NuWho Rewatch: Army of Ghosts/Doomsday
Jan. 13th, 2015 08:51 pmThis is where it becomes clear that NuWho had painted itself into a bit of a corner with Rose's character. Oddly, it seems to be a corner that NuWho has continued to paint itself into with depressing regularity despite the fact that it was never really a problem with classic Who.
The corner in question is the one where, having established that your companion thinks travelling with the Doctor is better than the bestest thing ever, you then have to explain why they might stop. The show has only really avoided this problem once, with Martha, and the way Martha was treated in the show is a whole other discussion.
( More under the Cut )
So, that was the end of Season 2. Watched back-to-back with Season 1 in a somewhat more receptive frame of mind than I had first time around, I do think it is a weaker season. I'm not sure that is really it's fault, or at least not entirely. Season 1 was focused on introducing the concept of the Doctor and his universe to the viewers and that gave a purpose to even otherwise pretty self-contained episodes. Season 2 lacks that. It can assume the viewer knows all about Time Lords and Gallifrey and the Time War and how time travel works etc., etc., and it doesn't have anything to replace that story-telling drive with. It might have been possible to more tightly structure the season around the introduction of Torchwood but I think that would have been too narrow and structurally it would have been awkward to leave it looking like an extended trailer for a different show.
The corner in question is the one where, having established that your companion thinks travelling with the Doctor is better than the bestest thing ever, you then have to explain why they might stop. The show has only really avoided this problem once, with Martha, and the way Martha was treated in the show is a whole other discussion.
So, that was the end of Season 2. Watched back-to-back with Season 1 in a somewhat more receptive frame of mind than I had first time around, I do think it is a weaker season. I'm not sure that is really it's fault, or at least not entirely. Season 1 was focused on introducing the concept of the Doctor and his universe to the viewers and that gave a purpose to even otherwise pretty self-contained episodes. Season 2 lacks that. It can assume the viewer knows all about Time Lords and Gallifrey and the Time War and how time travel works etc., etc., and it doesn't have anything to replace that story-telling drive with. It might have been possible to more tightly structure the season around the introduction of Torchwood but I think that would have been too narrow and structurally it would have been awkward to leave it looking like an extended trailer for a different show.