A Thought on Last of the Time Lords

[carmen_lj]

I've never been very happy with the Doctor = Jesus comparison (if only because Martha = Jesus, the Son, Doctor = God, the Father, if you're going that way really) because it's casting the Doctor in a role that he's never really been in, and I sure as heck don't want to retcon him in my head into that role. He's the trickster-god, Loki, Seth, Odysseus (er, yeah, I know he's not actually a god, but he's very Doctor-like, yes.) Even if you're arguing a fundamental character change based on the Time War, he might see himself as the ultimate authority, but I'm not comfy with the text agreeing with that and I don't think it does.

The reason, with LotTL anyway, relies on looking at specifics rather than the general trend of events in the finale. Particularly the fact that in order for the Doctor to do the rising again and saving the world from Satan thing, he is reliant on the power of others. Jesus rose from the grave all by himself, who he was and the power he had was not a matter of the faith that others had in him. Their faith would save them, but Jesus was the Son of God no matter what anyone else believed and he would have risen on the third day whatever. He healed, and those whom he healed often only believed after he had healed them, not before. ("You're the Son of God, eh? Prove it.")

Now, the Doctor can do nothing himself, he's pretty much impotent from the moment he's aged. Who's got the power (for good) here? It's Martha, and those she can inspire. So rather than casting the piece as religious allegory, I'd rather go for a fairy-tale, where, for instance, the prince has been cursed (as, indeed, has the kingdom itself) by an evil wizard and it's up to the princess to rescue him and lead the kingdom's revolution. Or how about the Doctor as Merlin, cast into the ice caves by Morgaine, and only able to use his powers to defeat her once he's rescued by his apprentice who's learned enough of his arts (that would be saving the day) to free him.

And it's a thematic continuation of the last time Martha saved the world, in tSC, where she did it with a word, creating the spell that vanquished the evil. Here, she teaches another word, just as powerful, but the quest is infinitely more difficult. (Never mind the whole apprentice Doctor/medical student thing that fandom's been discussing since we knew about it.)

And if I hear one more time about her doing this because she loved the Doctor or some such nonsense, I'll... well, I'll huff a bit. Because, ffs, it's her planet, her people, her family, her friends and everything and everyone she's ever known, prior to TARDIS-adventuring. She couldn't possibly have another reason for trying to save it other than hoping for a quick shag with the Doctor afterwards.

I'm sure she loves the Doctor very much (and, certainly, by the end, when she's telling her story, I felt as though it was in a non-romantic sense, but rather she loved him as the mentor whose courage, intelligence, tenacity and skill had taught her and kept her going throughout her practically impossible quest to save the world with an utterly mad plan) but she's busy doing what the Doctor couldn't: she's saving her homeworld. And given how the entire series has been about how losing his planet and people affected the Doctor, and shows us just how close he comes to truly terrible things for the chance to get them back, you'd think it'd be obvious what was actually driving Martha on.

So, yeah, mostly I'm all for looking at the finale in terms of a heroic quest in classical mythology or a fairy-tale, rather than in terms of Christian theology, which, for me, doesn't work because of what forty years of Doctor Who stories have told me about who the Doctor is.

That was my thought.

Comments

[zauberer-sirin.livejournal.com]

And if I hear one more time about her doing this because she loved the Doctor or some such nonsense, I'll... well, I'll huff a bit.

arg, it irks me when people cheapens what Martha did that way. She did it cause she is awesome, i mean, she did for all that you said yes XD

[calapine.livejournal.com]

It's like trying to take away from teh Babs' awesomeness by saying "she did it because she loved Ian." And just, no.

[tau_sigma]

That was my thought.

And it is a dead interesting one. I'd like to say more, but, um, I'd end up quoting the whole thing. Because yeah, I like the way you've thought this out. It makes sense.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I had another one, but it was mostly concerning how my tea tastes like Earl Grey and I hate Earl Grey.

[paratti.livejournal.com]

It is definitely more a Fisher King thing in that story.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

TARDIS = Doctor/Fisher King's kingdom? That could work.

[darchildre.livejournal.com]

i find your ideas intriguing and wish to subscribe to your news letter.

especially as regards the doctor = trickster god. because, hell, that's what i liked about the guy in the first place.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

His story is v Prometheus, yes, though I see him more as a benevolent Loki.

[dancesontrains.livejournal.com]

*Nods in agreement*
For an atheist, RTD is amusingly heavy handed with Teh Allegories.
Yes to the Loki types. The Doctor is what he is what he is.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

He's weirdly contradictory and all in TW, with Suzie's nothingness and Simon being sucked into Heaven-ish. Can't we just have a pleasant left-alone ambiguity?

Funnily the Buddhist trail they went off on in Pertwee's time didn't feel at all awkward.

[shaggydogstail.livejournal.com]

I have embarrassing girl-crush on your brain now. Because yes.

Mythology or fairy-tale works much better for me than religious allegory as well. As far as I can see, the religious symbolism, when it does crop up, is just another story-telling ingredient that gets thrown in with mythology (of various sorts), fairy tales and folk tales, and whatever else tickles TPTB's fancy at the time. LotTL doesn't follow the rules enough to be a proper allegory anyway.

I'll join you in the huffing at the stuff about Martha saving the world to get a bit of Doctor-lovin'. Really.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I use allegory v loosely, yeah.

I be slightly flaily that the main comparisons being drawn from finale are religious ones when, while there are elements, that doesn't fit in with the season or that universe's mythology as a whole.

And it's playing down Martha's role, casting her as acolyte rather than apprentice who's come of age.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

1. I fucking hate Jesus imagery in media entertainment so much that I can't even pretend to discuss it rationally, so...yes, the stuff you said. He's always been Loki to me as well (and if that makes Martha into Sigyn then fine, that's still better than the alternative).

2. I'm not the least surprised people attribute everything Martha does to Doctor-love--it's the same phenomenon that leads to unrepentant batchipping, everything and anything for Teh Love of Teh All-Important Mans. Blecch.

[violetisblue.livejournal.com]

And thank you, too, for noting that Martha saved the world twice and not once--everyone always forgets about the end of "The Shakespeare Code." So of course, you'd rationally want to take a character like this and who has killer UST with the Doctor and shove her to the sidelines for aaahhhh forget it you know the drill.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

1 - Even though it doesn't work in story context, Martha's Freya, in my head.

2 - I'd mind a lot less if it wasn't used to dismiss what an extraordinary thing she did, but it is, and I find that...irritating.

[chicafrom3.livejournal.com]

And it's a thematic continuation of the last time Martha saved the world, in tSC, where she did it with a word, creating the spell that vanquished the evil. Here, she teaches another word, just as powerful, but the quest is infinitely more difficult.

*flails* Yes, exactly.

(Would quite like to quote the whole thing and go YES EXACTLY but that would be counterproductive)

It's like...I can't pretend away the Biblical parallels 'cause they are there, but I don't think they're as closely literal as most of fandom seems to want them to be? And, ys, despite all the people claiming that Martha is somehow disempowered by the revelation that what she did over her Year Of Walking The Earth was tell the Doctor's story to get people to believe in him, I can't help but feel that they're totally missing the point and that it's far more empowering for Martha's weapon to have been a story and words than for it to be this gun no one has ever heard of before but handily defeats Time Lords.

Er. What I mean to say is: Yes, exactly.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

It's like that big telecope-y lens thing in Tooth and Claw, all very pretty and clever (the Doctor) but it's ruddy useless without the power source (Martha).

[whochick.livejournal.com]

I completely agree with what you're saying ... LOTL didn't inspire me at all, in fact, quite the opposite.

I think the crisis could still have been solved using the Archangel Network, but without the religious connotations and Floaty!Doctor. It detracted from the overall brilliance of having the Master back.

Just a suggestion - but you might want to put the spoilers under a cut for those of us in later-viewing periods ... I'm lucky, I saw it early!

[azarsuerte.livejournal.com]

Excellent analysis, and I think I agree with you 100%. :-D

(The Doctor is really the Frog Prince. ;-) )

[calapine.livejournal.com]

I am sure the Forg Prince analogy was really was was intended by Gollum!Doctor, oh yes.

[voicelikehoney.livejournal.com]

*applauds* Thank you! That's so much more of a positive way of reading the last series finale and fits so much better with my reading of the incredible kick-arse just-plain-awesome that Martha so obviously is.

To me another thing that just goes to prove your point about Martha being apprentice-not-acolyte is a) the way she chooses to leave the Doctor rather than just falling in behind him and choosing to leave her responsibilities behind to go worship at his altar, and b), in consequence, the way she'll go back. I seriously don't believe we'll see her wide-eyed in awe of him when she returns (unless he reveals some other miraculous talent she wasn't aware of, akin to being able to regrow a limb) - we'll be seeing a confident professional after a stint at Torchwood who sees the Doctor as somebody worth admiration and respect but also will see him as a friend.

I've always been more of a mythical/faerie tale gal than a religious allegory one anyway, though apparently I need to brush up on my Norse gods! I know my Greek and my Roman ones but Loki and Thor are the only Norse ones I remember - though I have a copy of the Edda I never read that I really should pick up ...

[calapine.livejournal.com]

When she comes back it should, hopefully, confirm the apprentice outgrown mentor thing. And possibly she will get to save the world, again.

It's not as satisfying a apprentice/mentor relationship as Seven & Ace, but I think that's what was intended and what the finale is pretty explicit in showing.

[tree_and_leaf]

Yes, definitely more of a fairy tale, despite the writers and producers' ocassionally somewhat crass evokation of religious imagery. The Doctor can't be made into a Jesus analogue, except in terms which are so broad as to be meaningless. They don't even match the whole 'lonely god' idea, because the whole point of the Incarnation in Christian thought is not just that Jesus is God, but at the same time he's also an actual proper human being like anyone else (and didn't get confused and vague and start burbling about non-existant places in Ireland when asked about his childhood). The Doctor's case is entirely different: the more one actually knows about either Christianity or Who, the less convincing the 'parallels' look.

{Minor nit-picky theological point, which doesn't really have anything to do with the substance of your argument: although this doesn't apply to the Resurrection itself, there's a strong implication in the Gospels that for the miracles of healing in particular, some sort of faith was required for healing, even if it later led to a deeper act of committment from the healee subsequently. See also the scene where Peter can walk on the water until he thinks about what he's doing, at which point he promptly sinks. On the other hand, on the ocassions when Christ was directly challenged to do a miracle to prove he was the Son of God, he refused.)

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Aye, it's an analogy that can only be made when you pick out specfic instances and refuse to look at any general trend in the piece.

I appreciate the theological points - my Bible reading has someone lapsed.

<babble>

[episkopos.livejournal.com]

I see absolutely no reason why it can't be both. I'm not quite feeling up to writing another huge essay on Campbellian meta-mythology (finishing the last one nearly killed me), but the story of Jesus-the-bloke (as opposed to the theology, the study of Jesus-the-God-but-not-quite and the million and six ways to interpret his teachings) has elements of the Hero's Journey (Campbell's ur-story that's the core of all narratives with defined characters) about it, as do all those classical myths and fairy tales, and (the crux or thrust of the notion) the character arcs of companions in Doctor Who. Less so the Doctor, I think: his Journey, his ideological death-and-resurrection (as opposed to actual death and resurrection) has usually taken place off-screen (leaving Gallifrey, destroying Gallifrey). But that makes sense, since he'd be a sort of mentor-figure in the Companion's Journey rather than the Hero of his own...

Gah. Do you see what you've done now? Broadly speaking, yes I agree, and so does at least one narratologist, but I think the Doctor could be equated with Jesus-the-bloke if you cast him as the Hero and not the Mentor. Maybe he's both. Maybe he's going through some back-asswards version of the Journey. Hell, maybe the whole thing is the Master's Journey and his apparent suicide represents failure to complete it... or maybe I'm still possessed by my damn dissertation. I'm not sure.

But thank you. More people need to provoke discussions involving classical/Christian mythological relationships and narrative theory as applied to Doctor Who. The world would be a happier place if they did.


(also, you have infected me with your "Oh, Doctor and Romana, skipping round wee meadows with lovely flowers, tralalala!" obsession. is there a cure?)

Re: <babble>

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Ah, disassociating the religious figure from the historical one? That's not occurred, ah, possibly blinkers due to my own religious beliefs there.

Incidentally, there is no cure. Now you must join us and talk of Paris and Nimons and make beautiful fic, yes. *nods*

[melengro.livejournal.com]

Wow. You have a really good grasp of Christian doctrine and mythological theory! And we share several interests. Friends?

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Tenacious grasp at best, I'm afraid. Ah, friend as you will, but I'm afraid I struggle to keep up with my flist as it is.

Curious though, you have an interest in the corpus iuris civilis?

[sheldrake.livejournal.com]

I really like this analogy. It also makes me think of Robin Hood, although I haven't really thought that one through to be honest. Anyway, I love Martha as this sort of legendary figure, the storyteller. I'm happy to take that over any slightly tacky imagery that may or may not have been on offer at the time, ta.

In conclusion, yay Martha! :)

[biichan.livejournal.com]

The Doctor as Merlin works for me. He's already played that part, after all ;)

[fyrdrakken]

By this point in my head, my Doylist perspective on how s3 got fucked up is that RTD couldn't finish Rose's character arc properly (due to losing Piper before he could get Barrowman back on Who to finish out the Time War story properly) and was in love with his arc enough to shoehorn in a new character to take up the final stretch of Rose's character arc. Thereby fucking up his handling of both Rose and Martha, since Rose got cryin'-onna-beach and Martha got awesomeness-overshadowed-by-being-not!Rose (for both batchipper fen and, as far as Martha thought, the Doctor) leading to her exit apparently being due to being sick of being unappreciated rather than as a natural conclusion to her growth as a person. (Seriously. Rose got all of the arc except the final-realization-Doctor-ain't-the-mortgage-type-and-walking-out, and Martha's character was shaped around being able to do that last little bit. Wrecked them both.)

So. This is how I handwave my outrage at everything fucked up between "Doomsday" and LotTL, and this is how I delude myself into hoping that with Donna there'll be, if not a clean slate, then at least that the Rose issues are dealt with and off the table. And I'd dearly love to see Donna's reaction to the Doctor now mooning over the Master and, oh yeah, he had someone else he picked up who's gone now too, and then there was that Jack bloke... (In fact, I may love it enough to make myself write at least a little Ten/Donna fic. Got loads of time before it'll be jossed, after all...)

[fyrdrakken]

Christ. I've had the thought before that Martha has from a character standpoint being merely standing in Rose's shoes from a very literal plot-building standpoint (hence the eternal lampshade-hanging about her being not!Rose), but today is when it occurred to me what a horribly illuminating exercise it would be to write an AU fic in which AoG/DD never happened and the entire third season happened with Rose instead of Martha without actually changing any of the plotting, aside from replacing Martha's not!Rose angst with Rose's no!mortgage angst.