Doctor Who 4.11

[heidi]

Show me your favourite Donna icons, please! Or link me to some. Because Donna is awesomeness personified.

As a non-Brit, I didn't have any Catherine Tate baggage before Runaway Bride and I adored that ep (even before the Segways showed up) and I loved the character of Donna, but as the season has gone on, my love for Donna has grown, and I've come to really admire Catherine Tate. She's sensational - and this episode?

This episode was purely perfect. I don't need to reiterate all the little bits - but I did want to note that Donna's wonderfulness nearly lost me when she took a few moments too long to realise what "labor camps" means. Whether Rusty was looking back to the Nazis or even the US internment camps for the Japanese, it was a good plot-point, but how did Donna not realise it sooner?

On the other hand, usually the show doesn't get into the implications of the alien things/happenings on things like the economy - even LotTL doesn't - I mean, if it did then the Master would keep a stadium-camp just for his favourite performers and fly them up to the Valiant for one night special performances, and there would be something about how people are being fed and where new clothing is coming from all through that year, but there's nothing (and it would have been jarring within that storyline). Here, the economic implications of the alien attacks are shown and they're relevant and that is fascinating. (Side note: props for using the same street as used in the Doctor-Martha showdown last season.)

Anyhow, back to the labor camps. I'm ok handwaving about that because of how she stepped in front of the truck. And to see Rose again at the side of someone who just stepped in front of a vehicle to die to save the world? We know what she was thinking, then - all her feelings about her dad and the doctor and what you do to save the world all bundled into one.

I hope the next ep resolves why Rose was popping back and forth - and I do want to see all the companions, family and friends together in the next ep, even if it's just for a pint of beer in the final scene (well, second to last scene, as the last scene would ideally include the Simm!Master and Lucy walking into the pub and buying everyone a round in an ominous and evil fashion (and, with a nod to lizbee, being served by an undercover and/or masked-as-a-human Romana, right?)).

The other thing I am pondering as the episode ends is whether pre-/un-Doctor!Donna is kind of self-centered because the world and the universe really do revolve around her. Rose sort of does imply that there's something weird going on with her, and the Doctor wonders about it as well, once it's pointed out to him. So, maybe?

I am unspoiled for the next ep other than the trailer and That Photo What I Posted Earlier This Week - so please don't spoil me for anything!


"The End of the Universe" - is that a time, or a happening? I mean, as a "time" - the universe ends, doesn't it? We saw that in Utopia, perhaps and maybe. But if it's a happening, then would that be something different?
Oh, Doug Adams, why are you not here to explain this to us?

Comments

[midnitemaraud-r.livejournal.com]

I think the thing about the labor camps was... Well, in our lifetime, in our Western world, we've never experienced it personally, and especially for the children watching, until they study it in history lessons or unless they had family who were interred, they wouldn't really know either. We always think we've come so far, and with all of the "never again" mentality that we espouse, I think it's a hell of a message to show - along with last week's Midnight - the horrors that humans can resort to in dire circumstances.

Personally, I thought it was something of a political statement regarding the eroding of freedoms, and the naivety that goes along with it. I don't think that Donna not thinking of it was a jab at her intelligence, but rather a jab at the naivety of thinking that in our technologically advanced, multicultural, modern world, such things could/would never happen, because the idea is just preposterous to the way we think. I mean, if someone told me that they were carting off my non-White neighbors to some labor camp, I'd think they were joking.

[casirafics.livejournal.com]

The labor camps situation -- the whole get-everyone-who-isn't-us-out-of-England angle, particularly -- was giving me Children of Men flashbacks, and that's something I never expected to get out of Doctor Who. *wry grin* Wee bit more dystopian than usual, that.

(Now, if they could just borrow Mr. Cuaron and his cinematographer and set up some of those Tracking Shots of Awesomeness, I could go for that, really....)

[eternalblue.livejournal.com]

I really love the icons made by cheesygirl and fizzlingwhizbee. They pretty much come up with an awesome batch for every episode.

[megaloo13.livejournal.com]

I loved it! I've always been in the mutual love society regarding companions, but this season has had Donna rocketing to my favorite. This is my favorite Donna icon of the ones I have, by nextjuly, but fivequeenlywits has some great ones as well.

[kimmparker.livejournal.com]

<3 Donna! tennant_icons has good Dr Who icons, its where I grab all of mine. You should be able to find some fun Donna ones. I love your Tardis one...so cute and PINK!

OMG This ep was the awesome! I am still wibble from it. I loved the little references to the Whoverise outside of just the show.

I cannot wait for next week! I keep watching the trailer over and over. I actually squee'd aloud when I saw Ianto and Gwen in the trailer. Is it Sat yrt?