SPOILERS FOR DW S4, Ep. 11... It was a dark and stormy night.

[rabid1st]

Suddenly, a shot rang out.

A door slammed.

The maid screamed.

In another part of the universe the Doctor sipped a non-fat, half-caff, triple caramel latte.

In part three, we tie all this together.*



Well, I've had a night's sleep and a stern look from Kes this morning and I'm feeling more like tying it all together. Keep in mind this is just a way of looking at things...a sort of dessert coffee on the episode. I like being dessert. :grin:

Okay, we know that "a universe without the Doctor scarcely bears thinking on" as the Master once said. And here we see that acted out...his life is full of pain and death and suffering...but someone has to do it...and it's him. Really, that's the end of our story. He goes on and on suffering...for all of us...forever and ever, Amen! And maybe I am the only one who thought the humans did okay stopping the end of the world six times over there...with only a pair of tweezers and a bottle of olive oil at their disposal. I was rather proud of the humans. Sure they died by the truckload and it hurt...but they stopped the world from ending just like the Doctor stopped it.

But as much as Sarah Jane and Jack's team and Martha kick ass..they're not Time Lords. And I think we have to go all the way back to Parting of the Ways to see what makes you a Time Lord.

RTD has seeded this information as we have gone along. So, we know that exposure to the Time Vortex is vital. Rose has that--CHECK! It isn't biology that makes you a Time Lord. Because Jenny doesn't have it--CHECK! Yes, Jenny came back to life...but she didn't really regenerated...and the Doctor tells us flat out...it's not biology that makes you a Time Lord. It is a shared history and pain. This is consistent with the Master still being a Time Lord after he loses his Gallifreyan body. So...there is something else...something we haven't seen, yet. Something involving...sharing.

Then, there is training to be a Time Lord. It happened on Gallifrey in a nice safe academy. How typical of an indolent race. But, if you look around at humans (and especially back into our history), you will see many cases of less formal training for jobs. You used to become a doctor...by apprenticing to a doctor...not by going to school. I think you could become trained to be a Time Lord...by traveling with another Time Lord. As Rose said to Donna, "I used to be you." Rose has traveled with the Doctor for her Time Lord training--CHECK!

Finally, you have to be willing to sacrifice your own life for the good of others. You have to do what Rose does in Parting of the Ways--CHECK! Ah...but...here we have the flaw in the perfect Rose. And, if I am right about part 3 tying all this together, then we have the core of the Doctor's dilemma. Rose really was also motivated by HIM, by her love for him. And I think he was motivated by his love for her, too.

I think in that moment...looking up at Bad Wolf/Rose...the Doctor discovered that humans could be so much more than he thought they could...and he saw this possiblity before Rose...she could be a Time Lord...she has what it takes. Look at her flexing those Time Lord muscles even now. All he has to do...is let go of her all-too-human hand. He has to be willing to sacrifice what makes her ROSE...to make her his successor.

So, he's telling himself all of this in S2...that is why he is so torn about her...he has finally found this person he can share his Time Lordliness with...but...he keeps hesitating on what Rose is...what she means to him. And that's because, subconsciously, something ELSE happened to the Doctor...he fell in love with Rose Tyler. He thinks she's perfect just the way she is...and wants to share something else with her...not just his lofty Title. He wants to cuddle her (and I bet he notices her hair, too. In fact, we've seen him notice...how pink and yellow she is).

Now, he has this dilemma...sacrifice his beloved and "perfect" Rose to have Time Lords again and be free of his lonely burden. She would live forever but she wouldn't be Rose Tyler anymore...she'd be some strange woman in the marketplace. Or...he could put Rose somewhere safe...and hope that he can think of a way out of the inevitable Bad Wolf end. I think that's why he wanted her to go be with her mom...to buy himself some time. When he saw the Daleks again in Doomsday...he thought, this is IT! Rose doesn't die...she regenerates...but he loses her anyway. Then, there it was--the chance to buy some time...and he snatched at it with both hands. Send Rose somewhere safe...and figure out what to do. But Rose is coming back...and the stage is set for them to be joined, and yet, parted forever.

I think the Doctor may well have seen the end of the universe coming from his time with the Vortex inside his head. I think Rose might have seen it coming, too. I think the Wolf might have taken steps to fix everything...arrange for the Donna meetings even. Or it could just be fate...but the thing is...Donna qualifies to be a Time Lord, too. Donna has been exposed to the Heart of the TARDIS...linked to it. Donna has traveled and been trained. Now, Donna has stepped up and proved that she is willing to lay down her life to save others...make what would be the ultimate, selfless sacrifice.

But there is more. Unlike Rose, Donna is in love with THAT part of the Doctor...the Time Lordly part...the part that lusts for new horizons and wants to be special. Rose loves his hair. She wants to take care of him, touch him, hold him. It reads as lover...even to Donna and Reinette and other people. It is a different sort of love than Donna's love for her mentor...but both sorts of love could be equally moving and valid.

We know Rose is CAPABLE of becoming a Time Lord. She has the hubris...the nerve and the skills and the flashes of brilliant insight. She understands why the Doctor does what he does and is who he is. But would she WANT to be a Time Lord? I don't know that she would. Because, as the Doctor said in Utopia, when Rose had all that power..."everything she did was so human." Let's face it...Donna would have been tempted to play god. Donna is more suited to be a Time Lord than Rose. Just as Rose is more suited to be the Doctor's true love...than Donna.

If Donna steps up into Rose's Time Lord shoes...she can free the Doctor and Rose to be together...and also be very special herself. All she has to be willing to do is take on the Doctor's burden of pain and suffering and loss. Share it with him, I think. Not steal it from him...not TAKE his memories and pain...but share them and make them lighter. With all of that sharing comes tremendous power and a renewable life...and maybe a baby TARDIS...a whole universe revolving around Donna...the Whoniverse anyway. She would be the most important person in creation...an ordinary person.

It is a blessing and a curse to be a Time Lord. We have seen that all along in New Who. RTD never flinched from it. The Doctor, for all his forced cheer, is pretty damned sick of all the dying. Sick enough to have been ready to kill himself after Rose was lost. I don't think he would ever wish his life on his beloved Rose. But, he might think that is the inevitable outcome of all this. The universe ends...or Rose becomes a Time Lord to stop it.

But he might very well get around that outcome...if he ties it all together in part 3. He could speak to both sides of his heritage (if he truly is half-human on his mother's side...then he is torn). Half of him wants to breed as a Time Lord...pass on his knowledge...but the other half of him wants a normal life with Rose.

He could gift his best friend Donna with something she longs for with all her might...the chance to be HIM in a universe that revolves around HER...by sharing all he is with her instead of with Rose. Don't think of it as Rose losing out--Rose gets what she wants, her beloved Doctor at peace and with her. Or of losing Donna--she'll still be in there. Or of losing the Doctor--he'll be in there, too. Think of it as--a marriage. We gain a parallel universe full of new and wonderful possiblities for DoctorDonna, friend of the Ood. The Doctor and Rose gain a happy life together.

*Redux: Okay...so I lied a little about the latte...but really...that's not a spoiler in any true sense of the word, is it?



Rae
*This if from a famous bit where Snoopy writes the "great American novel"...definitely not giving you spoilers for this episode...those are below the cut.

Comments

[wickedgillie.livejournal.com]

::bounces up and down in squeeish agreement, and also from the extra caffeine::

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Glad you liked it...or were caffeinated.

Rae

[wickedgillie.livejournal.com]

twas that caramel latte wot did it, lol!

[princessblue791.livejournal.com]

To be honest I still wasn't sure your thoery would hold water. Then after last nights eppie, I was saying it loud in the empty newsroom,"my god Rae was right". The stage is set for it. Donna was made for the role of being a Time Lord. Remember when Gramps said she was a little general? Thats what is needed to be the Doctor. To pull the reins on this runaway horse and get control.Makes sense, bravo! I wish I could do that.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Yep! Donna would take to being a Time Lord alright...and we don't want to give her the Vortex power either...or she'd play god.

And I would like to note...if I'm right...then all the credit goes to RTD because that would mean he really was making sense all along. And I will have to...basically...stand up (possibly on my chair seat) and applaud him until my palms get all red and ouchy.

Here's hoping for sore palms in two weeks time. :grin:

Rae

[arabian.livejournal.com]

Brilliant theory, I do love it so. And, if I haven't said it before, I must now: I simply ADORE your header. I generally make my own desktops, but do you by chance have that in desktop-form, I could stare at it all day long.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Thank you! And thank you!

And I, too, love my header...but I can take no credit for it and have no copies. I link to someone else. I will try to get you the username of the person who did it for me (and Ramblinsuze. Suze knows the name)...but I can't remember the name off the top of my head. She does extraordinarily beautiful things and I'm sure would be happy to give you a desktop of this.

Rae

[arabian.livejournal.com]

Thank you. It's so very lovely. :D

(Hee, I almost just made an icon with that very pic of the Doctor, but I wanted it to be a David and not Doctor shot.)

[auntiesuze.livejournal.com]

The layout was made by nisrin, but I made a desktop version for myself. Let's see...ah, here you go: http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g174/auntiesuze/1header.jpg

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

OMG! Suze! Your icon! I loves it!


Rae

Whoohoo for new DoctorDonna theory!

[frodolass.livejournal.com]

Donna as a Time Lord? Now this is a speculation I love and can really sink my teeth into. Ever since you mentioned Donna becoming the Doctor, I have definitely been seeing the possibilities there. Just little comparisons here and there, little "what-if" hints. Donna investigating the Adipose. Donna willing to push the kill button with the Doctor in Pompeii. Donna wanting to hear the song of the Ood, even though her human heart couldn't take the pain in the end. Donna wanting to travel in the TARDIS forever. Heck, Donna's general insight into the Doctor, being able to call him on his BS and to empathise with him even on the most alien of concepts. Weirdly enough, though, the scene that really hit it home for me is when they are standing side by side in the Library and she asks the Doctor if "All right" was just Time Lord language for not being all right, because if so then she is "all right" too. And then she misses her "husband" a moment later, just as the Doctor misses Rose earlier in the season. Not sure why that similarity struck me so hard, but I became fully aware of how very alike the Doctor and Donna are, in a way different than how alike Rose and the Doctor had become.

I can totally see what you are talking about with the Doctor grooming his companions for Time Lord status. It carries on from the classic series with the Doctor often taking on the role of mentor to his assistants, especially Seven and Ace, whom was intended to be sent off to Time Lord Academy when they parted ways. The Doctor always seemed to be feeling out for the potential in the people he travelled with, even if it was on a subconscious level most of the time.

And in S2, I think you make perfect sense when you say that the Doctor is torn over making Rose his successor, trying to make himself let go of his perfect Rose, because of all those little incidents where a lot of people feel that the Doctor was being distant from Rose, bringing Mickey on board as a buffer, playing the dashing lonely angel to French tarts courtesans. Of course, by the time of The Age of Steel, those efforts had so obviously fallen apart as the Doctor can't seem to want to stop being near her, touching her, hugging her, glorifying in his so very human Rose Tyler. Trying to send her away in Doomsday might have been more than just an effort to save her and could have been some last ditch effort to preserve her as she was, before his travels changed her irrevocably.

I can see Donna's situation being different. The Doctor would be able to let Donna go, let her make that choice, to have his life, become like him. He could share that burden that he would never wish on Rose. He wouldn't be the only one looking out for the universe, and he could rest. With Rose. It's all in keeping with RTD's theme that human beings are amazing and have the potential to be greater still. "They are capable of so much more," Nine had said in the very first episode of the new series.

Why not this, then?

And you know what else?

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

It works with Last of the TIme Lords and "The Master and his...wife." And the Doctor and his comments about wives. What if the Time Lord's have that sort of wifely relationship with their successor...it sort of has some wife connotations...especially if they share a name, "The Doctor." They would share...lives...all he is he would share with her...except his human heart and his body which both belong to Rose.

While Ace she didn't go off to the Academy in canon...you are right, she was being groomed for it by Seven...probably because he was reaching that age where you have to pick someone. And the basic principles would seem to apply to many people the Doctor has had onboard...even Romana ended up being mentored by him. Most of the humans he's known...gave up and went on with their lives...like Martha. Or he left them behind...like Jack and Sarah Jane. RTD eats up the book canon, turning it back into official canon...so the idea could come into play again...Human Time Lords.

Rae

Re: Whoohoo for new DoctorDonna theory!

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

just an effort to save her and could have been some last ditch effort to preserve her as she was, before his travels changed her irrevocably.

Right! Exactly! If you listen to RTD, he will tell you that Jackie acts as a good friend to Rose when she tells her she will "keep changing" if she goes on traveling with the Doctor. She is already so much like him that the humanity of Rose Tyler is fading. And I think that the Doctor knows this is what SHOULD happen if Rose is to be a Time Lord. But just like Jackie, he can't bear it...he wants her safe and unchanged.

Of course, it is too late...because the Bad Wolf is loose in the universe already. But I think he hoped to spare her from becoming him...because he had to have seen just what we saw...how Rose could hold her own with the Daleks...and that had to say to him, "She's changing."

Some change is good. I'm not saying he should stifle Rose from being all that she can be...I'm saying she was becoming HIM for the wrong reason...she was becoming him because she loved him...not because she wanted to BE him. Rose was becoming a Time Lord because she wouldn't leave him. Donna, I think...won't leave him because she wants to be a Time Lord. Different motivations. And they should both be rewarded...Rose with her beloved and Donna with a special future. So, then, all will be right with the universe again. :grin:

Rae

[fidesangelus.livejournal.com]

Brilliant! Morning dessert. ;)

So my thoughts on your thoughts. I definitely see you're argument about the potential for another Time Lord resulting at the end of the season being more and more possible/likely and it definitely would make sense that the potential has been there since the end of season 1 when Rose absorbed the Time Vortex because in DW Confidential from last night's episode RTD mentions how wonderful it is to be able to have the freedom to seed plot ideas throughout a whole season to set up the ending so drawing threads from one of the major events in the series and Rose's character into the storyline of ending the 4th season and the return of Rose would be pretty fantastic.

But really I wanted to comment on the fact that I re-watched Doomsday last night because I was just in such a Rose mood and I had a new found appreciation for the scene when Rose and Mickey are about to be killed by the Daleks and Rose challenges them with her taunting, telling them how she destroyed the emperor, "god of all Daleks and I killed him..." and she laughs in the face of her apparent imminent demise. So much of a Doctor thing to do, even back then, and then yesterday's episode showed how she continued to change even after the Doctor left but she's still Rose Tyler. :D

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Yes! And we must remember that the Doctor walks in about there...with his whole...hang on wait a minute. And so he might have overheard her comments to the Dalek...and gotten a little chill of apprehension...the more I think on this...the more I think that he was torn as I said...between his Time Lord side and his human side. Torn between wanting to find a successor and wanting to breed...and wouldn't it be so like the Master to be doing the same thing with Lucy Saxon...and making it corrupt.

So taking Lucy and training her but also giving in to lust with her...so it's a mockery of what the relationship should be with mentor/student. A sort of way to mock the Doctor's humanity...and secret desires. I know that may be too much on that scene...but I can see the Doctor recoiling from the idea of wanting to breed with his...well...Donna would be a sort of sibling, I suppose. And Rose might have seemed to be lined up for that...but that wasn't how he felt about her. As RTD says...even the Doctor doesn't really know how he feels about Rose yet. How much he loves her...and really...the WAY he loves her, I think are still to come into play.

Rae

[fidesangelus.livejournal.com]

Yeah I always thought that the conflict the Doctor faces over having Rose go or stay with him was more than losing her because he was afraid that if she stayed he'd lose her anyway.

I love that RTD says that the Doctor isn't even aware of how much he loves Rose but at the same time, he's got to be aware that he feels more for her then he should and at the end of Doomsday he was going to cross a line. We aren't 100% sure what line that was going to be but he was going to cross one because it was Rose and it was probably his last chance to do it.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I think the Doctor is tangled up because he doesn't have any sort of model or pattern for his feelings for Rose. He sort of gave into those feelings with a happy melting into her in S2...and then found his "same old life" coming up to hit him in the back of the head like a sockful of wet sand.

I hope that Donna...will give him a clue...because Donna is one sharp cookie and she has the added advantage of having seen the Doctor mourning Rose...and Rose mourning him.

Rae

[fidesangelus.livejournal.com]

Donna can be the voice of reason and just yell at both of them to get on with it cause the universe is ending and they need to say whatever they need to so they aren't distracted when the fight comes. ;) Lol, that's my hope anyway.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Yeah...I have this hope that the Doctor and Rose will be going on about how one of them has to die...and holding onto one another and Donna will just step between them and go, "Oh, for God's Sake. Just...let me do it." And they will both chorus..."No, no, no...you can't!" "Oh, is that right? Is that because you are both so special?"

Rae

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I think the Doctor is tangled up because he doesn't have any sort of model or pattern for his feelings for Rose. He sort of gave into those feelings with a happy melting into her in S2...and then found his "same old life" coming up to hit him in the back of the head like a sockful of wet sand.

I hope that Donna...will give him a clue...because Donna is one sharp cookie and she has the added advantage of having seen the Doctor mourning Rose...and Rose mourning him.

Rae

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Well...the set up is definitely children of time-ish. That the Doctor is training these humans to take over from him. And then you have Rose who is the best at it. But the simple truth is...Rose, like the Doctor at this point, really would rather just retire and make babies, I bet. She's probably worn out with her quest to find him...stressed and pained...and he wouldn't want that for her...anymore than she wants it for him.

Rose is the only one that really feels that he needs a rest and comfort. Donna does see his pain...but she also is taken by the wonders that keep him going. I think that there is a clue in New Earth. "Oh, I love this...different sky, different ground beneath my feet...can I just say...? Traveling with you? I love it!" And he grins and says, "Me, too!" But with Donna...it is about the traveling...he talks about how exciting it all is for her...but from a distance (she's actually inside changing into a more practical costume). For Donna it is not the "With HIM" part, she loves...it is the traveling part.

Rae

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

I do indeed think Rose's universe is screwed without her. But I also think that we might merge universe or something. I think that the Doctor is going to Rose rather than Rose coming with him. She will be the Time Lord in a way...and he will be the companion. This is the premise, anyway, of my Wild Geese sequel.

I feel that the humans the Doctor has touched are his new people...children he is bringing along...and he will start elevating them...with Donna, not Rose. But also...he will give in to his need to have a natural family with Rose.

Looked at from one angle...Donna is much more important than Rose...as Rose will wither and die and the Doctor might well go on after that. Looked at from another angle, Rose is his true soulmate...his true love...and so the most important. But looked at properly, they are equally important to him as they represent different parts of him relating to people...just as Martha and Jack and Sarah Jane are different parts of him.

Martha, Jack and Sarah Jane all needed something from the Doctor that he wasn't willing to give them. And so they were able to take his lessons and apply them to their human world. Rose is transcending her human world simply because she is drawn back to him. And Donna is transcending her human world because she was born to transcend it.

Rose says it again...in her Doomsday voiceover..."And then I met a man called the Doctor and he took me away in his magical machine"...for her...it is always about him...she transcends to be near him, like him, one with him. But I think in a human way...rather than a Time Lordly way. While, I think Donna might transcend to be LIKE him.

Rae

[amybtvsfreak.livejournal.com]

...and wasn't there a fear that Jackie had in Army of Ghosts that Rose was becoming like the Doctor? That she may be someone that even her own mother wouldn't recognize? Hmmmm.....

[circe-tigana.livejournal.com]

Every now and then I come over to find out more about your crazy theory crack ;)

Okay, so playing along -- does that make Donna's dreams of marriage and children in the Library episodes into his John Smith fantasies? She's undergone that same trial by fire and come through, making her worthy?

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Yes...essentially, I think Donna has been taking the short course in Time Lording. Rose took the long course, but was side-tracked when she and the professor fell in love. Rose is capable of doing the job as we see in Turn Left...but she might not WANT to do the job. Lots of people invest in her desire to travel with him...and her saying nothing ever happened in her old life, "nothing at all" to mean Rose wants to travel the stars forever.

But I think that is more consistent to Donna's temperment and the Doctor's than Rose's. Rose wanted to be with him and understood him and why he does what he does. But when she is confronted in any way about WHY she keeps traveling...she refers back to the Doctor. She tells her mother than she can't go with her to that other world because..."He does it alone...saves every stinkin' world."

She also tells her mother that she won't be settling down because, "The Doctor never will." So, she will just keep traveling for him. I don't think it is some kind of horrible burden for her to travel, as some OTHER people act like it is...it is just that she puts being with the Doctor at the top of her priorities.

Now...if we compare Rose to say...Sarah Jane...SJS states, "You were my life." But that's not true of Rose, either. Rose took an active part in the relationship. True, she didn't mention she loved him until it was too late...but she made her wishes pretty clear to him...and so, unlike that blank stare he gives SJS, with Rose he says, "Quite right, too."

I think that what we have is this broad spectrum of complex relationships that are more in harmony with one another than most fans are willing to admit. I could be completely wrong about where the show is heading...but it does seem to be playing out along perfectly logical lines so far. And every companion is important. I think Donna...if she is the Doctor's super-temp...could be considered vital.

Rae

[circe-tigana.livejournal.com]

i do love this idea of super temp.

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Thanks! And it's nice to know you stop in and read my crack!speculation from time to time. I'm always happy to see you.

As for the validity of any of my theories...well...I tend to overthink things and I've been surprised by RTD at every finale so far. So, I wouldn't be surprised to be surprised again. :grin:

But I did even call Davros and the Daleks for the walls between the worlds coming down.

And I would be surprised by (and disappointed in) RTD if he fails to bring his Rose/Doctor love story to a ringing and satisfying conclusion. It's just such an epic story...the Time Lord and the Shopgirl...taking just one aspect of it into account: very idea that "they keep trying to separate us"...plays into the conclusion that separating them is a bad idea.

Rae

[rabid1st.livejournal.com]

Anyway...to go back to the Super-Temp idea. Well, that would just be gravy on the pork chop, wouldn't it? I mean...Donna is so very cool and her relationship with the Doctor is very much like a big sister. She shouts at him and takes care of him and, I think, will be thrilled with Rose as a mate for him. Donna, after all, wants him to have a family again.

I think she could take care of the universe for a little while...so he can go on maternity leave. :smirk:

Rae