XOXO to Kim for taking over my last playlist post while I dealt with day-job craziness. The storm has passed and I can now again focus on what’s really important: soundtracking the romantic relationship of fictional characters.
The Doctor is such a rich character to analyze. He’s constantly dealing with all the realities of the universe and the turn of time, but with some very familiar and human emotions. And he’s almost completely undone by his love for this girl. All of my playlist selections today are from the heartbreaking POV of the Doctor.
“Just Me Before We Met” – Noah and The Whale
“Looking through the photos you find in my drawer
Laughing so hard you’re rolling around on the floor
At all the bad haircuts and smoking cigarettes
The lustless romantic trying hard to impress
Well that’s just me before we met
Well that’s just me before we met
Putting down the photos you look up at me
Enjoying the thought of the person I used to be
The things I was proud of
The things I regret
Some things I remember
Some things I forget
Well that’s just me before we met
Well that’s just me before we met
Well I’ve always had a wild imagination
And a see through heart
Which I know can be a wild combination
Like a flame forms from a spark
But don’t be shy
Be brave little champion
It’s better to live than to hide”
“Just Me Before We Met” is one of those songs that just tackled me when it came up on shuffle one day. I had to stop on Astor Place, hit replay, and lean against the K-Mart while the feels washed over. It could speak to the Doctor’s relationship with any of his companions, but there’s something very Rose about it to me. I can picture them doing this, probably right after “School Reunion” – him showing her pictures of what he used to look like and the silly things he used to wear; and her wanting to know absolutely everything.
Rose is the only modern companion to have known more than one regeneration of the Doctor, so I think that she understands him in a way that Martha, Donna, and Amy don’t. (Every companion has a unique relationship with him, after all.) She’s had to come to terms with the fact that Nine is both always there and never coming back. I imagine that, once she understood the circumstances and came to trust Ten, he would regale her with stories about all of his past selves: mistakes, triumphs, and tragedies. What a relief for the Doctor that Rose accepts and loves this very alien part of him.
“Fly with Me” – Jonas Brothers
“If time was still
The sun
Would never never find us
We could light up
The sky tonight
If I could see the world through your eyes
Leave it all behind
If it’s you and me forever
If it’s you and me right now
I’d be alright
Be alright
We’re chasing stars to lose our shadow
Peter Pan and Wendy turned out fine
So won’t you fly with me?”
Actually, Wendy went back home and grew up, leaving Peter brokenhearted.
Throughout Series 2, Ten very pointedly ignores all the signs that his and Rose’s story will not end happily. If time were still, they could go on forever. If the sun never found them, fate wouldn’t either. Even the Doctor can’t fight those realities. But he knows, possibly more than anyone, the value of living in the moment.
In his lowest moments, the Doctor feels guilty and selfish for bringing his companions into his life. (You can’t tell me Eleven didn’t see himself in that hotel room in “The God Complex.”) But no matter their fate, no companion would choose to go back and erase their time in the TARDIS. Not even Rose on Bad Wolf Bay.
“Nothing for Granted” – Brendan James
“Stop the seasons drifting by
Stop believing there’s no time
Stop your heart from closing off
I think you deserve it all
Love your future, love your past
Love your body, it’s all you have
Love your secrets bottled up
But love them more when you give them up
Run with me down these midnight streets, we will take
Nothing for granted, nothing for granted
Come with me life is short and sweet, we will take
Nothing for granted, nothing for granted.”
The greatest gift that the Doctor gives his companions is the ability to find within themselved the bravery, cleverness, and compassion that they’ve always had. You wouldn’t think that someone who hates himself so much could inspire his friends to consider themselves so extraordinary. (Womp womp.)
As prickly as Nine started out, he saw the potential in Rose right away and proceeded to bring it out. As the magnificent Russell T. Davies, show-runner and king of the shippers, said once, “Rose fell in love with the most fantastic man in the universe, who just happened to think that she was the most fantastic woman in the universe.”
“Young and full of running
Tell me where has that taken me?
Just a great figure eight or a tiny infinity?
Love is really nothing
But a dream that keeps waking me
For all of my trying, we still end up dying
How can it be?
Don’t say a word, just come over and lie here with me
‘Cause I’m just about to set fire to everything I see
I want you so bad, I’ll go back on the things I believe
There I just said it, I’m scared you’ll forget about me.”
Let’s talk about sex in Doctor Who for just a minute. Now, I hear it’s a family show (tell that to Rose/Ten in “Tooth and Claw”), but I don’t for a second think that the Doctor himself is asexual. When I started watching Series 1, I had some preconceived notion that the companion relationships were all platonic, all the time. “Don’t ship it, Sage. Don’t ship it! It will never happen.” Like most of my Who assumptions (it’s a campy sci-fi show that will never make you cry!), this one was wrong. After all, the world doesn’t end if the Doctor dances.
Listen, the writers have been dropping hints to us throughout the show, ala classic films in the Production Code era. There’s plenty of innuendo to fuel a complete head canon-timeline of Doctor/Rose physicality. I personally think they made out before “Tooth and Claw” and like, totally did it after “The Satan Pit.” If you’d like to see how that might go, I’ll point you to a few of my favorite fics.
“Up with The Birds” – Coldplay
“Might have to go, where they don’t know my name
Float all over the world just to see her again
But I won’t show or feel any pain
Even though all my armor might rust in the rain.”
I mean…I don’t hate Martha. I really don’t. She’s lovely and kind and also kick-ass. She’s loyal to the Doctor, even throughout the whole Family of Blood debacle. But man, she was just clueless when it came to relating to him. The man. Is. Sad. Maybe a little compassion, huh? She took his mourning Rose to be a personal slight to her. Maybe if she had helped him to work through the loss, they could have come close to the relationship she wanted with him. But Dr. Jones and the Doctor are alike in that way – they’re more comfortable dealing with facts than feelings. She’s a scientist, just like him. I’m just sayin’, didn’t he start having fun again with Donna, who wanted to hear about that part of his life? Time to work on that bedside manner, Martha.
That’s it for this week, my shipper pals! As always, drop any Rose and Ten playlist suggestions in the comments.
Re: Sexy Times I would like to point out the state The Doctor’s clothes are in during “Fear Her”. No tie. SHIRT BUTTONS UNDONE. Doing it, doing it, TARDIS DOING IT. -K
And then he gets all jealous over the cat. And then there’s the sexy, flirty “copper’s hunch” conversation. Totally post coital. –S