we're all stories in the end

Day 04: What’s your favorite relationship on Doctor Who?

The Doctor and Rose

“Does it really need saying?”

Even before I started watching Doctor Who, I knew the general format of the show. Take one Time Lord, several companions, shake and stir inside the TARDIS and voila! Traveling through time and space in a  snap. But what I wasn’t expecting was falling in love with this pink-and-yellow scrap of a girl who was both selfish and brave, innocent and world-weary, bright-eyed and Bad Wolf. 

Rose isn’t perfect, and she’s not presented as some kind of ideal girl that the Doctor has to put up on a pedestal. She represents the best of humanity, and in my opinion, this is what makes her the perfect companion to the Doctor. We take the journey through the stars with her, and we understand what it means to love and to lose the Doctor through her. So that when we see her standing on the edge of Bad Wolf Bay in Norway, with tears in her eyes and her heart on her sleeves, our own hearts break as well. Because we know this kind of loss, and we know how much it hurts, and through the Doctor and Rose, we come to terms with this aspect of our human nature as well.

The Doctor made Rose better — he taught her life beyond her Earth, taught her to make the best decisions not just for herself, but for other people as well, and allowed her to grow up in her own terms. But Rose also rescued the Doctor from himself — after the Time War, with all that emptiness inside his head, all it took was one spark, just one tiny spark to remind him that there is always hope, that the Doctor’s stories continue on, and it was Rose who helped him see that. I think their love is earned, that it progresses in a way that we find both sympathetic and believable, and that it is against this love that all of the other Doctor’s loves will be measured by. 

Day 03: Favorite quote or one liner from Doctor Who?

Since Doctor Who is primarily a show that focuses on the writing more than any other aspect of the medium, this is a pretty difficult question. I can quote whole reams of dialogue from all seasons of New Who. But I think, given my love for Nine and a certain flappy-eared, long-nosed Mancurian, I’ll have to go with his speech from 1x01, Rose:

Rose Tyler: Really though, Doctor. Tell me. Who are you? 

The Doctor: Do you know like we were saying, about the earth revolving? It’s like when you’re a kid, the first time they tell you that the world is turning and you just can’t quite believe it ‘cause everything looks like it’s standing still. I can feel it… 

[he takes her hand] 

The Doctor: - the turn of the earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour. The entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour. And I can feel it. We’re falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world. And, if we let go… 

[He releases her hand] 

The Doctor: That’s who I am. Now forget me, Rose Tyler. Go home.

Of course, I do have a couple of honorable mentions, both coming from the Eleventh Doctor. (For some odd reason, Matt Smith just gives great, amazing speeches.) The first one that I really enjoyed is from 5x12, The Pandorica Opens, when he’s addressing the spaceships that have descended on Stonehenge.

The Doctor: [transmitting to the alien fleet at and using Stonehenge with the local effect as though through a loud speaker] Sorry, dropped it. Hello, Stonehenge! Who takes the Pandorica takes the Universe! But, bad news everyone, ‘cause guess who! Ha! Except, you lot, you’re all whizzing about, it’s really very distracting. Could you all just stay still a minute because I. AM. TALKING.

Now, the question for the hour is, “Who’s got the Pandorica?” Answer: I do. Next question: “Who’s coming to take it from me?” 

Come on, look at me! No plan, no backup, no weapons worth a damn, oh, and something else: I don’t have anything to lose! So, if you’re sitting up there in your silly little space ships with all your silly little guns, and you’ve got any plans on taking the Pandorica tonight, just remember who’s standing in your way! Remember every black day I ever stopped you, and then, AND THEN, do the smart thing! 

Let somebody else try first. 

The other one that I also have as an honorable mention is taken from the second part of the two-part finale of Season 5, 5x13, The Big Bang. Here, he says goodbye to Amelia Pond before stepping into the cracks of the universe, sealing himself up on the other side of the void. 

The Doctor: It’s funny, I thought, if you could hear me, I could hang on, somehow. Silly me. Silly old Doctor. When you wake up, you’ll have a mum and dad, and you won’t even remember me. Well, you’ll remember me a little. I’ll be a story in your head. But that’s OK: we’re all stories, in the end. Just make it a good one, eh? Because it was, you know, it was the best: a daft old man, who stole a magic box and ran away. Did I ever tell you I stole it? Well, I borrowed it; I was always going to take it back. Oh, that box, Amy, you’ll dream about that box. It’ll never leave you. Big and little at the same time, brand-new and ancient, and the bluest blue, ever. And the times we had, eh? Would’ve had. Never had. In your dreams, they’ll still be there. The Doctor and Amy Pond… and the days that never came. 

The cracks are closing. But they can’t close properly ‘til I’m on the other side. I don’t belong here anymore. I think I’ll skip the rest of the rewind. I hate repeats. Live well. Love Rory. 

Bye-bye, Pond.

All in all, I think Doctor Who reminds us of the power of words, because really, that’s what all the Doctor uses. In all his adventures, it’s his gob that proves the most effective weapon. Not guns, not blades, not blasters. Just words — syllables and sounds and inflections that can heal a rift in time and space, that can bring back the universe, that can make us forget, and most importantly, that can make us remember. And I don’t think any other characters on any other show uses words in quite the same way as the Doctor does. 

P.S. - Sorry about the screencaps. It’s 1 AM over here and I just want to finish Days 3 and 4 before going to bed. :)