You don't get someone to love you just because you've paid your dues and "deserve it".
Of course you don't. But you should get someone to respect you when you've paid your dues and deserve it, because that's what respect means.
I didn't want anything "more" than friendship for Martha either. Friendships/comradeships are my favorite dynamics in fiction. And Martha was his friend; they bonded just fine in episodes 3.01-3.07 and seemed even tighter in Blink for what we saw of them. But the departure scene at the end of Last of the Time Lords didn't even look much like respect to me, never mind friendship. It goes like this: Martha has responsibilities. Martha walks into the TARDIS, smiling, and explains that she's got responsibilities. Ten nods and looks bleak and it's basically like umpteen other companion departures.
Then Martha mentions: Oh, by the way? A lot of the time I was traveling with you, I got the vibe that you considered me inferior. Whereupon the Doctor does not seem to care much at all. Martha goes on: But you know what? As you yourself said so very casually, I just saved my planet and possibly the universe to boot. That's not such a bad score.
The Doctor's reaction? As bana05 has said in meta (http://bana05.livejournal.com/178351.html):
He tells Donna to be magnificent at the end of The Runaway Bride (with the implication she already is and to claim that magnificence), and he couldn’t even say, “Yes, Martha Jones, you are good”? A little chuckle. Really?
So, that's irksome. But what's far more irksome is this: In the same scene, Martha is concerned about his welfare. She inquires after him, demonstrating a desire for him to get on all right—something friends do. The Doctor never asks her anything of the sort. There is no reciprocity on any level—verbal, non-verbal, anything—about this. She just watched her planet die for a year. Surely the Doctor would be able to empathize, but apparently the only pain worth mentioning is his own. It's not a unique occurrence, either; compare the end of Family of Blood, one of my favorite episodes, fwiw, where Martha's actually had a friend die but only the Doctor's pain is examined at the end of the story. Even Six gave Peri a "sorry about the DJ."
That's a downer, and it's got nothing to do with shipping.
I think he is arrogant and flawed, but I don't really see why that's a problem.
I don't, either. What's off-putting for me isn't when the Doctor does something presumptuous/stupid/etc., but when he does it andnobody around him reacts to it. Yes, even in Old Skool (y halo thar, Vengeance on Varos). Because if he's flawed, but nobody seems to notice and it doesn't really become a feature of the 'verse, then what's the point? If we don't get to see the people who care about him and admire him struggling with it, what's the point? If we don't get to see him growing past it, what's the point?
That said, it seems very possible that VotD could be foreshadowing for a period when the Doctor does just that. I hope so; his flaws are plenty interesting when they're played with and explored.
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Date: 2008-01-27 09:30 pm (UTC)Of course you don't. But you should get someone to respect you when you've paid your dues and deserve it, because that's what respect means.
I didn't want anything "more" than friendship for Martha either. Friendships/comradeships are my favorite dynamics in fiction. And Martha was his friend; they bonded just fine in episodes 3.01-3.07 and seemed even tighter in Blink for what we saw of them. But the departure scene at the end of Last of the Time Lords didn't even look much like respect to me, never mind friendship. It goes like this: Martha has responsibilities. Martha walks into the TARDIS, smiling, and explains that she's got responsibilities. Ten nods and looks bleak and it's basically like umpteen other companion departures.
Then Martha mentions: Oh, by the way? A lot of the time I was traveling with you, I got the vibe that you considered me inferior. Whereupon the Doctor does not seem to care much at all. Martha goes on: But you know what? As you yourself said so very casually, I just saved my planet and possibly the universe to boot. That's not such a bad score.
The Doctor's reaction? As
That's a downer, and it's got nothing to do with shipping.
I think he is arrogant and flawed, but I don't really see why that's a problem.
I don't, either. What's off-putting for me isn't when the Doctor does something presumptuous/stupid/etc., but when he does it andnobody around him reacts to it. Yes, even in Old Skool (y halo thar, Vengeance on Varos). Because if he's flawed, but nobody seems to notice and it doesn't really become a feature of the 'verse, then what's the point? If we don't get to see the people who care about him and admire him struggling with it, what's the point? If we don't get to see him growing past it, what's the point?
That said, it seems very possible that VotD could be foreshadowing for a period when the Doctor does just that. I hope so; his flaws are plenty interesting when they're played with and explored.