Meta: Seeing EoT with new eyes (because RTD cut out THE MOST IMPORTANT PART!)

[elisi]

So, in my Time Lord Victorious meta, topaz_eyes posted a bit of cut dialogue from End of Time. It’s just a few lines from Wilf and the Doctor’s chat up in the Vinvocci spaceship, but it has completely overthrown my entire reading of the episode. Everything - OK, not everything, but the Doctor’s arc - suddenly makes sense in ways it didn’t before, and I feel

Comments

[ever_neutral]

This is a tasty meta and I must chew on it.

He can’t kill the Master, because it means saving himself, and he can’t save himself, because that means turning into the Master... As catch-22s go, it’s hard to fault.

OOOOOH excellent.

[elisi]

I've been feasting on it for days! :)

OOOOOH excellent.
IKR? Suddenly everything made sense in ways it hadn't before. <3

[zanthinegirl]

Oooh, interesting. I love Ten anyway, but this really does work for me!

[elisi]

Good, isn't it? It's been delighting me for days. And it makes his dilemma so much more interesting! *adores Ten*

[unfeathered]

Thank you for making sense of something for me once again! :-)

[elisi]

Well I read those lines and had a *jawdrop* moment, because suddenly tons of stuff I'd taken for granted were upturned. So I had to share... :)

[topaz_eyes]

Heee! I'm thrilled you found those cut lines so delightfully meta-y? (meaty? Can't spell "meta" without "meat"...)

I will never fathom why RTD chose to cut them. Maybe RTD thought viewers would be able to grasp what he meant anyway? We may never know.

[elisi]

Heee! I'm thrilled you found those cut lines so delightfully meta-y? (meaty? Can't spell "meta" without "meat"...)
It's certainly both meta-y AND meat-y. Thank you again - it was like getting brand-new canon!

I will never fathom why RTD chose to cut them. Maybe RTD thought viewers would be able to grasp what he meant anyway? We may never know.
That seems the most likely explanation. Or maybe he thought it made Ten too unsympathetic? *shakes head*

[mengu]

*is posting a year earlier*
I think the trouble was with the Wilf half: it's very difficult to see him saying what he has to to get the Doctor to say that.

[elisi]

Hello!

And yes, you might be right. That's the trouble with writing... Mind you, I have issues with Wilf anyway, in that he's much too nice. He never once blames the Doctor for what happened to Donna.

[mizuki1988]

oh. oh. OH. OH MY GOD, yes, METAGASM.

Yes, he gets his reward, yes he does. Well, he starts. Because then the Moff takes him on a two-season spectacular journey of transforming him into a being CAPABLE of enjoying that reward, and then suddenly the Christmas Special turns from a poor, disappointing piece of bad television into the ultimate reward and it's glorious, it's beautiful, it fills your heart with LOVE and FAMILY and REWARD. YES.

And if Moff destroys it after the next five episodes I'm seriously going to travel to Cardiff and maul him. Well, okay, after they finish filming Sherlock 3. (It's so frustrating when the same person makes your two favourite shows - and gives you indescribable heartache in both. :/)

[lyricwrites]

And if Moff destroys it after the next five episodes I'm seriously going to travel to Cardiff and maul him.

Just one person's opinion, but . . . I don't think I will. I think Moffat likes his warm and fuzzy feelings just as much as he likes his raw pants-soiling terror. The first episode we ever saw out of him, he used the raw pants-soiling terror to make the warm and fuzzy feelings sweeter, in fact. ("Everybody lives, Rose! Just this once, everybody lives!" And the Doctor very nearly crying with joy.) I think he's going to do sort of what he did in "The Big Bang:" make it look like he's broken absolutely everything, in the hopes of producing that pure, perfect moment where you're pretty much whispering, "Something old, something new," along with the TV, because it is wonderful and excellent and that breeze that precedes the TARDIS noise is the most gorgeous thing you've ever seen. And then everything is good. I mean, that's the kind of emotional effect he seems to want; I'd be very, very surprised if he doesn't try to

[elisi]

My opinion: If the Ponds die, they will die of old age, surrounded by grandchildren. Or similar. Because Moffat doesn't do OTT angst just for the sake of. (And it's one of the reasons I love him. I am SO USED to Joss & RTD gleefully stabbing me in the back that I still worry, but as said below, Moffat likes his warm fuzzies. <3)