A
look at Series 3 of new Doctor Who requires a look at one off the major
questions of the new era:
is the Tenth Doctor a coward? The obvious
answer to this is of course not. Every version of the Doctor has risked
life and limb for the sake of both those he knows about and complete
strangers. But a look at this season reveals a startling amount of
evidence to the contrary: rather than fight a foe he can clearly
dispatch, he puts the lives of a town at risk with his attempt to wait
for the enemy to die on its own. Rather than attempt to defeat a clearly
murderous group of enemies, he gives in to the idea that they are
replacing the minds of bystanders with copies of their own and simply
aims to make those copies less murderous. And of course the most
questioned point of the season, when the Doctor attempts a Luke
Skywalker style redemption plot with an unrepentant murderer of hundreds
of millions- trillions if you take into account the classic show.
Ultimately,
the Doctor's willingness to risk the health of the many for the sake of
the few indicates an important change in this season: rather than
goodness or determination, this season's Doctor is characterized by
tiredness. He's weary of the wrath and the destruction. His statement
that "I lose it all and they always survive" is more than a line for the
"Daleks in Manhattan"- in certain ways it's the thesis that this season
is based on. The Doctor is trying to get as far from the ruthlessness
that characterized Sylvester McCoy's tenure as possible, though as
"Family of Blood" indicates, it's never far from him.
At
the end of Series 2, the Doctor saw his companion and lover off into a
parallel universe as two armies invaded the Earth: one an alternate
version of a force that was defeated in that era of time, and the other a
force left over from a fleet that the Doctor had made great sacrifices
to defeat. The aftermath of this leads into the series 3 opener,
“Runaway Bride”, in which the Doctor faces and destroys another ancient
enemy of his people, with a ruthlessness that resulted in the titular
bride- next season's companion- becoming cautious enough of the Doctor
to decline his offer to travel with him. This apparently struck a chord
with the Doctor- as I described above, he spends the remainder of the
season taking ridiculous risks to avoid doing so again.
This
season, even more than the last, is a regeneration. The Doctor has a
new companion, who hasn't seen the things that Rose has and reacts to
them differently. In that regard this season follows many of the same
patterns that Series 1 did, except with a Doctor newly confronted by a
close personal loss rather than massive trauma. Rather than the Post
Traumatic Dress Disorder he experienced in the past, it seems this
Doctors psychological state can be more closely defined by clinical
Depression. His response to his loss is to cling to everything from his
old life: the Daleks, the Master, and even a world in which the Time
Lords caused the extinction of the Racknos.
The
season plot is pretty subtle compared to what we've seen before. Rather
than setting the season up with enemies for a brawl at the end, Series 3
sets up ideals such as forgiveness (leading to the Master spending a
year keeping the Doctor from telling him “I forgive you”), and
technology that informs the finale, in the form of screwdrivers and fob
watches. With some of the themes I discussed in the first paragraph,
this is rather bittersweet- an ambitious idea mired in its own concepts.
Martha
is both the most intelligent and the wisest companion new Who has had
yet, which is probably why she’s made one of the biggest marks of any
one-season companion. That, or maybe the fact that she’s a sassy black
girl and the best dresser that would travel with Tennant’s Doctor. As a
medical doctor, it’s not surprising that she has traits of the 8th
Doctor’s companion Grace Holloway- being kissed by the Doctor, having an
episode where he’s half human (“Family of Blood”), and falling in love
with him (although she denies it at first). Still, watching Martha
interact with her family and the Doctor is a blast; she really has a
full life waiting for her back home and you can see that every time the
TARDIS stops by the 21st century.
The
only downside to Martha is that the stories she’s in could really give a
shit about her. If you ignore the fact that “Gridlock” and “The
Shakespeare Code” carry elements of “End of the World” (as Martha
mentions, “ever heard the word ‘rebound’?”) and that she contributes a
line at the end of the latter, the only stories that really involve
Martha are the two-parters. It’s these episodes that prove her worth as
an invaluable companion, however, as in each she fights for the
Doctor’s cause- without his help- for weeks or months on end, without
exactly being the most popular person around, and passed with shining
colors. “Human Nature” and “Last of the Time Lords”, despite both
having their problems, really shine in the companion department.
That’s
the key to this season, I think. Really great scenes, really great
moments; but the episodes as a whole are too flawed to really call
great. I love this season for a lot of reasons, but I can’t call it a
good one. It’s a season that you have to watch for the characters and
for the great moments, but you can’t pay too much attention to the plot
or it gets a little disturbing. I still recommend this season, but only
if you fall in love with the characters in “Smith and Jones”.