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Welcome to my weblog about Doctor Who, where (almost) every post is devoted to analysing one episode in depth!
PSA: the break I took from this weblog took more than I expected or wanted. I am sorry for that, and I do hope to get back to publishing here more regularly, although I cannot promise much right now.
You can read more about this project, look for answers to frequently asked questions, contact me and support me. There is also some information about my spoiler policy and some disclaimers and legal stuff. The three most recent posts are below; you can also check the full archive or the list of covered episodes and the RSS feed.
Most recent posts:
– So where are we going?
I really shouldn’t like this episode – yet somehow it works for me. I
guess I just really want to like Doctor Who (and who can blame me
for this?), and go out of my way to redeem even weaker episodes. So,
let me be fair first and briefly state why this episode is not the
best one, and then I’m going to look for some good stuff.
There are perhaps two and a half reasons New Earth is far from my
favorite episode. If you are a regular reader of this weblog, you
will probably guess that making members of a religious order the main
villains is a sure way to irritate me. Perhaps surprisingly, I
actually don’t have a big problem with that. I have lived long enough
and I know enough history to understand that being a nun, a priest, a
bishop or even a pope doesn’t automatically make you saint. (That
said, treating clergy’s sins as an excuse for one’s own is one of the
most stupid things people ever came up with – but this is of course
not what New Earth is about.) Well, I am a very religious person
myself (even though I’m a layman), and I’m painfully aware that I’m a
sinner whose only hope of redemption is God – and the same goes for
every other living person. So, evil cat-nuns are sadly not that far
from reality as one might think (well, maybe apart from the “cat”
part;-)), though watching people who should live up to their ideals
doing evil is of course a bit disturbing. (Although Novice Hame is
actually quite nice.)
“Who needs arms when we have claws?”
What problems do I have then with New Earth? First of all, Doctor
Who is a family show, and watching it with kids is something I
appreciate a lot. While I don’t have a problem with one or two
innuendos which would fly over children’s heads anyway, the density of
almost explicit sexual jokes in this episode makes me cringe. Too
much is just too much. (Also, one of these jokes perpetuates certain
annoying and even harmful misconception – but I’ll get to that later.)
Another reason New Earth bugs me is that the Doctor is clearly very
much enjoying his “god mode”. Nine was much more humble and aware of
his shortcomings. It is rather telling that even at his very start,
Ten is quite the opposite. spoiler for series 4This, of course, will
culminate in The waters of Mars and The end of
time. It’s most prominent when he blurts to Novice
Hame, “if you want to take it to a higher authority, then there isn’t
one. It stops with me.” It is actually a very well-written line,
showing the vanity of the Doctor, and the fact that it makes me cringe
is a testament to that – but it still does. Another moment when the
Doctor’s god-like attitude is very visible is near the end, when he
cures the patients. He is (probably intentionally) shown as a
priestly figure, and it is interesting to compare him to the cat-nuns.
While they are obviously the villains in this story, they do have
some justification for their actions (that is not to say that I agree
with said justification, of course!), and they – especially Novice
Hame – seem to show a true sense of service and humility. The Doctor,
on the other hand, is (again) full of pride – “I’m the Doctor, and I
cured them!”. He really cares for Rose (obviously), for the “new
humans” (which is also very typical of him) and even for Cassandra
(which is perhaps a bit less obvious, but true nonetheless), but his
conceit is really hard to stand. (One might argue that this line
doesn’t show the pride of Ten but his genuine joy, almost like the
famous “everybody lives” moment. I can certainly agree that there is
a component of joy here, but he didn’t say “Look Cassandra, they are
healthy now!” or anything like that – he did emphasize that he was
the one who cured them.)
The third issue I have with New Earth is a bit nitpicky, but I’ll
mention it anyway. Being a Whovian, I completely understand that
expecting any sort of logic or scientific accuracy from Doctor Who
is absurd, but the main premise of this episode is really egregious.
The idea that you can cure terminally ill people by dousing them with
intravenous solutions doesn’t make any sense whatsoever. And there
are more questions! Now that the farm of “new humans” is gone, how
will the hospital operate? Won’t there be a global pandemic there
very soon? (spoiler for series 3Well, in fact there will, thirty years
later, although not a “natural” one.) But of course,
let’s not be too pedantic – after all, this is Doctor Who, not a
book by Stanisław Lem.
Probably the main strength of New Earth is comedy. This is one of
those light-hearted episodes where you don’t really expect too much
drama or thriller elements – you just have some silly fun. Granted,
there are serious moments here – more about them in a moment – but
this is neither Father’s Day nor spoiler for series 4The fires of
Pompeii. As I already mentioned, I’m not really a
great fan of the density of sexual jokes in this episode (even if I
admit that some of them are actually pretty funny) – but there’s more
to it than them. I love the elevator scene (“watch out for the
disinfectant!”) – this will certainly make my top ten funniest moments
of Series 2. The Doctor’s comment about the lack of the little shop
is also something to be appreciated (spoiler for series 3and it will
make a return in about a dozen episodes,
spoiler for series 4and then even later in the Library!).
And of course, the “New New New New New New New New New New New New
New New York” scene is, to borrow Nine’s favorite phrase, absolutely
fantastic.
“Watch out for the disinfectant!”
On the other hand, there are a few very serious moments scattered
throughout New Earth. And maybe just because they are very few and
very short, their impact is even greater. The scene where Cassandra
experiences the terrible loneliness of one of the infected is probably
the most pronounced, but definitely not the only one. I love the
Doctor telling the cat-nuns, “and I'm being very, very calm. You want
to be aware of that. Very, very calm.” This definitely sends chills
down my spine, especially knowing what the Doctor is capable of.
We’ll get similar vibes very soon in spoiler for series 2School
Reunion, much later in spoiler for series 3The family
of blood and in many other episodes. The moment when
a normally hyperactive person starts to act unnaturally composed is
something very real, and the threat hidden in Doctor’s voice is really
well acted. And of course we have the Face of Boe, who is supposed to
tell the Doctor his “great secret” but for some mysterious reason
changes his mind. (That reason will be easy to explain after
spoiler for series 3the next series’ finale, though.)
Having experienced caring for a terminally ill person myself, I may
have shed a tear or two when Novice Hame discussed the situation of
Face of Boe with the Doctor. It’s a pity that this aspect wasn’t
expanded just a bit – it would be a great lesson to teach the younger
part of the audience.
Now, let me get more serious myself. I’m normally a very positive
person, and if you’ve read even a few articles on this weblog, you are
well aware that I try really hard to find good things to say even
about the weaker episodes. (spoiler for series 2Just you wait till we
get closer to the end of this series!) That doesn’t
mean, however, that I don’t see their worse aspects. Sometimes I just
have to call attention to them, not only because they irritate me,
but more because they teach a wrong lesson. (Remember that cringey
remark about Marxism in The empty child?)
Chip sees to Cassandra’s physical needs. Basically, he moisturizes her.
Here we have a similar (even if much less visible) situation. One of
the attempts at humor by Russell T. Davies (and we all know that he
likes jokes aimed at the… less mature part of the audience) was
Cassandra’s remark about how “Chip sees to [her] physical needs”, to
which Rose dryly responds “I hope that means food”. You may ask, why
I don’t like it? There is a very subtle thing going on here. It is
fairly obvious what Rose thinks the “physical needs” are, and
chances are she is right. And here comes the misconception I
mentioned earlier. Contrary to the popular opinion, sex is not just
a “physical” thing. It is a very deep experience touching all aspects
of humanity – it has its physical component (obviously), but it has
also profound psychical and even spiritual aspects. I’m neither a
theologian nor a sexologist, so I won’t try and pretend that I know a
lot about these topics, but I’m a husband and a father, so I do know
at least a bit from my personal experience. These quotes from the
Catechism (CCC 2360–2363, but the whole chapter is well worth studying
even if you’re not a Catholic, if not to admire the beauty therein,
then at least to understand some of our perhaps less popular beliefs)
sum it up much better than I could.
Sexuality is ordered to the conjugal love of man and woman. In
marriage the physical intimacy of the spouses becomes a sign and
pledge of spiritual communion. Marriage bonds between baptized persons
are sanctified by the sacrament.
Sexuality […] is not something simply biological, but concerns the
innermost being of the human person as such. It is realized in a
truly human way only if it is an integral part of the love by which a
man and woman commit themselves totally to one another until death.
The acts in marriage by which the intimate and chaste union of the
spouses takes place are noble and honorable; the truly human
performance of these acts fosters the self-giving they signify and
enriches the spouses in joy and gratitude.
The spouses’ union achieves the twofold end of marriage: the good of
the spouses themselves and the transmission of life.
So, do not try to tell me that sexual desire is a “physical need”. It
is much, much richer and more beautiful than that!
Before I get to my main point about New Earth, let me – as usual –
mention in passing several minor things that caught my attention.
I quite like the very first few seconds of the episode when Ten
manipulates the T.A.R.D.I.S. However, we then cut to the good-bye
scene with Jackie and Mickey, which is full of cringe – especially the
moment when Mickey says “I love you” to Rose, and she answers just
“bye”. Poor Mickey.
“You’re hard work young!” (spoiler for series 4Professor River
Song)
I love the exchange about the name of New New York, the city “so good
they named it twice”. (Though I’m not sure New York is really a good
place.) Also, Rose hopping and commenting on “different ground
beneath [her] feet” is incredibly cute. The nostalgia and the “big
revival movement” sound so close and so human to me… I’m a bit
nostalgic person myself and I fully understand that – even though I am
aware that you can’t really go backwards in time to the “good old
days” of your childhood – yet still I like memories and things that
remind me of them.
Also, as a mathematician, I cannot not smile at the subtle joke about
numbers. See, thirteen episodes ago Nine said that “five billion
years in your future […] is the day the Sun expands”. When we say
or hear things like that, we obviously understand that “five billions”
is a very rough approximation – it could well be off by a thousand (or
a million) years. Here, however, it is implied that the world ended
exactly in the year 5,000,000,000, since New Earth is set in the
year 5,000,000,023, two decades later. Interestingly, all these
calculations are off anyway, since technically “five billion years in
the future” during the events of The end of the world would be
5,000,002,005. Also, year five billion being called 5.5/Apple/26 in
the future means that the future calendar in the Whoniverse is most
probably no longer based on the date of birth of Jesus, which is not
surprising given RTD’s views. And while we’re at anti-religious
sentiments of RTD, substituting the red cross with the green moon
seems to be yet another case of that. When I think about it, New
Earth seems to be one of the most anti-Christian episodes of
Series 2. Funny how its main message – which we’ll get to in a few
minutes – is so in line with Catholic teaching and against the popular
beliefs of today! I cannot not think of John 11:49-52 and the story
of Caiaphas, who wanted to get rid of Jesus, but inadvertently said a
prophesy…
The Doctor also mentions that they are in galaxy M87. This is a real
one, and Wikipedia told me that it is pretty far from Earth – some 53
million light-years. This means that either humans will have invented
FTL travel by the year 5,000,000,023, or they just started much
earlier and took their time to get there, or they had some other means
of traveling such vast distances. (In fact, all three possibilities
may be correct. spoiler for series 4The waters of Mars establishes
that humanity sent their first lightspeed ship to Proxima Centauri in
2088, and spoiler for series 2in The girl in the fireplace
the Doctor, Rose and Mickey will visit a 51-century spaceship
utilizing warp engines.)
I keep thinking whether the rule that “cuttings from the gardens are
not permitted” is a subtle allusion to Jabe’s gift.
I like the short exchange about illnesses, where Rose says, “I thought
this far in the future, they’d have cured everything”, to which the
Doctor replies, “The human race moves on, but so do the viruses. It’s
an ongoing war”. It reminds me of sentiments of “progress”, as if
humanity was just marching forward and becoming better and better.
Sadly, it does not work this way. (Well, in certain areas it does.
When it comes to scientific and engineering knowledge, for example, we
basically build upon what we already have, so the sum of that type of
knowledge is more or less steadily increasing – even if some of it is
lost for various reasons. But unfortunately humanity does not always
progress morally. Our own times seem to be a deep regression in quite
a few pretty fundamental aspects, for example.) And speaking of
progress, there’s yet another moment which seems a jab at
conservatists, when Rose has this to say to Cassandra: “You stayed
still. You got yourself all pickled and preserved, and what good did
it do you?”. Well, my personal stance is that conservatism (and I
think I would call myself conservative) is not about trying to avoid
any change, but rather about believing that change for change’s sake
is not really valuable, and that (as I said a moment ago) not every
change in our society is necessarily for the better – and many are
definitely for worse. (Also, whenever you want to change something,
you should really consider if you aren’t accidentally demolishing a
Chesterton fence!)
Much like in Series 1, the “futuristic” look of the hospital says more
about 2005 than about the future. And even though the hospital looks
(a bit) futuristic, the lift exterior certainly does not. One would
think that lift technology a billion(ish) years in the future wouldn’t
look exactly the same…
I have to say that I have rather mixed feelings about Frau Clovis. On
the one hand, as her name suggests, she couldn’t be more stereotypical
German lady, which is funny indeed. On the other hand, jokes
utilizing stereotypes like this are a bit risky. (On yet another
hand, we live in very strange times, where simply stating your own
opinions on general, non-personal matters seems to offend some people,
so going to great lengths not to offend anyone is futile anyway, and
I don’t think her character is really offensive to Germans –
especially that she doesn’t actually do anything bad.)
I absolutely love the fact that the Doctor remembers the Face of Boe,
even if that’s not surprising at all. It is even better that Rose
seemed to remember Lady Cassandra well enough to recognize her voice
on the film! It shows that they are both very attentive to the people
around them, and that’s really great. On the other hand, Rose’s
rather snarky remark about Chip (calling him “Gollum”) is funny, but
not exactly respectful, so there’s that. Even taking that into
account, the contrast with Cassandra, who accuses Rose of murder
(well, when she says “you murdered me”, she might have meant both of
them, Rose and the Doctor, but still) despite the fact that Rose was
the one to plead with the Doctor to save her on Platform One.
I have to admit that I quite like Novice Hame, and the scene when she
talks with the Doctor about the Face of Boe is particularly good. I
can’t help but giggle, though, when she says “I can hear him singing,
sometimes, in my mind. Such ancient songs…” – my personal headcanon
is that one of those “ancient songs” is a certain “traditional Earth
ballad”;-).
New Earth is the first episode when Ten says “I’m sorry, I’m so
sorry”, which we’ll hear many, many more times during his tenure.
Matron Casp saying (with a hint of amazement), “fascinating, it's
actually constructing an argument”, as if that should be one of the
moments convincing the audience that the “patients” are actual humans,
aged rather poorly now that “constructing an argument” became somewhat
cheaper due to the spread of LLMs. This, however, reminds me of a
very important truth: humanity does not depend on intelligence. You
don’t need to be able to “construct an argument”, speak language, or,
say, perform algebraical operations to be considered human and to have
rights as a human being. (And apparently it is possible for
non-humans to “construct an argument”, although it seems that LLMs are
not really “constructing an argument”, they just generate a stream of
letters and words which sometimes look reasonable.)
Interestingly, this episode was the first one of New Who which did
not take place on or near Earth. From now on, every series will have
at least one episode happening in space or on another planet, but Nine
and Rose never went further (in space) than to the Earth’s orbit.
The last two things I'd like to mention here are more about the
filming process than the episode itself. Firstly, it's not easy to
spot it because of the heavy makeup, but Sister Jatt was played by
Adjoa Andoh, who will go on to play spoiler for series 3Francine Jones,
Martha’s mother, in the next series. And secondly, the
"intensive care" scenes were filmed at the Ely Paper Mill in Cardiff,
which served as the Nestene base in Rose and will be visible in quite
a few more episodes of series 2 and 3. (It would probably be used
more if not for the fact that it has been demolished 15 years ago.)
It is perhaps surprising that they main topic of this rather
lighthearted episode is something very, very serious. As with many
other episodes of Doctor Who, this one is mainly about life and how
we should respect it, even if it’s life in a form we are not fully
comfortable with. I don’t know how other people interpret New
Earth, but for me, the story of the “flesh” (interestingly, the same
term will be used to describe apparently unrelated creatures in
spoiler for series 6The rebel flesh and
spoiler for series 6The almost people, but that
two-parter can be interpreted in a quite similar way) is a very clear
metaphor for people conceived using the IVF technique.
First of all, even if they are “artificially grown” (a tiny bit like
in the case of IVF, though obviously the analogy breaks here), they
are obviously humans – even if some people may not treat them as such.
That should go without saying – although the common practice seem to
show that it sadly does not. As far as I know, more embryos than
necessary are usually conceived during an IVF procedure, which means
that several persons start to exist – but are either “destroyed” (in
other words, killed) or “frozen indefinitely” (which most likely means
they will be killed in the future anyway, probably depending on
economic factors). It’s not really different than Matron Casp
casually ordering Sister Jatt to incinerate one of the “patients” – of
course, in that scene the humanity of him was reinforced by his
ability to talk, but from the moral standpoint, the situation is
basically the same.
On the other hand, I would not dare to accuse parents of children
conceived via IVF of murder – I have a very strong suspicion than very
many of them are not fully aware of what is really happening. As
Novice Hame puts it, “think of those humans out there, healthy and
happy” – and indeed they are, oblivious of the inhumane process that
made them happy. On the other hand, what Doctor says in response (“if
they live because of this, then life is worthless”), is very, very,
very wrong. To keep using the metaphor, neither the lives of
children conceived using IVF, nor the lives of their parents are
“worthless”, even if a grave evil was committed. Similarly, even if
we treat the story of New Earth literally, you can’t say that the
lives of inhabitants of New Earth is “worthless” – even if they were
aware of what is going on underground. Nobody’s life is “worthless”,
and every person has a great value, which does not depend on the
morality of whatever they do. According to Isaiah, this is what God
says to you and me: “Because you are precious in my eyes and honored,
and I love you” (Isaiah 43:4a) – and I think that this is true
irrespective of whatever evil anyone could commit. Just one more
Bible quotation confirming that is Romans 5:8: “but God proves his
love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us”.
The most charitable way I can think of to interpret the Doctor’s words
is that he is intentionally exaggerating to shake Novice Hame up
(which is probably not a great idea anyway). The more probable theory
is that he usurps God’s authority (again!), which (as I already
mentioned a few times) is a common theme in Doctor Who, and
especially during the Tenth Doctor’s tenure. This seems to be
confirmed by his very next sentence (which I already mentioned
earlier): “I’m the Doctor. And if you don’t like it, if you want to
take it to a higher authority, then there isn’t one. It stops with
me!”, which he says very angrily to the completely justified and
sensible question of Novice Hame (“who are you to decide that?”). By
the way, Hame herself calls him “the lonely god” in an earlier scene
with the Face of Boe, although not directly.
To sum it up, if my interpretation is correct, then neither the
Sisterhood’s attitude nor the Doctor’s is the right one. Somehow I
have the suspicion that nobody saying the most reasonable thing – that
what’s going on in the “intensive care” is unacceptable, but that does
not make the humans above ground monsters whose lives are somehow less
precious – may be connected with the fact that Rose is absent from
most of the episode…
“And don’t patronise me because people have died, and I’m not happy.”
Before I finish, let me mention one more scene, very much in line of
the “lonely god” interpretation of the Doctor’s character. One can
argue (and in fact people do) that when the Doctor cures all the
“patients”, he seems to be a Christ-like figure. That is true to some
extent, but I don’t like this analogy because it doesn’t really work
that well. The reason is simple – Christ actually died for us, and
the Doctor risked much less. (Although I can imagine someone arguing
that regeneration can be viewed as a distant parallel of resurrection,
and I can see that point – but that is another topic which I might
expand, well, closer to spoiler for series 4The end of
time – pun fully intended;-).
Happy Easter for you all! Christ has risen from the dead, and we shall rise as well! Rejoice!
Trouble’s just the bits in-between. It’s all waiting out there,
Jackie, and it’s brand new to me. All those planets, and creatures
and horizons. I haven’t seem them yet, not with these eyes. And it
is going to be… fantastic!
The Christmas invasion – the first full episode with the Tenth
Doctor (although he is absent for most of the episode), and the first
Doctor Who Christmas special. I like it a lot! And even though it
is mostly just fun – most of the Christmas specials are lighter and
funnier episodes – it still touches a few serious subjects. Let’s see
what we can find here.
If you don’t like The Christmas invasion, well, I need you to shut
up.
I really feel for Rose in this episode. Yes, last time she acted
pretty terrible towards Mickey, and she still does (a bit) in this
one, but she also gets her share of problems. First of all, she is
still shocked after the Doctor’s regeneration – which is completely
understandable. We’ll get to this later, because it touches one of
the most important things in this episode. Here I’d like to mention
that her self-esteem plummets. “When I’m stuck at home, I’m useless”,
she says. And earlier, when she and Mickey were attacked by the
Santas, she had this line: “What’s important about us? Well, nothing,
except the one thing we’ve got tucked up in bed. The Doctor.” She
says that like it’s a given, and I heard resignation in her voice.
Despite Nine repeatedly telling Rose how much he appreciates her, and
despite him repeatedly teaching her that every person is important,
she still seems to think very low of herself. On the other hand,
maybe that’s just genuine and commendable humility? As usual, I tend
to view situations like this through theological lenses. (Of course,
let me kindly remind you that much of what I write here are my
personal opinions and thoughts, and I do not claim that they are
always right – if you think I’m wrong, you know what to do!) Is it
true that every human being is intrinsically important, and that’s why
God loves us and cares for us? Or is each of us important because
God created us and loves us, and we really are almost nothing without
Him? I tend to think the latter, but I don’t think it’s pessimistic –
quite the contrary (see Psalm 8:5–6, for example). My personal key to
understanding why Rose didn’t seem to be overly happy with the fact
that’s the only important thing about her is the Doctor is a few
episodes earlier, in Boom town. In that episode, the Doctor quips
to Margaret, “Don’t worship me – I’d make a very bad god.” I’ll get
to that line a bit later, too – for now let me say this. It is true
that on the surface, a single human being seems tiny, brittle and not
important at all. You don’t even have to imagine a human against the
vastness of the universe – just imagine a human in a crowd of
thousands, or against the power of Earth nature – the mountains, the
oceans, or things like tornadoes or earthquakes. But what we
Catholics believe, every person is created, wanted and loved by God.
Other people can be wrong about you, but God is always right, so if He
loves you, if He considers you precious – that means that you are
precious. If you think your worth stems from other people’s opinions
about you, well, now that’s pessimistic – they could be wrong, or
they could change these opinions. But if you derive your worth from
the God’s opinion about you – well, God is infallible, so if He
considers you important and worthy of love, then you are, in fact,
important and worthy of love, and He will not change His opinion!
“He’s left me, mom […] when I’m stuck at home, I’m useless.”
Apparently, one of the goals of this episode is to establish – at
least approximately – who Ten is. We’ll have three series and a bunch
of specials to learn more about him, but the foundation is already
there in The Christmas invasion. He’s extremely talkative, he has a
pretty high opinion of himself, he likes to show off, and one of the
definining characteristics about him is his curiosity. All these
characteristics are not really very Ten-specific – many incarnations
of the Doctor have them, too, including Nine – but it seems to me that
Ten goes further than Nine in all those departments. But he himself
apparently considers his rather unforgiving nature (“no second chances
– I’m that sort of a man”) as his defining trait. He still tries
really hard to give every villain he fights a chance of walking off
alive, but he can be rather ruthless when said villain does not use
their only chance.
“No second chances. I’m that sort of a man.”
Of course, Nine had that, too, at least to some extent. In Rose, he
says this about the Nestene Consciousness: “I’m not here to kill it.
I’ve got to give it a chance” – but then seems completely unmoved by
its death. He basically killed Cassandra (or at least did nothing to
help her, despite Rose asking him to do it) without any qualms, though
only after he found her guilty and everyone saw she didn’t show a
trace of remorse. On the other hand, he was very happy when Blon
Fel-Fotch didn’t die, and the ending of The Doctor dances shows how
much he likes not killing anyone. It seems to me that Nine was less
harsh and more compassionate because of his guilt after the Time War.
It’s not like Ten is past that – he’s clearly not, as we will see in
the future – but it looks like he’s slowly gravitating towards a more
unrelenting persona.
And this is the place where I really need to reconsider his remark
from Boom town – “don’t worship me – I’d make a very bad god”. You
might remember that he followed it with a rather snarky “You wouldn’t
get a day off, for starters”. I have a suspicion that it was meant as
a bad-taste joke about Christianity, but it actually shows an
important truth. Our God cares about us really much, and the
commandment to rest every seven days is one of the examples. We
Christians are not allowed by our religion to rest on Sundays – we
are required to do so. It’s a known truth about many people that
they tend to escape from various issues into work, which is
extremely unhealthy. We also tend to neglect our relationships –
with God and with other people – spending too much time in the
(in)famous first quadrant ot the Eisenhower matrix instead of devoting
time and effort to the second one. God knows this and explicitly
tells us to spend one day per week on things that are the most
important (and which we usually do not consider urgent, though this
might be a dangerous illusion). And – to tie all this back to The
Christmas invasion and the quote about no second chances – God knows
we are fallible, so He gives us second, third and many more chances
(and instructs us to do similarly when others hurt us).
Coming back to the characterizaton of Ten – it is hard not to mention
that post-regeneration Doctor is acting pretty crazy (which seems to
be consistent with Classic Who – I’ve seen a few episodes of that,
one of them being Robot – and the trend will continue with future
Doctors). The whole scene in the Sycorax spaceship is one continuous
display of David Tennant’s phenomenal comic acting. I cannot even
tell which moment I like the best – from “you could have someone’s eye
out with that”, to “rude and not ginger”, to the Lion King quote, to
his completely unexpected “I DON’T KNOW!!!” is stunning.
spoiler for series 8
– Still don’t understand why you’re in charge.
Now one of the big questions raised by this episode was whether
Harriet Jones’ order to destroy the Sycorax spaceship near the end of
the episode was justified. As much as I like her, I have to say no.
They didn’t pose any immediate danger. Harriet is correct that they
could tell other races about Earth and humanity – but it’s not like
other races wouldn’t learn about Earth otherwise. (The Doctor says it
plain mere minutes before.) Actually, now that I think of it, not
only was Harriet’s order morally wrong, it was also pretty stupid. It
would be much wiser to let the Sycorax go and tell other races that
they better not mess up with these Earthlings!
Other than that, Harriet Jones was really great in this episode. She
is very confident (and rightly so!), she is not afraid of making
difficult decisions (which is a trait I respect, even if she is
wrong), and frankly, she is quite badass. Her message about the peace
with a thinly veiled threat is crystal clear – there will be peace,
but not on Sycorax’ terms. And taking into account that it was them
who invaded Earth and started with threats (not even thinly veiled!),
it’s really hard to blame her! When I read the list of conditions
that can morally justify a war (see CCC 2309), it is pretty clear to
me that until the Doctor appeared to avert the crisis, the Prime
Minister had all the reasons to use the weapon Torchwood had against
the Sycorax.
“Alex is my right hand man. I’m not used to having a right hand man. I
quite like it, though.” - spoiler for series 5Harriet, your inner Eleven
is showing;-)
Last but not least, Harriet Jones learned her lesson and one of the
first things she asks Sally Jacobs was her name. (Interestingly, she
doesn’t ask Daniel Llewellyn his name – but at least she offers him
coffee, and this time not in order to get something from him.)
While Mickey is far from my favorite character in the series, I
definitely don’t dislike him. And I quite like the fact that he
continues his character growth in this episode. Last two times he was
a bit whiny, and here he seems to try and win Rose back. Instead of
just resigning, he tries to convince her of his loyalty and
reliability, and I have to say, he’s not entirely wrong! (Also, he
snarks instead of whining, which is actually great).
“Oh, yeah, that’s fascinating, because I love hearing stories about
the T.A.R.D.I.S. Oh, go on Rose, tell us another one because I swear
I could listen to it all day. T.A.R.D.I.S. this, T.A.R.D.I.S. that.”
Mr Llewellyn seems a great material for a companion (although it’s
atypical in his case in that he never actually meets the Doctor).
He is smart (it is he who first figures out the blood type
connection), and he is brave – he is entirely willing to assume the
responsibility even if he can’t really be blamed for inclusion of the
blood sample on the Guinevere One probe. (How could he expect the
Sycorax’ blood control, after all?) He is also humble and accepts the
fact that humanity is less advanced technologically than the Sycorax.
As is usual for characters like that, he dies about two thirds into
the episode, which is a real pity.
It is perhaps impossible to write about The Christmas invasion and
not mention the absolutely hilarious scene when Jackie exclaims “I’m
going to get killed by a Christmas tree!”. (Note – again – Mickey’s
courage when trying to fight it.)
Interestingly, the Doctor doesn’t wake up when his life is in danger -
only when Rose says “help me” does he suddenly sit up and disable the
tree. Quite telling…
One of the scenes I like less is when Rose tries to argue with the
Sycorax, using her very limited knowledge of alien stuff and making
things up. It makes me cringe a lot, but I have to admit that Billie
Piper sold it great. And speaking of Rose, I love the small remark
she made near the end when the Doctor explained that it’s not real
snow which is falling on them – “ok, not so beautiful”. Time and time
again, Rose compassion – this time for the Sycorax, who – after all –
invaded Earth – shows.
And finally, I find the fact that it was tea that helped the Doctor
hilariously British (which I assume was intentional, of course).
As usual, I left what I consider the most important thing for the end.
If I were to point out the most important message of The Christmas
invasion, it would be about relationships. The main theme of the
episode is that Rose notices that the Doctor has changed, and has to
deal with that. Of course, in real life people usually change much,
much slower, but the problems remain the same: they need to know who
they are, and the people around them have to deal with the change.
One of the keys to this episodes is this sentence of Rose: “the thing
is I thought I knew him, Mom”. Well, how many wives say that sentence
at some point during their marriage? (Husbands also do, I guess,
though probably a bit more often to their fathers or friends.)
Truth is, we never truly know everything about another person. (Well,
we never truly know everything about ourselves even!) The thing is,
relationships are pretty risky – when you get close to someone, you
can get hurt. And the riskiest of them is probably the marriage. You
can walk away from a friend who hurts you, and while ending a
friendship is sad, it is (to some extent) normal and sometimes
ncessary. Marriage is forever – well, at least for as long as you
both shall live – and if things go south, you can’t just say “Enough
is enough” and walk away. Even if extreme circumstances, like actual
abuse, you may move away from your spouse to protect yourself (or your
children, or both) – but you are still married, and while you may need
to live separately, you are still bound by your vows. And people do
change – sometimes for better, but sometimes for worse.
When you think of it that way, it seems a miracle that people accept
that risk and get married! And indeed, a marriage is a miracle,
though there are other, more important reasons for that, too;-). I
think one of the reasons so many people still get married is that we
have this fundamental faith that people are good, and even capable of
changing for the better. And this faith is firmly based in reality –
even though some people do bad things, and change for worse, many do
the opposite. And while marriage is far from easy (and I can say
that, with close to two decades of experience!), and I think even the
best couples have their bad moments, it is also a beautiful and
fascinating adventure. In fact, the Doctor sums it up perfectly when
Jackie comments, “I reckon you’re mad, the pair of you. It’s like you
go looking for trouble”. To which the Doctor answers, “trouble’s just
the bits in-between […] And it is going to be… fantastic!”.
Frankly, it is so true – and beautiful – that they should make wedding
cards with that quote!
“It is going to be… fantastic!”
New Earth
– Further than we've ever gone before.
Why New Earth is not entirely my cup of tea
Good laugh and a few tears
Cassandra’s physical needs
Other tidbits
Young David Tennant driving the T.A.R.D.I.S. – not a sight to forget!
Last but not least - who are new humans?
– oh, wait…
Easter 2024
The Christmas invasion
Poor Rose
No second chances
– Basically, it’s the eyebrows.
Murder or self-defence?
Other tidbits
Last but not least