of her.

He behaves so wildly around Donna that she - hardly an example of maturity and insight - can't help but notice and comment that he needs someone keeping a firm hand on his leash.

Martha gets highly mixed signals from the get-go; he wants her along but "for just one trip." He kisses and flirts and says it's nothing. He implies that she doesn't measure up to previous companions. He stands silent as she tells him that she felt second-best - but he relies on her to save his life, often, and save her world. As much as I cringe at Martha's emotional blort all over him, I can accept it as her recognizing her own needs and *making* him give her the closure that she needed - the woman who was the sounding post for everyone in her family finally getting someone to stand silently and listen to her. Like Sarah Jane, she knew what she had to have and forced him to give it to her... because he sure as hell wasn't going to oblige!

Jack - Jack needed answers, the Doctor knew he needed answers, and the Doctor's response was to leave skidmarks running away and then to call Jack "Wrong." That's all the wrong he's done all the other companions combined and adding another suitcase full of bad. It's also the starkest example of how the Doctor is putting his own needs over those of the companions, no matter how badly that messes over his companions.

The only one who really got well out of Ten's deal so far is Mickey. He didn't expect anything from the Doctor, and that's pretty much what he got. In large amounts. Although the theme of the show has always been that to travel with the Doctor is to be made better, the only way Mickey could get forward was to leave the TARDIS and its occupants a universe behind.

There's an essay there, but I haven't figured out what the theme is. Aside from "Nine was emo, but Ten is Seriously Messed UP and taking it out on his companions!"

Comments

[notfromvenus.livejournal.com]

Here from who_daily....

I think you've got a lot of good points there. Whatever some people may say, Ten's been pretty dark and selfish from the get-go - it's just that in S2, you've got to look beyond the surface giggling-with-Rose level. In S3, more of his true colors were exposed.

His bit right before/during the Master's death scene, about keeping him on the TARDIS forever and ever.... while the shipper in me loved it, it's IMO one of the most selfish things we've ever seen the Doctor do on the show. "Ooh, I'll forgive you for doing all kinds of terrible horrible things again and again (after doing nasty things to others for far less), and kick out my companions (since they sure as hell wouldn't stay around with the Master after what he'd done to them) and keep you around with the potential of you escaping and wreacking more havoc on the universe, just because I'm lonely."

And you know, this is why he's become one of my favorite Doctors. He's more than a cosmic do-gooder, he's got his own agenda, and it's a very flawed one.

he needs someone keeping a firm hand on his leash

Should I mention the images that conjured up? ;)


Oh, and yay Maryland renfest! Haven't been in a couple years, but it was always pretty cool. Have fun! :)

[zabbers.livejournal.com]

And you know, this is why he's become one of my favorite Doctors. He's more than a cosmic do-gooder, he's got his own agenda, and it's a very flawed one.

This is a good point. I haven't quite decided yet how I feel about him (I suppose I'd better decide soon), but having him be like this is certainly interesting. I'd always been pretty conflicted about the Doctor, swinging wildly from anger at the way he behaves to--well, it's the protagonist, or one of them, I'm supposed to like him--wanting to fan him. The cute thing does make a difference, to my shame.

(Here through who_daily, by the way, and really appreciating the meta.)

[notfromvenus.livejournal.com]

Well, heck, you don't have to decide, it's okay to be ambivalent. ;)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

it's just that in S2, you've got to look beyond the surface giggling-with-Rose level.

A lot of that giggling is a symptom of what I'm talking about - it was the callous way Rose and the Doctor treated Queen Victoria that led directly to Torchwood which led directly to the cyberinvasion and the loss of Rose. I've been really unhappy that they never have had the Doctor acknowledge that he was complicit in the loss of his own companion!

The part with the Master is where the Doctor fell right over the edge, IMO; he is not only granting mercy and a second chance (this from Mr. "No Second Chances") to his worst enemy, but he is offering to give up what defines himself - the traveling. It was a very touching display of just how horrified the Doctor is that he is the last of his kind - and a really creepy example of just how needy he is because of it.

The Doctor went from being surrounded by friends and having found someone from his own time and planet to losing *everything* again - no companions, no Master, no connection to Gallifrey. I'm going to get whiplash at the cute, bouncy upbeat Christmas special, because what the Doctor has been before should be but a pale preview of the kind of psychosis he's going to have now!

[notfromvenus.livejournal.com]

A lot of that giggling is a symptom of what I'm talking about

Oh, that's true. But seeing him laughing and joking and running around holding hands gives the impression - if you're just looking on the surface level and not thinking about it - that he's happy and light-hearted and not dark or ruthless or anything. Which is BS, of course, but it's how a lot of people saw it.

I'm going to get whiplash at the cute, bouncy upbeat Christmas special, because what the Doctor has been before should be but a pale preview of the kind of psychosis he's going to have now!

Oh god, I know. And yet apparently, RTD's said he's taking the show in a lighter direction next year. What?

[neadods.livejournal.com]

apparently, RTD's said he's taking the show in a lighter direction next year

*sigh* I know. Completely missing how it's the darker stuff that's attracting everyone the most.

[notfromvenus.livejournal.com]

Well, I dunno about everyone - while I like it, I dunno if having it be this dark every week is as appealing to the kids as a more lighthearted approach (it would've been to me, but I watched the X-files as a kid ;)).

Hopefully they'll still have some darker/scarier (not necessarily the same thing) episodes, though, even if it's not most of them.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I like my comedy to have teeth in it - my favorite Pratchett books are the ones that deal with issues - and Who is missing part of the point if we don't end up hiding behind the couch sometimes.

The really brilliant ones, IMO, do both, like Empty Child and Blink.

[fyrdrakken]

Some months back someone else on my friends list asked the question of why the bubblegum canon attracts fans who stick all manner of shades of complexity into it via their fic and meta, while dark and twisty canon gets fans who want to spackle everything over with pink frosting. My hypothesis was that it's because for the most active forms of fannish love there has to be that tension between the canon giving enough of what you love to keep you interested, but leaving major gaps or even problems that need to be resolved or explored to keep you busy. So the people who need shades of grey are coloring them into their lighter fandoms, and the people who can't handle the scary bits underlying the silly are refusing to notice or acknowledge them.

Which on an optimistic note suggests that taking the show in a lighter direction is going to cause the fans to do more of the really dark twisted stuff, while the cotton candy crowd are going to be happier with the show and less inclined to fic about it.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I don't know, there's been an awful lot of cotton candy about S2. (And I totally love that phrase.)

Me, I like both, but in balanced amounts, please.

[fyrdrakken]

It occurs to me that there's something severely appropriate about Rose/Ten shippers being determined to spackle over the dysfunctionality of that relationship with happy shiny mortgage-and-Time!babies fic, since that's pretty much Rose's on-screen characterization during s2 as well: Deep denial pasted over with a frantic determination that everything is going to turn out happily, dammit!

[neadods.livejournal.com]

Complete with the "no it didn't" ending.