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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?
no subject
Utopia changes their relationship from the flirty/fun/one-sidedness of season one to something that is entirely different and all the more complicated because of it.
I always like to be reminded that the Doctor is more alien than his human appearance and preoccupation with earth leads us to believe sometimes. His reaction to what Jack has become leaves a lot up for interpretation, of course. But I like to think that his cruelty is his own strange way to deal with his own guilty conscience, and with what I assume is prejudice influenced by what Gallifreyan culture must have thought about facts and whatever it is when his senses pick up when Jack is around. (One of my favourite line from Rose is Nine telling her how he senses the planet’s movement, how to him they are “falling through space”. So he experiences the world differently and Jack is something that is so much out of the ordinary, that it at least seems impossible. That must be scary at least.)
Also the Doctor’s life is constantly in flux in some way. He’s never standing still, regenerating, changing companions - the only constant is the Tardis. And now Jack is a fact. How must that feel for the Doctor? What does it mean for the Doctor, really?
It’s my personal canon that Jack knew about Regeneration for a long time by then. He’s been with Torchwood for so long and Torchwood must have been aware of some of what the Doctor had been up to with Unit. And he has the hand... So I must assume he is at least aware of some of the details of what happened then.
The episode also has this short exchange between Martha and the Doctor about the Face of Boe in front of Jack and he says nothing, which I personally take as a sign for his words in the season finale to be a joke and nothing more- Of course, I don’t like the theory that he is the Face of Boe at all and am interpreting things accordingly. ;P
In a way the “shared history/complicated relationship” theme is mirrored in the revelation that the Professor is in fact the Master. Kind of interesting how one of the first things the Doctor says to Simm!Master is “I’m sorry”, too. It’s like an echo of his first line to Jack in this episode.
no subject
Yes! Mine as well. So, so many layers, I will never get tired of them.
It starts the minute the Doctor steps out of the Tardis and utters his “Hello again. Oh. I’m sorry” line to Jack’s dead body and gets even more complicated when the Doctor comes across as hostile and a little cruel, not repeating his apology to living Jack, but instead pushing him away.
Yes! And, you know, I'm never quite sure just how sorry he really is ("I'm so sorry" is a phrase Ten utters way too often), but that complicated expression on his face really gets to me. And then he turns deliberately vicious, trying to push Jack away as hard as he can, only to be completely derailed when Jack brings up Rose and he has to tell him she's alive. And that hug ...
I really love the complications this ep adds to their relationship. And I do love that Jack's not just immortal, but something that can actually inspire the Doctor to run away. The Doctor runs away often enough, but he's generally running away from himself more than anything - this is something different.
I always like to be reminded that the Doctor is more alien than his human appearance and preoccupation with earth leads us to believe sometimes.
Yes! That's something else that really gets to me, the bit about Time Lord instincts and fixed points.
But I like to think that his cruelty is his own strange way to deal with his own guilty conscience
Yes, that's how I see it too! Makes it not a bit better, of course, but I like being able to get into the Doctor's head and trying to understand what's going on in there at moments like that. And I admit I like my Doctor like that, with that unpleasant edge. I think he'd be quite unbearable without it, in fact!
And now Jack is a fact. How must that feel for the Doctor? What does it mean for the Doctor, really?
I've spent the last five years coming back to that question again and again, and I keep coming up with new ideas. That concept was really inspired.
It’s my personal canon that Jack knew about Regeneration for a long time by then.
Yes, agreed. It's my personal canon that he's seen quite a few incarnations of the Doctor in his time, even if he's avoided them.
The episode also has this short exchange between Martha and the Doctor about the Face of Boe in front of Jack and he says nothing, which I personally take as a sign for his words in the season finale to be a joke and nothing more
You'll get no argument from me! Jack is no head in a jar. Jack will never be a head in a jar. I won't have it. NEVER. *g*
Kind of interesting how one of the first things the Doctor says to Simm!Master is “I’m sorry”, too. It’s like an echo of his first line to Jack in this episode.
Oooh, that's a fascinating point! I'll have to ponder that a bit ...
no subject
I agree. The "I'm so sorry" line gets used to the point where it doesn't mean anything anymore. I had a sneaking suspicion that it was meant to show him as this martyred savior which RTD actually overdid in his writing by the end. But this is one of the handful of times where I thought it worked, especially because Jack is dead at the time and the Doctor just has this look on his face when he says it. It gets to me every time without fail.
I've spent the last five years coming back to that question again and again, and I keep coming up with new ideas.
Me, too. It's what drove me to write fanfic for the two of them in the first place.