DW Rewatch - 3x13, Last of the Time Lords
Feb. 28th, 2010 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
caz963My last couple of recaps/picspams have got away from me a bit, so I’m going to attempt to rein this one in.
In the words of Arthur Dent, “this is getting needlessly messianic”.
Much has been said about the Doctor’s God complex – in particular, Ten’s, and he’s been referred to several times as a “lonely god”, a “lonely angel” and variations thereof.
I suppose, given what he is and the things he can do – and the fact that he’s now the last of his race (well – not quite) – it’s not an entirely inappropriate epithet. Someone who rushes around saving entire civilizations and universes certainly does have god-like powers, especially when viewed from the perspective of us mere mortals. I’m not religious – I’m an atheist - but I don’t get offended by religious imagery or analogy; in fact, I find it interesting and sometimes amusing in that I wonder if Rusty was trying to see how far he could go before he started getting letters from “Angry of Croydon”! But the Doctor isn’t a god – he doesn’t always save everybody and he’s fallible. Although… I suppose that’s true of the Christian God, too (and of those of other monotheistic religions). We all sit here and ask “how can He let this happen?” – because shit happens and there’s nobody to intervene to stop it. But in this particular piece of fiction of course, we have the Doctor, and he does intervene. So maybe he’s like the God we’d want rather than the one we’ve got, who seems to be following the Time Lords’ rule of non-intervention.
The one time there was no “divine intervention” in the Whoeverse was in Children of Earth of course – and the only explanation I can offer myself for that is that it was because of Jack’s involvement. He’s a fixed point in time and so anything that involves him has to happen the way it happens. That may be an over simplistic or just plain wrong way of looking at it, but it’s my way of making the Doctor’s non-appearance make sense.
But I digress. As usual.
So is Last of the Time Lords meant to be seen as the battle between two gods, the prize being the universe itself?
I dunno. It’s easy to forget that this is primarily an adventure show for all the family to watch, and I’m the first to admit that sometimes I’m prone to overthinking things. But the references and imagery are hard to miss, so I have to believe that we’re meant to see them and make relevant connections.
At the end of the last episode, the Master has captured the Doctor, Martha and Jack, together with Martha’s family, and unleashed the Toclafane on the Earth. But under instructions from the Doctor, Martha has teleported back to Earth on a mission.
One year later, she’s still wandering (and again with the mythical and religious analogies of the story-telling wanderer) and telling her stories of the Doctor and his many heroic deeds. While the Doctor himself is more than entitled to his bus pass,
and her family are still prisoners on board the Valiant, forced to work for the Master.
Here’s a picture of hot, sweaty, dirty, chained-up Jack to lighten the mood. Or not.
The escape plan fails :-(
Oh, do you know, I remember the days when the Doctor, oh, that famous Doctor, was waging a time war. Battling Sea Devils and Axons. He sealed the rift at the Medusa Cascade single-handed. Ooh. And look at him now. Stealing screwdrivers. How did he ever come to this? Oh yeah. Me!
I know he’s the baddie… but he’s still getting all the best lines!
Well. Almost all the good lines… God, I miss Countdown.
There’s nothing good on the other side, either
Meet Dobby!Doctor (Notice – even in CGI, he’s still got those big soulful brown eyes!)
Where there’s life, there’s hope
My kids asked a really pertinent question. Who made him the little suit? ;-)
Martha finally gets to see just who (or what) the Toclafane are. This explains the need for the Paraxox Machine.
We know that the only place the Master could travel to in the TARDIS was the end of the universe, because the Doctor had fused the controls. So he found Utopia – which wasn’t a utopia at all.
MASTER:
My masterpiece, Doctor. A living TARDIS, strong enough to hold the paradox in place, allowing the past and the future to collide in infinite majesty.
DOCTOR:
But you're changing history. Not just Earth, the entire universe.
MASTER:
I'm a Time Lord. I have that right.
He’s always thought that way, whereas the Doctor has always fought against it.
The story of the gun. I admit, first time around, I thought “huh?”
if Martha Jones became a legend, then that's wrong because my name isn't important. There's someone else. The man who sent me out there. The man who told me to walk the Earth. His name is the Doctor. He has saved your lives so many times, and you never even knew he was there. He never stops. He never stays. He never asks to be thanked. But I've seen him. I know him. I love him. And I know what he can do.
My heart is just a little bit sore when she says she loves him. Poor Martha.
Taken back to the Valiant
The Master is vain enough to have to stop his speech to find out what Martha’s laughing at
That’s all you got? The power of prayer?
Well, not exactly.
I’ve had many an enjoyable conversation here or at other journals regarding Ten’s telepathic abilities, seeing he’s the Doctor who seems to have either used them most, and/or been best at it. Presumably then, this is another demonstration - of sorts – of his skill. And not only that, he seems to have developed telekinetic abilities as well!
And he’s back. This time as an avenging angel.
Yes, it’s incredibly cheesy. But you know what? I don’t care. It’s over the top and I love it! And let’s face it. If you’re a kid watching this, you’re cheering because your hero is back and doing all sorts of impressive … stuff!
I forgive you
The Master isn't done yet
All you do is talk and talk and talk. But over all these years…and all these disasters, I've always had the greatest secret of them all. I know you. Explode those ships, you kill yourself. That's the one thing you can never do
And dirty, sweaty Jack gets to shoot up the TARDIS/Paradox Machine to set all to rights
Oh yeah/ He’s back!
And the last year never happened
I can’t blame Francine for wanting to shoot him
He’s the Doctor’s responsibility from now on. I have to say, I can understand the Master’s not wanting to be kept like a pet! But the line about the Doctor now having someone to care for… makes my heart ache for him as it really points up his loneliness again. It’s like he’s so desperate not to be alone and the last of his kind that he’ll put up with anything, Which I suppose is what he is. Oh, Ten… *wibble*
But he’s not even going to get that
It seems that a Time Lord can opt not to regenerate, although the alternative is to die. But with the Master’s twisted logic, that’s better than giving the Doctor the consolation of not being alone any more. Although to be fair, I don’t think I’d much like to be “kept” either. (In principle. But if the Doctor wanted to keep me, I’d be looking for the dotted line, pen in hand!)
The funeral pyre
Back in Cardiff
The Doctor offers Jack a place in the TARDIS – but he opts to stay
The Face of Boe?
The face of smacked gob
Back to normal
Tigger on acid... although he's very quiet and contemplative until Martha comes in and he can slip back into the act.
But...
She can’t do this any more. And we know it’s not the life, it’s him.
And so does he.
He’s never going to be what she wants him to be and she recognizes that she needs to move on.
Good for her. Something like that takes a lot of guts and strength.
Alone again. But he’s a trouble magnet. It won’t last long.
See?
What?
What??
I’d previously thought that the third season (DT’s second) wasn’t all that great, but you know what? I was wrong. Apart from a couple of less than stellar episodes (hybrid-mutant-dalek-pig-slaves, I’m looking at you!) it’s pretty good overall, and actually contains some of my favourite episodes - The Shakespeare Code, Blink, Utopia and of course the totally awesome Human Nature/Family of Blood.
The season opener is very strong, too, and I rediscovered 42 as a pretty good episode despite its weaknesses. The Lazarus Experiment can be forgiven much because of the presence of the unlucky suit (!) and while RTD may have gone just a bit over the top in the final two episodes (*ahem*) they were good to look at and we learned more about the Doctor and where he’s from and why he’s the way he is, and that’s always a good thing. To have 2 or 3 duff episodes out of 13 isn’t a bad strike-rate, I think –and even though I’m saying “duff”, they weren’t dire, because there were still things in them that kept me watching.
Next up...
I'm having trouble with VotD because... er, well there's too much pretty! So I might have to do two picspams for that - one sensible one, and one drooling fangirl one. It depends on whether I can restrain myself or not. We'll see :-)
Screencaps from Sonic Biro, The Medusa Cascade and Demon-cry.net.
Yeah. Well, I did say attempt!!
In the words of Arthur Dent, “this is getting needlessly messianic”.
Much has been said about the Doctor’s God complex – in particular, Ten’s, and he’s been referred to several times as a “lonely god”, a “lonely angel” and variations thereof.
I suppose, given what he is and the things he can do – and the fact that he’s now the last of his race (well – not quite) – it’s not an entirely inappropriate epithet. Someone who rushes around saving entire civilizations and universes certainly does have god-like powers, especially when viewed from the perspective of us mere mortals. I’m not religious – I’m an atheist - but I don’t get offended by religious imagery or analogy; in fact, I find it interesting and sometimes amusing in that I wonder if Rusty was trying to see how far he could go before he started getting letters from “Angry of Croydon”! But the Doctor isn’t a god – he doesn’t always save everybody and he’s fallible. Although… I suppose that’s true of the Christian God, too (and of those of other monotheistic religions). We all sit here and ask “how can He let this happen?” – because shit happens and there’s nobody to intervene to stop it. But in this particular piece of fiction of course, we have the Doctor, and he does intervene. So maybe he’s like the God we’d want rather than the one we’ve got, who seems to be following the Time Lords’ rule of non-intervention.
The one time there was no “divine intervention” in the Whoeverse was in Children of Earth of course – and the only explanation I can offer myself for that is that it was because of Jack’s involvement. He’s a fixed point in time and so anything that involves him has to happen the way it happens. That may be an over simplistic or just plain wrong way of looking at it, but it’s my way of making the Doctor’s non-appearance make sense.
But I digress. As usual.
So is Last of the Time Lords meant to be seen as the battle between two gods, the prize being the universe itself?
I dunno. It’s easy to forget that this is primarily an adventure show for all the family to watch, and I’m the first to admit that sometimes I’m prone to overthinking things. But the references and imagery are hard to miss, so I have to believe that we’re meant to see them and make relevant connections.
At the end of the last episode, the Master has captured the Doctor, Martha and Jack, together with Martha’s family, and unleashed the Toclafane on the Earth. But under instructions from the Doctor, Martha has teleported back to Earth on a mission.
One year later, she’s still wandering (and again with the mythical and religious analogies of the story-telling wanderer) and telling her stories of the Doctor and his many heroic deeds. While the Doctor himself is more than entitled to his bus pass,
and her family are still prisoners on board the Valiant, forced to work for the Master.
Here’s a picture of hot, sweaty, dirty, chained-up Jack to lighten the mood. Or not.
The escape plan fails :-(
Oh, do you know, I remember the days when the Doctor, oh, that famous Doctor, was waging a time war. Battling Sea Devils and Axons. He sealed the rift at the Medusa Cascade single-handed. Ooh. And look at him now. Stealing screwdrivers. How did he ever come to this? Oh yeah. Me!
I know he’s the baddie… but he’s still getting all the best lines!
Well. Almost all the good lines… God, I miss Countdown.
There’s nothing good on the other side, either
Meet Dobby!Doctor (Notice – even in CGI, he’s still got those big soulful brown eyes!)
Where there’s life, there’s hope
My kids asked a really pertinent question. Who made him the little suit? ;-)
Martha finally gets to see just who (or what) the Toclafane are. This explains the need for the Paraxox Machine.
We know that the only place the Master could travel to in the TARDIS was the end of the universe, because the Doctor had fused the controls. So he found Utopia – which wasn’t a utopia at all.
MASTER:
My masterpiece, Doctor. A living TARDIS, strong enough to hold the paradox in place, allowing the past and the future to collide in infinite majesty.
DOCTOR:
But you're changing history. Not just Earth, the entire universe.
MASTER:
I'm a Time Lord. I have that right.
He’s always thought that way, whereas the Doctor has always fought against it.
The story of the gun. I admit, first time around, I thought “huh?”
if Martha Jones became a legend, then that's wrong because my name isn't important. There's someone else. The man who sent me out there. The man who told me to walk the Earth. His name is the Doctor. He has saved your lives so many times, and you never even knew he was there. He never stops. He never stays. He never asks to be thanked. But I've seen him. I know him. I love him. And I know what he can do.
My heart is just a little bit sore when she says she loves him. Poor Martha.
Taken back to the Valiant
The Master is vain enough to have to stop his speech to find out what Martha’s laughing at
That’s all you got? The power of prayer?
Well, not exactly.
I’ve had many an enjoyable conversation here or at other journals regarding Ten’s telepathic abilities, seeing he’s the Doctor who seems to have either used them most, and/or been best at it. Presumably then, this is another demonstration - of sorts – of his skill. And not only that, he seems to have developed telekinetic abilities as well!
And he’s back. This time as an avenging angel.
Yes, it’s incredibly cheesy. But you know what? I don’t care. It’s over the top and I love it! And let’s face it. If you’re a kid watching this, you’re cheering because your hero is back and doing all sorts of impressive … stuff!
I forgive you
The Master isn't done yet
All you do is talk and talk and talk. But over all these years…and all these disasters, I've always had the greatest secret of them all. I know you. Explode those ships, you kill yourself. That's the one thing you can never do
And dirty, sweaty Jack gets to shoot up the TARDIS/Paradox Machine to set all to rights
Oh yeah/ He’s back!
And the last year never happened
I can’t blame Francine for wanting to shoot him
He’s the Doctor’s responsibility from now on. I have to say, I can understand the Master’s not wanting to be kept like a pet! But the line about the Doctor now having someone to care for… makes my heart ache for him as it really points up his loneliness again. It’s like he’s so desperate not to be alone and the last of his kind that he’ll put up with anything, Which I suppose is what he is. Oh, Ten… *wibble*
But he’s not even going to get that
It seems that a Time Lord can opt not to regenerate, although the alternative is to die. But with the Master’s twisted logic, that’s better than giving the Doctor the consolation of not being alone any more. Although to be fair, I don’t think I’d much like to be “kept” either. (In principle. But if the Doctor wanted to keep me, I’d be looking for the dotted line, pen in hand!)
The funeral pyre
Back in Cardiff
The Doctor offers Jack a place in the TARDIS – but he opts to stay
The Face of Boe?
The face of smacked gob
Back to normal
Tigger on acid... although he's very quiet and contemplative until Martha comes in and he can slip back into the act.
But...
She can’t do this any more. And we know it’s not the life, it’s him.
And so does he.
He’s never going to be what she wants him to be and she recognizes that she needs to move on.
Good for her. Something like that takes a lot of guts and strength.
Alone again. But he’s a trouble magnet. It won’t last long.
See?
What?
What??
I’d previously thought that the third season (DT’s second) wasn’t all that great, but you know what? I was wrong. Apart from a couple of less than stellar episodes (hybrid-mutant-dalek-pig-slaves, I’m looking at you!) it’s pretty good overall, and actually contains some of my favourite episodes - The Shakespeare Code, Blink, Utopia and of course the totally awesome Human Nature/Family of Blood.
The season opener is very strong, too, and I rediscovered 42 as a pretty good episode despite its weaknesses. The Lazarus Experiment can be forgiven much because of the presence of the unlucky suit (!) and while RTD may have gone just a bit over the top in the final two episodes (*ahem*) they were good to look at and we learned more about the Doctor and where he’s from and why he’s the way he is, and that’s always a good thing. To have 2 or 3 duff episodes out of 13 isn’t a bad strike-rate, I think –and even though I’m saying “duff”, they weren’t dire, because there were still things in them that kept me watching.
Next up...
I'm having trouble with VotD because... er, well there's too much pretty! So I might have to do two picspams for that - one sensible one, and one drooling fangirl one. It depends on whether I can restrain myself or not. We'll see :-)
Screencaps from Sonic Biro, The Medusa Cascade and Demon-cry.net.
Yeah. Well, I did say attempt!!
