trobadora (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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wintercompanion2012-03-21 08:46 pm
trobadora) wrote in wintercompanion2012-03-21 08:46 pm
Entry tags:
Meta Month of March: Ep Discussion: Utopia
Doctor. - Captain.
And here we are, almost two years exactly after the events on the Game Station, finally getting some answers. Of course Jack has to work for his answers quite hard, and the Doctor is working equally hard to avoid him. So we start out with Jack chasing the Doctor, and the Doctor deliberately turning away as soon as he sees him. I still remember the shock of that scene, the first time I saw it.
The Doctor's at his most callous through the first part of this ep. You abandoned me. - Did I? Busy life, moving on. And there's an edge to the banter between them that we'd never quite seen before that point. The Doctor keeps censoring Jack (Oh, don't start.), and Jack keeps being unimpressed. The Doctor is almost hostile, and Jack doesn't hold back on the accusations. And the Doctor can't seem to make up his mind whether he wants to run away from Jack again and pretend they're nothing to each other now, or to fall back into old patterns. Jack first calls him on it (He's not my responsibility. - And I am? That makes a change.), but increasingly goes along with it.
And yet, even with all that, Jack still finds himself enjoying the adventure: Oh, I missed this. Jack's had his share of adventures on his own, in all those years in between, but he was stuck on the slow path. It's a different thing, being dropped into a strange adventure on a strange planet.
And for a moment, despite the danger, despite the tensions, everything seems good. The Doctor is happy to find humans surviving: End of the universe and here you are. Indomitable, that's the word! Indomitable! Jack casually flirts with some guy in the corridor, just like he did with Martha, and then Chantho. There's futuretech to geek out over, and even at the end of the universe there's still the dream of Utopia. And Jack and the Doctor fall back into an almost comfortable pattern (You're supposed to say sorry. - Oh, yes. Sorry.)
Of course things go wrong, and then Jack is dead again, and the Doctor's just watching, with that weird expression on his face. And we know we're approaching that crucial moment, the one we've been waiting for.
How long have you known? - Ever since I ran away from you.
It's no secret that this is the scene that made me into a Doctor/Jack shipper. I liked the pairing before that, but this is what turned it into an obsession. This is what I come back to again and again, all the layers of it, all the possible implications. The intimacy of that conversation, despite the barriers. This scene, and the answers we get, and the things that redefine both characters and the way we relate to them.
What do you think? Do you remember watching Utopia for the first time? Were you shocked to discover the Doctor knew exactly what had happened to Jack, and left him behind deliberately? Or was it what you expected?
It's not easy just looking at you, Jack, cause you're wrong. How much do you think Jack's fact-ness truly affects the Doctor, and how much is just avoidance? What does Jack being a fact really mean? (Admittedly I've written approximately ten million fics exploring that myself!) Is Jack right - is the Doctor really just prejudiced? Why do you think the Doctor really ran away? The Doctor, of course, leaves people and places behind all the time. But running from someone? That's something else.
Did Jack truly have a death wish, before this?
The dynamic between Ten and Jack is quite different than it was between Nine and Jack. How much of that is due to what happened on the Game Station, and how much of it is just the different personality of Ten?
And also, Jack recognises the Doctor immediately (The Police Box kinda gives it away.) - just how much does he know about Regeneration at this point? Did he know before the Doctor abandoned him? (Rose certainly didn't.) When/how did he find out?
And here we are, almost two years exactly after the events on the Game Station, finally getting some answers. Of course Jack has to work for his answers quite hard, and the Doctor is working equally hard to avoid him. So we start out with Jack chasing the Doctor, and the Doctor deliberately turning away as soon as he sees him. I still remember the shock of that scene, the first time I saw it.
The Doctor's at his most callous through the first part of this ep. You abandoned me. - Did I? Busy life, moving on. And there's an edge to the banter between them that we'd never quite seen before that point. The Doctor keeps censoring Jack (Oh, don't start.), and Jack keeps being unimpressed. The Doctor is almost hostile, and Jack doesn't hold back on the accusations. And the Doctor can't seem to make up his mind whether he wants to run away from Jack again and pretend they're nothing to each other now, or to fall back into old patterns. Jack first calls him on it (He's not my responsibility. - And I am? That makes a change.), but increasingly goes along with it.
And yet, even with all that, Jack still finds himself enjoying the adventure: Oh, I missed this. Jack's had his share of adventures on his own, in all those years in between, but he was stuck on the slow path. It's a different thing, being dropped into a strange adventure on a strange planet.
And for a moment, despite the danger, despite the tensions, everything seems good. The Doctor is happy to find humans surviving: End of the universe and here you are. Indomitable, that's the word! Indomitable! Jack casually flirts with some guy in the corridor, just like he did with Martha, and then Chantho. There's futuretech to geek out over, and even at the end of the universe there's still the dream of Utopia. And Jack and the Doctor fall back into an almost comfortable pattern (You're supposed to say sorry. - Oh, yes. Sorry.)
Of course things go wrong, and then Jack is dead again, and the Doctor's just watching, with that weird expression on his face. And we know we're approaching that crucial moment, the one we've been waiting for.
How long have you known? - Ever since I ran away from you.
It's no secret that this is the scene that made me into a Doctor/Jack shipper. I liked the pairing before that, but this is what turned it into an obsession. This is what I come back to again and again, all the layers of it, all the possible implications. The intimacy of that conversation, despite the barriers. This scene, and the answers we get, and the things that redefine both characters and the way we relate to them.
What do you think? Do you remember watching Utopia for the first time? Were you shocked to discover the Doctor knew exactly what had happened to Jack, and left him behind deliberately? Or was it what you expected?
It's not easy just looking at you, Jack, cause you're wrong. How much do you think Jack's fact-ness truly affects the Doctor, and how much is just avoidance? What does Jack being a fact really mean? (Admittedly I've written approximately ten million fics exploring that myself!) Is Jack right - is the Doctor really just prejudiced? Why do you think the Doctor really ran away? The Doctor, of course, leaves people and places behind all the time. But running from someone? That's something else.
Did Jack truly have a death wish, before this?
The dynamic between Ten and Jack is quite different than it was between Nine and Jack. How much of that is due to what happened on the Game Station, and how much of it is just the different personality of Ten?
And also, Jack recognises the Doctor immediately (The Police Box kinda gives it away.) - just how much does he know about Regeneration at this point? Did he know before the Doctor abandoned him? (Rose certainly didn't.) When/how did he find out?