rivendellrose | (no subject)

I have seen the new trailer for S5 Doctor Who.

I'm pretty okay with Eleven as the new Doctor. I never particularly liked my first glimpse of any of the new or new-to-me Doctors (meaning One through Eight and then Ten, as Nine was the only one I came onto with no preconceptions), and I always end up loving them. So that's no problem. And it looks very pretty. And I'm excited to have the Weeping Angels back. And the Daleks, too, apparently. And... something, some kind of monster I don't recognize, too, so that could be exciting.

Amy looks really cute, too. I think I'll like her.

It's Amy and the Doctor that's giving me a little pause.

I'm getting really tired of the whole "the Doctor and his companion are in twu wuv!" angle. Particularly because the companion's apparent age keeps dipping lower and lower. I'm not sure how old Amy-the-character is going to be, but she appears to be... seventeen? And really, while I know the Doctor's always had a thing for hanging out with young girls, I think I preferred it in the good old days when they were at least out of high school. Hell, even Rose was out of high school.

It's possible I'm just feeling fussy about this because I'm both older and, after the last 'series' of specials and the end of last year, feeling a good bit crankier about Doctor Who than I've felt since starting to watch it. It's also possible I'm particularly cranky about the whole twu wuv angle because my brain's been niggling at me to write a bit of meta re: gender and storyline in one of my other fandoms, and it kind of makes me go "bleh!" right now. But on the whole I find that I'm increasingly annoyed with the way Doctor Who tends lately to be becoming more about the love and less about the Doctor and his companions of both genders running around the universe having adventures. In the old days, we did have companions of both genders. And the Doctor was usually nicer to his girls than to his boys (usually - see Jamie for a major disclaimer on that, as well as probably Fitz), but it wasn't so much "The Doctor, who takes girls around the universe and they fall in love with him" as it was "The Doctor, who takes humans around the universe and they have fun and adventures."

Anyway, I recognize it's probably unfair to judge Eleven and Amy's relationship based on a trailer alone, so I will shut up now and go back to being excited about the Weeping Angels and the Daleks and actually having a show to watch again, because gods know I need something new to watch rather than constantly wandering around in circles in the world's tiniest comic book fandom. :P

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And there, again, I'm in an awkward position - I really really like River - I've always loved the actress, and I adore them having older women on the show who aren't inherently evil or, you know, Sarah Jane, and plus, hey, archaeologist! But I'm very uncertain about their whole romance angle. I like it in theory, but in practice I'm a little nervous about the whole thing, because... honestly, I feel like the Doctor is a character with whom romance works best when it's kept to subtext.

Or, you know, mostly subtext-ish text (see Doctor/Romana). ;)

...And god, I hope that means we're not going to have to put up with another unrequited romance from a companion, because as much as I love Martha Jones (and I do!!!) that was just painful at times.

Doctor/Romana works because she's also a Time Lord! It's a much more even playing field.

I know Who fans don't want to hear this, but Doctor/Rose (or Doctor/Amy) is about as creepy as Edward/Bella in Twilight. He is still an old dude chasing a young girl just because he's wearing a young body.

Granted, the Doctor is a much more complex and interesting character than Edward, and I do believe that IF he does love Rose it's much more complex that the way her blood smells. But still.

I know Who fans don't want to hear this, but Doctor/Rose (or Doctor/Amy) is about as creepy as Edward/Bella in Twilight.

Exactly. I loved the Doctor and Rose in Nine's era, when they were just crazy friends, but the whole Ten/Rose thing really put me off. Is it supposed to be okay because the Doctor has the attitude of an eternal teenager, or is it just supposed to be okay because he's pretty? Either way... eh, I'm really not quite comfortable with it.

And yeah, the even playing field is exactly what I love about Doctor/Romana - it's not all about him being so amazing and lifting her up and making her something more. There isn't a scary imbalance of power or anything, they just have fun.

See, usually I would agree on the unrequited angle, but Doctor/River is one where I'm actually hoping he won't be as in love with her as she let on he would be in SitL/FotD because I reflexively dislike mutual Doctor/human romances (in the In a Relationship Sense). In other words, I'm hoping it'll actual be somewhat dysfunctional in that she mighg consider him the love of her life but he will have loved so many others that it would be ridiculous for him to suddenly love her more than he ever loved anyone else, and that a lot of it will be due to him feeling guilty about knowing how her life ends (not in an Emo Ten way, just a sort of I'll-Go-Along-With-Whatever-You-Want-Because-I-Feel Quite-Terrible-That-You'll-Die-Horribly.

Then, I also want a life-supply of beer. It'll probably be the opposite of what I want.

Oh, and just to clarify: I'd rather there not be any romance between them but that's clearly what TPTB want, so making it screwed up would make would be the next-best thing for me.