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You *gotta* think that eventually all this meta will result in fic.
Have decided my continued obsession during the show's break is due to watching Old Who. Really really really. Because a lot ends up relating to or triggering thoughts. And then these thoughts always end with, "...and that's why the Doctor needs Rose back." MWAH.
I still say you don't need to watch a single episode prior to the 2005 series to enjoy it, but sometimes these old episodes are giving me a more complete picture of who the Doctor was and is. And other times, there're simply giant clams.
Of all things that surprised me the most in watching the classic series, it's the Doctor's relationship with the Time Lords. Coming in as a brand new viewer, my first exposure to the Time Lords was the Doctor mourning their loss and attempting to deal with this huge pain. So it was more than interesting to discover in the classic series that he constantly wavers between simple annoyance to outright loathing of the Time Lords. He hates being on Gallifrey and he hates having to deal with the Time Lords. They really are/were "dusty old senators" who had a tendency to fall into corruption. But they *were* a very real power and a higher authority the Doctor could always turn to. If he got into a mess, he could call on them to fix it, which he did at least once. The one time I saw, it ended up badly for him and his Companions, but it was something that needed to and could be done.
Now I don't want to diminish the fact that this whole planet and race were destroyed. And they *were* his people. He fought on the front lines with them and he was involved in wiping everyone out, which is HUGE. Enormous, even. And that loss/guilt will always be with him in some way, including that whole "last of his kind."
But in S2 you see this loneliness emerging, which at first I thought was missing the Time Lords. But after watching more old Who, I'm coming to think that it's not that he's missing his best pals or even people he can relate to. He and the Time Lords were *never* able to relate to each other. They barely ever interacted. He could probably count on his hand the number of Time Lords he'd miss on a personal level.
I think in S2 the raw pain is over, and it's really starting to sink in for him that he's alone in his god-like state. (Hence the 20,526 "god" references.) He has all this power, and no one else to turn to if he screws up. Like he said in "New Earth," "I'm the Doctor. And if you don't like it... if you want to take it to a higher authority, then there isn't one. It stops with me." There's now this huge burden of needing to be *always* right. Plus the fact that he really doesn't have all the knowledge of the Time Lords, like how to hop between universes. So he's sort of muddling through - sticking to what he knows best, but it's all without a support net.
I once had a conversation with someone about how the Doctor could both be with Rose *and* be lonely (as seen in places like Tooth and Claw.) And this is pretty much it. He's alone in a way that's not so much emotional (Companions have always filled that hole. Not the Time Lords.) but instead is about who he is in relation to the universe. It's the burden of power. And *no one* will be able to take away this kind of loneliness. Even if the odd Time Lord happens to pop up down the road, there's never going to be this higher authority above the Doctor again unless Gallifrey would appear and that power base would return.
And this is why Rose was/is so important to him. Well, one of the reasons. No, she couldn't help him by taking some of that burden of power, but she really became his anchor. Not in a millstone-around-his-neck way, but in a way that showed the Lonely God that he did have a hand to hold as he crossed the universe as this god. I'm stealing![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
wiliqueen's words, because they're just so apt. He needs someone to smile at him and take his hand and trust him, and remind him that he's someone and something infinitely better than the Oncoming Storm... To say it another way so I can throw in the L word, he needs to be loved and accepted for who he is, not just for what he can offer or what he represents. Someone with whom he can turn off being a god, even for just a little while. He also needs to have a purpose/motivation other than "savior," like having someone *he* loves who makes him want to make the universe a better place. That S2 DVD insert by Julie Gardner is also apt. Rose is the Doctor's reason to fight, to endure, to ensure there's light in the darkness.
And that's why he needs to get Rose back.
I still say you don't need to watch a single episode prior to the 2005 series to enjoy it, but sometimes these old episodes are giving me a more complete picture of who the Doctor was and is. And other times, there're simply giant clams.
Of all things that surprised me the most in watching the classic series, it's the Doctor's relationship with the Time Lords. Coming in as a brand new viewer, my first exposure to the Time Lords was the Doctor mourning their loss and attempting to deal with this huge pain. So it was more than interesting to discover in the classic series that he constantly wavers between simple annoyance to outright loathing of the Time Lords. He hates being on Gallifrey and he hates having to deal with the Time Lords. They really are/were "dusty old senators" who had a tendency to fall into corruption. But they *were* a very real power and a higher authority the Doctor could always turn to. If he got into a mess, he could call on them to fix it, which he did at least once. The one time I saw, it ended up badly for him and his Companions, but it was something that needed to and could be done.
Now I don't want to diminish the fact that this whole planet and race were destroyed. And they *were* his people. He fought on the front lines with them and he was involved in wiping everyone out, which is HUGE. Enormous, even. And that loss/guilt will always be with him in some way, including that whole "last of his kind."
But in S2 you see this loneliness emerging, which at first I thought was missing the Time Lords. But after watching more old Who, I'm coming to think that it's not that he's missing his best pals or even people he can relate to. He and the Time Lords were *never* able to relate to each other. They barely ever interacted. He could probably count on his hand the number of Time Lords he'd miss on a personal level.
I think in S2 the raw pain is over, and it's really starting to sink in for him that he's alone in his god-like state. (Hence the 20,526 "god" references.) He has all this power, and no one else to turn to if he screws up. Like he said in "New Earth," "I'm the Doctor. And if you don't like it... if you want to take it to a higher authority, then there isn't one. It stops with me." There's now this huge burden of needing to be *always* right. Plus the fact that he really doesn't have all the knowledge of the Time Lords, like how to hop between universes. So he's sort of muddling through - sticking to what he knows best, but it's all without a support net.
I once had a conversation with someone about how the Doctor could both be with Rose *and* be lonely (as seen in places like Tooth and Claw.) And this is pretty much it. He's alone in a way that's not so much emotional (Companions have always filled that hole. Not the Time Lords.) but instead is about who he is in relation to the universe. It's the burden of power. And *no one* will be able to take away this kind of loneliness. Even if the odd Time Lord happens to pop up down the road, there's never going to be this higher authority above the Doctor again unless Gallifrey would appear and that power base would return.
And this is why Rose was/is so important to him. Well, one of the reasons. No, she couldn't help him by taking some of that burden of power, but she really became his anchor. Not in a millstone-around-his-neck way, but in a way that showed the Lonely God that he did have a hand to hold as he crossed the universe as this god. I'm stealing
wiliqueen's words, because they're just so apt. He needs someone to smile at him and take his hand and trust him, and remind him that he's someone and something infinitely better than the Oncoming Storm... To say it another way so I can throw in the L word, he needs to be loved and accepted for who he is, not just for what he can offer or what he represents. Someone with whom he can turn off being a god, even for just a little while. He also needs to have a purpose/motivation other than "savior," like having someone *he* loves who makes him want to make the universe a better place. That S2 DVD insert by Julie Gardner is also apt. Rose is the Doctor's reason to fight, to endure, to ensure there's light in the darkness.And that's why he needs to get Rose back.