in season 4 we were all sleuths: the Doctor Who edition

[sab]

Aka, Season Four: Return of the Bad Wolf, Or Something



As continued from [here, and read the comments, they're better than the actual post]

1. Partners in Crime

Rose shows up and fades away at the end.

The Doctor and Donna fly by in the Tardis to wave goodbye to Grandad Wilf (Grandad Bad Wolf?) who, among triumphant shouting of "you go, girl, fly away in the blue box!" says, I swear, "DOCTOR." Watch for it, when he whirls around and his back's toward the camera. Donna never mentioned the Doctor's name, so.

Atmos stickers on cars, explained later. The goddamned bees are just a fakeout -- because it's not about the bees disappearing; whole PLANETS are disappearing.

The Adiposeans had to rebreed on Earth, after their home planet was "lost." "What do you mean, lost?" says the Doctor.

2. Fires of Pompeii

Donna has something on her back. I like hollywoodgrrl's theory that it's Rose, somehow piggybacking along for the ride --

But I also think that it has something to do with Granddad Wilf, the something on Donna's back.

The Doctor's told "she is returning" which is, as we all know, true. Unless it's more than Rose...

The Pyroviles' (sp?) home planet got lost -- "What do you mean, lost?" and so they're rebreeding here on Earth...

Pompeii is a fixed point in time. Maybe it's only things that the Time Lords make happen that become immutable? Jack?

3. Planet of the Ood.

The Ood were rescued...when their planet was lost? (This I don't actually remember.)

The Doctor is nearing the end of his song. Also, he can hear the music of death all the time.

Also, the executive dude was drinking hair tonic; possibly a telegraph to some future payoff, possibly just comic relief. Still, his "drink! Drink!" orders reminded me of a certain bitchy trampoline who liked being moisturized...

4-5: Sontaran Arc

First off, Rose does indeed say "Donna," not "Doctor," on the viewscreen. Which would seem to support hollywoodgrrl's theory that Rose is the thing on Donna's back -- OR my theory that the Rose-form is somehow going to be the Doctor's 11th regeneration. Oy vey.

I've only seen these episodes once, but I'm willing to bet a planet gets lost, Wilf knows something, and we are not done with the Evil Martha Clone.

//

If the planets are indeed disappearing (like the bees) then it totally supports selenak's theory that the Doctor-lite episode will be one where all the companions pile on to somehow "fix" a world where the Doctor's disappeared, or never was... See her comment [here].

I can't HANDLE the thought of a world where my Doctor never existed. I can't HANDLE it. I could barely handle "WEHT Sarah Jane?" and my love for Sarah Jane can't even touch my love for Ten, or the Doctor, or the world with the Doctor in it, full of wonders and opportunity, peoples' lives touched. Even in "Blink," easily one of the best eps of this series, my heart ached for Sally Sparrow and her world that would never again be touched by the Doctor.

The whole "a world where such and such never happened" trope is super triggering to me and frequently makes me cry. But for the Doctor, I'll do it! I'll do it, and I'll force myself to know that it'll all come right in the end. But I'm pre-weeping, already, right now.

Comments

[eve11]

Ah, the Sontarans needed a new breeding world in this latest one too. Did theirs get lost? ;)

Also, let us not forget that at the end of series 3, someone, obviously female, picked up the Master's ring from the ashes of the pyre. Who was it? My money was on Lucy Saxon, but heck, it could've been Donna. If someone's manipulating her, that could go a long way to explaining her sudden change of heart in tracking down the Doctor.

In the Ood episode, the Ood sales were declining, which could have indicated less of a need for them, possibly due to planets going missing. Bit of a stretch though.

[iamsab.livejournal.com]

I think the Sontarans' world DID get lost! See!

And (though I thought it was Lucy too) someone said it was the hand of The Rani? Which is more old-skool than I'm familiar with. Still.

And of course, the Medusa cascade, where the Toclafane came flying through, has had a couple mentions this season...

[allthingsholy.livejournal.com]

Apparently, RTD said that "the Medusa Cascade will come back to haunt us," so ... I'm very interest in where they're taking it.

[eve11]

Oh, the Toclafane came through the Medusa Cascade? Interesting... isn't that one of the places the Doctor says he wanted to take Donna when he misinterprets her wanted to leave and catch up with the fam as her wanting to leave permanently?

The Rani is a rogue geneticist Time Lady. She's like the Master in that she and the Doctor went to the Academy together, but she started doing much more unethical practices in her genetic experiments. I've only seen Mark of the Rani in the old school episodes, but that ep along with fic I've read by those who know more than I do both support that image :) I'm kind of "meh" about the idea, since we already had the Master come back. I'd rather they try something new, although this series has been All About the Old School lately.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

isn't that one of the places the Doctor says he wanted to take Donna

Yes. It's also mentioned by the young woman in the Pompeiian family when she says his true name is hidden in the Cascade of Medusa herself, and the Master says that the Doctor closed the rift at the Medusa Cascade.

[tzikeh.livejournal.com]

The Toclafane did not come through the Medusa Cascade. The rift in space-time was not the Medusa Cascade.