Hey, Doc, save the last dance for me!

 

Oh… so many things to love about this episode. Remember scary gas-masked zombies?

Not evil.

Creepy small child?

He’s frickin’ adorable, and also not evil:

The things responsible for all the creepiness and the no, thank yous? Not evil! They’re cute little Tinkerbells designed to help. They just wanted to help!

By the way, I want nanogenes in my life, please. Nowish would be good. Science, make it so.

But all of this pales in the face of a giddy Doctor.

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Steven Moffat, if I didn’t love you already for nearly flawless writing, I would love you for this.

There is no more satisfying moment in my life as a reader or a watcher than seeing a subversion of a trope, or seeing it used well. It’s part of the reason I love Buffy so much. I don’t know what it says about me that I automatically expect people to die in stories like this, but I sort of do? It’s not that I want it to happen, I just have never seen different, and you know what they say about there being no new stories…

And then there’s this episode, which basically says

The Doctor, who needs a happy ending way more than my misanthropic soul does, gets it!

Nancy gets her son back, Doctor Constantine is (presumably) a father and grandfather again, that one lady gets an entire leg back, and Jack, my  lovely Jack… He gets to be a hero.

Say what you will about the Doctor (actually, don’t, because if it’s bad, I will be forced to kill you and I’m too young and pretty to go to prison), it takes a pretty remarkable man—er, Time Lord—to inspire a petty con man to heroism with a few well-placed comments.

Also something this episode touches on is Rose trusting Jack before she had any reason to. She tells the Doctor it’s because “he’s like you—only with dating and dancing.” And that’s true, sort of (and pretty close to why I liked Jack straight off the bat, really).

But it speaks a little to Rose’s character. I always thought it was obvious that Rose had this HUGE crush on the Doctor because he offered a lot of things Mickey just couldn’t. However, it was also obvious to me that she found him intimidating for the same reasons he was so attractive (not to mention he’s like, 1000). The Doctor doesn’t really do romance or frivolity like that, and here comes Jack with his champagne and his Glenn Miller and his charm and Rose swoons.

And the Doctor being insulted that Rose just assumes he doesn’t “dance” is even more adorable, because he hasn’t given much indication that he does in the first place! Then again, we all know what they say about assumptions…

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…Look, if loving that guy is wrong, I don’t wanna be right.

 

• Doctor: I’m really glad that worked. Those would’ve been terrible last words.
• Rose: When he’s stressed, he likes to insult species. Doctor: Rose, I’m thinking.                                                 Rose: Cuts himself shaving, does half an hour on life forms he’s cleverer than.
• Doctor: Don’t drop the banana.                                    Captain Jack: Why not?                                                   Doctor: Good source of potassium.
• It’s very likely this entire list will be quotes, because there’re so many great ones.
• Captain Jack: Who looks at a screwdriver and thinks, “ooh, this could be a little more sonic”?
• Rose: Okay, so he’s vanished into thin air. Why is it always the great-looking ones who do that?               Doctor: I’m making an effort not to be insulted.
• Rose: The world doesn’t end ‘cause the Doctor dances.
• Doctor: We were talking about dancing.                    Captain Jack: Didn’t look like talking.                             Rose: Didn’t feel like dancing.
• Nancy: Tell me, do you think there’s anything left I wouldn’t believe?                                                                  Rose: We’re time-travelers from the future.              Nancy: Mad, you are.
• Mrs. Harcourt: My leg’s grown back! When I come to ‘ospital, I ‘ad one leg!                                                     Doctor Constantine: Well, there is a war on… Is it possible you… miscounted?
• Rose: Look at you, beamin’ away like you’re Father Christmas!                                                                           Doctor: Who says I’m not? Red-bicycle-when-you-were-twelve.
• Captain Jack: A little too much vermouth. See if I come here again!
• DANCE PARTY!

 

Boom Town next!