Happy flailing about a Ten/Rose episode, what is wrong with me.

[tenlittlebullets]

Back from New York! And doing some more scattered out-of-order Who rewatches. Up recently: Aliens of London/World War Three (which I had not seen before, somehow, and eeeee Harriet Jones be my BFF and also character development for Mickey and Jackie and I wish RTD had built off of Nine and Mickey's awkward-dudebro-bonding moment at the end instead of falling back on "Mickey the idiot" and all the quasi-facetious trashtalking and--yeah). And then Impossible Planet/Satan Pit.

I HAVE FEELINGS ABOUT THOSE EPISODES. SO MANY FEELINGS. I DID NOT KNOW I HAD ALL THESE FEELINGS. They were, IIRC, the first ones I watched on my own after the weekly group Who-watching nights disintegrated, and at the time I was too caught up in frantic new-fandom fangirling to pick these out specifically, but in retrospect I am pretty sure they precipitated my headlong slide into watching three and a half seasons in two weeks. It is weird that a two-parter where half the cast dies gruesomely at the hands of a dodgy Satan monster should make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but it sums up so much of what I love about this show. Exploration, and belief, and there being more things in heaven and earth, and people--plain old human beings at their worst, at their best, people fucking up, people trying to put things right, people clinging to whatever gives the universe meaning for them. In this case, people at their best. Fallible, terrified humans pulling themselves together in the face of the unknown to become heroes, taking that leap just because it was there, using the last of their oxygen to say oh, I'm going to die down here, but if you could only see what I've found and how beautiful it is. And Ten and Rose, who all too often turn into adolescent brats as a team--here we see them making each other better people. And the sudden reappearance of the TARDIS has shades of Tolkien's eucatastrophe, the eleventh-hour act of grace that turns the tables just when it looks like everyone's about to die, without ever turning into a cheap deus-ex-machina trick because the characters are the ones who did all the legwork.

And mushy capital-R-Romantic stuff aside, they are just such great episodes. Okay, I still think the Satan monster is a bit dodgy, mostly because it's far too closely modeled on a very specific European concept of the devil, but this time around I'm willing to accept the "whatever it is, it's probably the origin of devil myths across the cosmos" handwaving. But I love the whole idea of the planet in impossible orbit around the black hole, I love the balance struck between explanation and leaving some things a mystery, I love how many plot and thematic and character-development threads are woven together at the same time and how none of them get dropped or mangled. I love the design, I love the gritty-future aspect, I love the soundtrack, I love the tone struck throughout, and on top of all that I am just a sucker for base-under-siege episodes. Can we please get Matt Jones to write more Who? Pleeeease? Impossible Planet/Satan Pit might now be among my favorite DW eps ever--they're certainly among the few saving graces of season 2. And IMO both Rusty and Moffat could take lessons from them in starting with an incredibly ambitious concept and then doing it full justice.

(Re: subject line: I love Rose and I love Ten's stupid face and I am not a huge fan of character- or ship-bashing and I do ship it, in a way, but that way is very very different from RTD's, and I have so many problems with how Ten/Rose played out in canon.)

Comments

[shalkalaka.livejournal.com]

Man, what a great, great pair of episodes. That last breath of terror-and-wonder is one of the few show moments that has really made me tear up, and the ancient, mysterious, deep-voiced evil/writing/possession is one of my few sure-fire roads to horror.

And oh, the soundtrack. The lonely, aching, otherworldly soundtrack. And the way the theme is reused in Waters of Mars. Murray Gold may get some hate, but I tend to really enjoy him and I love using recycled themes to interpret storylines.

[ariastar.livejournal.com]

I ... yes, ALL OF THIS. The thing that I have discovered about s2 is that, if it's just New Earth, Girl in the Fireplace, Impossible Planet/Satan Pit, Fear Her, and Army of Ghosts/Doomsday, it is a GREAT SEASON. It is a great season about them exploring new worlds and being giddily excited about new things and being a genuine TEAM and doing their best to work together and make the universe a better place and save people and Rose having the grace to understand Reinette and that the Doctor is worth the monsters.

I think what I'm trying to say is that if they don't just laugh in the face of danger and treat Mickey like shit and if there weren't just a couple of unfortunate dud episodes in there, I would adore s2 and also ship them ALL THE TIME LIKE BURNING instead of only during the episodes in which I don't have to watch through my fingers.

AND ALSO THE EPISODES OF WHICH YOU SPEAK ARE SO GREAT. They freaked me right the hell out the first time, too, because I have a thing about Space Being Scary, so they hold a special place in my heart.