Re: New directions or more of the old?

On Sat, 9 Aug 2008, pbowles@xxxxxxx wrote:

1) Don't want to go home vrs can't go home.

Why does this affect the "feel" of the series?

Bob doesn't talk to his father.

1) Bob's dad is an ***
2) Bob's dad is dead

Is there a fundamental difference in the "feel" of why Bob doesn't talk to
his dad?

Not the appropriate comparison.

Totally appropriate comparison. Why does "can't go home" feel different then "won't go home"? Same reason why the feel of "can't talk to dad" is different then "won't talk to dad". Remember, the other Time Lords are DEAD. It's not that the Doctor doesn't want to talk to Romana, it's that he can't, BECAUSE SHE IS DEAD.

The same situation applies to Gallifrey now. He can't go back home because it's a smoking pile of rubble.

If you were to ask me "is there a
fundamental difference in why the Doctor doesn't go home?", I'd say
"yes". On the other hand, what I asked was "why does this affect the
feel of the *series*?" Bob doesn't talk to his father - does it affect
the "feel" of Bob's life whether that's because he doesn't like him or
because he's dead?

That fundamental difference rewrites the entire mythos. You might not think it changes the "feel" of the series, but I think it does. What if the lone survivor was just some random unnamed Time Lord? He never left Gallifrey, but is now out on his own due to the distruction of his entire species. Crap, sucks to be him, doesn't it? He would rather be back home, wouldn't he? But he's stuck, wandering the universe, because there is nothing else to do... Can you HONESTLY tell me that series would feel the same as "Doctor Who"?

I say no, they would not feel the same, because the entire mythos of the series is different. It's like trying to compare Quantum Leap with the Pretender, or the X-Files with Torchwood... They don't feel the same, they aren't the same.

Davros: You kill all sorts of people.  You suck, and I am morally superior
to you in my construction of the reality bomb

Doctor: *pout*

WTF?!?!?!?

So? Davros hit a nerve, hypocrite or no. It was entirely right for him
to feel guilty when confronted with the fact that people are
sacrificed in his name all the time.

Horse ***. The Doctor would much rather Davros not distroy every single form of matter across this universe and every parallel universe. The Doctor would rather take Davros to a pub, buy him a pint of beer, and watch the game on the telly. But Davros has other plans. So the Doctor must take a stand, put his foot down, and stop Davros at all costs. If Davros isn't stoped, EVERYONE dies. The Doctor doesn't have to like the idea that people die, but seriously, what's the choice? Feeling guilty over it is just stupid liberal horse ***...

It would have come across as
"whiney" on the Doctor's part if he'd retorted with some line like
"Yeah, but you get people killed deliberately, and more of them too!"

I would have rather heard a "ppppttthhhhhh", followed by the Doctor trying to get out even harder then before...