our time reduced to an honorable mention

[reflectedeve]

Slept very badly yet again, but this time I'm blaming Russell T. Davies. Thank you, sir, for one last parting shot at your female characters. The Doctor Knows Best, of course, so neither Rose nor Donna get any choice in what happens to them (the entire rest of their lives, no less). Thanks in particular for creating such a fantastically self-motivated, stubborn, no-nonsense character as Donna--such an effective foil for the Doctor--and then literally taking back everything you ever did with her. It's hard for me to feel the Doctor's oh-so-lonely rained-on angst at the end of the episode when I am fuming.

(Oh, there were things I liked about the episode; in fact, I enjoyed most of it. But that ending was enough to make me lose my glee.)

Good riddance to you. Fucker.

Probably the homesickness and general moodiness is not his fault, however. Urgh, I've had it with this experiment; clearly my hormones are still irregular, doctor, now give me my damn pills already.

I'm cranky as hell, obviously, but it can't possibly last: Hushies on Wednesday! ♥ I do believe I'll be seeing some of you there.

Comments

[sae.livejournal.com]

I actually hadn't thought of it in terms of gender, that is a really good point. I think if there were more male companions, I think characters would get the short end of the stick in a more equal gender spread. At least, I'd like to hope (since I always tend to see it as Doctor vs. everyone else, not men vs. women, but that's my own bias?)

Regardless, the Donna thing is possibly the cruelest end of a character that I've seen (especially given the whole "haha, all your companions turn into warriors!" plot point, and Donna was the one WHO DIDN'T). I was bawling, man, and while I accept that the Doctor Who verse is cruel, I can only hope some future writer will find a way to plothole her back into existance.

[reflectedeve.livejournal.com]

I'm torn, actually. On the one hand, I see your point; it's the Doctor against/above humanity in general (and I still hate that, I hate the Lonely God thing, and I loved Donna for not fawning over him all the time). On the other, RTD did choose to create all female companions (with the exception of Jack, obviously, though I forget now that he's mired in Torchwood and various other issues), and they do fit into a tradition of problematic female characterizations in science fiction.

I think it's probably a combination, but I'm angry regardless. Robbing Donna of her agency wasn't just cruel, it was totally unnecessary. Donna deserved to make a choice, and even had she made that one, the total memory loss thing struck me as really contrived. Doctor Who (new series, anyway . . . must watch some old at some point) suffers from what you might call Human in the Refrigerator syndrome . . . constantly sacrificing "ordinary" people so that the Doctor can have his tragic rained-on angsty moments. It irritates the hell out of me, and this one just got me in particular because Donna as a character seemed to be bucking the "Doctor > humanity" trend.