The Greatest Fanfic That Was Actually Canon

[filkertom]

saganth reminded me that we hadn't discussed the Doctor Who finale.

On one level, it did a fantastic job of hitting buttons. When Harriet showed up, I was very much Whoo-Hooing all over the place. I loved how the whole thing got everybody together, introduced people who hadn't seen the spin-off shows to those shows very well, and tied off all the loose ends.

My very favorite moments included: Capt. Jack, filled with horror and knowledge, kissing the heads of his Torchwood comrades, and saying (paraphrase), "I'm so sorry. There's nothing I can do. We're all dead"; Rose's horribly plaintive, "I came back for you"; Harriet facing down the Daleks; and, even at the end, The Doctor giving Davros a chance. (Dunno why he bothers. I've given him a chance for years, and he still interrupts my concerts. -- Wrong Davros. ;) Hugs, big guy.)

On the other hand, it really annoyed me how they got everybody together, shoved the spin-offs at us, and tied off all the loose ends just a tad too neatly.

My least favorite moments included: The military man declaring Double Secret Super Duper Extra Double Dog Tootsy Frootsy Red Alert; the entire main Dalek plot (Oh noes!!!1!!11!!!! Dis time dey gonna destroy EVERTHIN!!!!1!1!! No rilly!!! [and seriously, where the fuck does Davros get off naming The Doctor "Destroyer Of Worlds"!? If his plot had succeeded, there would've been no one left to name Davros anything]); most of Davros' dialogue; the whole prophecy foofrah, because prophecies are nearly always a cheap way to justify why something has to happen (I refer you to the Prequel Trilogy); and the half-time-lord bit, which was a superb way of letting Donna save the day but a really lousy/cheesy way of foisting off a Xerox of The Doctor on poor, dedicated SHE FUCKING JUMPED DIMENSIONS FOR YOU YOU UNGRATEFUL ASS Rose.

If someone had shown me this thing as a fanfic, I would've been delighted beyond belief. But "fanfic" is exactly how it feels to me -- especially Rose getting/not exactly getting The Doctor at the end. And I suppose this means everything next season is a clean start -- I can't think of anything that's left hanging, apart from The Master's ring muh-wuh-ha-ha-hah -- and I truly hope they've signed Alex Kingston to come back and play River. Damn. Alex You Really Have No Idea How Sexy You Are Do You Kingston. Yeah, I just bet he tells her his name. I believe the next part of that line is, "Because you'll be screaming it later."

Thoughts?

Comments

[briansiano.livejournal.com]

I poste dmy comments at my own LJ, http://rpk.livejournal.com/496484.html

They really missed a great opportunity with the ending. It would have been _most_ satisfying if Donna had really _died_. Imagine this. the Doctor knows he can't save her. And because of the human-Time Lord mixing, _she knows it too_... and she _demands to die with those memories_.

And that'd be the point: Donna would have decided her fate for herself. And the Doctor would not have decided it for her, as he did in this episode. They missed what would have been a _magnificent_, life-affirming, tragic and moving scene. Catherine Tate would've _crushed_.

Drat. Enjoyed the episode, otherwise. Especially K9's return.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yeah. Reminds me of when JMS didn't kill off Ivanova, which would've truly been a bold storytelling move. The "she must never remember" thing is always a little lame, and sometimes a lot lame.

[druidsfire.livejournal.com]

Well, rpk, I'm gonna respectfully disagree with your notion on Donna's fate. That's /why/ it's such a tragedy: it's /not/ a warm-fuzzy 'Hey, I sacrificed myself for the greater good'. It's a Brazil with Terry Gilliam's original negative ending sort of fate, not the studio-demanded 'good' ending. I think it was designed to make us uncomfortable, to make us realize that people don't always get what we'd consider a 'happy' ending

It also leaves us a somewhat easier/less cheesy method to get Catherine Tate back on the show. Easier to find a way to technobabble around the 'she can't remember /ever/' thing than 'she's dead, Jim'.

As for blue-Doctor/brown-Doctor + Rose... well, it was unsatisfying, of course. But it's blatantly obvious that it was meant to appease the two main opinions regarding the Doctor and Rose relationship: (AIEEE! NO, HE CAN'T HAVE SEX!) and (BOM CHICKA WOW WOW!). It also finally gets Rose the hell out of the series. And I like Rose, don't get me wrong. But the emo 'I came back for you!' never felt like epic romance to me. It was selfish and greedy and too childishly needy, in my opinion. Stalker much? :)

The whole tying up of loose ends thing is just that: setting the series into a nicely-wrapped box for the hand-off to Stephen Moffat's reign as showrunner. That way, he doesn't have any huge baggage to deal with other than his own creations (Hi, River!). Don't get me wrong, RTD did a great job in getting the show back on the air with excellent quality in many cases, loads of respect from the mainstream (for a change), but the /best/ episodes, the ones that were mostly original and most thought-provoking... were Stephen Moffat's.

I can't wait for 2010 to arrive. It's gonna be one hell of a ride. XD

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

We knew Catherine Tate was only signed up for one year. This was lame. I suppose she wanted a way back into DW if her own show didn't do well next year.

Show Biz, you have made a cynic of me.

Otherwise, I did enjoy the family reunion.

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

Personally, I was infuriated by Donna's mind wipe.

[batyatoon]

Oh god me too. Me too.

I have a vid in the works now because of it.

[barbara-the-w.livejournal.com]

a really lousy/cheesy way of foisting off a Xerox of The Doctor on poor, dedicated SHE FUCKING JUMPED DIMENSIONS FOR YOU YOU UNGRATEFUL ASS Rose
And, yet, I was so freakin' happy to see the *ss-end of Rose.
I'm tired of the O Twue Wub thing people keep throwing at the stuff I like to read and see.
It sucked in H/Hr. It sucked in Xena. And it sucked here.

JNT's other idiosyncracies aside, at least he understood the Whovian Prime Directive: There is no hanky-panky in the TARDIS.

[madamruppy.livejournal.com]

I don't like Rose, never have. I was unhappy with her "getting" the Dr. I was pissed at the treatment of Donna. It was some seriously heavy deus ex machina.

My favorite line was after it was revealed that they had 3 Dr.s and Jack said "I can't tell you what I'm thinking right now" That was seriously funny.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

I agree. Rose got a Doctor and Donna got the shaft.


Personally, I'm hoping they bring back the Doctor's daughter...

[jmthane.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it was a serious amount of fanwank, and very entertaining overall. I'll accept it for what it is.

[devospice.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed it but the whole thing reminded me of the series finale of Buffy. Even for a 2 part episode it felt WAY TOO rushed. They crammed way too much into those two hours.

It also struck me as a tad gimmicky. OK, the Daleks are dead except one, but let's bring them all back for the finale anyway. And while we're at it let's bring back Davros, and Rose, and Sarah Jane, and Mickey, and Jackie, and K-9, and on and on and on.

Come on guys. Just tell a good story. We'll deal if the Daleks aren't in the season finales.

[bryanp.livejournal.com]

I do have to wonder just how many times he's going to kill off the Daleks.

So far Donna has been my favorite of the companions. She was the most interesting of the lot, that's for sure. Sad to see her go.

That said, as pat as it was I enjoyed the hell out of it.

[mouser.livejournal.com]

The only way for the Daleks and the Master to finally die is for the Doctor to finally die.

I only have one question in all of this...

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

Where was Jenny?

They brought together _EVERYBODY_ else but she was conspicuously absent.

Even if there was a question as to how much of a Time Lord she was (two hearts - HELLO?!) I'm certain she would have brought something to the party.

Though I think I've suddenly answered my own question - she would have brought another Time Lord to the party albeit an "infant" one. That would have made it tough for the whole half-Doctor/half-Donna thing to work well.

Re: I only have one question in all of this...

[jeffr23.livejournal.com]

Doesn't seem all that conspicuous, considering that she's thousands of years in the future with no hint of access to a TARDIS or other form of time-machine, only a most-likely-amazingly-slow shuttle only made plausible as a means of transport for her due to her near-infinite lifespan...

Now, conspicuously absent are the people known to be hanging out early 21st century Earth...Tegan Jovanka and Harry Sullivan spring immediately to mind (one can, I suppose, presume that the Brig's still stuck in Peru), and also Sally Sparrow...

[allisona.livejournal.com]

I'd somehow missed the memo that Catherine Tate was only going to be around for one year, so I was shocked and sad to see Donna written out of the series at the end of the episode. I'm going to miss Donna a lot.

[wildcard9.livejournal.com]

Well, I guess this makes David Tennant both the 10th and 11th Doctors, since we saw him regenerate, even if he did not change appearances. I fully expect it to be revealed that he either has a full set of regenerations as a result of the Time War (so Chris E was his new first body and this was only his 2nd regeneration of the new set of 12), or that the 12 regeneration limit was artificially imposed by the Time Lords somehow and there is no actual physical limit on how many times he can regenerate (my preferenced explaination).

I hope the Daleks are gone for good, they are getting tiring now. They dipped into that well too many times. The lone Dalek was excellent, and Daleks vs Cybermen was darned good, but that should have been it for the Daleks so far. Now it's "when will they show up this season?" The Cybermen could get overused as well, I hope that doesn't happen.

I hope this time they mean it about Rose's dimension being sealed off forever. It didn't stick the last two times, maybe third time's a charm? :-)

What happened to Donna is tragic, I expect her to show up one more time, remembering things and sacrificing herself because she needs to. And I hope her grandfather gets a ride in the TARDIS. Not as a full companion position, but a single trip would be nice for him.

[nimitzbrood.livejournal.com]

I'm in complete agreement about both Daleks and Cybermen. Best relegated to the insurance commercials where they belong:

[richardjgrayson.livejournal.com]

Just passing through ;)

The Dalek moniker for the Doctor, Ka Faraq Gatri aka The Destroyer of Worlds/Bringer of Darkness thing started in the novelisation of Remembrance of the Daleks years ago. The Daleks were a mite pissed off about the Doctor destroying Skaro in the episode itself. So, uh, yeah, their term for him really isn't entirely unjustified, though it is slightly skewed in terms of how -many- worlds have been destroyed.

But I agree entirely with the 'bad fanfic' assessment.

[emiofbrie.livejournal.com]

"The Oncoming Storm" ;) And that one's series-canon! ;)

[gypsylady.livejournal.com]

Bad fanfic indeed. And if Harriet Jones saved the day (Yes, we KNOW who she is! which was the funniest damn thing in the episode. Funnier even than Ianto's "slight loss of dignity so no change there.") why couldn't Lucy Saxon have showed up? But that's just me thinking aloud.

I knew Catherine Tate was meant to be gone after this season but the mind wipe just pissed me off. I think she needs to come back next season in either Torchwood or Sarah Jane Adventures and be cured by some passing good-guy alien. Or yet another Tosh-miracle. Whatever works. But the mind wipe was bullshit and it was just lazy writing. Turn her into Romana III and send her off in search of Jenny because the Doctor is such a rubbish father or somesuch. But wiping her mind and letting her lose all that made her great? Cop out. I'd have preferred (but not by much) her dying.

It's a Doctor Who tradition that Daleks turn up in just about every regeneration's lifespan. Ten seems to be cursed with them every season. I think someone needs to invent an anti-Dalek spray and be done with them. (I have to confess I did love this Davros, though. And now that he's dead I don't ever want to see Davros again. I'll be okay with seeing the Master again. Even the Rani. But No More Davros. He doesn't get regenerations.)

I'm going to shut up now before my blood pressure goes up and I start cussing out RTD in absentia again. It upsets my dog when that happens...

[siliconshaman.livejournal.com]

My comment moments after the final credits was; "Well, that was the biggest damn gay fan-boi Mary Sue episode EVAH!"

Russel T Davis, inverting the fandom continuum so that fan-fic becomes canon!

[batyatoon]

I liked Rose so much better when she was a character instead of a plot point.

I have the horrible certainty that RussT honestly believes he gave Rose a happy ending. (Neither David Tennant nor Billie Piper does, or so I gather from interviews they gave on the subject. They were playing the scene as a tragedy.)

And damn, Donna deserved so much better. So much better. NOT ON.



What really hurts is that this episode had me gleeing out loud right up until the scene on the beach.

[archiver-tim.livejournal.com]

With GrandPa's line at the end, I had to say, "Right said, Wilfred", and saluted back.

Okay, we know when fans try to re-write these kind of episodes, too many sheep have to die.

-Tim

[smallship1.livejournal.com]

nuWho's always been fanfic. New Doctor Who canon has yet to emerge.

The point that is still bugging me about the end of that episode is this.

Donna had a Time Lord consciousness in a fully human body. Therefore, she was going to die, and only a Time Lord erasing her memory saved her.

Rose's Doctor has a Time Lord consciousness in a fully human body.

Rose's Doctor had ten minutes to live when we last saw him.

Even for fanfic, that is pointlessly cruel.

[zeekar.livejournal.com]

I thought of that, too, but on the other hand, nobody said that clone!Doctor was "fully human". He's only got one heart, sure, and he doesn't regenerate - he's maybe mostly human. But he seems to have enough Time Lordness to handle the Doctor's mind. One of the easiest things to handwave in this ep, I'd say.

I really hate the Donna ending, but at least there's the possibility that she might come back. But I wouldn't hold my breath - Moffat has a tendency to not only ignore past companions, but undercut current companions (Rose, Mickey, Donna) in his verve to introduce his own characters (Jack, River)...

Not that I'm not really looking forward to the adventures of the Doctor and River Song.

[the-yoyogod.livejournal.com]

I actually liked it. The only thing that really annoys me is that there won't be any more regular episodes until 2010.

[johnpatrickmcp.livejournal.com]

Okay First off let me say I have never seen ANY Dr. Who before its current RTD incarnation so please I apologize if things I say have already been resolved or are not possible due to things previously explained in the earlier series. That being said:

What happened to Donna was plrobably the worst cop out ending of a character I have ever seen. You see her character grow so much over just one season and at the end she is literally RIGHT back to where she started. It was honestly just sad.

This makes the third time that the alternate dimention is supposedly sealed off for good. But what about the previous two times it was supposedly sealed? The whole spare Doctor just kinda made my head hurt. Honestly I think Rose just should have show up, saved the day, told the Doctor "I had to see you one last time" or "Your not the same man any more" and rode off into the sunset of the alternate world.

Its great that we are getting to see the Doctor fight the Dalecks, Cybermen, the Master, Davros, and all these other wonderful villians from the Dr. Who catalog. But as a new Dr. Who fan I have to ask wouldn't it be great to invent some new awe inspiring villians? As a member of the fan nation I understand the need to pay homage to the old but you also need to add NEW characters to the story and that means bad guys too.

Now that Mickey is back home I'd love to see him drift over to torchwood instilled with the confidence of leading the cyberman resistance on a parallel world and no longer the "Robot Dog".

Finally 2010!!!!!! WTF! It was annoying enough when BSG finished its third season in 2007 and said look forward to new episodes in March of 2008 but over a year and a half to is just ridiculous. My inner fanboy needs more Sci-Fi goodness. Especially since with BSG ending there really isn't going to be anything good to fill the void.

[hiddenriver.livejournal.com]

2010 is the next full season of Doctor Who, but there will be (supposedly) 5 specials between now and then: XMas 2008, 3 specials spaced out through 2009, and XMas 2009, so it's not as bad as all that. David Tennant is currently starring with Patrick Stewart in Hamlet - and also doing Love's Labours Lost - for the Royal Shakespeare Company through at least the end of the year, so he couldn't do a full series. (Side note: I'm going to see both plays in October! *squee*)

More bad news... Torchwood isn't getting a regular season next year either - just five episodes in a single storyline set to run on consecutive weeknights. In the U.S., we'd call that a mini-series.

[marcula.livejournal.com]

Just wish they could've brought in the Brigadier in one of the UNIT episodes. Old Nicolas Courtney worked with Tenant on the old Big Finish recordings. The one quick line in the Sontaran ep made me hope he'd turn up in th end. Here's hoping Moffat likes old school Who a bit more than RTD.

[starmalachite.livejournal.com]

The Brig is going to guest star in at least one episode of the next season of Sarah Jane Adventures.