Old friends, new Doctor!

 

Yay, a “body switch” plotline!

 

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I like those almost as much as sword fights!

Well… when done reasonably well, anyway. As I guess would be the case with most things… Anyway. We have a new episode to talk about! With a new Doctor! On New Earth!

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This is one of those episodes that I don’t know how the fandom receives, and I’m glad of it, because it’s one I like for reasons I will outline in this post. Despite The Christmas Invasion, I consider this episode to be the first full-length treatment we get of the new new Doctor, and I love so much that it also brings back the Face of Boe and Cassandra.

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… Have I mentioned that I love Cassandra? And what a good episode for her, too!

Okay first? Not fond of the virus zombies. My argument is all science-based, and I know—who am I to bring logic to this discussion, dammit?! I just don’t get how every disease in the universe is communicable by simple touch, or why just a simple mixture of all the medicines would cure it when such a mixture would cause any of a number of reactions that may alter the effect of all the medicines involved, and  not always favorably. And just being showered with it cures everything? I just… Okay, I got it all out of my system, I’m fine.

Still, this happy Doctor fills me with almost as much joy as Chris’ happy Doctor, so I’ll just focus on that.

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I like this Doctor. A lot. I like that he’s sort of like a puppy, bouncing all over the place, and I love that he can go to that angry place that makes me feel small. Not as small as Chris’ Doctor used to make me feel, actually, which is fascinating to me.

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Nine when he was angry was cold and dark and dangerous. Even when he was shouting, it felt like he was—I don’t know… Calculating just how much you suck as a species? Argh, I hate this language sometimes.

Anyway, Ten is… for lack of a better, more accurate word, warmer… in his anger. He’s dangerous in a different way. It feels less… alien? I don’t know, people.

This isn’t my first language. Sorry about the weird detour.

And now, let’s talk about Cassandra, shall we?

I mentioned before that I love that this episode brings her back (and the Face of Boe, because I just like that thing), and I do so much. Because in many ways, this episode is a parallel of End of the World; we’re being re-introduced to the Doctor, we’re once again in the far future, and we once again have to adjust to changes in the existing world.

So we get two characters that we met in EotW, and we get to see how this Doctor interacts with them.

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But Cassandra… Oh, man, Cassandra may be my favorite. At first, she seems not to have changed much at all, trying to use the cat-nuns’ secrets for her own gain, but then with the body-switching and the Doctor’s fine example, she ends up being the co-savior of an entirely new race of human beings. Cassandra does. Cassandra.

And it teaches her compassion. Sadly, it also leads her to realize there’s no place in the new world for her anymore, but I don’t think that’s all that bad.

The former Cassandra would say that the new world is full of mutant stock and that’s why she doesn’t belong… but this Cassandra…

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This Cassandra just knows her time has come. And her last action is to give herself something nice—which is very Cassandra, but also is very poignant, considering everything that’s happened before.

She just wants to know that she’s beautiful. And while Old!Cassandra takes that superficially, Chip!Cassandra means it in a different way.

Of course Cassandra is beautiful—she helps save humanity.

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…Reluctantly, but still…

And the Doctor—the Doctor who once stood coldly by as she died—the Doctor gives her the chance.

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Argh, you guys… MY FEELS.

 

Obligatory list. Admit it—you like lists. You think they’re foxy…

• You cannot know how much I love that Rose says goodbye to Jackie and Mickey before she gets back on the TARDIS.
• Things this episode says that I said to myself while watching, part one: (Source)
• (Source)  OTmotherfuckingP, y’all.
• “Strictly speaking, it's the fifteenth New York since the original. So that makes it New New New New New New... New New New New New New... New New New York.”
• Cat people. The “not the kind of cat person I am” cat people.
• LOL @the disinfection. There are gifs of it, but way too many…
• The Doctor/A Little Shop… OTP
• “Oh, I don’t know… I like impossible.”  That tiny smile. I would have so many of your babies, David, you have no idea.
• Moisturize me.
• “It’s like living inside a bouncy castle!”
• “The same Doctor, with a new face! That hypocrite!”
• Okay, when Matron Casp says “tender application of science,” it freaks me right the fuck out…
• (Source) …So damn jealous. So, so jealous.
• Love how the Doctor figures out that it’s not Rose after she snogs the living heck out of him. “Search the subframe,” indeed.
• Rose would care.
• Okay, cat-nuns, stop freaking me out. Don’t say “the Flesh is free!” Please?
• Things this episode says that I said to myself while watching, part two: (Source)
• Wait… a “little bit foxy”?! “A little”?!
• “Go and play with a ball of string.”
• “You’re completely mad! …I can see why she likes you.”
• The Face of Boe: I had grown tired of the Universe, Doctor. But you have taught me to look at it anew.
  The Doctor: There are legends, you know. Saying that you're millions of years old.
  The Face of Boe: Now, that would be impossible.
  The Doctor: Wouldn't it just. I got the impression there was something you wanted to tell me.
  The Face of Boe: A great secret.
  The Doctor: So the legend says.
  The Face of Boe: It can wait.
  The Doctor: Oh! Does it have to?
• The Face of Boe: We shall meet again, Doctor, for the third time—for the last time—and the truth shall be told. Until that day.
  The Doctor: That is enigmatic. Th—tha—that is textbook enigmatic.
• “Sweet lord, I’m a walking doodle.”
• “I mean it: you look so beautiful.”
• Oh… Chip is her favorite pattern because “he” is the last person to tell her she’s beautiful!  

 

Next, Tooth and Claw.