Deadly Furniture

"Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways"

There's a moment when every Doctor steps into the role and makes the title his own. For Ten and Eleven it's pretty early on in their runs, but they have a beloved and experienced show behind them. Nine never really  had that. Everything was filmed before a single episode was shown to the British public. The writers were still trying to figure out what to keep from the classic series and what to throw away. Plus, the Doctor had been through some stuff lately and who really knew who he was anymore?

Elizabeth and I were talking about when Nine's moment was--the moment when Eccleston claimed the role for himself and decided--this is the man the Doctor is. Elizabeth thinks that it was that moment back in "The Doctor Dances" where Nine realizes that today, everyone will live. And it is a great moment, a fantastic moment. The joy on Eccelston's face captures joyous madness in a nutshell. But my moment, my moment when I finally understand Nine, is in "The Parting of the Ways."

The pesky Daleks have once again returned and Nine's journey has come full circle. He's once again in the midst of a war where two entire races are at stake. So naturally the Doctor goes to talk to the Daleks face to face (rescuing Rose along the way) and he realizes that they're all made out of humans--human biologically elements with all the soul removed. But the imperfection of humanity's taint has driven the Daleks insane. And then the Doctor says one of those great Doctor Who lines: " They hate your own existence, and that makes them more deadly than ever."

Sure, this could all be meant to be straightforward. But, if you turn it around and apply it to the Dalek the line takes on an entirely different meaning. The Doctor runs off with his companions and finds safety behind the door of the TARDIS, but then there's this fantastic moment when Eccleston leans his forhead against the door. And that's Nine's moment. That moment when we as an audience realize how much our Doctor hates himself.

But the second part of that sentence still has to play out. And the Doctor realizes that he's going to have to be the Oncoming Storm. So he sends Rose away the only way he knows how--by lying to her. And then he creates a weapon of mass destruction that will exterminate the Daleks but take most of humanity and the last of the Time Lords with them. And as he builds it, person after person dies for him. Jack, the bad guy, the time bandit, goes off to lead a small militia. But before he leaves, he tells the Doctor, "Wish I'd never met you Doctor. I was much better off as a coward."


And then Jack dies, because being a companion with the Doctor comes with a horrible price. And the Doctor has to set off the device. But he can't do it. He's no longer the Oncoming Storm. Traveling throughout time and space with a shop girl has healed him in some way, and he would rather die a man alone, then a monster with others.

But Rose saves him. Or rather the Bad Wolf saves him. After staring into the heart of the TARDIS, Rose comes back with all the power and foresight of the Time Vortex. Powerful enough to send words back throughout time and space as clues to lead her to this moment, Vortex Rose can deflect a Dalek's laser with the flick of a hand. She can destroy the Dalek God with words, and she can bring Jack back from the dead with a single thought. But the power of it is burning Rose up, and so the Doctor kisses her. And with that kiss, he dies for her.


A lot has been written about how Nine needed to regenerate to fully be healed from the Time Wars. And I mostly agree with that. But I also think that Nine and Rose could have continued to travel the galaxy together and been perfectly happy. Nine was never a complete lost cause. Besides, future episodes will prove that Ten and Eleven have just as many problems (if not more) than Nine ever did.

Instead, I choose to see Nine's regeneration as a final gift. He was born out of war and he died out of love. It's a poetic ending, the right ending. Or rather--beginning. Because the next step is Barcelona.


Next Up: "The Christmas Invasion," "New Earth," and "Tooth and Claw"

"Father's Day," "The Empty Child," 'The Doctor Dances" and "Boom Town"

I remember thinking fondly about "Father's Day." It was one of the few episodes that I watched my first run through of series one, and it has some of those classic deep moments that I love about Doctor Who. At one point, the Doctor swears he's going to leave his companion behind and maybe might have (no matter what he says at the end of the episode) if time hadn't robbed him of the TARDIS.  And there's this quick acknowledgement that this sort of thing wouldn't have happened if the Time Lords were still around. Not only would the Doctor probably not have dared crossing his own time line when other Time Lords were there to catch him, but his people would have cleaned up the paradox/time-wackiness.

And then there's the ending--where Rose finally has the courage to hold her father as he dies. She's faced Daleks, the End of the World, and a giant monster at  the top of a space station with little more than a couple of screams, but she can't say goodbye again.  It's a touching moment, a moment when we get to see how similar Rose is to her dead father, combined with just enough dark undertones to keep it from being sappy.

But "Father's Day" has a rigid take on time travel that the rest of the series soon starts to ignore. Sure, the whole problem is that Rose and the Doctor cross their own time line creating a sort of weak point in the fabric of time and space--but series five and Amy Pond anyone? Anyone?). "Father's Day" therefore doesn't seem to fit in the cannon of the show anymore, but exists in some sort of no-man's land for things with other Doctor Who plots and elements that sorta work but don't really if you think about it too hard.

But maybe I was just in a rush to get through the episode because I knew the next one had THIS guy....


Man. Captain Jack is awesome. From the beginning, it's obvious that this man is a lot of what the Doctor is not. He uses technology to simplify matters, he flirts with most anything that walks, he's selfish, he's uses time travel as a means for his own gain, he carries a gun, he's out for himself and no one else. It's obvious that in the absence of Time Lords some other type of organization would have to take it's place, and the introduction of Time Agents is one that, at this early stage, still had a whole lot of potential. (The fact that for the most part the organization soon enters the no-man's land with "Father's Day" is pretty disappointing). But hanging out with the Doctor changes a man. Earlier in the episode, Jack would have come up with a way to cover his tracks and make a hasty retreat when faced with a giant bomb. But by the end of the episode, the conman is willing to die for others because he knows that's what the Doctor would do. And so the man abandons his profession and decides to travel with a man from some North somewhere and a girl.

The introduction of Captain Jack also allows for the Doctor to run across another time traveler. Nine's greatest comedic moment is when he switches out the Captain's blaster for a banana. Of course there's a back and forth masculine "Rose is mine!" thing going on. The Doctor noticeably doesn't let Jack cut in at the end (a rare selfish move for him).  But although Rose is of course tempted, there's a difference between a former Time Agent and a Time Lord--especially this Time Lord. By the end of the first episode, Rose has already switched her loyalties back to the Doctor (although they had really never strayed) and Jack soon realizes that it will always be the Doctor and Rose.

But Steven Moffat's first two-parter of new Who isn't all about the Captain. It's also about an Empty Child whose just looking for his mother. What the Moffat does best and what he'll do over and over and over again is to take things that we all know and love, like little five-year old boys, and make them ridiculously scary. With the Empty Child, he takes everything about being human out of this small boy and the result is terrifying.


This is also one of those rare episodes where everybody lives. For a show that's still (at rare times) called a family/children's show, Doctor Who stacks up a lot of bodies. But at the end of this episode, the universe gives the Doctor a gift. Everybody lives. And he's so excited, that he dances.

But my favorite episode of the series so far (because if I remember correctly there's a pretty terrific episode just around the corner) has to be "Boom Town" which is surprising because a) not a lot actually happens in the episode and b) it features the Slitheen.  Not surprisingly, however, I love this episode for it's character moments. First, Mickey finally comes back into the picture and dumps Rose. I'm not in the camp of people that think that, if the Doctor hadn't taken her hand in the shop and told her to run, Mickey and Rose would have lived happily ever after. Rose obviously was eventually going to go off and do something drastic with her life, leaving Mickey behind. But his last scene is still a great moment for Mickey--a moment where he finally leaves her guessing where he is instead of the reverse.

There's also the continued adventures of Captain Jack in the TARDIS. I like to imagine that the trio has been off having wild adventures between "The Doctor Dances" and "Boom Town." The three of them are so in sync, so connected in their shared love of time, space, and adventures that Mickey immediately notices that he doesn't belong. Also there's the continued evolution of Jack's relationship with the Doctor--he's not the superior mind with the most experience anymore.


But the real character moments are with the Doctor. He very quickly and easily captures his opponent and is all set to bring her back to her home planet to face justice, but he's then forced with the label of being her executioner. And suddenly he's called a murderer again. And even as Nine nears his end and his final redemption, he still isn't comfortable with the truth of that statement. He's killed two entire races, obliterated them in fact, and in many ways that makes him far worse from the creature that is sitting across the table from him.

The danger of the Doctor and the damage he does isn't easily resolved--even after he regenerates a couple of times. He's the most powerful creature left in the universe and that power is scary. As Margaret the Slitheen acknowledges, she has no where to run when the Doctor is looking.

Next Up: "Bad Wolf" and "The Parting of the Ways." But first, a bonus picture of Captain Jack.

Note: This begins a "Watch A Doctor Who Episode A Day (ish)" series. Over the course of some weeks/months/years I've decided to watch an episode of the cult favorite a day (ish). For my few friends that I haven't convinced to love and adore this series about a mad man in a box (you know who you are) these posts will appear to be nothing but a fan girl thinking too much about her favorite television series (ish). But for you, the Converted, I hope that you'll have fun watching some episodes with me/hearing me rant about a time traveler and his faithful, TARDIS companion.

"Rose," "The End of the World," and "The Unquiet Dead"

I've always liked the idea of the Ninth Doctor more than I've liked the actual result. To be fair to the poor incarnation, I watched him after I'd watched most of David Tennant's run and Ten is a hard act to follow. But the actual premise of the Doctor's return to the small screen is pretty brilliant. Instead of just picking up where the now-cannon (ish) movie left off, with Time Lords a plenty and a content (ish) Doctor, the show begins after a war. While the Brits have let their national hero (ish) go off their screens, he's been through hell and back and he's far from the tea-sipping, book-reading Eighth Doctor that he was.

It's a pretty great idea. And I can just image the executives of BBC Wales realizing how brilliant it was when Russell T. Davies pitched it to them. And it's obvious in these first three episodes that the Doctor is a changed man. In "Rose," he picks up his first full-time companion in years and,with little more than a few warnings and some mysterious looks, whisks her away to the end of the world. The war is over and his world and people are gone, but the Doctor's anger, grief, and thirst for vengeance lead him right to the end of another world.

The man doesn't think. Rose takes the end of Earth rather badly (as I believe we all would) and if you think about it, world's end is a pretty horrible first date.  Martha gets to visit Shakespeare and Rose gets to see the remnants of everything she's ever known and believed burn up into nothing. The Doctor has taken her from home into destruction because endings are all the poor guy knows anymore. And when the man finally finds someone new to blame, he lashes out and kills Cassandra. When Rose asks him to stop, this last of his kind replies: "Everything has its time and everything dies."

Why these first three episodes don't always work is the fault of its ties to Classic Who. I haven't watched nearly enough of Doctors 1-7 to speak with any authority on the matter, however many of these old Who episodes can be categorized into "alien" and "historicals"--the Doctor either encounters some new race (Daleks, for example) or he goes back in time (cavemen for the win!). In "The End Of The World," the new series falls back on the alien story line and in "The Unquiet Dead" it falls back on the historical.


Which is fine. The Dickens story is fine. But it's not great and, at points, it's even boring (Sidenote: It also will now and forever be compared to "Vincent and the Doctor" and "The Unquiet Dead" doesn't come out on top in that battle.) It's brilliant when it focuses on our New Doctor--who refuses to listen to Rose's warnings and then ponders on the fact that he, the last of his kind, the explorer of the universe, is going to die in a basement. But for the most part the episode wants to focus on the walking zombies, the blue spirit smoke, and hey! That's DICKENS! And this just isn't very interesting. The threat of the zombies never feels quiet real. They're few in number, they're befuddled by 19th century doors, and all it takes is turning out the lights and turning up the gas for them to be thwarted.

But what's obvious is that at this early stage the show didn't quiet know what to do with itself. It had made this bold move and changed the Doctor Who universe forever, but it couldn't abandon it's classic roots. At times the Doctor has to act like fan-favorite Four and be goofy and strange and crazy, but Four never lived in a universe without Time Lords. The show wants to please its old fans with historicals, but it realizes that to gain new and young fans the show has to tell the tale twisted and can't become a history lesson (which Classic Who was partially created to be). This leaves poor Nine in a strange place--caught in the rift between two different shows that share the share universe and two different generations of viewers that don't often agree with each other.

Next Up: "Aliens of London," "World War Three," and "Dalek." Or probably mostly "Dalek" because I really don't like the Slitheen.

You’ve been there. You’re at a party, someone says something outrageous, and before you can clamp the imaginary hand over your mouth, you say, “Inconceivable!” Before you know it, you’ve started off a chain of Princess Bride quoting and nostalgia. After about three hours of this, you being to sympathize with Oppenheimer and think--“What have I done?” The truth of the matter is that mass media has forever tainted words and phrases, forcing your mind to make the connection almost against your will. This is our ever growing list of words we can’t say.

“Run” Glee may have little to no artistic value, but damn can it churn out a catchy cover. In the episode “Bad Reputation,” several of the characters try act differently than they usually do (you know, in their previous, totally consistent characterizations). For some reason, this involves singing a terrible, terrible hit from 1975--“Run, Joey, Run.” But now in the Schmitfer house, every time someone says “run,” this song must immediately be sung. Mulder’s getting backed into a dark alley by Krycek? “Run, Mulder, run!” Low on Hit Points in a video game? “Run, Shepard, run!” Accidentally turn on an episode of Glee? “Run, everyone, run!”

“Eagle” This one can be really annoying--especially because it’s one of those references that a lot of people may not know. Zach Braff’s “Eeeeeagle” can ruin a movie (like the new Channing Tatum movie that we weren’t planning to see but we could never actually see because every time they said “Eagle!” we would laugh), a scientific discussion about our national bird, or a car trip when one happens to see a bird out of the window that could possibly look a little bit like an eagle. We have yet to go the distance and actually do the Turk and JD routine, but it’s probably one of the greatest running gags on Scrubs.

“Maybe” As indecisive people, we say “maybe” a lot. And every time, this excellent Flight of the Conchords song must be sung.

“We’ll do that!”  from one of the greatest Star Trek films ever made, Galaxy Quest. This narrowly beats out, “Miners, not minors!”--what can we say, it’s a quotable film. But for sheer frequency, “We’ll do that!” wins. We say it any time we make a plan…or decide what to have for dinner.

“Delete” “Exterminate” “Assimilate” Damn Daleks, Cybermen, and Borg. If you guys ever got together, you could rule the world. And our vocabulary.

“3PO?!? Where could he be?!?!?!?” Ah, the dulcet whine of Luck Skywalker. This phrase has only increased in usage after Elizabeth named her Droid Incredible “C-3P0.” Whenever he gets lost, out pops an inevitable Mark Hamill impression. (BTW, yes, we name our inanimate objects. Deal with it.)

“Would You Kindly” Just the mention of this phrase gives us the shivers. We wouldn’t dare spoil this for anyone who hasn’t played the game, but Bioshock will forever ruin this phrase. And 50s music.

“…in the world.” Oh, Jeremy Clarkson. Need to comically overemphasize the greatness of something you love? Just tack on this phrase to your favorite superlative, and you’re good to go.

“Stop.  Pooping.” From Parks & Recreation’s “The Flu.” Now, whenever we look at Rob Lowe, that line is all that we can hear. This should make for interesting future West Wing viewing. “Mr. President: Stop. Pooping.”

“Blondie.” What’s wrong with a mildly amusing strip from the Sunday funnies, you ask? Oh, no, no, no. Every time we hear it, we think “Kiss me, James” from the Lost finale. It makes us cry. Every single time. Curse you Darlton.

“Doctor!” No, not a physician, THE Doctor. This moment in Doctor Who history lives in all fans heart as the time when John Barrowman could just not keep a straight face. The over-the-top ending to an otherwise pretty excellent season is more then a little groan-worthy, and tarnishes perhaps the best acting David Tennant does in the entire series five minutes later. The fact that Barrowman must have thought the same makes us smile every time the word comes up. BARROWMAN!!!

Bonus Word: Epidemic. ’Nuff said.

Every year or so, I suddenly get the urge to watch Scrubs. When and why this happens is unexplainable, but in any case I’ve been watching a lot of it the last couple of days. And, as I’ve been skipping around from season to season to episodes that I don’t remember that well, I realized how much I wish I could watch the entire series over again for the first time. When it originally aired on television, I would watch an episode here or there, or I may even have tuned in for a couple of weeks running. But my Scrubs watching was sporadic to say the least. Even when I started to watch it through on DVD, I inevitably ran into a patch of episodes I had seen, got bored, and stopped.