The 'Ship that ought to sink
Dec. 11th, 2007 01:06 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
requialexaOr Stinking Ships?
(anti-Martha/Ten to follow)
I started ranting over on a friend's journal in a comment and I don't think I was done yet.
But Oh, come on! How can anyone ship Martha and Ten????
See, I feel perfectly objective about this because I am a fan of the Doctor above any ships or incarnations and I really love to see him happy. So if Martha would do it, then hey! Go for it!
I'm not so madly in love with Doctor/Rose that I can't admit there were others and could be others in the future. Is Rose his OTL? I don't think there can be a OTL for a Time Lord. I mean, 900 years is a long time to do without if it's true, you know? Not to mention the fact that they aren't out looking for love anyway--it's a primitive and dangerous emotion!
But I do feel she's utterly unique in the history of companions if for no other reason than she was the first one after he became the last of the Time Lords. She challenged him, she jumped in with both feet, she changed gears on a hairpin and she could keep up! She wasn't afraid of him and rarely catered to him, except out of an intuitive desire to respect his boundaries. She didn't pry, didn't get far into his personal stuff. She wasn't with him to get a date or because she thought he was cute.
And the timing was in her favour, too: without other Time Lords, I think the doctor was #1 lonely enough to need her, and #2 free to allow himself the luxury of falling for a human--there'd be no-one to stop him and he deserved the comfort!
So, to sum up: Rose Rocks, the Doctor was in a position to appreciate that fact, and the rest is the 'ship of dreams!
What else was I going to say?
Oh, that I am fairly objective. Yes.
I love the Doctor. And I want him to be happy. I can read other ships, I can fathom chance encounters and convenience and crack!fic and cliches. But I still can't see why on Earth anyone would seriously ship Martha and Ten!
It just doesn't work. It isn't fair to either character!
I have even been haunted by the question, "What would it take for those two to end up in each other's arms?" and I have some answers and none of them involve either of them walking away with all of their self respect intact or with the beginnings of even a romance of convenience!
Why would I even toy with the idea? She's smitten with him and he desperately needs comfort, needs someone to use to help him move on and get his bearings and carry on doing Time Lord business. He could do with losing himself in someone else...and one reason I really, really love the show is that he most decidedly did not do that! He mourned Rose and mourned his lot the whole of S3 and with good reason! And how he can stand to go on into S4 I just don't see! I don't get what keeps him going, but I am totally sure it isn't frakking Martha of all people!
I can see Doctor/Jack before I can see Doctor/Martha. I can see an OT3 with Nine or Ten. I love that stuff. I am a kinky gal--I admit it. But there's still something special, transcendent, if you will, about his relationship with Rose that goes beyond all that.
Look, I'll even entertain Doctor/Master on some levels---I think a being could love more than one other being and even do so more or less against his will! The UST with D/M is just too thick to be ignored. Again, I still think that any relationship that could exist with the Doctor and the Master is independent of and unrelated to his relationship with Rose.
All of the above notwithstanding, even if there was no 'ship in canon, no hint of Doctor/Rose, I just still could not ship him with Martha! And I like her! But that's the main reason I can't ship them. She's too smart and sensible and she desperately needs to be in charge of herself. She could not give herself over to the Time Lord. She could not, in good conscience or with any semblance of sense or logic, really surrender to a relationship with him. She is not quite self-actualized, but she is accustomed to feeling competent, unencumbered, confident; Martha is used to being right. I think it is the main reason she was so tearful throughout S3. She hated the way the Doctor knocked her off her feet and made her feel like a penny waiting for change. She was accustomed to being bright, charming, and fairly indispensable. There's no doubt in my mind that spending time with the Doctor for someone like her (an overachiever) would be enthralling and yet painful. She wouldn't want to feel so out of control.
And everyone says Rose needs to spend time away from the Doctor and grow up! One thing I love about Rose is that she never questions her right to be at his side; to her (imho) he asked, so he must want her along because she's of some use. No second guessing, no wondering about motives, and the incessant doubts that must plague a woman like Martha. Rose didn't mind being wrong, throwing out an idea and risking rejection. She was not used to getting the right answers--she wasn't used to anyone really asking her opinion or for her help, so she just gave what was asked and took it all at face value. She never (afaik) mistook the acceptance or rejection of her ideas or help as acceptance or rejection of her as a person. She was able to separate what she did from who she was.
And that is utterly paradoxical to me because, imho, Rose is a do-er and Martha is a thinker-- and yet it's Martha who seems to gain her identity from what she does rather than who she is (of course, that is because she's been told all her life that she was required to make something of herself and live up to her potential and make her family proud--it's what happens when you have resources) and it's Rose who seems to gain her identity from who she is rather than what she does (when you don't have much, you have to believe, to know you are more than your possessions, are worth more than you are paid, etc).
Funny how it all works out, innit?
I can't believe what started out as an anti-Ten/Martha rant has ended up as a dissertation on the differences between Rose and Martha! Not that they're such unrelated topics, but it does feel really petty on my part.
My journal. I can be petty.
(anti-Martha/Ten to follow)
I started ranting over on a friend's journal in a comment and I don't think I was done yet.
But Oh, come on! How can anyone ship Martha and Ten????
See, I feel perfectly objective about this because I am a fan of the Doctor above any ships or incarnations and I really love to see him happy. So if Martha would do it, then hey! Go for it!
I'm not so madly in love with Doctor/Rose that I can't admit there were others and could be others in the future. Is Rose his OTL? I don't think there can be a OTL for a Time Lord. I mean, 900 years is a long time to do without if it's true, you know? Not to mention the fact that they aren't out looking for love anyway--it's a primitive and dangerous emotion!
But I do feel she's utterly unique in the history of companions if for no other reason than she was the first one after he became the last of the Time Lords. She challenged him, she jumped in with both feet, she changed gears on a hairpin and she could keep up! She wasn't afraid of him and rarely catered to him, except out of an intuitive desire to respect his boundaries. She didn't pry, didn't get far into his personal stuff. She wasn't with him to get a date or because she thought he was cute.
And the timing was in her favour, too: without other Time Lords, I think the doctor was #1 lonely enough to need her, and #2 free to allow himself the luxury of falling for a human--there'd be no-one to stop him and he deserved the comfort!
So, to sum up: Rose Rocks, the Doctor was in a position to appreciate that fact, and the rest is the 'ship of dreams!
What else was I going to say?
Oh, that I am fairly objective. Yes.
I love the Doctor. And I want him to be happy. I can read other ships, I can fathom chance encounters and convenience and crack!fic and cliches. But I still can't see why on Earth anyone would seriously ship Martha and Ten!
It just doesn't work. It isn't fair to either character!
I have even been haunted by the question, "What would it take for those two to end up in each other's arms?" and I have some answers and none of them involve either of them walking away with all of their self respect intact or with the beginnings of even a romance of convenience!
Why would I even toy with the idea? She's smitten with him and he desperately needs comfort, needs someone to use to help him move on and get his bearings and carry on doing Time Lord business. He could do with losing himself in someone else...and one reason I really, really love the show is that he most decidedly did not do that! He mourned Rose and mourned his lot the whole of S3 and with good reason! And how he can stand to go on into S4 I just don't see! I don't get what keeps him going, but I am totally sure it isn't frakking Martha of all people!
I can see Doctor/Jack before I can see Doctor/Martha. I can see an OT3 with Nine or Ten. I love that stuff. I am a kinky gal--I admit it. But there's still something special, transcendent, if you will, about his relationship with Rose that goes beyond all that.
Look, I'll even entertain Doctor/Master on some levels---I think a being could love more than one other being and even do so more or less against his will! The UST with D/M is just too thick to be ignored. Again, I still think that any relationship that could exist with the Doctor and the Master is independent of and unrelated to his relationship with Rose.
All of the above notwithstanding, even if there was no 'ship in canon, no hint of Doctor/Rose, I just still could not ship him with Martha! And I like her! But that's the main reason I can't ship them. She's too smart and sensible and she desperately needs to be in charge of herself. She could not give herself over to the Time Lord. She could not, in good conscience or with any semblance of sense or logic, really surrender to a relationship with him. She is not quite self-actualized, but she is accustomed to feeling competent, unencumbered, confident; Martha is used to being right. I think it is the main reason she was so tearful throughout S3. She hated the way the Doctor knocked her off her feet and made her feel like a penny waiting for change. She was accustomed to being bright, charming, and fairly indispensable. There's no doubt in my mind that spending time with the Doctor for someone like her (an overachiever) would be enthralling and yet painful. She wouldn't want to feel so out of control.
And everyone says Rose needs to spend time away from the Doctor and grow up! One thing I love about Rose is that she never questions her right to be at his side; to her (imho) he asked, so he must want her along because she's of some use. No second guessing, no wondering about motives, and the incessant doubts that must plague a woman like Martha. Rose didn't mind being wrong, throwing out an idea and risking rejection. She was not used to getting the right answers--she wasn't used to anyone really asking her opinion or for her help, so she just gave what was asked and took it all at face value. She never (afaik) mistook the acceptance or rejection of her ideas or help as acceptance or rejection of her as a person. She was able to separate what she did from who she was.
And that is utterly paradoxical to me because, imho, Rose is a do-er and Martha is a thinker-- and yet it's Martha who seems to gain her identity from what she does rather than who she is (of course, that is because she's been told all her life that she was required to make something of herself and live up to her potential and make her family proud--it's what happens when you have resources) and it's Rose who seems to gain her identity from who she is rather than what she does (when you don't have much, you have to believe, to know you are more than your possessions, are worth more than you are paid, etc).
Funny how it all works out, innit?
I can't believe what started out as an anti-Ten/Martha rant has ended up as a dissertation on the differences between Rose and Martha! Not that they're such unrelated topics, but it does feel really petty on my part.
My journal. I can be petty.
