Omfg I decided earlier today to make this post and it has taken me forever for some reason. And then I had it like 90% done and finishing it took forever and FUUUUUU. These posts are always so much more work than I think they will be when I start.
Anyway, in honour of the date and partially because I just felt like some stanning, I bring you a list that is neither exhaustive nor rigidly ordered but is nonetheless very selectively chosen:
10 Favourite Ten Moments
10. Rocking out with Rose in Tooth & Claw
Okay, so this is more of a filler example moment representative of the dozens of other tiny little fun scenes. Like the Doctor tells Jackie in TCI, "trouble's just the bits in between" -- and this moment is a nice glimpse at the more day-to-day fun travelling in the TARDIS can provide. With all the doom and gloom towards the end of his run, I think people tend to forget that Ten actually had a lot of fun. Trying (and failing) to take Rose on a date is a good example.
9. The hug at the end of Family of Blood
This is a really small moment but IT'S JUST SO CUTE. LOOK AT THEM. "Thanks for looking after me" is basically a great summation of the Doctor and Martha's relationship throughout series 3, and anyone who thinks the Doctor doesn't like Martha can step off. Martha really doesn't get the credit she deserves, so it's nice to see this little moment where he acknowledges what she just did for him.
8. Casually reassuring Donna in Turn Left
This, too, is a really small scene, but I love it. For Donna, it's something we know she needs to hear and take to heart, and we'll see that come up again in Journey's End. What I like about it from the Doctor's perspective is how casual it is -- of course Donna is brilliant! Obviously! That's not even a question! And the smile Donna has in return, d'awww, I just want to pat both of them.
7.The goodbye in Doomsday
WELL it's not like I could make a Doctor Who list without squeezing Doomsday in there somewhere! I love that the Doctor comes up with a way for him and Rose to say some sort of goodbye and get some sort of closure, even if that ends up not really working for them. They spend the whole scene trying to stay strong for each other and keep things as light as possible even when they're dying inside. The Doctor spends a lot of time trying not to look back or deal with any consequences, and I suspect that actually going through with this goodbye took a lot of mental prep-time and pep-talking, which makes the sentiment behind this scene all the sweeter.
6. The final scene with Donna in The Fires of Pompeii
This is a great episode for Donna and the Doctor/Donna relationship, but this scene is probably my favourite, at least in terms of Ten's character. I mean first HUZZAH, CALLBACK TO TRB, but more importantly, the Doctor admitting that he needs people and specifically at this point needs Donna! By their second episode! D'awwwwwwww. This is a pretty big moment for Ten, and since I love how much he needs people/companions, I love this bit.
5. Christmas dinner with the Tylers in The Christmas Invasion
This scene, and the group hug before it, are so adorable, ffffffff. This is such a nice cap to Nine's story and a nice beginning for Ten, and I think it really outlines the kind of character Ten is going to be, how social he is and how much he really wants and needs to be around people and have those connections. The guy who once refused to even let Rose have dinner with her mom (ugh) is now happy to be the centre of a group hug and sit down for turkey. There's sort of nothing more domestic than having Christmas dinner with your girlfriend's family, and it really paves the way for the relationship shift that takes place in series 2. It also, I think, makes Doomsday all the more tragic, because he loses not only Rose but the whole little family they'd formed.
4. Raging against the dying of the light in The End of Time
This scene is one of those ones where I can only assume I am RTD's target audience because I thought it was perfect. Ten's humanity is my favourite thing about him, and getting angry and frustrated and yelling at the cosmic unfairness of everything is very human. He wouldn't be a relatable character to me if he could shoulder all sorts of awful things without flinching or having moments of weakness or anger, and I loved that he was allowed to have a bit of a cathartic yell about it in this episode. He's lost everyone who matters to him, he just had to genocide his crazy people for the second time, and he's spent the last year or so listening to very doom-and-gloom prophecies of death from random citizens. I'd probably have a bit of a yell, too.
But beyond that, I just think it really makes his ultimate death for Wilf more powerful. I liked, for one, that it was a "saving the life of one individual" situation rather than a big "in exchange for universal safety" thing; it was more personal and it was fitting. But I also think that it being really hard for him to do the right thing sometimes makes it all the more impressive when he does. If none of the things the Doctor did were ever a struggle, they would lose poignancy and meaning.
3. Showing Donna the creation of the earth in The Runaway Bride
This may seem like an odd choice for a scene from TRB, and to be fair, TRB is full of scenes I love for lots of reasons and lots of them could've made this list. But I really really like this moment. Donna has just been treated terribly by the fiance she's in love with, she's stuck in the midst of this alien plot she wants nothing to do with and she's crying quietly on the jumpseat. And the Doctor tries to cheer her up, in his own way, by making sure she doesn't miss the opportunity to see something amazing in the midst of all the doom and gloom. I just think this scene is so sweet; they're just at the beginning of their future BFF-hood here, and despite all the bickering and comedy and over-the-top things in this episode, here you get a softer side for both of them. Donna's messed up over Lance and the Doctor's internal monologue is still a constant refrain of "bawwww Rooooooooose", he tries to make her feel better and later she returns the favour. I love it, ugh, BFFs.
2. Time Lord Victorious!
To be honest I could've picked just about any scene from Waters of Mars, and I debated between a few that I talk about less, but let's be real, in the end I just love this sequence. It's such a well-done subversion of the average Doctor Who episode ending, where the Doctor magically swoops in to save the day and everything's okay. Here, he swoops in to do the wrong thing for the right reasons. The lines about the Time Lords and how they aren't around anymore to regulate the universe seems like such an obvious place to take the character in retrospect, and yet every time I watch I sit there gaping because it's such a well-done moment. The Doctor fighting the odds and saving people is exactly what we've seen him do a thousand times, but everything feels off in this scene. He's motivated by his desire to help these people and his inability to walk away and leave them to their deaths, yet it's frightening to watch.
It's a sign of how much he needs a companion that he reaches this point, and that's another aspect of what I love about it. Pompeii was a similar situation, but with Donna there to ground him it was easier to stay the course. Without anyone there to stop him, the Doctor says "fuck the laws of time!" and goes off to do something reckless in an attempt to ease his conscience. I think it's easy to write heroes who are magically endowed with a superhuman ability to deal with shit and get through it and never waver from the path of Truth and Justice, but I love that they didn't go this direction with Ten.
1. Stalking Rose from an alleyway in The End of Time
God I love this whole montage. I love that what the Doctor does with his time while dying is wander around helping out all his friends so that he has a chance to see them one last time. The fact that he needed people so badly is one of my favourite things about the character, so this is a perfect nod to that. Plus, I've become very fond of all these people, so seeing all these characters again, however briefly, for what I can assume is the last time, was delightful.
In particular I love the Rose scene, in part because I am a big shipper but also just because it's so sweet. Rose is the only one we see where he doesn't really have any kind of plan. He's not doing something in particular to help her in some way, he doesn't plan on talking to her or interacting with her -- he just wants to see her from afar one last time! Ahhhhhhhh. But Rose, being Rose, talks to the drunk guy in the alleyway and he tells her she's going to have a great year (with him!) and she gives him one last ~dazzling smile and ffffffff this scene. This was the perfect way to have Rose in Ten's last episode and ugh beautiful.
Anyway, in honour of the date and partially because I just felt like some stanning, I bring you a list that is neither exhaustive nor rigidly ordered but is nonetheless very selectively chosen:
10 Favourite Ten Moments
10. Rocking out with Rose in Tooth & Claw
"I can take you to the Battle of Trafalgar... the first anti-gravity Olympics... Caesar crossing the Rubicon... or... Ian Dury at the Top Rank, Sheffield, England, Earth, 21st November, 1979. What do you think?"
"Sheffield it is!"
Okay, so this is more of a filler example moment representative of the dozens of other tiny little fun scenes. Like the Doctor tells Jackie in TCI, "trouble's just the bits in between" -- and this moment is a nice glimpse at the more day-to-day fun travelling in the TARDIS can provide. With all the doom and gloom towards the end of his run, I think people tend to forget that Ten actually had a lot of fun. Trying (and failing) to take Rose on a date is a good example.
9. The hug at the end of Family of Blood
"And I never said -- thanks for looking after me."
This is a really small moment but IT'S JUST SO CUTE. LOOK AT THEM. "Thanks for looking after me" is basically a great summation of the Doctor and Martha's relationship throughout series 3, and anyone who thinks the Doctor doesn't like Martha can step off. Martha really doesn't get the credit she deserves, so it's nice to see this little moment where he acknowledges what she just did for him.
8. Casually reassuring Donna in Turn Left
"Don't be so daft. I'm nothing special."
"Oh, yes you are, you're brilliant!"
This, too, is a really small scene, but I love it. For Donna, it's something we know she needs to hear and take to heart, and we'll see that come up again in Journey's End. What I like about it from the Doctor's perspective is how casual it is -- of course Donna is brilliant! Obviously! That's not even a question! And the smile Donna has in return, d'awww, I just want to pat both of them.
7.The goodbye in Doomsday
"Oh, I've still got the TARDIS. Same old life, last of the Time Lords."
"On your own?"
WELL it's not like I could make a Doctor Who list without squeezing Doomsday in there somewhere! I love that the Doctor comes up with a way for him and Rose to say some sort of goodbye and get some sort of closure, even if that ends up not really working for them. They spend the whole scene trying to stay strong for each other and keep things as light as possible even when they're dying inside. The Doctor spends a lot of time trying not to look back or deal with any consequences, and I suspect that actually going through with this goodbye took a lot of mental prep-time and pep-talking, which makes the sentiment behind this scene all the sweeter.
6. The final scene with Donna in The Fires of Pompeii
"You were right. Sometimes I need someone. Welcome aboard."
"Yeah."
This is a great episode for Donna and the Doctor/Donna relationship, but this scene is probably my favourite, at least in terms of Ten's character. I mean first HUZZAH, CALLBACK TO TRB, but more importantly, the Doctor admitting that he needs people and specifically at this point needs Donna! By their second episode! D'awwwwwwww. This is a pretty big moment for Ten, and since I love how much he needs people/companions, I love this bit.
5. Christmas dinner with the Tylers in The Christmas Invasion
And I started to walk
Pretty soon I will run
And I'll come running back to you
This scene, and the group hug before it, are so adorable, ffffffff. This is such a nice cap to Nine's story and a nice beginning for Ten, and I think it really outlines the kind of character Ten is going to be, how social he is and how much he really wants and needs to be around people and have those connections. The guy who once refused to even let Rose have dinner with her mom (ugh) is now happy to be the centre of a group hug and sit down for turkey. There's sort of nothing more domestic than having Christmas dinner with your girlfriend's family, and it really paves the way for the relationship shift that takes place in series 2. It also, I think, makes Doomsday all the more tragic, because he loses not only Rose but the whole little family they'd formed.
4. Raging against the dying of the light in The End of Time
"This is what I get. My reward."
This scene is one of those ones where I can only assume I am RTD's target audience because I thought it was perfect. Ten's humanity is my favourite thing about him, and getting angry and frustrated and yelling at the cosmic unfairness of everything is very human. He wouldn't be a relatable character to me if he could shoulder all sorts of awful things without flinching or having moments of weakness or anger, and I loved that he was allowed to have a bit of a cathartic yell about it in this episode. He's lost everyone who matters to him, he just had to genocide his crazy people for the second time, and he's spent the last year or so listening to very doom-and-gloom prophecies of death from random citizens. I'd probably have a bit of a yell, too.
But beyond that, I just think it really makes his ultimate death for Wilf more powerful. I liked, for one, that it was a "saving the life of one individual" situation rather than a big "in exchange for universal safety" thing; it was more personal and it was fitting. But I also think that it being really hard for him to do the right thing sometimes makes it all the more impressive when he does. If none of the things the Doctor did were ever a struggle, they would lose poignancy and meaning.
3. Showing Donna the creation of the earth in The Runaway Bride
"No, but that's what you do. The human race. Making sense out of chaos. Marking it out with weddings and Christmas and calendars. This whole process is beautiful, but only if it's being observed."
"So I came out of all this?"
"Isn't that brilliant?"
This may seem like an odd choice for a scene from TRB, and to be fair, TRB is full of scenes I love for lots of reasons and lots of them could've made this list. But I really really like this moment. Donna has just been treated terribly by the fiance she's in love with, she's stuck in the midst of this alien plot she wants nothing to do with and she's crying quietly on the jumpseat. And the Doctor tries to cheer her up, in his own way, by making sure she doesn't miss the opportunity to see something amazing in the midst of all the doom and gloom. I just think this scene is so sweet; they're just at the beginning of their future BFF-hood here, and despite all the bickering and comedy and over-the-top things in this episode, here you get a softer side for both of them. Donna's messed up over Lance and the Doctor's internal monologue is still a constant refrain of "bawwww Rooooooooose", he tries to make her feel better and later she returns the favour. I love it, ugh, BFFs.
2. Time Lord Victorious!
"Yes, because there are laws. There are laws of time. And once upon a time, there were people in charge of those laws, but they died. They all died. Do you know who that leaves? Me! It's taken me all these years to realize that the laws of time are mine and they will obey me."
To be honest I could've picked just about any scene from Waters of Mars, and I debated between a few that I talk about less, but let's be real, in the end I just love this sequence. It's such a well-done subversion of the average Doctor Who episode ending, where the Doctor magically swoops in to save the day and everything's okay. Here, he swoops in to do the wrong thing for the right reasons. The lines about the Time Lords and how they aren't around anymore to regulate the universe seems like such an obvious place to take the character in retrospect, and yet every time I watch I sit there gaping because it's such a well-done moment. The Doctor fighting the odds and saving people is exactly what we've seen him do a thousand times, but everything feels off in this scene. He's motivated by his desire to help these people and his inability to walk away and leave them to their deaths, yet it's frightening to watch.
It's a sign of how much he needs a companion that he reaches this point, and that's another aspect of what I love about it. Pompeii was a similar situation, but with Donna there to ground him it was easier to stay the course. Without anyone there to stop him, the Doctor says "fuck the laws of time!" and goes off to do something reckless in an attempt to ease his conscience. I think it's easy to write heroes who are magically endowed with a superhuman ability to deal with shit and get through it and never waver from the path of Truth and Justice, but I love that they didn't go this direction with Ten.
1. Stalking Rose from an alleyway in The End of Time
"D'you know what? I bet you're gonna have a really great year."
"Yeah?"
God I love this whole montage. I love that what the Doctor does with his time while dying is wander around helping out all his friends so that he has a chance to see them one last time. The fact that he needed people so badly is one of my favourite things about the character, so this is a perfect nod to that. Plus, I've become very fond of all these people, so seeing all these characters again, however briefly, for what I can assume is the last time, was delightful.
In particular I love the Rose scene, in part because I am a big shipper but also just because it's so sweet. Rose is the only one we see where he doesn't really have any kind of plan. He's not doing something in particular to help her in some way, he doesn't plan on talking to her or interacting with her -- he just wants to see her from afar one last time! Ahhhhhhhh. But Rose, being Rose, talks to the drunk guy in the alleyway and he tells her she's going to have a great year (with him!) and she gives him one last ~dazzling smile and ffffffff this scene. This was the perfect way to have Rose in Ten's last episode and ugh beautiful.
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