TV: Doctor Who Season 4
I really enjoyed Donna Noble’s run as the Doctor’s most-recent companion. Like many other fans, I get caught up in the magic of the Doctor. Donna was there to say, “Yes, you’re pretty special but so am I. So are humans.”
There’s a reason the Doctor has adopted Earth and humanity as his surrogate home. It’s nice to be reminded of that.
Donna decided that the situation was the situation. Skills were skills, and knowledge was knowledge. All those things do not make her the second in any circumstances.
Season 4 excelled in its exploration of war. There was the ridiculousness of never-ending warfare (The Doctor’s Daughter), the ethicality of preventative warfare (Harriet Jones in the finale), the questions about sacrificing the innocent (The Fires of Pompeii, The Poison Sky), and the workable insanity that is Mutually Assured Destruction (the Osterhagen Key in the finale).
Season 4 also dealt significantly with environmental issues and featured the standout Midnight episode. Like season 3′s Blink, Midnight is the episode that will stick in my mind for season 4.
As much as I enjoyed watching the season, I felt it suffered from too many gimmicks. We had the Doctor’s daughter, the Doctor’s possible future wife, a dead Doctor, both Martha and Rose, etcetera, etcetera. Of course all these things riveted me as they were happening, but as a whole, everything felt too big all the time.
I may feel this way because I watched everything all at once on DVD. If I were waiting a week for each new episode, I’d want them as big and as important as possible. I may also feel this way because I feel that Donna was getting the short shrift in the middle of all this.
The two-part finale of season 4 is a great demonstration of all these points. I’ll post more about that tomorrow.