“Wow. I don’t think I realized just how much I miss David Tennant until seeing that.” - comment from i09.
So, it’s weird. When I think about how completely, viscerally connected I was to Doctor Who when RTD was at the helm, I almost feel a bit silly. What a privileged world I live in that I have the luxury to miss people whom I have never met. But by god did I tear up a little bit while watching this. I don’t think I’ll ever have such a connection to a TV show like that ever again. This is the first time that I’ve really ruminated on it, and it makes me super sad. As shitty as it could be at times, Doctor Who was like, kind of a big part of my life and the life of my brother for a while there. We loved the fuck out of that show. There are few times that I’ve seen Anthony cry as hard as he did after we watched Tennant’s last episode. It was a big fucking deal.
And I honestly think that Doctor Who made me a better writer, and, as stupid as it sounds, a better person to some extent. At the very least, it made me watch other media differently. When people would use violence as a quick out to their problems in TV or film I would usually not really think about it. But after watching Doctor Who, I started to really notice and critique it. I resented other fiction for always presenting that as a responsible, acceptable solution. Especially fiction for kids. That’s another reason why Avatar: The Last Airbender is so great. Aang is a vegetarian/pacifist combo. We need more role models like that. The Doctor, even at like…16 or 17 when I started watching DW, became that for me.
I am sort of a womanchild, and this is probably more reflective of my emotional stuntedness than it is Doctor Who, but still. It was a really magical show when RTD was writing for it. And I miss it.
This. But also, Doctor Who made me very aware of continuous plots, and the ability for writers to leave seeds for the future - Bad Wolf is one of my favourite plot points, and the way that Martha, Donna and Rose all grew, evolved and became more/better is a rare thing in television - characters are usually caught in time where they are forced to stay the same.
Also, seeing Sarah Jane made me well up, i admit. And how happy David Tennant was with the band.
