A TW vs. DW morality question

[neadods]

T3, Who-Daily: lj user="neadods"> a href="http://neadods.livejournal.com/705917.html">has a TW vs. DW moral question (Spoilers for Journey's End)

A DW vs TW morality question: What is more of an assault - the Doctor wiping Donna's memories over her protests or Jack's/Torchwood's reliance on retcon?

[Poll #1218803]

Me, I think Jack is the one who is committing assault, plain and simple. Because he doesn't want to answer questions, or because of "the rules" which he cites but never explains, he whips out the retcon all the time, drugging people against their knowledge and then (in the case of Gwen) even sending in his team to erase computer records. We know retcon is considered a punishment, cleanup operation, and "retirement program" all in one - and note that the only other person who casually wiped people's memories was the villain from Dalek in Who S1.

Although Donna was protesting and definitely didn't want to lose her memories, the Doctor did not act for his own convenience or pleasure. He left Donna alone until such time as it became clear that her health/life was in question - at which point, her brains were becoming so scrambled that she was no longer capable of giving informed consent anyway.

By traveling with the Doctor, Donna had put her life in his hands. With her life in danger, he rescued her again.

And the more I talk about this online, the more confident I become that Donna can regain her awesome without either memories or Doctor. It was all *her* between Runaway Bride and Partners in Crime - all that growth, all that planning, all that accomplishment. That came from within *her,* while she lived *on Earth,* without the Doctor's input at all.

So, no... even if Donna is never un-fobwatched (because that is how I really see it), I don't feel that she is better off dead, that she is left without any hope of regaining her personal growth, or even that the Doctor did her wrong.

x-posted without poll to marriedonmars

And yet another fic rec from the tsunami coming out of the finale reactions: ionlylurkhere's utterly perfect The Moment Has Been Prepared For. Now this ought to be canon!

Comments

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

IAWTC ↑

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I wanna know how to code that arrow!

My reply to the original comment is just below this, and boils down to along with RTD's racial issues, he's got consent issues, because the *only* New Who companion to leave on her own steam and without duress is Sarah Jane. Rose was allowed to fall into the void (after the Doctor had snuck up on her with the universe jumper), Jack was left behind, Martha was driven out, and Donna was mindwiped.

At least Moffat doesn't seem to think that there's something defective about people who *don't* want to be joined at the hip to the Doctor 24/7, and hopefully won't be coming up with plots to force them away one way or another.

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

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[neadods.livejournal.com]

I don't get plain text messages. *makes note, because I really need a "points upwards and nods" icon anyway.*

Brace yourself for more spam; this is inspiring Yet Another Top Post.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

Yeah - I did make one observation about Rose & Donna: if RTD stopped getting into the habit of having humans go "I'll travel with you forever", then he wouldn't have to go through such convoluted and depressing b.s. to retire them from the tardis when the actor's moving on.

[acroyear70.livejournal.com]

update - I see we both hit on that observation at the same time (i hadn't read the other newer post yet). :)

[neadods.livejournal.com]

As you've seen, I've come up with a tl;dr about that... :>