That Ten, he's brilliant!!

[psubrat]

If I think about the cause and effect of time travel, it really hurts my head.

Were Ten and River Song together in the future because he found her intriguing and irresistible? We'll never truly know, will we?

Let's follow Moffat's logic if we can:

1. Ten knows how River dies and why.

2. In order for River to save everyone, she needs to get Our!Ten to trust her. Therefore Future!Ten tells her his name (of course Our!Ten already knows this) -- it has nothing to do with the fact that she may be his wife or OMG!!HIS!!MOST!!SPECIAL!!COMPANION!!EVAH!! No, it's because it's the only way Our!Ten will trust some woman he's never met.

3. Future!Ten gives River his screwdriver in order to "save" her and also as a way for Our!Ten to recognize she's someone important to him.

All of these things MUST happen in order for Our!Ten to survive and he knows it. This is not to say the Doctor doesn't care about River, because he does. As mydeira said, how can he not? She selflessly gave her life to save the lives of the others and to keep Our!Ten from dying, thus preserving their time line. It's really quite sad.

I'm now fairly certain that Ten's not going to regenerate any time soon because not only does he need to do all of these things, but because River says in SitL: "You're younger than I've ever seen you." Does this mean Future!Ten is much older or does it mean in the time it takes Our!Ten to meet her again, he's had so many things happen to him that his eyes just look older? See, time travel cause and effect can give you a headache!!!

I'm glad Our!Ten never reads the journal. No spoilers, you know because spoilers are of the bad!! I think we've been hit over the head with that enough now to get what Moffat's saying: DON'T READ SPOILERS!! Yes, yes, I understand. Spoilers are bad. His warnings won't keep me from clicking on them though. *g*

As for the little girl...OMG! That poor little girl. I thought maybe she would turn out to be CAL, but I had no idea that she'd be THE node. Wow.

The episode was really very Matrix-y, wasn't it? Right down to Dr. Moon -- do you want the red pill or the blue pill?

Now for Donna...I kept thinking over and over how awful it was to give her this life -- husband she adored, children she loved as if they were her own -- only to have it ripped away. Because even if it turned out not to be real in the end, it felt real to her. Now she knows what it's like to love and be loved, and to have a family. And my heart broke when her "husband" saw her but couldn't get her name out because of his stutter. I'm hoping these two crazy kids find their way back to each other otherwise it would just be tragic. Then again, it's Moffat and he loves the tragedy, doesn't he?

Yes, as I said last week, Steven Moffat brings the creepy and the edge of your seat thrills, but there's one other thing he brings:

"Just this once Rose, everybody lives!!"

I'm going to enjoy him as DW's front runner in 2010.


ETA: Does it creep out anyone else that it was the pages of the books that brought the Vashta Nerada to the library? I mean, omg I own a ton of books. I don't think I'll ever look at them the same way.

Do they make a spray for that?

Comments

[adriana-is.livejournal.com]

Time travel gives me a migraine like whoa! I'm glad you could figure this out because see above.

My little Ten/Rose shipper heart broke a little but then the migraine kicked in.

Wonderful episode!!!

[psubrat.livejournal.com]

I am really looking forward to see what Moffat does with series 5 in 2010. He's a brilliant writer. Yeah, he broke my shipper heart, but it was still a compelling story.

I still don't think I have that time travel thing figured out though. :)

[tripocket.livejournal.com]

See these are the same things I thought. Not only did he need to tell her something that would instantly cause him to trust her, but he needed to be certain she had what he needed to solve the issue. I take it a step farther and say that when he meets her in the future, his feelings for her are somewhat lead by what he knows she will eventually do..so that he doesn't have to. It's why he programmed her screwdriver to work in ways his doesn't. (And to be certain he could put her in the Matrix.) That's not to say he doesn't care about her, but to say she's more important to him than anyone else he's ever travelled with just doesn't come through for me.

I feel so bad for Donna. Everything just keeps pointing to things possibly going very bad for her.

[psubrat.livejournal.com]

That's not to say he doesn't care about her, but to say she's more important to him than anyone else he's ever travelled with just doesn't come through for me.

Exactly!! I don't think she's his wife, or maybe she is, but I think their relationship had more to do with what she did and why than it did with romantic intentions on the Doctor's part. Then again, that could just be my Ten/Rose shipper heart talking. ;)

As for Donna, I'm fearing the worst when it comes to her. She's definitely my second favorite companion (behind Rose) because she doesn't have romantic intentions toward Ten and she's an equal to him. Rose is just special and always will be because she was my first companion and because Nine and Ten were so clearly in love with her. ::sniff:: I think I need to go watch my series 2 DVDs now.

[elvinborn.livejournal.com]

completely broke my heart when Donna's man couldn't call to her. I was bummed when she couldn't find him, but to have him right there and just not able to call out to her?!!!


Doctor Who: don't read kids, the books make the shadows eat you. ;)


Moffat sure knows how to keep me on the edge of my seat. Somehow I always find myself biting my nails for his eps, and I never bite my nails.

[psubrat.livejournal.com]

Doctor Who: don't read kids, the books make the shadows eat you.

Seriously!! I'm telling you, I need a spray now for Vasta Nerada because I'm scared to touch my books!! (not really, but you know what I mean)

Moffat sure knows how to keep me on the edge of my seat.

He really, really does. The only episode I don't like that he wrote was "The Girl in the Fireplace" -- yeah the clockwork men were disturbing but I hated Reinette too much to care.

[elvinborn.livejournal.com]

hee! yes. I'm watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade and wandering if they know about the evil shadows as they walk into the library that used to be a church. Prime Vasta Nerada space if you ask me!

I'm glad I'm not the only one who wasn't completely in love with GitF. I didn't hate anything about it, and I did love the clockwork bad guys, but it's definitely not high on my list of eps that I like.

[appomattoxco.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. River seemed like just another long term companion to me. It's just the way ten is. I really loved the episode. I only found one thing annoying.

Did River have to be tucking the kids into bed at the end? It gave me the feeling that every woman's perfect world includes motherhood. I didn't mind it with Donna because I think it's in character. I think she's gotten past feeling like a failure without a man but would still like a family.

I know it might have been to show that CAL was being taken care of by somebody real but it still irked.

[liliaeth]

I think I would have liked it better, if River had just been tucking in Cal,without the other two kids added to it. (course, I'm guessing those kids were Cal's brother and sister, and that's why she used those images for Donna as well. Because CAL wanted her family back.)

I also loved that they messed up the image of the cliché business man, by having the guy, not out to protect proffit, but to protect CAL.

[psubrat.livejournal.com]

I also loved that they messed up the image of the cliché business man, by having the guy, not out to protect proffit, but to protect CAL.

That was a wonderful twist at the end, wasn't it? I was really impressed. I like it when I'm wrong about a character. It means the story was really well written.

[psubrat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, a lot of people reacted the same way you did about her tucking the kids in at the end. I thought it was a bit much that all of a sudden she was a mom to three kids. CAL I could understand, but the other two was a bit over the top. I think it was just Moffat's way of saying that everybody lives this time.

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

Ten is wonderful! The "look me up" line was simply brilliant. I loved it. And it's going to be hard for the actor who has to replace David Tennant.

But poor, poor Donna...

[psubrat.livejournal.com]

And it's going to be hard for the actor who has to replace David Tennant.

Then let's just hope Tennant's not leaving any time soon. Rumors aside, I don't think he's going off quietly into the night because he's wanted to be Doctor Who since he was a little boy. :)

Poor Donna indeed. ::hugs Donna::

[pann-da-bear.livejournal.com]

Interesting observations. I say that Ten "fixed" the core by adding River to it and making her blended/dominant, as suggested by the ending. She will help CAL make decisions and grow up as needed. And every kid needs a companion - maybe those two were siblings, or called Donna and The Doctor. Such a diversely qualified individual could handle the job of guiding or being the core. And maybe she doesn't need a man, but the mothering instinct was not out of line - is that chauvanistic? Great ep! Maybe cause in RL Donna and him might just be a fantasy, while this way, she has the love, tho lost. Cheers - P

[psubrat.livejournal.com]

And maybe she doesn't need a man, but the mothering instinct was not out of line - is that chauvanistic?

I think it was to a point, but perhaps we're reading too much into things. I liked her tucking in CAL, but the other two I just shook my head at. But I think showing them was Moffet's way of showing that everyone got to live.