More about Parting of the Ways

[owl]

The Doctor couldn't kill the Daleks. When it came to pressing that switch, he couldn't do it. I have a hunch that pre-Nine Doctors would have, that the Doctor couldn't do it again after what he had done to Gallifrey/the Time Lords. But it's a selfish choice, like the one to let Rose out of the vault in Dalek. All the humans on earth are going to suffer a fate worse than death is he doesn't pull that lever. He had no idea the TARDIS ex machina was going to turn up.
in fact, Jack's, "Never doubted him. Never will." was misplaced confidence. and then they went and left him behind!

Comments

[autographedcat.livejournal.com]

If he knew for certain that it would be the end of it, I think he could have pushed the button. But he made that choice once before, destroyed all of Gallifrey and still there are Daleks. Having done that embittered and hardened him in ways he was only just beginning to recover from. He couldn't take the risk of causing that much devestation and failing again.

[tommx.livejournal.com]

i think that the doctor was incapable of acting not because he lost his courage, but because he was finally broken. everyone around him had been killed. rose was the only person he could save, but she was gone, and he had to face the monsters that had destroyed his homeworld. (or that he was forced to destroy his homeworld to defeat)

i would say that he basically was finished. shell shocked. kaput.

rose helped him redeem himself which was what she was all about in the first place.

Jack wasn't left behind

[aexia.livejournal.com]

The Doctor believed he was dead and Rose forgot she resurrected him.

I think it's a case of the Doctor not willing to make the same choice again. He sacrificed his own people to defeat the Daleks and it failed. I think it came down to him not willing to bear the moral price of killing so many people again.

Re: Jack wasn't left behind

[owl]

I'm not bitter at Rose and the Doctor, I'm bitter at the writers. Grr.

[jadelennox]

The Doctor has chosen not to destroy the Daleks before.