theclaravoyant:

I really love the fact that they’ve re-set the stakes and they have a more positive outlook this time round with Doctor Who, but that doesn’t mean they can’t do complex and powerful themes, messages and arcs. You can still have optimistic stories with grit and weight to them. You can still have stories that are empowering and enduring and linked over episodes or even series.

For example, over a lot of companion arcs (partly because it has to be this way, otherwise why would they ever leave?) you have them starting from a place of “sure this is a bit scary, but it’s incredible and wonderful and I love it! who would ever give this up?” and then over time all these dangerous, horrific, heartwrenching things start happening all around them and they can’t keep going. They are either physically or emotionally forced to leave.

This time, we have the Doctor knowing this, but knowing this to the point of being overly cautious, reluctant to fall into the same traps as before. Prone to spiral when she feels like she’s let her companions down; to ache when she leaves them but not protest it because it’s better this way; to demand that they “be sure” of what they’re getting into (when how can they?); to be selfishly terrified when she can’t get herself or them home – and then to double down on guilt when she is accused, rightly or wrongly, of that selfishness

There’s still an arc in this, but it bends toward the light

There’s a journey she can make, alongside the individual journeys of the companions – and it has to be, it has to be with their help – that she can realise that just because the universe can be a difficult place, that death and pain and guilt and rage and sadness are all around us, that doesn’t mean there isn’t beauty too. it’s perfectly worthwhile to spend time realising that she is not only “responsible” (or so she considers herself) for the bad things that happen to her companions while in her care, but also for the good things

the growth, the self-realisation, the empowerment, the love & relationships, seeing wonders and being part of history

the hope

I think the Doctor, for all her bubbly optimistic nature, sells herself short on that right now and still underneath it all fears the worst. I really hope this series takes that very serious and valid sense of fear and guilt and soothes it a little because after all… The good things don’t always soften the bad things, but the bad things do not spoil the good or make them unimportant.

yeeeeeeees to all