prof_pangaea (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
prof_pangaea) wrote2007-06-05 12:05 pm
prof_pangaea) wrote2007-06-05 12:05 pm
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42: textual analysis with helpful visual guides, followed by scientific analysis (with star trek!)
comrades, it is time for textual and scientific analysis. with visual guides. when you see the most wonderful insights within, you will be happy that you made with the clicking, for sure.
42 -- or Why It's Not About Martha, And It Was Never About Rose Either.
It's About The Time War
doctor: "How many crewmembers on board?"
captain: "Seven, including us."
other dude: "We transport cargo across the galaxy -- everything's automated, we just keep the ship spaceworthy --"
doctor: "Call the others, I'll get you out!"
so here is the crux of 42, and it occurs within the first few moments of the episode (of the plot at least): "I'll get you out." it's another way of saying, "I'll save you."
also it's why the episode is damned interesting and not just a new version of insert reference here: __________ (i like to go with the star trek episode "devil in the dark", if it were crossed with "the impossible planet", but not so much "the satan pit" because that was too dumb. also i heard some people say that the living star bit was like a star trek episode, which i also thought because i was remembering this one star trek book by peter david where this planet turns out to be a living sentient organism and also probably "the great bird of the galaxy" which was a super dorky reference but i didn't mind because i quite liked that whole living planet bit. for further trekness scroll down!).
anywho. we've got three pivotal moments in this episode:
01. the doctor can't save everyone by spiriting them away in the TARDIS:
doctor: "My ship's in there!"
riley: "In the vent chamber?"
doctor: "It's our lifeboat!"
other dude: "It's lava."
this bit's pretty simple, especially since we'd have no plot if the doctor had been able to actually do this (actually, 42 minutes of a bunch of random passengers on the TARDIS sounds like goodtimes to me). and be fair, i'm sure any of the other doctors would have come up with a similar scheme, since the doctor has always been rather keen on saving peoples from certain death and whatnot.
although let us compare the doctor's reaction to this news --
-- with martha's:
the breathless desperation part is a bit new, one has to admit. but at this point maybe we are meant to think it is because the doctor is thinking "noooooooo not my wonderful TARDIS! she be my one true love and such! WE MUST SAVEHER YOU ALL."
but then --!
02. martha faces almost certain death, which probably wouldn't have been the case had the doctor not landed her on a ship spiralling into a sun.
doctor: "I'll save you!"
doctor: "I'll save you!"
doctor: "I'll save you!"
doctor: "I'll save you!!"
martha: "I'm sorry."
this is when my guy looked at me and said, "the doctor is really messed up."
affirmative, for sure! old school doctor was never so pathological about his companions being in danger. he just assumed he would figure out how to save them, or they would figure a way out the scrape themselves. post-war doctor doesn't think the same way. he's screaming "i'll save you!" over and over again not because it's necessarily true, but because he wants to convince martha that it's true. maybe himself as well.
martha says, "i'm sorry," which seems puzzling on the surface, but martha is perceptive. she has faith that the doctor will do anything to save them, but not that he will necessarily be able to succeed. she's sorry that she couldn't save herself, that the doctor will have to live through losing her, and feeling as though it is his fault.
meanwhile, we've got the fanon viewpoint that it's all about the ship. blah blah love blah. this was vaguely more plausible when the companion was rose (although more disappointing, because it reduced the doctor's ability to care to only those people who he happened to maybe be romantically interested in), but the pattern has continued and indeed intensified with martha. it's not about shipping, it's not about love in that conventional sense that is usually used in shipping discussions -- really it's about survivor's guilt. it's about the doctor taking someone or some group and making himself their friend and protector, and protecting them the way he wasn't able to protect his friends and family on gallifrey, and giving them the love that he can no longer give to those others. rose was that surrogate first, and he lost her, and now martha has taken her place. i don't mean that to sound completely exploitative, because i don't think it is -- the doctor loved rose, and he loves martha, just like he loved sarah jane and jamie and all the others -- for themselves, and not just for what they represent to him. it is because of that actual love that he lets them close enough for them to become so important to him.
also, let's not forget: it's about trying to feel normal. going back to the old ways, picking up friends and having adventures, just as if gallifrey were still there, just as if his family was still alive and he could go back to them any time he wanted. and of course, just as if they weren't gone because he had killed them all.
03. i don't want to kill my best friend (again):
doctor: "You've got to freeze me quickly!"
martha: "What?"
doctor: "Stasis chamber -- gotta take me to -- below minus 200 -- freeze it out of me! It'll use me to kill you if you don't!"
doctor: "Martha! It's burning me up -- I can't control it! If you don't get rid of it I could kill you -- I could kill you all. I'm scared -- I'm so scared."
this picture is gratuitous. i just liked watching david tennant stumble about the set gurning and calling for martha. also the red and green are nice together.
but more importantly, it brings us to the most revealing part of 42 -- incidentally the part that COMPLETELY PROVES THE THESIS OF THIS ESSAY-LIKE FORM HERE. that be the part where the doctor admits that he is frightened.
fanon again! it's like a whirlwind, my friends! vulnerability! trust! TRUE LOVE!!! marthamartharosemartha! but wait, comrades, wait! what was that the doctor said before that bit about being scared?
"i could kill you. i could kill you all."
the doctor committed genocide once (double genocide, in fact), on a massive scale. he perpetrated this on his own people, his own friends, his own family. this is a Big Thing. losing rose was not Another Big Thing. knowing that you will never be able to see a person you love again, but knowing that she is alive, healthy, and with her family is not comparable to knowingly killing your own children. it's not even vaguely comparable. the pain of rose's loss was just a symptom of the one Big Thing, of which this present series has given example after example.
last series was all about ignoring That Thing. when the cult of skaro showed up, it was just the last in a long line of events that was slowly building up to prove that Ignoring That Thing just could not last, that the laughter was getting a bit hollow and the fun was wearing a bit thin. in a way losing rose was a distraction from that lesson -- the doctor could attach his pain to her and pretend, for a little while, that that was where the pain really came from.
that started to get rather harder after gridlock, and with the admission above it has started to prove rather impossible. because "I'm scared," means "i'm scared it will happen again." because even if martha doesn't know that, the doctor does.
i hope martha doesn't figure out that i am emo on account of that whole thing where i killed my whole family and society and such. that probably wouldn't look so good.
oh damn she's right there.
this part is even more scientifically accurate and also relevant, because it has star trek in it.
THE DEVIL IN THE DARK VS. 42
mah reactor!!! it is totally made of obsolete parts that cannot be replaced!! without it we will go super-critical in 48 hours!
mah engines! they are totally made from obsolete parts that cannot be replaced! also that are maybe illegal! without them we will go super-critically into the sun in 42 minutes!
redshirt!!
red... hair? i don't know, but she's definitely about to die! (also check out how these two characters look RELATED to each other. cousins!)
burninated!
vapourised!
omgz! that rock is ALIVE! you can tell by the heartbeat noise! also the gravel in a can. it is undeniable in its accuracy.
wtfs! that sun is ALIVE!! you can tell from the... swirling?
ahhhhhhhhhhh!! the PAIN!!!
ahhhhhhhhhhh!! it's SCREAMING!
oh my goodness, guys, it was protecting its cute little ROCK BABIES all along! we were fools, i tell you, FOOLS.
release the SUN BABIES! releeaase!!!
and then the rock babies became an integral part of the newly revitalised mining operation, and it was interspecies cooperation and fun! while the sun babies... didn't burn anyone else alive after the peoples stopped scooping out their heart or whatnot. so that was sort of a profitable relationship too.
no one on the enterprise was reminded of that time they killed their own babies (on air, at least), but maybe spock remembered that he was kind of sad that his dad never killed miners for him? also that he missed his mom.
good times, friends!
42 -- or Why It's Not About Martha, And It Was Never About Rose Either.
It's About The Time War
doctor: "How many crewmembers on board?"
captain: "Seven, including us."
other dude: "We transport cargo across the galaxy -- everything's automated, we just keep the ship spaceworthy --"
doctor: "Call the others, I'll get you out!"
so here is the crux of 42, and it occurs within the first few moments of the episode (of the plot at least): "I'll get you out." it's another way of saying, "I'll save you."
also it's why the episode is damned interesting and not just a new version of insert reference here: __________ (i like to go with the star trek episode "devil in the dark", if it were crossed with "the impossible planet", but not so much "the satan pit" because that was too dumb. also i heard some people say that the living star bit was like a star trek episode, which i also thought because i was remembering this one star trek book by peter david where this planet turns out to be a living sentient organism and also probably "the great bird of the galaxy" which was a super dorky reference but i didn't mind because i quite liked that whole living planet bit. for further trekness scroll down!).
anywho. we've got three pivotal moments in this episode:
01. the doctor can't save everyone by spiriting them away in the TARDIS:
doctor: "My ship's in there!"
riley: "In the vent chamber?"
doctor: "It's our lifeboat!"
other dude: "It's lava."
this bit's pretty simple, especially since we'd have no plot if the doctor had been able to actually do this (actually, 42 minutes of a bunch of random passengers on the TARDIS sounds like goodtimes to me). and be fair, i'm sure any of the other doctors would have come up with a similar scheme, since the doctor has always been rather keen on saving peoples from certain death and whatnot.
although let us compare the doctor's reaction to this news --
-- with martha's:
the breathless desperation part is a bit new, one has to admit. but at this point maybe we are meant to think it is because the doctor is thinking "noooooooo not my wonderful TARDIS! she be my one true love and such! WE MUST SAVE
but then --!
02. martha faces almost certain death, which probably wouldn't have been the case had the doctor not landed her on a ship spiralling into a sun.
doctor: "I'll save you!"
doctor: "I'll save you!"
doctor: "I'll save you!"
doctor: "I'll save you!!"
martha: "I'm sorry."
this is when my guy looked at me and said, "the doctor is really messed up."
affirmative, for sure! old school doctor was never so pathological about his companions being in danger. he just assumed he would figure out how to save them, or they would figure a way out the scrape themselves. post-war doctor doesn't think the same way. he's screaming "i'll save you!" over and over again not because it's necessarily true, but because he wants to convince martha that it's true. maybe himself as well.
martha says, "i'm sorry," which seems puzzling on the surface, but martha is perceptive. she has faith that the doctor will do anything to save them, but not that he will necessarily be able to succeed. she's sorry that she couldn't save herself, that the doctor will have to live through losing her, and feeling as though it is his fault.
meanwhile, we've got the fanon viewpoint that it's all about the ship. blah blah love blah. this was vaguely more plausible when the companion was rose (although more disappointing, because it reduced the doctor's ability to care to only those people who he happened to maybe be romantically interested in), but the pattern has continued and indeed intensified with martha. it's not about shipping, it's not about love in that conventional sense that is usually used in shipping discussions -- really it's about survivor's guilt. it's about the doctor taking someone or some group and making himself their friend and protector, and protecting them the way he wasn't able to protect his friends and family on gallifrey, and giving them the love that he can no longer give to those others. rose was that surrogate first, and he lost her, and now martha has taken her place. i don't mean that to sound completely exploitative, because i don't think it is -- the doctor loved rose, and he loves martha, just like he loved sarah jane and jamie and all the others -- for themselves, and not just for what they represent to him. it is because of that actual love that he lets them close enough for them to become so important to him.
also, let's not forget: it's about trying to feel normal. going back to the old ways, picking up friends and having adventures, just as if gallifrey were still there, just as if his family was still alive and he could go back to them any time he wanted. and of course, just as if they weren't gone because he had killed them all.
03. i don't want to kill my best friend (again):
doctor: "You've got to freeze me quickly!"
martha: "What?"
doctor: "Stasis chamber -- gotta take me to -- below minus 200 -- freeze it out of me! It'll use me to kill you if you don't!"
doctor: "Martha! It's burning me up -- I can't control it! If you don't get rid of it I could kill you -- I could kill you all. I'm scared -- I'm so scared."
this picture is gratuitous. i just liked watching david tennant stumble about the set gurning and calling for martha. also the red and green are nice together.
but more importantly, it brings us to the most revealing part of 42 -- incidentally the part that COMPLETELY PROVES THE THESIS OF THIS ESSAY-LIKE FORM HERE. that be the part where the doctor admits that he is frightened.
fanon again! it's like a whirlwind, my friends! vulnerability! trust! TRUE LOVE!!! marthamartharosemartha! but wait, comrades, wait! what was that the doctor said before that bit about being scared?
"i could kill you. i could kill you all."
the doctor committed genocide once (double genocide, in fact), on a massive scale. he perpetrated this on his own people, his own friends, his own family. this is a Big Thing. losing rose was not Another Big Thing. knowing that you will never be able to see a person you love again, but knowing that she is alive, healthy, and with her family is not comparable to knowingly killing your own children. it's not even vaguely comparable. the pain of rose's loss was just a symptom of the one Big Thing, of which this present series has given example after example.
last series was all about ignoring That Thing. when the cult of skaro showed up, it was just the last in a long line of events that was slowly building up to prove that Ignoring That Thing just could not last, that the laughter was getting a bit hollow and the fun was wearing a bit thin. in a way losing rose was a distraction from that lesson -- the doctor could attach his pain to her and pretend, for a little while, that that was where the pain really came from.
that started to get rather harder after gridlock, and with the admission above it has started to prove rather impossible. because "I'm scared," means "i'm scared it will happen again." because even if martha doesn't know that, the doctor does.
i hope martha doesn't figure out that i am emo on account of that whole thing where i killed my whole family and society and such. that probably wouldn't look so good.
oh damn she's right there.
this part is even more scientifically accurate and also relevant, because it has star trek in it.
THE DEVIL IN THE DARK VS. 42
mah reactor!!! it is totally made of obsolete parts that cannot be replaced!! without it we will go super-critical in 48 hours!
mah engines! they are totally made from obsolete parts that cannot be replaced! also that are maybe illegal! without them we will go super-critically into the sun in 42 minutes!
redshirt!!
red... hair? i don't know, but she's definitely about to die! (also check out how these two characters look RELATED to each other. cousins!)
burninated!
vapourised!
omgz! that rock is ALIVE! you can tell by the heartbeat noise! also the gravel in a can. it is undeniable in its accuracy.
wtfs! that sun is ALIVE!! you can tell from the... swirling?
ahhhhhhhhhhh!! the PAIN!!!
ahhhhhhhhhhh!! it's SCREAMING!
oh my goodness, guys, it was protecting its cute little ROCK BABIES all along! we were fools, i tell you, FOOLS.
release the SUN BABIES! releeaase!!!
and then the rock babies became an integral part of the newly revitalised mining operation, and it was interspecies cooperation and fun! while the sun babies... didn't burn anyone else alive after the peoples stopped scooping out their heart or whatnot. so that was sort of a profitable relationship too.
no one on the enterprise was reminded of that time they killed their own babies (on air, at least), but maybe spock remembered that he was kind of sad that his dad never killed miners for him? also that he missed his mom.
good times, friends!