jakebe | Doctor Who Season 2 (Reply)

toob and I recently finished the second season of Doctor Who, the first in which David Tennant takes over the title role. A lot's been made of Tennant, so I've been looking forward to this for a little while. Toob, being a recent Who convert, really only as Eccleston to look to as far as who the Doctor should be. I was really interested to see what he thought of the regeneration, and how a different actor could inhabit the same role. For that matter, I was pretty interested to see how it would be pulled off. I'd never followed Who for long enough to get an established idea of who he was, so in a lot of ways Eccleston was my first "real" Doctor experience, too.

As it turns out, Tennant fills the role quite well. His first episode in, "The Christmas Invasion," was pretty ingenious in what it did. It took the Doctor off the table for most of the crisis, letting things build and build until everyone we had come to care about over the course of season one was in mortal peril and only the Doctor could save him. It gets to the point where the audience wants him as badly as the characters do. At the end of the episode, when the Doctor comes in to provide the deus ex machina resolution, I found myself cheering despite the fact that he was different from the Doctor I had come to know and love. He saved the day, played the cosmic and dangerous fool, and whisked Rose (and the rest of us) away for a season of great stories.

The first (or second, depending on how you count these things) episode of the season was a relative disappointment. "New Earth" started promisingly enough, with its leonine medical nuns and the brilliant acting of both Billie Piper and David Tennant, but the resolution struck me as a little cheesy and ham-fisted. I'd probably like it better given a second pass, but it didn't quite come together the way it felt like it should have. I have a feeling that I enjoyed "Tooth and Claw" as much as I did mostly because I'm a furry, but Queen Victoria (and the very beginnings of Torchwood) were really neat to watch.

I loved "School Reunion," mainly because it planted the seeds for the season-long arc with the Doctor and Rose, and explored how the Doctor affects the lives of the people he touches. The theme of connection, and what happens to people when those connections are severed, is one that pops up repeatedly through season 2, and this was the first episode that dealt with it in such a major way. Also, Anthony Stewart Head as an alien bat! How cool is that?

"The Idiot's Lantern" marks the halfway part of the season, and is my favorite Who episode so far. From a storytelling perspective, the writing is thrillingly tight: everyone from the hapless victims to the sympathetic henchman to the Doctor and Rose have clear, complete arcs that move them forward, and the villain is one of those delightful blends of creepy and campy that the new series does so well. The Wire's motivation isn't that strong or interesting, but she makes an incredibly effective catalyst for inspiring change in the heroes, and she's played with such insane relish by Maureen Lipman it really doesn't matter. It's not perfect, but it's perfectly fun.

It also starts off a run of really solid episodes that takes us through the rest of the season. "The Impossible Planet" and "The Satan Pit" is an excellent two-part story that introduces the ridiculously creepy Ood and cements Rose's transformation from selfish cosmic bungler to competent, willful companion. "Love & Monsters" is a great encapsulation of the series' emotional arc, and clues us in well to the problems that Jackie Tyler faces with Rose gone. (Even if the ending is unintentionally hilarious.) "Fear Her" is wonderfully surreal and creepy and ecstatically cheesy in the way that "New Earth" tried to be, and "Army of Ghosts" and "Doomsday" fully realizes the story and emotional arc in a way that's both surprising and fulfilling. I realized I had been fully converted to Whovian when I was actually frightened for everyone that *Daleks* had showed up. (By the way, Daleks are surprisingly good trash-talkers.)

The series ends with the tragic parting of ways between the Doctor and Rose, though she's left in about as good a state as she can be. Mickey, Jackie and Peter come together to form a complete family again, and even if that completion comes at the expense of the relationship between the Doctor and Rose, I think the arc wraps up her story nicely. Rose came quite a long way this season, towards being resourceful, ambitious and confident. Even if she's not doing exactly what she wants, she has a tight-knit support network and a clear direction of what she wants. And though the Doctor lost one of his favorite companions, there's a big wide universe full of people there. He'll find someone to connect with. You just give it time.

For me, the season's recurring theme seemed to be loneliness, and what people are willing to do just to find a place to belong. So many of the villains, from the werewolf in "Tooth and Claw" to Chloe in "Fear Her" to even the ragtag collection of misfits in "Love & Monsters" were all driven by a need to find or create others like them, and this desire became so strong that it drove them to do things they wouldn't have otherwise. Even our heroes aren't immune from this: Jackie Tyler tries to seduce a younger man because she's been left alone, and Mickey Smith invites himself along with the Doctor and Rose because his need for connection is just that strong. Even the Doctor is driven to pretty irrational extremes to save Rose. By the end of the series, he and Rose are pretty much kindred spirits. It's devastating to see them forced to sever that bond.

It's interesting that as rich and varied as the universe of Doctor Who is, loneliness and alienation seems to be the one constant that's playing itself out time and time again. It's seeing how that loneliness warps so many people into doing such drastic things that makes the Doctor seem so heroic, and so tragic. Despite the fact that he is the last of his kind, and that no matter how close a bond he shares with his companions he will never be truly understood, he has an absolute moral compass that keeps him from making the same mistakes. He's lonely, but he's found a way to cope that doesn't necessarily involve hurting other people.

The bond between Rose and the Doctor comes across much more believably in the second season than it does the first. Eccleston's Doctor had the same idealist views that Tennant does, but the difference is that Eccleston had little patience for the reality of things. He loved the idea of life and freedom, adventure and curiosity, but he was really prickly about actually watching everything play out. Rose was the one person he could tolerate the longest, so actual romance never rang true. They had become as close as they could as friends, but it's hard to imagine Eccleston really loving anyone.

It's different with Tennant. He loves the ideal, and he loves the imperfections in people that keep them from achieving them. Even if he loses patience with people when they don't quite catch up to him quickly enough, he never quite makes them feel stupid or useless. He might think it himself, but he never puts that thought across. He's goofy, high-spirited, innately curious, holds himself and Rose to high standards but is much more forgiving when she fails to meet them. He's a lot more compassionate than Eccleston's Doctor, and so his love of life is a lot more genuine.

After "Doomsday," however, both Rose and the Doctor must make drastic changes in their lives. I had come to like Rose and the dysfunctional, broken family she had managed to maintain with the Doctor, and I'm really curious to see how he'll get over losing that. What will loneliness do to him? Will it make him harder, more jaded and bitter like Eccleston? Can you keep the wonder you feel for the universe when there's no one to share it with? We'll see in season three, and I really can't wait.