Donna's end and Russell's message.

[tencrush]

I've wanted to say a few things about Donna's end in Journey's End, but I've found a few other people articulating my feelings slightly better, so I'll start off by quoting them.

angriest said in doctorwho here:
The entire season has been constantly re-visiting Donna's sense of worthlessness ("I'm just a temp from Chiswick!!"), and was demonstrating one episode after another that even an ordinary woman can be something quite extraordinary. She was bold, clever, intelligent and brave, and I was desperately awaiting her final realisation and acceptance that actually she's an important, beautiful person.

But instead "Journey's End" tells us that the only reason she was any of those things was because she was destined to merge with the Doctor, and without him there she's pathetic, vacuous and ignorant. That sort of attitude offends me. It's a horrible thing for Doctor Who to tell its audience, and it's part of a trend I've noticed in the series since it was revived.

...

What I am trying to say is that by travelling with the Doctor, Donna learned that she was an extraordinary person capable of extreme intelligence, bravery and compassion, but "Journey's End" then told the audience that she was only those things with the Doctor because she was about to become half-Time Lord, and the end gave me the strongest impression that now she will never be smarter, braver or more compassionate than she was at the very beginning of it all. She won't re-learn those virtues.

The last scene of her we see, she's gossiping with a friend on the telephone in a bitchy fashion and being fairly rude and dismissive to the Doctor. So the last image RTD gives us of this wonderful character is her being vaguely ignorant and unpleasant.

halfspokenwords said in the same place:
And you know, that isn't all. As much as I felt the emotional punch of Journey's End, I have to say that I am offended by the assertion (not by fans, but by the show) that somehow being ordinary is bad. Davies has consistently lauded the common (wo)man-- from Rose Tyler to Gwen Cooper. And yet here Donna's tragic ending is not that she's immortal and left behind, or that she's stuck in a parallel world, or even that she's walked the Earth while a maniac held her family, but that she is... herself.

I can't help but feel there's something very wrong with that.

And halfspokenwords here in this journal:
I see Rose as a prime example of what a companion shouldn't be. I see no evidence that she's changed for the better, especially not after this episode. She didn't use her time with the Doctor as a prelude to a brilliant life; she used it as a yardstick by which to measure everything else unsuitable. (This also happened to Sarah Jane and Jack, but at least they have their own shows. And also Jack had his immortality to get sorted.)

Donna, on the other hand. Donna is brilliant. Donna has changed so incredibly much this season. I think she's changed more than any other NuWHo companion (Mickey and Martha also have. Mickey remains AWESOME is my mind, but Martha was shortchanged by being written inconsistently.) RTD finally did something right with a companion... and then completely undid it ALL in a few seconds. So while it's painful and tragic and all that, it's also completely sadistic and unfair. Instead of "travelling with the Doctor makes you better," I'm getting the message that travelling with the Doctor ruins your life.

I'm a little torn, though, because on the other hand, I'm a bit annoyed at the way Donna's 'real' life has been characterized. When in Doctor Who mythology has being an ordinary human been bad? Quite the opposite, really; we're told that ordinary humans are spectacular. Rose, Martha, Donna. Gwen, too. So while I understand that Donna's trip on the TARDIS changed her for the better, and I know I'm supposed to understand that before it she was shallow and without confidence... I feel like it just shouldn't be 'tragic' for her to go back to being ordinary, even though I understand that it is.

Yeah, so, these people said it better than I could so I thought it should be repeated.

It started all the way back in series one, with Rose's snotty attitude towards her shopgirl roots, and the message we were given that it was perfectly okay for Rose to look down upon her family and their ordinary, working class lives, because she was with the Doctor now and she knew that there was so much more. Being with the Doctor changes you, yes, but the message was that it changes you to such an extent, that you can't and don't want to ever go back. There's no progression possible, it's not a case of him changing you for the better and you moving on with your life a better person and having a positive influence on the world. No, you change into someone who can't live without him and will tear open realities to get him back. Nice progression there, Rose.

Jack is essentially the same, sure, he joins Torchwood and changes things for the better in a What Would The Doctor Do kind of way, but ultimately, as we see at the end of TW S1, it's all about GOING BACK TO HIM. A 100-year quest to find The Doctor, The Doctor as the be-all and end-all of your existence. The thing about Jack's characterisation, in Who especially, is that he really is the Doctor's bitch. He lets the Doctor put him down and call him on expressing his flirtatious personality and he just takes it. He lets the Doctor neuter him by taking his teleportation capabilities away from him, not once but twice. And seriously, who is The Doctor to be making these kinds of decisions? There's evil time agents all over the place with magical wriststraps, but Jack's not allowed to have one, despite the fact that he's proven himself again and again? Fuck that. And Jack just takes it, because, just like with Rose, The Doctor>Everyone Else. The Doctor makes you leave your team behind in mortal danger without so much as a working gun between them, because BEING WITH THE DOCTOR is FAR MORE IMPORTANT than any of those mundane questions of people you care about, your adopted family, essentially your domestic life, being blown to bits.

Interestingly, Martha is the one companion who really is shown to have moved on with her life. Her existence is not defined by a need to be back with the Doctor. It doesn't really surprise me, then, that she is shown in the big companionfest that is TSE/JE to be the companion who has changed for the worst compared to the others. She's working for an organisation whose methods and tactics are questionable, to say the least, and she seems perfectly happy to be taking dubious orders from them. See, that's what happens when you don't let your life revolve around your love of The Doctor, you become an Agent for The Man. Bad Martha!

Sarah Jane, again, is shown in School Reunion to have not moved on with her life in any way, shape or form. Sure, she's an intrepid reporter and she's got a nice house and stuff, but essentially she's painted as a sad old spinster who never got over this great guy. I've not really watched SJAdventures to any great extent, so I don't know what's going on there, and really, it doesn't interest me, because from the standalone perspective of Who, that's how she comes across (the same goes for Jack, he's quite a different guy in Torchwood, and I won't even start on the continuity of his characterisation on the two shows, but I'm not talking about Torchwood, I'm talking about Who on its own.) The Doctor changed her into a better person, yes, but essentially, a better person who pines for him and doesn't get a (in this case love-)life.

And then there's Donna. The one companion who certainly has no romantic interest in the guy and doesn't worship the ground he walks on, and who changes for the better, each episode she's a better person than the last, by the end of the series her awesomeness is so great, it's blinding. She's fabulous. And she doesn't see it, she thinks she's ordinary. And then she comes to her journey's end. The thing about that end is, there are about a dozen ends I can think of off the top of my head that would have left her awesome. And Russell chose to give us the one end that shows us that WITHOUT THE DOCTOR, she is, essentially, a vapid bimbo. Because that's what happens when you forget the Doctor. It's only being with the Doctor (in Donna's case, quite literally) that makes you awesome. Without him, you're nothing. That's the message.

It's a message that grosses me out and it's the one thing that is making me so happy that Russell is leaving. His hero worship and seemingly romantic love for The Doctor has made every companion come off badly. Every single one of them, and that's a crying fucking shame.

Comments

[edithmatilda.livejournal.com]

Yes.

[tencrush]

*nods*

[vertrauen.livejournal.com]

Thank you for those last two paragraphs. I was in no mood to be articulate in my IMMENSE HATRED of Russell after I watched the ep. That's articulate. That's thinky good thoughts, that is. Bless you, child. :)

[tencrush]

*sighs*
I post about Torchwood a lot, because essentially Torchwood is just fun cracky goodness and it doesn't fill me with the hatred that Who fills me with nowadays. I'd like to have posted more about Who, but I find I just can't anymore. I will relax when Moffat takes over and until then, I think I'm pretty much done talking about it. Which sucks, but there you go.

[angriest.livejournal.com]

Word.

[vertrauen.livejournal.com]

Stuff like this makes me glad we technically only have 4 more eps with Rusty before JesusMoffat makes his debut. I don't think I could take any more of Rusty's self-edification.

[lucystag.livejournal.com]

I can't argue with any of this.

I was so disappointed with the finale realization that we were all waiting for -- that Donna is important because she merged with the Doctor. And fine, she had that added bit of humanity that supposedly made her even better, but still. In "The Stolen Earth" it wasn't about Donna at all. "Turn Left" was much more about Donna's importance, because we see her getting to be a better person without the Doctor. And then she gets herself killed for him, but it's really to set the world right. She changes without being by his side, and without traveling the galaxy.

Donna is the hero. Not because of some weird Time Lord voodoo reaction, but because of who she is.

I was bitterly disappointed with the finale.

[crossoverman.livejournal.com]

Thank you. Very well said. And it's a pity this is the message that comes from his entire run - but given how he's basically ended his journey with such sadistic treatment of Donna, it's like he's underlined it without any thought.

And you're right, it does look now like all three Companions who worshipped him got "better" lives - Martha got UNIT (then a fiance and now Torchwood, presumable), Jack got Torchwood and Rose got fake!Doctor. Donna, who didn't worship him, but did change him and Saved the Whole of Creation, got nothing.

And it's not being left as a normal person that irritates me, it's that she was robbed of those memories - and the choice for those memories to be taken away. The power she had, well, the Doctor decided to take that away. I'm not saying Donna would have prefered to die than lose those memories - but that would have been a far better ending to her narrative. As you say, her story was that she couldn't see her brilliance - and unfortunately she only got that when she became half-Time Lord (which means she never really saw how awesome she was before that magical transference)... but even that was stolen from her.

(Note: I don't actually think the conclusion to Rose's story was very well conceived or executed either, but at least she got to remember the Doctor - after almost Destroying All of Creation just to find him again.)

I've read analysis of New Who compared to Russell's Queer as Folk - which was about Stuart, who was hero-worshipped by Vince (Doctor Who fan and Russell stand-in). Vince's life was basically nothing without Vince, who was his best friend but wanted to be his lover.

Oh, Russell you do have your issues. And I've always defended the man, too. But this episode - though not robbing us of his great standalones - puts a tarnish on his entire era.

2010 cannot come quickly enough.

[mari-mac1109.livejournal.com]

Oh my gosh. This.

I will say that Sarah Jane in the SJA is not who she was in School Reunion. That person is sort of a springboard into her moving on. Having friends and a son. Since it's primarily a children's show, I don't know how much of a love life she can have in that medium though.

As for Donna, I think it's some of the best character writing in New Who and I was really disappointed that RTD had to destroy that. He totally missed the boat with Rose and wasn't consistent with Martha (though I think she was great at times) and don't get me started on Jack. Always glad to have him back, but you're totally right.

[antelope-writes.livejournal.com]

I'd argue that Martha and Jack got their better lives in spite of the Doctor, not because of him. They both went through living hells, several times on Jack's part, but still wound up on their feet. Jack had his immortality to sort that out, but I get the feeling Martha would have done just fine no matter where she ended up, thank you very much.

I *want* to like the Doctor, but he has this history of destroying his companions. In Torchwood, Jack at least tries to do the right thing (see the Tosh bit of Fragments). Ten is so wrapped up in himself that he doesn't have a clue.

Still doesn't excuse Donna.

[antelope-writes.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, and yes.

And I haven't even seen most of DWS4...the problems were always there.

I hated Mickey in most of S1, to the point where I'd tune him out...and then in S2, especially in Girl in the Fireplace, I turned around. Here was a genuinely interesting character who was reduced by and large to comic relief. He was the flunky, the one who released the Daleks from the prison ship, the one who screwed up and let Margaret the Slitheen out the window. Ouch. Take him away from the Doctor and he turns into a badass. That fit, in a backwards way. He wasn't a Doctor fan, didn't want much to do with him, and because of it, every time he was around dear old doc he turned into the buffoon. Sucks to be him.

Don't get me started on Jack/Doctor. Kind of makes me wish Ianto was on the TARDIS to bitch-slap Ten silly.

[seangaffney.livejournal.com]

Yes, yes, yes, and YES. So much yes.

[tencrush]

Yeah, I have a particular dislike for the way the heterosexual male companions or potential companions are treated. They can't be in love with the Doctor, and therefore they're immediately dimissed as the comic relief, because in Russell's world, you HAVE to be in (hero-)love with the Doctor, or you're nothing. It disturbed me all the way back in S1 when he left Adam to his fate with a freaking machine in his head, without a second thought. And it hasn't improved since then.

[tencrush]

I did watch some SJA, and I know she was a different person in that show, which is essentially one of my main problems. Jack is a completely different person in Torchwood as well, but once he appears in Who he reverts back to the omnisexual slut who worships the ground the Doctor walks on, to the extent that he'll follow him around like a lapdog and take all the shit the Doctor dishes out. Not once in Who has the Doctor even acknowledged that Jack is a different guy now, and really that's because in Who, HE ISN'T. Jack in Torchwood wouldn't leave his recently halved team to their fate and bugger off, because the whole of Torchwood S2 was about how he regards them as his family and refuses to let them come to harm (hello, undeading Owen). But once you go on Who, your DoctorLove suddenly overshadows any other characterisation you may have and makes you act like an arsehole.

[queencheesecake.livejournal.com]

In from who_daily and I agree wholeheartedly. Mind if I friend? :)

[tencrush]

Go right ahead. :)

[edithmatilda.livejournal.com]

I am almost glad I haven't seen the terrific that is Donna just so that this can't have happened to my brain.

Ho hum.

Oh yeah

[gillyp.livejournal.com]

Still too depressed and dispirited by this horrible, horrible ending to post my own reaction but you said it all.

[th-esaurus.livejournal.com]

For a moment, in Journey's End, I thought Russell was going to redeem himself slightly. That little moment between Davros and the Doctor, when Davros was merely listing all the attrocities the Doctor had done - I was like, yes! Yes! This is how the Doctor is! Russell, you have finally Got A Clue!

But no. The rest of the episode just served to reinforce those terrible things, but it did it without any real regret. The Doctor felt guilt, sure, but Russell? His writing always seems so gleeful and he always says in interviews that he honestly believes he is writing the best possible story that he can. So Russell had no regret here, flagging up the Doctor's failings and then completely forgetting what he'd just said.

That happens a lot, I think. He must be a very forgetful man.

SIGH.

[tencrush]

Yeah, list his atrocities without any comeback. Waytogo. And THEN the Doctor has the gall to call his clone guy an evil mass-murderer.

Thankfully, I can't even bring myself to post about Rose's story. It's too disgusting and disturbing for words and I'm still too squicked by it.

[crossoverman.livejournal.com]

Actually that is a great point - although Martha got the UNIT job because of the Doctor's recommendation. And Jack, in theory, joined Torchwood to find the Doctor.

I *want* to like the Doctor, but he has this history of destroying his companions.

As much as I hate to admit it, maybe that's a Ten thing - specifically. Because it's not true of all Companions through history, even though RTD got his hand's on Sarah Jane and had her pine away for him, too.

And I'm not sure anything excuses Donna. And given the fact Catherine Tate is unlikely to return any time soon, it can't even be a well-planned cliffhanger.

[kaimu.livejournal.com]

And it's not being left as a normal person that irritates me, it's that she was robbed of those memories - and the choice for those memories to be taken away. The power she had, well, the Doctor decided to take that away.

This. After the entire build up of the series, where Donna constantly showed the Doctor he doesn't always know what's best for himself or the world, is undermined by that one scene. Their wonderful dynamic, that she was a companion that could truly be the Doctor's conscience, is robbed.

At least the other 3 companions got consolation prizes, like you said. Though I think Martha got the best deal, respectable job, loving fiance, a family that, because or despite of tragedy is closer, Jack, getting away from the Doctor removed her inferiority issues, I think her life, arguably is better, but I think she was going to have a pretty good life regardless of the Doctor or not.

[crossoverman.livejournal.com]

Yes, I absolutely think she was going to have a great life - with or without him. But she got a crush, felt inferior to Rose (understandable - sometimes an ex is an impossible obstacle to overcome)... but then found the strength to move on. She got to raise her head high. She still had a great job. She found the guy from the year that never happened. She survived the year that never happened.

That said, all their lives have been changed by The Doctor. I just think her life can still be said to have been changed for the better. Rose, not so much. In all the sound and fury, why did she even have to go back to that parallel universe? Only to parallel the scene in Doomsday - which is now utterly tarnished. Still, she got to live.

Donna got changed. Donna got those years retconned out of her head. Retcon - that magic drug from Torchwood that is appalling in its implication - is apparently okay in the hands of The Doctor.

Unbelievable.

[rabow.livejournal.com]

As crossoverman said, I think the whole

history of destroying his companions

Is a New Who thing. I remember Classic Who finding new companions and saying goodbye to old ones not being, on the whole, so emotional and agonizing. Normally after a particularly large adventure, either the Doctor or the companion would realize they left the iron on at home and mutually agree to carry on with their lives, or explore it in a place they'd had fun with while traveling with the Doctor.

[boji.livejournal.com]

Since it's primarily a children's show, I don't know how much of a love life she can have in that medium though.

She has great chemistry with Maria's dad - Alan who lives across Bannerman Road. Oh for that May/September romance to be alluded to obliquely in the kids show! *g*