Ok, I'm un-appropriating Last of the Time Lords right now

[owl]

angua9 made an interesting post a couple of days ago about appreciation vs appropriation of canon. (Briefly, appreciators enjoy it as is and if it stops being enjoyable, they wander off, while appropriators become attached to one aspect of it, or to the fanon, to the point where the canon disappoints them and the post screeds of complaint, or in extreme cases, wed Snape on the astral plane.

I fear I may have slightly appropriated Doctor Who recently, or in other words become one of a new breed of rapid Martha fen. Or possibly Last of the Time Lords was a complete stinker of an episode, down there with Love and Monsters.

Things in LotTL that I'm throwing out of my personal canon:


Aged!Doctor. It is necessary that he be hors de combat in order for the Doctor-in-training to come into her own, but turning him into Gollum is just embarrassing. And the hundred-year-old prosthetic isn't as good as they think it is, either.

I can't buy that the only thing the Doctor and the Jones would think of in a whole year is a plan that was useless. Not to mention the underuse of Jack. Hey, if the problem is solved by shooting the paradox machine, why didn't Jack try it months ago? He doesn't exactly have anything to lose.

I like the idea of Martha fighting with words instead of weapons, but not floating glowing Doctor. I'd have Martha's stories breaking Archangel's psychic field, or turning it against the Master, but not the believing in the Doctor business, that's not going to be good for his God complex. And her elaborate ruse to get aboard the Valiant was unnecessary-the plan, such as it was, would have worked perfectly well with Martha sitting on a beach in Brighton.

The Doctor standing in silence when Martha said she wasn't second-best. After a series of unrequited rubbish, it wouldn't have killed him to say something more than "Yes" "OK" and "Is this going anywhere?" I have little hope that this will be fixed later, either.
And I hated that Martha's real reason for leaving was because the Doctor wouldn't wuv her, as if that's so much more important than her family or her career.

Normally I'm more of an appreciator than an appropriator, or, as the Harmoanians or Draco-in-leather brigade would call me, a sheep. I mostly ship with what I think is the canon, and my fanfics are mainly fill-in-the-gaps, might have happened off-screen shorts.

However, I've just noticed that I'm more of an appropriator when the canon is many-authored: Lord of the Rings (book) or Harry Potter I just read and discuss, I don't even fanfic much, whereas with a TV series like Doctor Who or Battlestar Galactica it seems much easier to say "I'm going to quietly ignore episode X-after all, the writers dropped plotline Y and forgot about it two series ago." Also, the quality of TV series varies much more than a series of books by the same author. Films, like Potc, are somewhere in between, and Star Wars is a bit unusual: all the six films are canon (and I don't care that much when Han shot), but I throw out the books except for any interesting world-building I want to use in fic, and I've written a long original character fic that 's happening just off-screen. I suppose I appreciate the Skywalkers' story, but I've appropriated their world.

New Who is especially easy, because in a way it's fanon: Rusty and Co are fans who have got the opportunity to make a giant fanvid of the original series, complete with Mary Sues.

Comments

[legionseagle.livejournal.com]

Actually, I've just seen it and I thought it was awesome. YM definitely does vary, obviously (and I agree about the prosthetic, but well - this was the show that did green painted bubble-wrap as the villain once.

But Martha was awesome. I've experienced desperate hero-worshipping unrequited love - he wasn't a Time Lord, obviously (gay, as I discovered finally only the month before last; me being unrequited and yearning obviously suited him as a sort of camouflage, not that he intended any harm by keeping me hanging all those years, bless) but in my case it lasted seven years or so, not the eighteen months or so we have to assume Martha's did.

But is trying to do good things in the hope of impressing someone who isn't going to be interested in the right way so much to be despised? I thought it was a heart-breaking portrayal of someone who was brought to realise her true potential through - but past - unrequited love (and calling up the young doctor was such a cool move, yah!) because unrequited love happens, it hurts, it's no-one's fault (I love Jack for his calm, unjudgemental "You too, huh?" in the last episode-but-one).

Of course it was the most important thing to her - at the time. I shaped my entire career because of bloke concerned in my case. It was, actually, a good direction; I loved him because - as it turned out - we had a basic congruity of outlook on the world. I learned to look at things more fully because I was in love at a particular time. I became - I believe - a better person as a result. And that sort of development was what I - personally - took from that episode.

And I loved Martha's gesture with the flowers to the Professor.

I was absolutely wibbling throughout, and even when the special effects got silly - and they did, hell they did - I was still wibbling.

That made me cry, anyway, and I'd normally trade a thousand RTDs for one Stephen Moffat.

[owl]

The awesomeness of Martha was one of the good things about this episode (the other being the Master's death scene).

The love...it would have been fine with me if it hadn't been coming on the heels of Rose, who seemed at some points in s2 to have subsumed her identity entirely into the Doctor, and said this is how I died when what actually happened was that she lost Her Man. She started off fancying him and being snarky about his trousers, and then suddenly in Human Nature it was how she loved the Doctor.

Have you seen all the hooha about the race thing?

[legionseagle.livejournal.com]

Yes, I've seen the hoohah.

It seemed very silly to me.

Apparently some people thought it Wasn't Responsible for RTD to depict the Master (a Barking Mad Meglomaniac (TM)) to be shown as Also A Racist.

Which part of "Martha was brilliant and saved the world" wasn't responsible about it I lost interest in deciphering. Which part of "prepared and sensible" Martha's family were seemed to have been lost in the flood.

Look, fandom, deal:

Martha carried the Word. In her special sense, but RTD like me was, I expect, brought up proper. I can see why that might be uncomfortable as a quasi religious proposition, but for me Martha was more realistic and infinitely more heroic than Rose (Rose did it with Tardis power, Martha did it with her feet and voice).

Martha is wonderful and the race-wank seems to be so missing the point. For - after al - Jack the Uber-WASP doesn't get him either.

[owl]

Oh, I think the Master putting the Jones in the maid outfits was meant to be 'Look, villain going for maximum humiliation by evoking oppressive history.'
It was, however, unfortunate that the two characters who are pointedly Not Rose were played by black actors. I'm still annoyed by Mickey having to save the world three time before he got any appreciation at all.

[flummoxicated.livejournal.com]

I think if you look at the whole season there's some things that can be read as racial - Human Nature / Family of Blood, for example. Though that was the attitude in the early 20th century, to be sure.

[legionseagle.livejournal.com]

Yes; I don't think we can really say RTD superimposed his own personal racism, sexism and class-conflict on the egalitarian paradise that was the pre-WWI British Empire...

[owl]

I was so pleased that they didn't give Joan and John 21st century liberal attitudes because they were the good guys, like they didn't in the Dalek two-parter. I would have expected Martha's grumble to the TARDIS to have been 'Would have been that hard to find somewhere we both were inconspicuous?' or 'I can't stop him from doing the things he said not to listen because his era-appropriate attitudes mean he doesn't listen to a word I say' instead of 'He's fallen in love with someone else', because I am so tired of all the companions being in love with the Doctor. Before that it seemed like Martha and the Doctor liked and trusted each other, and she appreciated his trousers ;), which would have been a nice change from Rose if they'd kept it up. And she has a degree to get and a family to look after, which is reason enough for her to leave. Can we have a female companion who isn't motivated by romantic love now, please?

[liliaeth]

I actually find that whole race wank more insulting to Martha and her family than RTD ever was. It's like they seem to ignore everything that makes these characters great, just for the sake of some 'perceived' insult to race.

[owl]

What about Mickey? Both of them are awesome, both of them end up leaving because the Doctor doesn't love them as much as Rose. While Jack just says 'Sorry, I have to go and be on BBC2 look after my gang of incompetents'.

It's probably just the effect of Rose the Mary Sue, but it can look a bit bad. You're right about some of the wank, I've seen some people saying, in effect, Martha/the Jones aren't showing the right stereotypes.

Personally, I think we had two many Joneses and not enough time to spend on them—Rose had have the family members and twice the time. I liked Francine's arc, and I wish Tish had had something to do that wasn't 'See how evil and sexist/racist Saxon is. See the blinking BAD GUY SIGN over his head.'
I'm still annoyed that she was shown as shallow—back off, sleazy octogenarian, but now you're young I'll snog you.

[flummoxicated.livejournal.com]

I pretty much agree with your assessment here. I thought aging the Doctor - twice - was just OTT. Having everyone "believe" in The Doctor as the solution to defeat The Master, well, isn't that a bit like Tinker Bell in Peter Pan?

I appreciate a bit of sexual tension between characters, but at the end of the last season, Rose and The Doctor were a bit too flirty. Then comes Martha, poor Martha! So desperate for The Doctor. I'm with you, in my version of LotTL I imagine The Doctor being a bit more kind, at least. I'm trying to remain spoiler-free for next season, but I do hope that we can at last move beyond Rose.

[jackzter.livejournal.com]

In my personal canon for Last Of The Time Lords I'm making the Doctor much darker than what was portrayed on screen. Dark enough so that to stop the Master he basically used everyone around him. Martha, Jack, the Jones family, the Master. Everyone.

That tie in is the Doctor's statement that for the entire year he has been trying to tap into the Archangel Network. For me he was in it from day one, working away at everyone connected to it. Which is the entire population. All building to that one moment when he gains that power to strike back.

Martha? A diversion. Someone to focus the Master's attention on besides the Doctor. Someone the humans left alive can focus on as doing something and identify with. Helped along by the Doctor influencing them in a much more subtle way than the Master did. Getting them to believe in Martha, listen to her stories and totally believe in them.

Because nobody really believed in the Doctor. They believed in Martha. They believed in her so much that they were willing to put their faith in the Doctor.

Which in my personal canon was what the Doctor's plan was all along. Keep that faith and belief channeled to martha until the last moment so as to not alert the Master. Same as the escape plan or the chemical gun diversion or whatever caused the Master to flip and burn Japan. All meant to fail, all meant to feed the Master's sense of superiority and keep him focused on Martha.

When I keep that in my mind I can enjoy the finale more because that is the dark, manipulative Doctor of the Family Of Blood and Seven.

And oh yes. Captain Jack as the Face of Boe? No!!!!!

[lyore.livejournal.com]

This is how I (like to) think it happened, too.

The Doctor is infinitely more interesting when he is pushing the limits of his morality.

(And I rather intensely dislike the Jack = Face of Boe thing, so you're not alone)

[owl]

JACK WAS WINDIN THEM UP. YES.

[lyore.livejournal.com]

TRUFAX!

[owl]

Yes, I didn't like that the Doctor seemed to do nothing. He's old, not stupid or useless!

[liliaeth]

Personally I loved every bit you want to change. And I love Martha, but her reason for going with the Doctor has always been because she loved him and she thought he needed someone with him, so he wasn't alone. Unlike Rose, Martha didn't go with him to see the universe, or because his litttle blue box could travel through time. She loved that part, but it isn't why she took his offer to go with him, she did so because of her feelings for the Doctor. And it's this that makes her reasons for leaving so perfect, it also allows her to gain more inner strenght while she's first home and then on Torchwood, in that by the time she returns to the TARDIS, she'll have gotten that out of her system and be able to travel with the Doctor for the travelling part of it. And not just because of her feelings for the Doctor.

[owl]

Um, Rose who said 'I can't leave him' and 'Who's going to hold his hand now?', repeatedly chose him over her family and said 'This is how I died' when what actually happened was that she lost the Doctor but got everything else she wanted?

See, I saw Martha at the start being more 'Oh, he's fit' than 'True love forever! Mortgages! Time Babies!', the unrequited references/Rose jealousy were tailing off mid-season, and then in Human Nature she started going on about how she loved him and he didn't love her. Perhaps absence made the heart grow fonder, because the Doctor wasn't there, it was John Smith. And he really doesn't see her.

Actually, I've just squicked myself that she started talking about her unrequitedness in the same two-parter where she was significantly disadvantaged and disregarded, including by the man wearing the Doctor's face. Love being associated with powerlessness, not good.

So, so far both female leads, no matter how they started out, have ended up thinking the sun shines out of the Doctor's Converses. If they do that next year I shall be seriously annoyed.

[white_hart]

Bizarrely, aged-Doctor-in-a-cage was one of the bits my mother mentioned particularly liking. I was pretty ambivalent.

I think that my one major bit of appropriation for Doctor Who is that in my personal canon he didn't love Rose, either, not like that; but unlike Martha, she never worked it out.

[owl]

Yes, me too, definitely. Nine, yes,he needed her, though not to have sex with. I can never see it with Ten. He loves everybody. If he'd had his way the TARDIS would be stuffed with HUMAN WOMANZ.

[white_hart]

It would be. And they'd all be in love with him, and he'd love all of them, but not in that way, and he wouldn't understand why they all kept trying to corner him against the console while the others were out of the room. It would be like something out of a Carry On film, or possibly Benny Hill.

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

I think I may be an appreciator. The whole thing makes me fling my hands in the air and come up with dark conspiracy theories involving the BBC scuttling their flagship so that they can continue to sell Dalek biscuit tins but don't have to put up with noisy, unappreciative fans. (I do not for a moment think that this is a likely real-world scenario).

[ankaret.livejournal.com]

Though, actually, having thought about it, if someone found a lost AF manuscript under a bed in which Ginty and Patrick slept together and it wasn't some kind of 'and then the ripple-effect causes grief for all concerned for the remainder of the book' deal, I would be ripping up floorboards desperately looking for the next volume in which it all goes wrong, and ditto if they found a book where Nicola and Patrick get married straight out of school and Oxford.

The one thing I doubt I'd do is shrug, say 'Okay, out with the whole canon, then,' and go find another fandom. So maybe I'm an appropriator after all.

[owl]

But I don't think AF would do that because she isn't the sort of writer who has that simplistic fluffyness. It's like what I was saying about being more an appreciator when it's a single author, because you trust them more with their own canon. Whereas Rusty and co are fans who have got the opportunity to make a giant fanvid of the original series, complete with Mary Sues.

in which Ginty and Patrick slept together

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

What, you mean that isn't the explanation for "Run Away Home"?

[owl]

Wait and see, that's what The Sun'll be publishing next week :-P

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

I thought the episode construction was a bit of a dog’s dinner – there were elements I didn’t much like (glowy Doctor, aged Doctor, and I Believe in the Doctor), but had the episode been better structured (i.e. written by someone else or had the attentions of a good script editor), I could see the same elements working much more effectively. They need not have been the problems that they were in the way that they were.

Mind you, having some years as the object of a particular unrequited love, I have little sympathy for the “Would it have been expecting too much for the Doctor to acknowledge it a bit” argument, because my answer is “Yes, it really would”.