elisi linked me to this post. I'm sorry I deleted the entry; I was worried it was offending people. I'll copy-and-paste it below for reference, in two parts since it's over the character limit for comments. I hope that's okay! If not, please feel free to delete it. (A large chunk of my post was a quote (quoted with permission) from kaffyr's post Time and Tide - it's one of the best pieces of meta I have ever read, and I urge everyone to read it.)
don't agree with her post only insofar as for me the point of Waters of Mars is that Adelaide kills herself to stop someone who really has the power to fundamentally subvert the laws of the universe and change the fate of humanity; if Ten merely had delusions of grandeur, then her death would be rather meaningless.
My interpretation is that the Doctor's actions started a cataclysm in time that would have eventually destroyed the universe - ("Father's Day" established that you can't violate the laws of time without destroying the universe) (the power to set in motion something that will destroy the universe is very different from the power to do whatever you want) (the human species, currently, has the power to destroy most life on earth, and we might just do it if we don't stop ourselves soon, but that's not at all the same as being able to make every wish come true) (and even the Time Lords couldn't do everything - they could destroy the universe but they couldn't win the Time War while the universe continued to exist)
- Adelaide's suicide stopped the cataclysm and saved the universe.
Adelaide Brooke saved the universe single-handedly. That's how I choose to interpret it, anyway!
I miss the sense of wonder at something big and mysterious and essentially uncontrollable that for me was still absolutely there in the 'Everybody Lives' at the end of The Doctor Dances, but wasn't there any longer when the ghost of River Song was resurrected on a computer HD and we were being told that this was a blessing. Death, of course, is part of the uncontrollable. Death is still the ultimate uncontrollable. In The Doctor Dances Nine says, 'Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once. Everybody lives!' and the 'just this once' made all the difference. That's why, even though I only wanted to write about the deaths I also ended up rambling so much about life and being human, because it's part and parcel of the same thing. It's in DW, and it's also in TW, although there the balance between the wonderful and the terrible is even finer and more precarious.
no subject
don't agree with her post only insofar as for me the point of Waters of Mars is that Adelaide kills herself to stop someone who really has the power to fundamentally subvert the laws of the universe and change the fate of humanity; if Ten merely had delusions of grandeur, then her death would be rather meaningless.
My interpretation is that the Doctor's actions started a cataclysm in time that would have eventually destroyed the universe -
("Father's Day" established that you can't violate the laws of time without destroying the universe)
(the power to set in motion something that will destroy the universe is very different from the power to do whatever you want) (the human species, currently, has the power to destroy most life on earth, and we might just do it if we don't stop ourselves soon, but that's not at all the same as being able to make every wish come true)
(and even the Time Lords couldn't do everything - they could destroy the universe but they couldn't win the Time War while the universe continued to exist)
- Adelaide's suicide stopped the cataclysm and saved the universe.
Adelaide Brooke saved the universe single-handedly. That's how I choose to interpret it, anyway!
I miss the sense of wonder at something big and mysterious and essentially uncontrollable that for me was still absolutely there in the 'Everybody Lives' at the end of The Doctor Dances, but wasn't there any longer when the ghost of River Song was resurrected on a computer HD and we were being told that this was a blessing. Death, of course, is part of the uncontrollable. Death is still the ultimate uncontrollable. In The Doctor Dances Nine says, 'Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once. Everybody lives!' and the 'just this once' made all the difference. That's why, even though I only wanted to write about the deaths I also ended up rambling so much about life and being human, because it's part and parcel of the same thing. It's in DW, and it's also in TW, although there the balance between the wonderful and the terrible is even finer and more precarious.
Word.