(no subject)

[doyle]

Leaving aside the Doctor's gushy speech on Evelyn being his intellectual equal and 'emotional better' and more important to him than the TARDIS and the bestest companion EVER (I love Evelyn, but that scene was determined to make me dislike her: there's no faster way to turn me off a character than to have someone else unrealistically praise them to the skies - the Doctor's intellectual equal? Really? - while implying every other companion just couldn't measure up), this play really got my back up. A rhetorical quiz:

You are a Time Lord visiting a planet you know is soon to be invaded by an alien force. You know that history says the aliens were defeated because the planet's two biggest kingdoms had recently allied after the marriage of a prince and princess. Unfortunately, you've accidentally talked the princess out of going through with the arranged marriage because she's in love with a humble soldier. Whoops! The kingdoms go to war. 400,000 people die in the first couple of days, with countless more killed when the aliens turn up. The princess and her lover both die in the fighting. Do you:

(a) restore time to the correct path. Events will unfold as they would have without you interfering. The princess will sadly break it off with her boyfriend, go through with the marriage, the kingdoms won't go to war and the alliance will repel the alien invasion.

(b) leave things as they are. Soulmate Love > life and a few weeks of furtive giggly meetings followed by a brutal death is a better outcome for a couple of teenagers than being separated. Those half a million innocent bystanders would probably be only too happy to lay down their lives to facilitate the doomed romance of two total strangers.

The play would have me believe that b's the right option. Certainly it's what Evelyn convinces the Doctor is the Right Thing To Do.

Pn the plus side, I'm suddenly struck by how much worse the end of Doomsday could have been...

Comments

[captainlucy.livejournal.com]

... and those Aliens go on to be the dominant force in the Galaxy, wiping out thousands of other races that really should have had a jolly good time discovering thousands of different kinds of tea...

This sounds like the sort of audio that would have me throwing the speakers out the top-floor window in frustration. Remind me never to listen to it (other than for research purposes, of course...)

[pontisbright.livejournal.com]

Ow. Just...ow. That's staggeringly awful. And er, hello, Six? Wouldn't he just tell them not to be so silly?

I'm now wondering if the batchippers would've really liked a Doomsday that ended with him sending all the Cybes and Daleks to the alt!verse in order to save Rose, regardless of the consequences. Y'know, if it was for his soulmate an' all...

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

Some people genuinely want the Doctor to get Rose back despite the whole, you know, thing where he said it would destrot both universes and Rose said she didn't care, the silly girl.

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

Six just wants to be loved, dude!

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

I think I'm up to at least seven ways the Doctor could get Rose back if it was his sole over-riding priority, by the way. They're not sensible or advisable, but they'd (probably) get the job done.

[bibliophile1887.livejournal.com]

I adored Arrangements for War and its sequel Thicker than Water. But I wonder if that's because I'm such a hopeless Sixth Doctor fan. It may also be because I've only listened to it once, and don't remember much apart from initial impressions.

I shall endevour to listen to it again soon and see if my initial impression was accurate or if I've allowed my fangirl self to take over.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

I love Six a lot. I love Evelyn a lot. I just *hated* the idea that giving Christa and (Sean?) a few weeks together was worth both their lives and the lives of hundreds of thousands of people - that was so mind-boggling I wondered if the writer had forgotten the death toll he'd mentioned an episode before...

[bibliophile1887.livejournal.com]

Now that I've had time to think about it ... I seem to recall not liking the fact that the Doctor changed history when he is always preaching to everyone who will listen that you can't change events that have already happened. It seemed to say that the Doctor can do whatever the hell he wants and the universe be damned. Which in a way, he is, but not dramatically so.

I shall have to listen to it again this weekend. The things I do for my fandom! *sigh* ;)

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

I seem to recall not liking the fact that the Doctor changed history when he is always preaching to everyone who will listen that you can't change events that have already happened.

Yes, you'd think he'd be a bit more worried that he's managed to completely screw up the timeline... (I expected him to have to call in the Time Lords for help)

[miss-s-b.livejournal.com]

Well, the writer is an Iron Maiden fan, so clearly he's an incurable romantic ;)

[kitmarlowescot2.livejournal.com]

The doctor is a polygamist he has serval soulmates and pretty lovers.