Doctor Who 4×10: Midnight
I’ve been delaying writing a review of this, mainly because it’s my favorite episode of the season and I’m having a hard time un-jumbling all the thoughts that are running through my head.
It’s also really emotional. First because it’s kind of like watching an entire episode of a puppy getting kicked. Y’know, if the puppy was a supergenius Time Lord. That + the end of The War Games + the latest chapter of Praxis = me really really wanting to give the Doctor a big hug right now.
And second because it just gets me on a personal level, that whole “cast out the ‘freak’” group mentality. (Overly-personal TMI: I attended five different schools five years in a row when I was a kid, so I got used to being the “weird new kid” that everyone else would pick on to make themselves look cooler. I think one of my defining memories is of all the girls in my fourth grade class surrounding me on the playground and hitting and kicking me for being “strange.” I’m not trying to be whiny or asking for sympathy–I’m over it and I’m sure many people reading this have experienced the same or worse–I’m just saying why this episode particularly upset me. It’s a dark side of human nature that many of us have direct experience with in one way or another.)
And this is such an honest portrayal of it–maybe sped up a bit for time but basically a really harsh but true look at that kind of group mentality, the demonization of “the Other” out of fear and insecurity and cruelty. I honestly don’t get all the people who are saying “the alien was so scary,” “it was terrible how the alien manipulated them,” because in my opinion it was ALL THEM. The text leaves it ambiguous, but I really felt like the alien was just emulating the humans, and it picked up their fear and hate and copied it. The real monsters in this story were the people, and for those of you who don’t think humans would really do that, um, I envy your naivety. (Plus, certainly the story is also more interesting this way, if the humans only got back what they put in, a la the cave scene in The Empire Strikes Back.)
It was similar to a lot of stories that explore mob mentality and the darkness lurking inside the everyman. The first things that came to my mind were The Lottery, Lord of the Flies, and The Crucible. Stephen King also likes to explore similar issues (Carrie and Wizard and Glass, for example, and I’m sure there are better ones). Lots of people online also mentioned the AtS episode “Are You Now or Have You Ever Been” and the Twilight Zone episode “The Monsters are Due on Maple Street.” (Also I’ve had Marilyn Manson’s “Dogma” stuck in my head since I saw the episode. :P) It’s a rich theme, and I think this episode is right up there with the best of them. It’s superbly written and while it’s about human nature in general, it also doesn’t hesitate to draw very direct parallels to today’s world (airlines, terrorism, immigrants).
And to the people complaining that the humans’ actions don’t make sense, that all they had to do was stop talking, that rescuers were on the way–yeah, that’s the point. Humans are not logical creatures, especially when in a panic; every word was driving them into further hysteria.
It’s also interesting because it’s a subversion of everything we expect from RTD’s Doctor Who: the Doctor’s faith in humanity, his ability to charm and talk his way out of danger, and the humans who become better for having known the Doctor. Here the Doctor’s faith is misplaced, his charm fails utterly, his speech loses its power, and the experience brings out the darkest side of the humans. I love that RTD said in the Confidential that this is the anti-”Voyage of the Damned.” I love VotD–it’s a great disaster-movie pastiche–but this is its flipside, a look at atrocities that are likely to actually happen in such a situation.
And it’s a great character study of the Doctor. I’ve seen complaints that he was acting abnormally rude and arrogant in this one, but I don’t believe that at all. He was acting exactly as he always does, impatient and socially clueless, expecting his charm and the fact that he, y’know, helps, to keep the humans on his side. He did what we’ve seen a million times before, only this time the people around it saw him in the worst possible light, and he just dug himself in deeper when trying to correct their misinterpretations. (Which also goes to show you just how much he needs a companion–not just someone to look out for him but someone to correct his excesses and, almost literally, to translate his alien behavior into something that humans who don’t know him can understand.)
If anything, the Doctor was more concerned about reassuring the humans than usual–at first he obeys the driver and doesn’t tell anyone they’re stopped awaiting rescue, and he repeatedly says things like “Just a little pause, that’s all,” “I can guarantee you, everything is fine,” and “We are going to get out of here, I promise.” He even does his “trying to boost the underdog” thing when he has Dee Dee explain the air system to the group. And yes, he does bite off more than he can chew, just like in VotD–he truly wants to save everyone, believes he has the best shot at doing so, but the tragedy is that he isn’t a god and he can’t always help. Here it works against him, since they lose confidence in him once his reassurances turn out to be false. He’s trying his best to comfort them, but unlike in VotD, they don’t accept his authority, and his attempts at comfort only unsettle them more.
And why does he unsettle them so much? All of his strengths become weaknesses in this situation. He stands out as different–brainy, arrogant, booked at the last minute, and traveling *alone* OMG (it’s notable that the two scapegoats are the ones traveling alone–the episode is all about fear of the unknown and the group expelling the outsiders). Plus, his instinct to lead puts him in the spotlight–the Doctor certainly never learned to keep his head down! And his curiosity, his fascination–he can’t put the humans above all else, not when there’s an amazing new life form to discover. He just is not human, doesn’t see them as inherently more important than all other forms of life, and as with Queen Victoria, he brings out these peoples’ most intolerant sides. (I love him so much for his pacifism and his insistence on giving this new form of life a chance, btw. I think a tolerant and peaceful approach is always right, even though it doesn’t always work out.)
And how heartbreaking that it starts with an exploration of how much the Doctor needs people. He begs Donna to come along (how cute was that scene? I LOVE THEM) and tells her “it’s no fun if I see it on my own,” but then later tries to cover and claims to love traveling alone. Oh, Doctor, you suck at pretending you’re okay. He’s practically bouncing at the opportunity to bond with the passengers, and takes absolute glee at getting to know them and to hear all their banal human stories. He loves humanity, he’s adopted them as his people now that the Time Lords are gone, and that’s what makes it hurt so much when they reject him. The species he’s saved and bonded with and cheered on throughout time is about to cast him out for being too strange and different, for not being able to fit in.
And the scariest thing in the episode, the Doctor losing control, helpless and terrified and so alone. It was like “42″ if that had been, y’know, written well. David Tennant absolutely KILLED ME in that scene. The big eyes, the unshed tears, the terror in his voice, the fact that he was fighting the possession and losing, and somehow it was all so much worse because he had to repeat the horrible words that thing was saying. I hope Tennant wins awards or something for that scene, because it was one of the most riveting things I’ve ever watched. (This is the first episode of Doctor Who where I was shocked when it ended because I was so absorbed that I completely lost track of time.)
And I love that he wasn’t okay at the end, that he was clearly still traumatized. Unlike the manufactured situations that have led to his recent traumas (magical sparkly daughter, magical sparkly maybe-wife), this felt earned by the story. His belief in humanity is core to the Doctor’s character, something we’ve seen throughout his run; even though he knows about their dark side, of course he would still be shattered by what he experienced in this episode. And THANK GOD DONNA WAS THERE TO HUG HIM. Even though she was barely in this episode, her scenes were golden. They encompassed the best aspects of the Doctor/Donna relationship: their funny banter and their unspoken understanding and ability to comfort each other. Donna, I love you so much. Please don’t ever leave. (*cries*)
The other characters are also all wonderfully drawn. (I’ve seen people squeeing over some of them, and uh, what? Everyone but the hostess comes out of this looking like a pathetic excuse for a human being. Even if we do all have such flaws, I wouldn’t want to be in a room with any of them after this episode. *shudders*)
So let’s look at the people. We have:
Sky – Well, we don’t really see much of her flaws, since she’s possessed so quickly. But even in her brief screentime, we get a wonderful sense of a three-dimensional character. She’s in a bad mood, not atypical for a traveler, she’s depressed over her lost relationship (RTD, I love your casual inclusion of queer people, please never stop), she starts out looking wary of the Doctor but shares a lovely little smirk with him when she realizes he’s shut down the in-flight entertainment, she opens up to him about her relationship, and–for some reason we never find out–she’s the most terrified in the group. (And I love the ambiguity in this episode–so much extraneous plot stuff is left out because we don’t need to know it, because it’s not relevant to the story we’re being told, like why Sky’s scared or what the alien is/wants. This is really an amazing script that sticks to its core themes and doesn’t meander.)
Joe and Claude – We don’t get much exploration of them since they get killed so quickly, but even in their few moments we get a sense of their personalities, easy-going Joe and observant Claude, and it actually hurts when they die. (Uh, Moffat? You could really learn from this. *eyes random crew members that he failed to develop at all in two whole episodes*)
Val, the mother – At first she just seems like your typical average middle-aged woman. (And she is, OMG, that’s why she’s so creepy.) Snapping at her teenage son, laughing at her husband’s insipid jokes, getting excited about the complementary slippers, contemplating whether to consume a juice pack. Average and banal, loves her family, and HOLY CRAP DID SHE JUST ADVOCATE MURDER?
I actually think she’s the worst of them, bloodthirsty and superior and utterly lacking in self-awareness. At the end, she’s already retconned what happened and cast herself as righteous. When she says “I said it was her,” I think she half-believes it herself. (And maybe my one complaint about the episode is that she’s yet another horrible mother written by RTD. I know some mothers are like this, but, dude, not all. But this script is so perfect that I’ll forgive it here.) She actually reminds me of those women you see campaigning against heavy metal or comics or video games–so sure of their own righteousness, so unaccepting of anything that doesn’t fit into their tiny little boundaries of what the world should be.
Biff, the father – He’s loving and protective toward his family. He’s a bit cheesy and unimaginative (he and Val complain loudest when the entertainment dies), but sociable and funny and, oh hey, the second member of the group to cheer on the idea of murder. And it’s all tied into masculinity with him, too–he doesn’t even consider the Doctor’s argument about why they shouldn’t commit murder, just hears it as a challenge to his manliness when the Doctor tells him he wouldn’t be able to do it. He even yells at the professor for not being a real man when the professor hesitates to help him drag the Doctor to his death. It’s all about being the manly patriarch and protecting his family, not about finding the truth and doing the right thing.
Jethro, the son – Jethro doesn’t seem so bad at first. A bit misanthropic, but nothing out of the ordinary for a teenager in the rebel phase. (Good to know they’ve got goth/emo kids throughout time and space!) He’s observant and smart but ultimately we find out that his rebellion is just a facade. He knows that what’s happening is wrong, and yet he agrees with his parents when they insist that they saw the alien transfer from Sky to the Doctor, and he even helps his father drag the Doctor to die. The rebel is a follower after all, and I almost think it’s worse because he clearly knows it’s wrong and does it anyway.
Professor Hobbes (haha, Hobbes–I love you, RTD) – At first he seems like a harmless, eccentric old professor. Reminiscent of Mr. Copper–he likes to espouse his knowledge, but doesn’t quite know what he’s talking about a lot of the time. A bit pompous, yeah, but kind of funny–and then we see his dark side. The more his knowledge is threatened, the more insecure he gets, and the more he insults Dee Dee in order to make himself look bigger. He’s a bully, like the others, and particularly egregious because his main target is the woman he’s supposed to be mentoring, whom he knows is smarter than he is. He’s weak-minded and so eager for an ego boost that he even drops his suspicion of possessed!Sky as soon as she appeals to his vanity by asking for his help specifically. (That alien learned a lot about human psychology by whatever assimilation thing it was doing.)
Dee Dee – She and the hostess are the most sympathetic of the main characters. She’s smart, she thinks on her feet, she’s sweet and unassuming. Her biggest flaw is lack of confidence–she keeps her mouth shut and lets the professor talk down to her and treat her poorly. At first her only victim is herself, but in the end she’s a coward. She just wants to go home, just wants to be safe, and turns her head away when she knows the Doctor is about to be murdered. (If she’d helped the hostess, maybe they could have ejected Sky without anyone else having to die, but instead she closed her eyes.)
The hostess – Definitely the hero of the episode! The one example of human goodness, the woman who sacrifices herself to save the others. But she’s certainly not perfect either; in fact, she’s the first to suggest murdering Sky. At that point, Sky had done nothing more harmful than repeat words; they didn’t know for sure that 1) she was possessed, that 2) the thing possessing her was malignant, or 3) that the thing possessing her was responsible for shearing off the drivers’ cabin (or if it was intentional). The hostess was driven by professionalism–it’s her job to protect the shuttle, but it’s also her job to protect the passengers, of which Sky was one. And yes, of course she was hurting over losing Joe and Claude–she knew them best and seemed genuinely upset at their deaths–but that doesn’t mean that vengeance is the right choice. In retrospect, things might have ended better if they’d thrown out Sky at that point, but that still doesn’t mean it would have been justified with the knowledge they had then. And in retrospect, things might have ended better if they hadn’t been so bloodthirsty in the first place–if the alien was truly emulating them, maybe it was her suggestion of murder that drove it to its worst.
I love that these people are so average. The Doctor didn’t get trapped with a bunch of aberrant screw-ups; he got trapped with a bunch of everymen. At the beginning, we see all of their flaws as harmless, relatable, even cute. Dee Dee lacks confidence, Professor Hobbes covers his insecurity with pompousness, the hostess is coldly professional, Biff and Val are banal and unimaginative, and Jethro, for all his rebellion, seems to be a bit of a follower at his core. (“Emo”? Back in my day we’d have called him “Goth.” I feel old!) But all of these things seem cute when we first meet them. The way they descend into justifying murder is just absolutely chilling, the way the tone of the episode changes from light and funny to dark and cruel before you even realize what’s happening. (People complaining about the tone-shift? It’s a feature, not a bug.) RTD purposely gets you to like and relate to these characters before he shows you the evil of which they are capable. The point is that we all have these dark aspects to our natures.
***
Other random notes about this episode (yes, I took notes, shut up):
* The tone shift reminds me of “Bad Wolf.” It starts out as a light-hearted parody of modern culture, which makes it quite shocking when the story suddenly gets dark.
* The bonding scenes at the beginning are quite chilling to watch in retrospect!
* “Lost Moon of Poosh” – another lost planet-type thing.
* “The Medusa Cascade” – I don’t know what it is but just hearing the words are starting to freak me out.
* “Ladies and gentlemen and variations thereupon” – I LOVE YOU RTD. And that your future is tolerant of trans/intersexed/alien/whatever variations from the gender binary.
* ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
jaydk suggested that the Doctor might have actually attracted the alien to them when he talked the driver into opening the front window. Maybe the shuttle just malfunctioned and the alien would never have noticed them without the Doctor’s interference. Which would work with the idea that all of the Doctor’s strengths become weaknesses in this episode (in this case his curiosity), and with the general idea that he tends to make situations worse before he makes them better. Although I don’t really buy it–the driver and mechanic had no idea why they’d stopped when nothing was broken.
* Right before she’s possessed, Sky screams “You’re the hostess; you’re supposed to do something!” And in the end, she does. Again, commendations to RTD for this excellent script.
* Lesley Sharp, who plays Sky, is absolutely amazing. The transformations she goes through are mind-blowing, and her eerie reptilian movements scared the hell out of me. Talented human acting pwns big special effects every time.
* The whole idea of the repetition is really interesting and probably deserves an essay of its own. RTD says in the Confidential that the Doctor’s words lose their power because the repetition makes them seem tainted and false. The Doctor loses his greatest weapon here, his ability to talk himself out of anything. And speaking of the power of words–a recurring theme on Doctor Who–having your words “stolen” is such an eerie thought.
* The Doctor’s ability to recite the square root of pi to the thirtieth digit probably freaks out the humans nearly as much as Sky’s ability to repeat it. No wonder they turn on him. (Would they have turned on a different group member if he wasn’t there? Or would they have just killed Sky?)
* The Doctor tells the group to be quiet, over and over, which is what they should have done. He’s right, though of course they don’t listen. He’s not setting a great example either, though–his curiosity gets the better of him and he can’t help interrogating the alien, even when he knows they should stop provoking it.
* There’s a really slippery slope here. From “Could we kill one possessed person?” to “We’ll kill you if you get in our way” to Val shouting that Dee Dee will be next simply for arguing against the group. If the hostess hadn’t shocked them into guilt with her sacrifice, I could easily see them killing Sky, the Doctor, and maybe even Dee Dee just to cover up their own awful behavior and enforce their group norm.
* The use of light in this episode is awesome. I especially love Sky’s hideous shadow lurking behind her as she first turns around, and the halo of light surrounding her when she pretends to have been freed. There aren’t any explicit references to religion here, but they were definitely lurking in the symbolism. And by the end, they are practically shouting “Burn the witch!” what with all the chanting of “Cast him out!”
* Why does the alien go after the Doctor? Is it because he talks the most? Because he’s the smartest? Because he’s the most interested in it? Because he’s the easiest to cull from the herd? Because he’s the most scared (the same reason it went after Sky)? Because it’s picked up on the humans’ bloodthirstiness toward him and is simply emulating that? Another thing that I love for being ambiguous.
* I suppose one argument against the alien being benign and simply emulating the humans’ darkness is that it doesn’t pick up any of the Doctor’s compassion or empathy.
* Even Dee Dee quickly starts rationalizing Sky’s murder. For once I’d like to see a human being with firm pacifist ideals similar to those of the Doctor. They do exist!
* The Doctor gets impatient and comes across as more arrogant when he can’t get the humans to understand what he understands. Yet another reason he needs a companion to “translate” from Time Lord to human.
* I’ll bet he couldn’t use the psychic paper to “prove” himself because they’re so firmly expecting to see something bad that it would end up making things worse.
* Wonderful exploration of the psychology of the crowd, and of the way we see what we want to see, when Val insists that she saw the alien pass from Sky to the Doctor, and Biff and Jethro back her up. (Val, Biff, and the professor believe it because they want to believe it, and Jethro knows it’s wrong but follows the crowd anyway.)
* The Doctor tells the group “You decide who you are. Could you actually murder her or are you better than that?” I love that belief in free will, that the Doctor inspires people to choose their own better natures. Well, usually. Here they choose their worst natures, but I still appreciate the emphasis on free will.
* The professor tells Dee Dee that she is “making a fool of herself pretending to be an expert.” No, dude, that’s you. And the alien tells the group that it’s the Doctor creeping into their heads and making them fight–no, guys, once again that’s you. This episode is all about scapegoating, blaming an external entity so that we don’t have to face our own imperfections. This is why I really don’t like the interpretation that this alien was an incarnation of the Beast, or was inherently evil. That’s so typical, to blame the darkness on an outside force and remove culpability from the people who actually committed the atrocities. It was the humans who scapegoated the Doctor and were prepared to kill him simply for defending Sky, even before he became possessed himself.
***
And finally, after all that tl;dr meta, I will add that it would’ve been impossible to hate this episode no matter what, on account of the perfectly shallow fact that it gave me this moment:
Current Mood: 
exhausted
31 Responses to “Doctor Who 4×10: Midnight”
trepkos on June 18, 2008 2:59 am | Link
the driver and mechanic had no idea why they’d stopped when nothing was broken.
Perhaps it was because the Doctor switched off the entertainment system?!
I didn’t dislike the episode – I just thought it was like one of those horror films where I’m thinking “well I could have handled that better!”
I just didn’t understand why they mentioned the earplugs at the start of the episode if they weren’t going to use them to stop the alien hearing them.
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rusty-halo on June 18, 2008 11:15 am | Link
Man, that sucks for the Doctor, doesn’t it? You could totally interpret it that way:
* He fucks up the transport when he switches off the entertainment.
* He attracts the monster when he opens the window.
* He feeds the monster when he won’t stop talking to it.
I don’t really think it’s his fault, but it does fit the interpretation that everyone’s defining traits become weaknesses in this situation.
I don’t see how earplugs could have helped. What, they would’ve shoved earplugs into Sky’s ears? Eh. Earplugs don’t work that well. And kind of the point was that they weren’t thinking logically, that there were plenty of things they could have easily done (like sit down, shut up, and wait) that they didn’t do because of their irrational hysteria.
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JayDK on June 18, 2008 3:17 am | Link
Wow. That was pretty much the best analysis ever! You hit so many good points. To just briefly comment:
- I think the ambiguity of the script, from the identity of the creature to what it wants to why it picks the Doctor, is entirely deliberate and brilliant. That’s part of the threat — no one can figure out what this thing is, including the Doctor! We’re in the same boat (or shuttle, in this case) as the passengers and crew. I’ve seen comments which seem to consider this a fault of the script, but it’s IMO just excellent storytelling that expects the audience to have enough imagination to pick up on the unknown. Sometimes the answer isn’t handed to you neatly wrapped, and that’s kind of scary.
- In addition to the Doctor being hobbled by the creature repeating his words and a lack of Donna, I think a large part of why the Doctor is not effective in taking command of the group the way he always does is that he’s usually able to prove himself to new people through his actions. He saves lives, he gets through doors, he does something. Here he knew what to do, but the actions were passive: don’t talk, and wait for rescue. Exactly the right actions, but not actions that allow the Doctor to prove himself immediately. People in a crisis want to SEE something happen to address the situation — usually the Doctor provides more than enough of that, but this time he couldn’t.
- I really liked that the characters we were set-up to sympathize with — Dee Dee and Jethro — proved to be as flawed and weak as the less sympathetic professor, Val and Biff, and that it was the hostess, who first suggested murder, who saved the Doctor in the end. I really liked the upending of the viewer’s expectations that the ones we liked would come through in the end. That was the whole point, I thought — every character had good and bad qualities and none of them were easily defined and categorized the way we expected them to be. And that even in that awful, real stew of the worst coming out, the best did come out too in the hostess — the Doctor’s faith in humans was proven right, just barely.
- As I mentioned previously, I really think it’s a good thing they seemed to sit in silence for 20 minutes after the shock of the hostess’s self-sacrifice, and that it was only 20 minutes. I think one of the strongest instincts in human nature is to cover up our mistakes, and I almost think the Doctor got lucky that no one tried to get rid of him in those 20 minutes to hide their behavior previously. That must have been a loooooong 20 minutes.
- The fact that the story is told in “real time” from when the shuttle stops to the Doctor laying on the floor gasping (nice pic!) is soooo cool, and really contributes a lot to the suspense of this episode and the way the horror steadily builds.
- I’m so going to miss RTD’s ability to create characters who feel real in just a few moments of screen-time. As you noted, such a contrast to the bland expedition ensemble of the last couple weeks.
Hmm, not so brief at all! But this post got me thinking — a great read on my new favorite episode of the series.
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rusty-halo on June 18, 2008 11:50 am | Link
Thank you! It took me forever to write this, but I couldn’t focus on anything else until I got it out of my system.
I think the ambiguity of the script, from the identity of the creature to what it wants to why it picks the Doctor, is entirely deliberate and brilliant.
Totally. And of course it’s lame overly-literal Doctor Who fandom that doesn’t appreciate this for the awesome that it is. :P
He saves lives, he gets through doors, he does something. Here he knew what to do, but the actions were passive: don’t talk, and wait for rescue.
Oooh, interesting point about active vs. passive, and the human need to see something being done rather than rationally accepting that waiting is the best choice.
really liked that the characters we were set-up to sympathize with [...] proved to be as flawed and weak as the less sympathetic
Yes! This episode doesn’t let anyone off the hook. No matter who you identified with at the beginning, they did something dark by the end.
every character had good and bad qualities and none of them were easily defined and categorized the way we expected them to be.
Yup. And people are complaining that they’re a bunch of by-the-book cliches, but, no. Because they all have genuinely good and bad qualities, and they don’t do what the cliches would have done (especially Dee Dee, Jethro, and the hostess).
I almost think the Doctor got lucky that no one tried to get rid of him in those 20 minutes to hide their behavior previously.
Yeah, I do think something bad would’ve happened if the hostess hadn’t shocked them with her sacrifice.
This episode got me really sad that RTD is leaving.
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anduril on June 19, 2008 3:49 pm | Link
Just to add
As I mentioned previously, I really think it’s a good thing they seemed to sit in silence for 20 minutes after the shock of the hostess’s self-sacrifice, and that it was only 20 minutes. I think one of the strongest instincts in human nature is to cover up our mistakes, and I almost think the Doctor got lucky that no one tried to get rid of him in those 20 minutes to hide their behavior previously. That must have been a loooooong 20 minutes.
If you notice, no one was looking at the Doctor, everyone is trying to avoid eye contact with him.
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rusty-halo on June 19, 2008 3:59 pm | Link
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Paratti on June 18, 2008 5:32 am | Link
I don’t know if you’ve seen them, but Lesley Sharpe was also great in RTD’s ‘The Second Coming’ and ‘Bob and Rose’.
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rusty-halo on June 18, 2008 11:12 am | Link
Cool, I might check those out during the upcoming long, Doctor Who-less rest of the year.
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10zlaine on June 18, 2008 8:22 am | Link
When you posted about all the wankiness of fans who were bringing up gender/racist issues, I was shocked. I mean, what you have written is EXACTLY what the episode was about. It doesn’t care what color or even gender you are – people are people and this is how a great many of them behave.
What I love about Who, for the most part, is that when I watch it I actually get an hour to go color and gender blind and just watch the show. When you mentioned the 3 black actors, I was actually thinking, wait, wasn’t the assistant Indian or something, lol…had to go back and look. I was too busy watching the wonder of it, not nitpicking gender/race issues to serve my own fucked up perception of willfully intended slights on the part of the writer.
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rusty-halo on June 18, 2008 11:10 am | Link
Thank you.
And, yeah, it is really frustrating that so many people can’t see anything outside of their anti-RTD agenda. It doesn’t mean that there aren’t some serious issues related to race and sexuality that deserve discussion, but it’s just gross when people distort these issues in order to push their fan agendas and shut up anyone who disagrees with them.
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versaphile on June 18, 2008 1:30 pm | Link
God, yeah. Just stay away from the review list. Fortunately I’ve managed to get a flist full of people who squee the majority of the time, and I stick to that.
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rusty-halo on June 18, 2008 1:45 pm | Link
I’m trying to get used to the idea that you have to really create your own experience in this fandom. (*tunes out 95% of it*) I’m glad I’ve finally found some cool people to talk to!
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versaphile on June 18, 2008 1:54 pm | Link
Yeah, you just have to find the people who are watching the same show as you. :-)
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The Plucky Young Girl on June 18, 2008 10:42 am | Link
This episode was very emotional for me, as well, for reasons rather similar to your own. Maybe it is necessary to have been in a situation like that to understand what this episode was about; I don’t know. I didn’t think anybody hadn’t been; but I suppose I forgot that a lot of people would have been on the other side of it, rationalising it away in later years the way Val did.
Also, I think I’m kind of glad that I’m not alone in writing up episode meta of epic proportions – I poured mine out right after I first watched it, and it still came to ~1600 words; had I waited longer, it would have looked even more like yours. :-)
(This is also why I don’t think I’ll write about The Episodes That Shall Not Be Named. It would turn into a 1000 page novel.)
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rusty-halo on June 18, 2008 10:53 am | Link
I think most people have been in situations like that from one side or the other, but, yeah, a lot of people would rather rationalize it away and pretend it didn’t happen.
I feel like I saw both sides of it. There was another girl in fourth grade who was also really unpopular, and I remember one day the group was picking on her instead of me. I joined in with them, because it meant that for once I wasn’t a target, that I could belong if I tore her down to push myself up. (I later apologized to her and felt guilty about it for years afterward. But it was scary to realize that I have that dark side in me too, especially because I knew how much it hurts to be bullied.)
I loved your meta about this episode, btw! You wrote one the most insightful responses. (And, yeah, who wants to spend all that time thinking about the Episodes That Shall Not Be Named? Let’s just pretend they didn’t happen. I’m sure the show will, too. :P)
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The Plucky Young Girl on June 18, 2008 1:36 pm | Link
And then the rationalising it away probably only happens when you actually realise, at least on some subconscious level, that what you did was wrong. I’m sure that there are still far too many people who wouldn’t have had a problem with what was happening at all – had somebody other than the Doctor been ganged up on, somebody less sympathetic, somebody you didn’t know. The fact that murdering the alien, whatever it was, was the only way to save everyone in the end does in no way make the choice of wanting to murder it out of fear of the unknown right. Not ever.
I understand about realising about your own dark sides and faults – I can’t recall a specific situation right now, but I’m certain that I’ve not said anything when I should have stood up in the past, or tolerated whatever kind of bullying was going on out of fear. It’s scary when you realise it, because it’s not the person I usually see myself as, and definitely not the person I want to be.
Thank you so much! *blushes* I’m really glad you liked it – it was just pouring out from me, and I really felt like I needed to get it off my chest. I entirely forgot to say before – your own post is brilliant, of course. I always love reading your reviews; you are so wonderfully articulate.
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rusty-halo on June 18, 2008 1:52 pm | Link
Thank you. :)
And then the rationalising it away probably only happens when you actually realise, at least on some subconscious level, that what you did was wrong.
Yeah, that’s interesting. I think at the end they all realized that what they did was wrong, at least subconsciously–IMO the hostess’ sacrifice shocked them into a sense of guilt. But Val is already shaping her own reality and convincing herself that she was right all along–Stephen Colbert would be proud. I don’t think she’ll have learned anything from the experience. I don’t know about the others–I could see Jethro growing from it, for example, and realizing that this isn’t the person he wants to be.
I’m sure that there are still far too many people who wouldn’t have had a problem with what was happening at all – had somebody other than the Doctor been ganged up on
OMG, I know. I really freaked myself out when I was thinking about that the other day. If the audience hadn’t been on the Doctor’s side, or if the group had ganged up on someone we didn’t know, I think a lot of viewers would be genuinely arguing that the group was right. The idea that there’s a potential threat and we have to take preemptive action. :P I think the majority of viewers now agree that it’s wrong because they know that the Doctor is innocent, and a hero, but if it had been someone the audience didn’t know? Someone “strange” and perhaps a bit questionable? *shudders*
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The Plucky Young Girl on June 20, 2008 8:44 am | Link
But Val is already shaping her own reality and convincing herself that she was right all along–Stephen Colbert would be proud. I don’t think she’ll have learned anything from the experience.
Absolutely. It’s like RTD said – she’s the real monster. I would hope that at least Jethro and Dee Dee will learn from the experience and grow up to stand their ground and be better persons.
I think the majority of viewers now agree that it’s wrong because they know that the Doctor is innocent, and a hero, but if it had been someone the audience didn’t know? Someone “strange” and perhaps a bit questionable? *shudders*
I don’t even want to think about that, because I’m just too sure that 80% of the audience would have jumped on them. Which is exactly why the episode horrified me so much – because that’s (most) humans, because that’s what actually happens in situations like that.
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rusty-halo on June 20, 2008 3:19 pm | Link
I have this image of Dee Dee never quite getting over it, ending up more withdrawn, failing to go anywhere in her career, probably killing herself in her middle age. (I’m such a pessimist, I know. I think it’s because she revealed herself to be such a coward in the end.)
Jethro I see ending up wiser, because his core trait was rebelling but really wanting to be accepted by his family. Now that he’s seen his parents at their worst, and he’s young enough to change, he might stop defining himself in relation to them and realize that he really does need to be himself.
Of course, it really could go either way with either of them.
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The Plucky Young Girl on June 22, 2008 5:05 pm | Link
Actually, I see Dee Dee as really questioning herself and her cowardice after the experience, and becoming a better and stronger person because of it. A person who can stand up to Professor Hobbes, and anyone else who wants to put her down, and a person who will discover the lost moon of Poosh. I do think it would be a defining experience for her, and that she wouldn’t just brush it off. At least that’s what I would hope, and I’m usually much more cynical than that. ;-)
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rusty-halo on June 23, 2008 12:06 pm | Link
I think this episode definitely brought out my cynical side!
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chloris on June 18, 2008 4:20 pm | Link
Great meta!
When going through the review list, I tend to click only on the ones that say they loved it, even if it wasn’t an episode that was favorite. I find that reading a few happy reviews increases my happiness with the show.
Would they have turned on a different group member if he wasn’t there? Or would they have just killed Sky?)
None of the others were willing to stand out or go against the group, so it would have probably been just Sky. Once she was no longer repeating everything, everyone would have become more rational and sat around convincing themselves they had no choice and that everyone was equally guilty. Though if an argument had started about who’s to blame after they killed Sky, I could see others dying.
I think that I prefer the interpretation that no one did anything to attract the alien. That way everyone starts off innocent, as it were. That there’s no blame to be assigned for starting the crisis makes it even more chilling to me.
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rusty-halo on June 18, 2008 4:42 pm | Link
Thanks!
I find that reading a few happy reviews increases my happiness with the show.
I try! But even half of the happy ones are like “Wow, I’m in awe that that $#^% Rusty wrote something good for once! Unlike all his other stuff which sucks!” I think I’m sticking to my friendslist for now.
None of the others were willing to stand out or go against the group, so it would have probably been just Sky.
It’s weird, I wonder if they’d have gotten to the point of definitely killing her if the Doctor hadn’t been there. I think it’s quite likely, but it’s also possible that their opinions were cemented by banding together to argue against the Doctor. Maybe if he hadn’t been defending Sky so vehemently, they wouldn’t have gotten to the “let’s definitely murder her” stage on their own, or maybe another group member would’ve spoken against the murder.
I definitely prefer the interpretation that the situation was just one of those quirks of fate for which no one is to blame. And I really like the idea that the alien wasn’t actively malicious–it was just a new form of life trying to figure out the humans, and it picked up on their darkest instincts because of how they chose to act.
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Cyndimcw on June 18, 2008 9:56 pm | Link
That was a fantastic review! I really enjoyed reading this. You hit on everything I loved about this episode. I just watched it again last night and ended up regretting it because I kept tossing and turning all night. It’s just so unnerving!
I really liked how there were so many questions left unanswered at the end also. It wasn’t a flaw! As someone said, it’s part of the package. Oddly, one of the questions I keep coming back to is a throw away line from Skye. After they stopped, she became agitated and said that she was “on a schedule”. This made no sense to me. Wasn’t this an all-day pleasure trip? What other thing could she possibly be in a rush to get back to? Frankly, it made me question Skye’s mental state, especially considering her later hysteria. She was certainly wound a little too tight but why would she say that she was “on a schedule”?
As much as I like the idea of the Doctor’s curiosity coming back to bite him, I don’t think he drew the attention of the alien by opening the window cover. They were on a new road, a detour of the previous route. I assumed this was why they had the run-in when they did.
I don’t have much else to add. You’ve said it all succinctly. RTD gets a lot of grief from the fandom, especially in comparisons to Moffat but it’s really not deserved. This was easily the best of the season IMO.
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rusty-halo on June 18, 2008 11:36 pm | Link
Thank you! I’m glad you enjoyed reading this. :)
Hmmm, that’s an interesting question about Sky. I love that it was ambiguous! We never really know why she was there, why she was so stressed out, or why she thought the alien was after her specifically. The “schedule” statement could have been an exaggeration to emphasize her frustration at the delay, or it could just mean that she had dinner plans that night, or maybe she was there on business and had scrunched in a daytrip but had to get back for something important in the evening. Or maybe RTD just had her say it because it’s what stressed out business travelers tend to say. :P Who knows.
Yeah, we also don’t know what attracted the alien to them, or when it noticed them. Maybe the shuttle really did just happen to malfunction, or maybe the alien stopped it. Claude sees the alien coming from a distance, which could mean that it hadn’t noticed them until then, or that there’s more than one, or that it stopped them from a distance, or even that Claude’s imagination had run away with him and he wasn’t seeing the alien at all.
I agree, this was totally the best of the season. (I’d rate “The Fires of Pompeii” second.) Fandom’s going to get quite a shock when they discover that Moffat isn’t the all-knowing savior they’ve imagined!
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Cyndimcw on June 19, 2008 8:46 am | Link
I agree, this was totally the best of the season. (I’d rate “The Fires of Pompeii” second.)
Agreed! I love good characterizations and the creepiness of the prophecies were a bonus.
Fandom’s going to get quite a shock when they discover that Moffat isn’t the all-knowing savior they’ve imagined!
I suspect they’ll turn on him next. First will come the endless nitpicking, then the cries of racism*. Dissenters will be shouted down. It will end in the fandom throwing him off the train to his death.
*Yeah, I know. It’s already happening.
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malicehaughton on June 18, 2008 11:36 pm | Link
Extremely long reply because it deserves one sooo much. I love you for this review just so you know. Sorry for this, really, it is very long as I said. But I feel its the only way my response to the episode will ever be shown. I have never written nor have I tried, to write a review myself. I wouldn’t know where to begin. SO I kind of used yours and ran with it. Yep, sorry again. If you don’t want to you don’t have to read it.
It just gets me on a personal level, that whole “cast out the ‘freak’” group mentality….It’s a dark side of human nature that many of us have direct experience with in one way or another.
Yes. I remember being ganged up on once. Just happened the once though. They failed to realise some of my hobbies (I was taking self defence, karate lessons at the time) and they ended up running off scared of me. Which just proves to show that if you look like an easy target, doesn’t always mean you are. No one bothered me again after that.
I honestly don’t get all the people who are saying “the alien was so scary,” “it was terrible how the alien manipulated them,” because in my opinion it was ALL THEM. The text leaves it ambiguous, but I really felt like the alien was just emulating the humans, and it picked up their fear and hate and copied it.
Yes again! This episode really had nothing whatsoever to do with the alien of the week. It was about how utterly unfair and cruel humans can be when put in a room with something they’re not used to and panicking.
…it also doesn’t hesitate to draw very direct parallels to today’s world (airlines, terrorism, immigrants).
I thought it odd that Val used the word immigrant in the script, because they were all on holiday to a world that wasn’t their own. In that place they ALL were. But at the same time, yes, it does parallel today’s world, definitely including that aspect of it.
And to the people complaining that the humans’ actions don’t make sense, that all they had to do was stop talking, that rescuers were on the way–yeah, that’s the point. Humans are not logical creatures, especially when in a panic; every word was driving them into further hysteria.
I have a pet theory that will get me flamed probably. About why some people disliked this episode so much. It’s just a theory…and I’m not trying to be mean about it either. Just an observation from reading a tonne of reviews. And I had written it out, bu tdeleted it, because I’d have the mob (of fans) after me…
Here the Doctor’s faith is misplaced, his charm fails utterly, his speech loses its power, and the experience brings out the darkest side of the humans.
I loved how this episode took all the points which are usualy seen as strengths in the Doctor and turns them around into weaknesses.
I’ve seen complaints that he was acting abnormally rude and arrogant in this one, but I don’t believe that at all. He was acting exactly as he always does, impatient and socially clueless, expecting his charm and the fact that he, y’know, helps, to keep the humans on his side.
How did he act differently to normal? He acted like you say, just like the tenth Doctor acts. Excited and fascinated about new things/species, talkative, not shying away from telling people that he is smart…everything he has done in this episode in that shuttle we have seen him do at least once some other time this series alone. Sontaran Stratagem/Poison Sky come into my mind as an example. Hmm, speaking of…poison sky :P
Which also goes to show you just how much he needs a companion–not just someone to look out for him but someone to correct his excesses and, almost literally, to translate his alien behavior into something that humans who don’t know him can understand.
Heheheh sometimes I think I understand his alien behaviour more than the humans around him. I’m socially awkward too Doctor, don’t worry. I’d probably be you on that shuttle *hugs him*
Here it works against him, since they lose confidence in him once his reassurances turn out to be false. He’s trying his best to comfort them, but unlike in VotD, they don’t accept his authority, and his attempts at comfort only unsettle them more.
And once again I’ll say how much I loved how everything that normally works for him fails so spectacularly in this episode.
it’s notable that the two scapegoats are the ones traveling alone–the episode is all about fear of the unknown and the group expelling the outsiders
Yes, I noticed that too. Which is probably why the mob probably felt that before he had his voice stolen, he was working with Sky. And I also find it oddly amusing that the one person to deny that he was working with her to start off with was Val, with her comment that at one point or another, they had all talked to Sky individually and it wasn’t just him. Yet later when he started repeating, it was Val who was the first to jump on the “I told you he was with her” train, when everyone else was in the “what is happening” thought process.
I love him so much for his pacifism and his insistence on giving this new form of life a chance, btw. I think a tolerant and peaceful approach is always right, even though it doesn’t always work out.
Ditto. It’s one of those things that makes me love the Doctor. His willingness to believe nothing is really bad until it has porven to be so, and if possible he always tries a peaceful approach instead of a “It’s different and new and scary, lets kill it” approach. Sometimes you have to take chances like that.
He’s practically bouncing at the opportunity to bond with the passengers, and takes absolute glee at getting to know them and to hear all their banal human stories. He loves humanity, he’s adopted them as his people now that the Time Lords are gone, and that’s what makes it hurt so much when they reject him. The species he’s saved and bonded with and cheered on throughout time is about to cast him out for being too strange and different, for not being able to fit in.
Another thing which I love about this episode. Because he has adopted the human race as his own. He loves them, and thinks that because he looks like them he can blend in, but it turns out that in this scenario, even though he may look like them, he is too different in mentality to make it truly work. Poor dear just had his view completely changed on him. Much like the Prfessor’s ideas on the universe.
And the scariest thing in the episode, the Doctor losing control, helpless and terrified and so alone. David Tennant absolutely KILLED ME in that scene. The big eyes, the unshed tears, the terror in his voice, the fact that he was fighting the possession and losing, and somehow it was all so much worse because he had to repeat the horrible words that thing was saying.
That he was made to repeat every word was devastating really. He did everything he could to stop it, but was powerless to do so. And the acting was absolutely brilliant in those scenes. And you can tell just by the tone of his voice that by the time the Doctor is near the door (at that whole “Faster!” scene) he had given up hope.
And I love that he wasn’t okay at the end, that he was clearly still traumatized. His belief in humanity is core to the Doctor’s character, something we’ve seen throughout his run; even though he knows about their dark side, of course he would still be shattered by what he experienced in this episode.
That he truly was so shaken by what happened that he is still traumatised by it at the end and can’t hide it, is one of the things above all else I love about this episode. Because it is the only time since Ten started his run, that he was really…true to himself. His emotions. And at the end he talked about it to Donna.
Sky – Well, we don’t really see much of her flaws, since she’s possessed so quickly. But even in her brief screentime, we get a wonderful sense of a three-dimensional character. She’s in a bad mood, not atypical for a traveler, she’s depressed over her lost relationship (RTD, I love your casual inclusion of queer people, please never stop), she starts out looking wary of the Doctor but shares a lovely little smirk with him when she realizes he’s shut down the in-flight entertainment, she opens up to him about her relationship, and–for some reason we never find out–she’s the most terrified in the group.
I had no idea where to cut this off because ti is all so true. And everyone has their own different theories about what happens this episode. When it comes to Sky, judging on what she said, her breakup with her (I presume, since the word Mrs is used) wife while it hurt her like hell, was a good thing. Sounds like her partner was abusive towards her. Maybe in the end she stuck up for herself and that’s why her partner left. And to another galaxy…yeah, what other reason is there, unless it is to find someone else to be bad to? Where no one will know her for sure. Maybe police were called in at one stage?
Sky did say at one stage say that “she sent it after her” or something along those lines, before she started screaming that it was coming for her. Notice that that line was repeated quite a few times?
Joe and Claude – We don’t get much exploration of them since they get killed so quickly, but even in their few moments we get a sense of their personalities, easy-going Joe and observant Claude, and it actually hurts when they die.
I loved Joe. Really. I wished he had lived a bit longer because his character was one you just like. And Claude was observant, since neither of the other two saw the shifting that he was talking about. But out of the two, it was Joe I liked.
Val, the mother – At first she just seems like your typical average middle-aged woman. (And she is, OMG, that’s why she’s so creepy.) Snapping at her teenage son, laughing at her husband’s insipid jokes, getting excited about the complementary slippers, contemplating whether to consume a juice pack. Average and banal, loves her family, and HOLY CRAP DID SHE JUST ADVOCATE MURDER?
I actually think she’s the worst of them, bloodthirsty and superior and utterly lacking in self-awareness.
I agree with her being the worst of the lot. Se was the one that changed everyones mind when things seemed to start going right. Turning them back to horribly wrong. But apart from that, she was a frighteningly average everyday mother who had the same problems with family as everyone else does. Especially with her son. And in the end, she decided that she would deal with it by turning everything she said around and saying she had nothing whatsoever to do with it. “I said it was her.” You know Val, just because he couldn’t talk, doesn’t mean he wasn’t conscious.
Biff, the father – He’s loving and protective toward his family. He’s a bit cheesy and unimaginative (he and Val complain loudest when the entertainment dies), but sociable and funny and, oh hey, the second member of the group to cheer on the idea of murder. It’s all about being the manly patriarch and protecting his family, not about finding the truth and doing the right thing.
I think at the end it was more than about protecting his family, which seemed to have sretched to include nearly everyone else on the shuttle. He wanted to see everyone safe, and if the only way to do that was to get rid of anyone who disagrees with him (or his wife) then they had to go. And by the end, I think he was more shaken up and hurt by what had almost happened than even Jethro, who was practically crying.
Jethro, the son – Jethro doesn’t seem so bad at first. A bit misanthropic, but nothing out of the ordinary for a teenager in the rebel phase. He knows that what’s happening is wrong, and yet he agrees with his parents when they insist that they saw the alien transfer from Sky to the Doctor, and he even helps his father drag the Doctor to die. The rebel is a follower after all, and I almost think it’s worse because he clearly knows it’s wrong and does it anyway.
With him I think it was more about earning the approval of his family, who (he is in his rebel teen phase after all) he feels are against him. His points, which were all very good and should have been listened to, were always undermined, because he was only a boy, because he lets his imagination run wild…his father or mother always let him down whenever he opened his mouth to say something.
Yet still, he gave in to it, and followed along, as you said, even when he knew it was wrong. He’s the one that most likely cried those twenty minutes while waiting to be rescued.
Professor Hobbes – At first he seems like a harmless, eccentric old professor. Reminiscent of Mr. Copper–he likes to espouse his knowledge, but doesn’t quite know what he’s talking about a lot of the time. The more his knowledge is threatened, the more insecure he gets, and the more he insults Dee Dee in order to make himself look bigger. He’s weak-minded and so eager for an ego boost that he even drops his suspicion of possessed!Sky as soon as she appeals to his vanity by asking for his help specifically.
The Professor was the one character that bugged me from the start. I didn’t liek his attitude towards Dee Dee, which he had just because she was smarter than he was.
That his view of the universe is so shallowly small, went against him as well. After all, if nothing made of flesh and blood can stay outside at all on that planet, doesn’t mean nothing can live there, just no things with form. I think Jethro was the first to point that out. Something about how a planet with no history can’t not have a history or soemthing. Which is true.
Dee Dee – She and the hostess are the most sympathetic of the main characters. She’s smart, she thinks on her feet, she’s sweet and unassuming. Her biggest flaw is lack of confidence–she keeps her mouth shut and lets the professor talk down to her and treat her poorly. If she’d helped the hostess, maybe they could have ejected Sky without anyone else having to die, but instead she closed her eyes.
I liked Dee Dee at the start. She was everything you said she was. And she was probably the one who would go places when she was older. And yeah, maybe one day she would find the lost moon of Poosh. But her cowardice at the end…well, it wasn’t so much that it made me not like her, but it made it so she was much less sympathetic. All she did was try to talk to the other people about what she saw, and the Hostess was pretty much covinced, but needed solid proof of it (which she got), and that was something the Doctor had already tried, and failed at. She should have been more active but got scared when the others said that they’d throw her outside too.
The hostess – Definitely the hero of the episode! The one example of human goodness, the woman who sacrifices herself to save the others. But she’s certainly not perfect either. The hostess was driven by professionalism–it’s her job to protect the shuttle, but it’s also her job to protect the passengers, of which Sky was one. And yes, of course she was hurting over losing Joe and Claude–she knew them best and seemed genuinely upset at their deaths–but that doesn’t mean that vengeance is the right choice.
I liked how at the end, she became exactly what she was. The person who was on the shuttle doing her job of making sure that everything went alright. It took her life, but she knew it was the right thing to do. Especially since the vibe I got from her at the start is that she really didn’t like her job. She seemed bored stiff of it.
* The bonding scenes at the beginning are quite chilling to watch in retrospect!
Agreed here. I just rewatched the episode again, and the first thing I thought of is ‘Wow, they could have become great firends, the lot of them together, because of the bonding they did, and look how it turned out.’ With the whole lot of them unable to look at each other. They start off close to each other in the middle, by the end, not one person is even sitting in the same row as another…and the Doctor is sitting on the floor…
* “Ladies and gentlemen and variations thereupon” – I LOVE YOU RTD. And that your future is tolerant of trans/intersexed/alien/whatever variations from the gender binary.
This reminds me of a survey I had to make once for Calculus. And the teacher said to us put other as a sex. Pretty good idea, since two of the people I had fill it out were transexuals. So yay to that. It always made me smile when the Hostess said that. Now I look at forms, see Male/Female and always think where’s the Other option for those people?
* jaydk suggested that the Doctor might have actually attracted the alien to them when he talked the driver into opening the front window.
Personally, I think the alien had already spotted them, and it wouldn’t have mattered if they had opened the window or not, it still would have went to them.
* Lesley Sharp, who plays Sky, is absolutely amazing. The transformations she goes through are mind-blowing, and her eerie reptilian movements scared the hell out of me. Talented human acting pwns big special effects every time.
Agreed 1 000 000 times over. Her acting was absolutely superb.
* The Doctor’s ability to recite the square root of pi to the thirtieth digit probably freaks out the humans nearly as much as Sky’s ability to repeat it. No wonder they turn on him.
I want to know how long it took for them to shoot that. I haven’t seen the confidential yet…and don’t know if it was mentioned. But wow. How did they not confuse themselves :P David and Lesley should get an award for that as well as their acting abilities.
* Why does the alien go after the Doctor? Is it because he talks the most? Because he’s the smartest? Because he’s the most interested in it? Because he’s the easiest to cull from the herd? Because he’s the most scared (the same reason it went after Sky)? Because it’s picked up on the humans’ bloodthirstiness toward him and is simply emulating that? Another thing that I love for being ambiguous.
This was so totally ambiguous. It could have been anything. But my theory is something that the Doctor is known for. He wants to help. He only just started repeating her, when he gives it a deal. It took it. Rather simple really. As for Sky…I don’t think it went after her because she was the most scared. I think it went after her because she believed it was after her. While the others were wondering what the hell it was, she was screaming “It’s coming for me!” over and over. it must have heard and took the cue as an invitiation, sort of like it accepted the Doctor’s deal before it was really made. And not the way the Doctor wanted it to go.
* I suppose one argument against the alien being benign and simply emulating the humans’ darkness is that it doesn’t pick up any of the Doctor’s compassion or empathy.
It stole his voice, his memories maybe, but not necessarily his personality. That it is copying from those in the room, and that is of malevolence towards anything different. I think it wasn’t evil or anything really. It just took what it saw and copied, like it had everything else. Though it did have a good understanding of the Doctor, so I think it was in his thoughts.
* Even Dee Dee quickly starts rationalizing Sky’s murder. For once I’d like to see a human being with firm pacifist ideals similar to those of the Doctor. They do exist!
Wow, that’d be good! I’d like to see that myself!
* This episode is all about scapegoating, blaming an external entity so that we don’t have to face our own imperfections. This is why I really don’t like the interpretation that this alien was an incarnation of the Beast, or was inherently evil. That’s so typical, to blame the darkness on an outside force and remove culpability from the people who actually committed the atrocities. It was the humans who scapegoated the Doctor and were prepared to kill him simply for defending Sky, even before he became possessed himself.
Agreed once again, with everything here. It’s like the exact same thing that Val does in the end of the episode. Sort of going “No, I was here, but I had nothing to do with it, and will deny it all until my dying day! It was that thing, it was all it’s fault. I told you that, I did!” *nods sagely, goes to sleep and wakes up, wondering why the sudden onset of nightmares*
Is one of the ongoing themes this season that humans never learn? Doesn’t say much about us does it? They did a similar thign with the Ood in the Oodsphere. The secretary person saying “They all know what goes on, they just don’t say anything.”
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rusty-halo on June 19, 2008 1:36 pm | Link
Wow, thank you so much for the long reply! I’m glad my post helped inspire you. :) I’ll just respond to a couple of things…
I thought it odd that Val used the word immigrant in the script, because they were all on holiday to a world that wasn’t their own.
Hmm, it worked for me. I got the sense that it was part of their cultural vernacular, like whatever place they were from has immigrant issues similar to those of the modern world. She was speaking to people she knew, so it didn’t matter that they were in another place. It would be like a an American woman bringing up immigrants to other Americans while on vacation in Mexico; I don’t see anything strange about that.
I think I understand his alien behaviour more than the humans around him.
Me too, totally. I “get” the Doctor far more than I “get” any other character.
And I also find it oddly amusing that the one person to deny that he was working with her to start off with was Val [...] yet later when he started repeating, it was Val who was the first to jump on the “I told you he was with her” train
That’s a great observation. I hadn’t noticed that, but, yup, sounds like Val. The word “truthiness” was invented for people like her.
he always tries a peaceful approach instead of a “It’s different and new and scary, lets kill it” approach
Yup, that’s probably my favorite thing about Doctor Who. That it regards the unknown with respect and hope and possibility instead of cynicism and suspicion.
he was really…true to himself. His emotions. And at the end he talked about it to Donna.
Yes. I love his relationship with Donna. There is no baggage or expectation or need to impress looming over their relationship. They just understand each other and are comfortable together. I think we’ve seen him open up to her more than to anyone else, from the very first time he met her (when she got him to talk about missing Rose and her family).
You make an interesting point about the implications of Sky possibly having been in an abusive relationship. It’s not implied that strongly in the text, but I did get a sense of it, too. I think it’s because she’s screaming about someone female being after her, which could be her ex or someone unrelated. And because she’s so withdrawn and jumpy in general. Although it doesn’t entirely fit with her ex having gone to another galaxy to get away from her. Which she could’ve been lying about. Or maybe Sky was the abusive one and is feeling guilty. Another lovely ambiguous thing!
Personally, I think the alien had already spotted them, and it wouldn’t have mattered if they had opened the window or not, it still would have went to them.
I agree, although it’s fun to play with other possibilities too.
You should definitely watch the Confidential; they talk a lot about how they synchronized their speech and memorized their lines together. (There’s a lot of griping about RTD making them memorize the square root of pi!)
I think it went after her because she believed it was after her.
I think that’s likely. It went around the room and picked the easiest target. Her paranoia was her weakness, I suppose, which plays into the idea that it’s their own flaws that bring them down.
Thank you again for your long response. :)
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anduril on June 19, 2008 3:44 pm | Link
This is probably one of the classic episode from the new Who. It has all the working ingredients to it, great story, memorable characters, witty dialogue, and a whole lot of metas and interpretations. Sometimes, you need to keep things simeple for it to become a classic, because special effect will get outdated. But human story? It will forever be remembered.
Is it too early to say this episode is the best from S4?
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rusty-halo on June 19, 2008 4:01 pm | Link
I agree. It’s my favorite of S4 so far, and definitely one of my favorites of the entire new Who run.
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