Romance Gone Too Far: Dr. Who with Tears.
October 7th 2006 21:31
Dr. Who gets Guiness record
If you prefer your heroes to be soft, at times, then you will be pleased with the latest offering from the Dr. Who series. In the last episode, Dr. Who, played by David Tennant, says goodbye to Rose Tyler, his usual female companion and delivers to the camera a long close-up with tears streaming out of his eyes. Crying en cue is not a feat that most actors can achieve without the assistance of the makeup department, usually some sort of onion spray or just a liberal instillation of tears from an eye dropper. Male actors find it harder than their female colleagues. This is the first time that the doctor has been seen in this state.
Rose and Dr. Who have been separated and are in parallel worlds. This is not entirely without science and some exponents of the string theory of creation believe that there may be a whole series of parallel universes co-existing in time with ours. In any case, Rose is in one and not the other. The doctor hitches the TARDIS up to a star cluster and uses the energy to project his image to the world that Rose is in order to communicate with her.
“Can’t you come across to me”, she begs tearfully.
“It would mean destroying two universes,” he says.
“So what if it does”, says Rose. You cannot get more Romantic than the destruction of two Universes in order to consummate love, can you? And there seems to have been a bit of consummating going on because Rose says that someone is pregnant. The doctor responds to this with concern until Rose points out that it is actually her mother who is expecting. Mum is still in her forties so this is possible.
In a final tearful outburst Rose says to the projected image that she loves him. We presume he was going to tell her that he loves her because it is at that moment we see him with tears streaming down his face. Not a good Dr. Who look. Dr. Who is about to reply when the time limit on the star cluster power runs out and he disappears, this time forever, though forever has no meaning in science fiction.
And this is the trouble with science fiction as a genre. It is the way technical problems are disposed of in fiction. For example in this last episode we see Daleks, who normally require disabled ramps, flying through the air with the greatest of ease in vast numbers. This inconsistency is easily dealt with in science fiction. Just say that they have anti-gravity devices, whatever they are.
The Dr. Who series claims to be the longest running science fiction program in television. This claim is undermined by the nine year gap from 1996 to 2005. How long is a show off the air before we can say it is no longer running?
The show has moved high in the budget stakes. Once notoriously cheap with paper mache monsters and plastic jump suits, it now is much slicker thanks to the wonders of computer enhancement. The sets are also traveling well out of the studio and into the street and there are many more actors, dozens of cyber men and hundreds of extras. This is no longer a low budget enterprise.
The worst aspect of the show is the intrusion of Romance. Dr. Who has previously been immune to this and for good reason. For a start he is not a human being and secondly he is a time lord and the whole modus operandi of that group of beings is their dispassionate disinterested position in the Universe. They had their own version of Star Trek’s primary directive. Dr. Who’s appeal is his ability to deal with the Universe in a cool and calculating way. He was first and foremost a scientist and a man of learning and that is his great power. In the last episode much is made of the way the Daleks fear him. In a spine tinglingly silly part of the last episode, the mere mention of his name causes them to take a step back, or more accurately slide back. I don’t know why. They have little to fear from this weeping sap.
Old Eyebrows
Rose Tyler played by Billie Piper is the unlikely character who has managed to totally unsettle the thousand year old Time Lord. The piper character is a blousy, cheapside, cockney, dyed blond. The eyebrows stand out in stark contrast to the hair but this is part of the attraction for this type. My brother, normally a cool fish, finds her irresistible. She is a rather fleshy character with very full lips, curvaceous but not firmly so. She needs a good summer in the gym. The only thing missing to complete the picture are piercings and tatts. You don’t see these anyway but I am sure there is a figure or two of cupid, bow in hand down round the groin region.
Romance has its place but when it comes to falling in love and Dr. Who, two universes really are colliding.
images from BBC site
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Comment by Nina
I can definitely see where you're coming from. I wasn't so keen on the growing romantic bond between Rose and the Doctor when it first arose, but now it's grown on me. I see it as an evolution of the character, but probably something that they will shy away from in the next season now that Rose is gone. I must just be a softy at heart.
Comment by Luke
Old Movies
Cane Toad Warrior
And the Doctor is called 'The Doctor' not 'Dr. Who'! (pet hate)
And it's still the longest running even if you don't count the recent series... 1963-1989.