#how can I look upon it as a dismissal or disregard of Donna’s character?

[dreamerwriternstargazer]

I think this post misses the mark a bit on Donna and her dream husband.

It is BECAUSE she is constantly ignored and talked over that Moffat writes her fantasy as a man who always listens.

The fact is, the dream world Donna is in, the libraryverse or whatever you want to call it, isn’t supposed to be the ideal world that Donna deserves, it’s supposed to reflect her desires and her dreams the most

That means we see her dream of motherhood, of a family, and of being listened to

And yes while we can criticise the way this is framed to be read, the way Donna is going on and on and her family around her is completely silent does appear to be a little insensitive, I do think for the most part it’s actually meant to be presented as sympathetic. Her husband doesn’t appear to mock her silently or deride her, her children love her, her husband loves her and she loves him dearly as we see before she leaves. There’s a somber tone to the scenes where she’s talking away to her family and they’re silent because we the audience know it’s not real, but the fact Donna is happy and passionate makes it all the more tragic. The fact that they are completely silent signals that this dream is merely a dream, and not truly the right life for her, I don’t see it being played off for laughs though it can be read that way, it’s just a signal to us and to Donna that this is wrong, it’s being listened to but completely absent of all the meaning. It’s like when they show a distorted reflection of someone in a horror movie, think the Other Mother, Coraline’s wants are completely valid and we never think they’re anything less. The distortion of the button eyes and the request to sew her eyes, the not-quite-right element of the world is supposed to reflect the disingenuous nature of the dream, and that’s true for Donna too

Moffat more than anything knows how to create that eldritch horror in a modern setting, and he encapsulates that perfectly by presenting us with Donna’s dream of being listened to as her prison that she is heartbroken to leave. To be gifted one’s heart’s desire only to learn it was secretly a nightmare, that is tragic and not okay and I don’t think we’re supposed to view it in any way other than that.

It is nothing less than a triumph for Donna to finally get the man of her dreams and of her reality, a full, real person who listens and RESPONDS, who supports her, who cares about her, and who can vocalise it. Truly the embodiment of it will be replaced with better, beyond what you can imagine.

But I don’t think it would hold nearly as much meaning if we didn’t have the tragedy of seeing Donna’s dream pulled from her beforehand, I don’t think we’d understand the gravity and significance of her happy ending, to know the sigh of relief she must have given

one thing I love about the recent specials is the character of shaun Temple, and in turn what this reflects about Donna's characterisation, and showing how RTD understands her (she is his character) so much better than Moffat (who is a sexist, classist wanker, so no surprise).

The two vastly differing understandings of Donna are reflected through Donna's Happy Ending Husbands, Shaun and the one from silence in the library I will refer to as Bob, because I can't even remember if he has a name.

(disclaimer that i haven't watched silence in the library for a couple of years)

We don't see much of either of them, but it's clear Shaun is a good guy. He loves and supports Donna (and Rose!). He values her opinion.

Now, Bob. No hate on Bob, I'm sure he's a great guy too. Lots of hate on Moffat, though. He portrays Donna's ideal life as married to a guy who can't talk, so she can talk over him, never shut up, because she's always talking, having a go at someone, and now she's happy with a husband and kids who can't tell her to shut up.

This is just such a massive misunderstanding of Donna, and it annoys me so much.

There's this quote from series 4, along the lines of Donna "shouting at the world because no one's listen", which I think summarises it quite nicely. She's a temp, and no one gets her coffee. Lance wasn't particularly nice to her. For the first 30-odd years of her life, her mother was constantly nagging her, chipping away at her self esteem. The whole idea of Donna thinking she's no one is so prevelant in both the Runaway Bride and s4.

She shouts at the world because otherwise it doesn't listen to her at all, because she has to fight to be appreciated and valued, and even then, pre-s4, she still isn't listened to.

And Shaun listens to her and actually values her and what she has to say, instead of being unable to stop her talking constantly, enforcing her thoughts on everyone and not at all considering of what other people might want to say.

[one-of-us-blog]

The Poison Sky (Doctor Who S04E05)

Today Jon is forced to watch and recap “The Poison Sky”, the fifth episode of Doctor Who’s fourth series. The Sontarans have launched their attack upon Earth, with Donna’s family caught in the middle. Will Donna’s grandpa be saved? Will Clone!Martha be revealed? Will someone punch Rattigan in the face?

Keep reading to find out…

Eli, I’m so glad you liked “Diamond in the Rough”! It’s not one of my favorites, just because it utilizes a formula that’s going to become very familiar throughout the coming seasons, but I really enjoyed your recap and I agree that Dorothy deserves someone to grow old with! Maybe she’ll get that, one day… One day…

For now, though, we’ve got a story to wrap up!

Episode directed by Douglas Mackinnon and written by Helen Raynor

Picking up where we left off, the Doc’s still trying to disengage the ATMOS from Sylvia’s car while Wilfred chokes inside. Sylvia, clearly not one to fuck around, simply grabs an axe from inside and smashes the windshield out of her car before ordering Donna to retrieve her grandfather. Clone!Martha, meanwhile, is still keeping the whole Sontaran situation hidden from UNIT. ATMOS devices are spewing out the toxic gas all over the planet and UNIT is spread thin, which gives Clone!Martha enough cover to get into NATO’s gullyworks. Jenkins has located a car so old that it doesn’t come equipped with ATMOS, and he gives Donna and the Doc a ride back to UNIT. Clone!Martha, meanwhile, is now sending knowledge of Earth’s defenses straight to her Sontaran overlords. The Sontarans are pleased with her, even with her being a female, and Rattigan is about two seconds from jizzing in his OshKosh B’Goshes at the thought of being involved in a real life war.

Donna and the Doctor get back to UNIT, so Clone!Martha realizes she’d better get around to delivering the message the Doctor sent her, like, an episode ago. She does, and Colonel Mace sounds the alarm. Donna’s having a hard time with all the fumes and whatnot, so the Doc tells her to wait in the TARDIS. Speaking of, he realizes he’s never gotten around to giving her a TARDIS key, which he apparently orders in bulk, and quickly rectifies this oversight. Donna would feel a lot more emotional about such a big moment if the world weren’t choking to death around her. She makes it safely to the TARDIS while the Doc bursts into the UNIT control room and announces his plans to use the TARDIS to get aboard the Sontaran vessel overhead. Clone!Martha hears this and sends her two Sontaran-controlled UNIT guards to rig the TARDIS for transport before the Doc can reach it. The Doctor and Clone!Martha head for the craft, but by that point it, and the Donna inside of it, are in Sontaran hands. General Staal is thrilled to have the infamous TARDIS as a spoil of war, but Rattigan says it’s time for him to make his own move. He’s got soldiers of his own he needs to rally, and he teleports away to do so.

Just in time, the Doctor and Clone!Martha arrive to where the TARDIS used to be parked. The Doc quickly deduces that the Sontarans have the TARDIS, and we learn that he knows something’s up with Martha Jones. She hasn’t called her family or Tom to warn them about the gas, which is just about the most unMartha thing a person could do. Clone!Martha asks about Donna’s whereabouts and the Doctor lies to her and says she went home. Elsewhere, the students of Rattigan Academy look out over a smog-choked London and they don’t exactly seem thrilled by the sight. Rattigan arrives and tells them that Earth has fallen. Back in UNIT, we learn that the gas is only deadly in very concentrated amounts, and so far there have only been a few deaths in Tokyo. Mace has located the source of the signal that activated the ATMOS devices, which the Doc correctly assumes is the Sontaran warship, and the Doctor sets up a long-distance call to the Sontarans. The call is also picked up by the TARDIS, so Donna can listen in. Just before she reaches the screen to see the Doc’s face, a shot of a frantic-looking Rose Tyler is abruptly cut off.

Whaaaaat!!!

Anyway, the Doctor starts bear-baiting Staal by calling the Sontarans cowards. I mean, using poison gas? Poison is the weapon of a coward! Just ask Jade Fox if you don’t believe me! The Doc points out that the Sontarans are capable of just blowing Earth up, but instead they’re watching and waiting above while it chokes to death. What gives? Staal points out that a good general doesn’t share his strategy with his enemy, but the Doctor’s already got things figured out. Much like Oceania and Eurasia, the Sontarans are at war with a species called the Rutans. Well, not exactly like Oceania and Eurasia, because the Sontaran/Rutan conflict has only been going on for about 50,000 years whereas Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia. The Doc’s pretty quick to dismiss the Sontarans’ commitment to their forever war, but Staal points out that they’re the first Sontarans in history to capture a TARDIS. Knowing Donna’s listening in, the Doc reminds her of the phone hidden inside the TARDIS and she quickly retrieves it, but the Sontarans cut off the transmission before Donna can figure out what number she’s supposed to call to reach the Doctor.

Back at the ranch, Rattigan is explaining to his students that all the wonderful things they’ve been building and designing have all been for a greater purpose which he’s kept hidden from them. He reveals that they’ve all been making the building blocks necessary to start terraforming a whole new world. The students make it clear they’ve had enough of this and want to go look for their parents, but Rattigan plows ahead. He’s been promised they can claim Castor 36, or, just maybe, Rattigan’s World, as the nursery for the new human race. One of the students tries to leave so she can find her brother, and Rattigan pulls a gun on her. He begins to rant about how ordinary people have excluded them all because of their intelligence and how this planet full of sheeple has been dragging them all down. Once Earth is dead they’ll be able to start again! Rattigan’s thought of everything, going so far as to design a mating program to get humanity.2 started off right. The students call Rattigan’s bluff and, ignoring the gun he’s brandishing, leave him to rant and rave alone in his academy.

Unsure of what else to do with herself, Donna uses the Doc’s phone to call Sylvia. Donna tries to give her mother some reassurance, but, like a scorpion on a fox’s back, Sylvia immediately reverts to her nature and lashes out at her daughter. Donna calls her out and she apologizes before Wilfred takes the phone to make sure the Doc’s looking after Donna. Wilfred says he’d better, otherwise that Time Lord will have to answer to him. Have I mentioned Wilfred’s the cutest character this show has ever had? Because he definitely is. Meanwhile, the gas is nearly concentrated at fatal levels planetwide, so Mace has no choice but to disregard the Doctor’s advice and fire upon the Sontarans. Unfortunately, the Sontarans know what’s up and utilize Clone!Martha to nip that in the bud while Commander Skorr and his attack squad prepare to enter the fray. The Doctor knows Clone!Martha’s behind stopping the launch of the missiles, but he can’t figure out why; Earth’s missiles wouldn’t even dent a Sontaran warship, so why cancel the launch?

Jenkins and a bunch of his fellow guards are just chilling when Skorr and his squad roll up. The Doctor tells Mace to order the men out of there, but he ignores this and tells the men to open fire. They try, but their guns are jammed by the Cordolaine signal and they’re promptly slaughtered. Mace listens to the Doc this time and orders all units to retreat from the Sontarans. Quite a few UNIT soldiers, including the two that the Sontarans brainwashed last episode, are killed. The Sontarans have taken the factory, but the Doc doesn’t understand why. The missile launch grid is ready to go again, but Clone!Martha shuts it down again. Back on the Sontaran warship, a crestfallen Rattigan arrives to inform Staal that his students didn’t have enough imagination to follow him. Staal says that’s too bad, as he and his men were really looking forward to using the students as target practice as soon as they arrived on the ship. Staal says they only needed Rattigan to get the ATMOS devices installed, and that there isn’t going to be any planetfall. Rattigan is able to escape back to Earth before Staal’s men can execute him.

Rattigan is sobbing on the floor of the teleporter in his office at the academy and Mace is trying to come up with a solution to get past the Cordolaine signal. Everyone’s got their hands full, but the Doc manages to sneak away to finally call Donna. He reveals that she’s his secret weapon, which is why he provoked the Sontarans into moving the TARDIS to a less-trafficked part of the ship. All of the Sontarans should be at battle stations right now, meaning it’s time for Action Donna to kick it up a notch! Well, maybe. There’s a Sontaran right outside the TARDIS door, and the Doctor explains Donna will have to hit him in that neck vent thing to knock him out. Donna’s scared shitless, but she retrieves the hammer the Doc uses to beat up the TARDIS sometimes and knocks the guard right the hell out. The Doc sends her off to switch open the teleport link between Earth and the Sontaran ship, but then Mace returns and shows off a bunch of special bullets which will overcome the Cordolaine signal. Braving the toxic fumes, Mace removes his gasmask and gives a rousing speech to his troops before calling down the Valiant. The airship uses its engines to clear away the fog surrounding the factory, and then blasts said factory with a helluva laser. UNIT troops rush in and begin popping magic caps into some tiny, orange asses.

The Doctor and Clone!Martha split off from Mace and his troops. Using his sonic screwdriver, the Doc traces an alien signal until he’s led to the real Martha, still alive and strapped to a table. Clone!Martha pulls a gun on the Doctor, and he reveals that he’s known she was a fake from the first moment he saw (and smelt) her. He also knows that the clone can only exist with Martha’s memories while Martha’s hooked up to all this alien junk, so the Doc quickly liberates his old companion and the clone begins to die. As Martha watches her clone die, Donna rings in to let the Doc know she’s found the teleport whatsit he had her looking for. Mace shoots down Skorr while Martha tries to reason with her dying clone. Clone!Martha knows about the real Martha’s family, and she feels some echo of what Martha feels for them. She doesn’t want them to die, so she reveals that the gas is caesofine concentrate. In other words, clonefeed. Everything a growing clone will need to turn out big and strong! The Doctor’s finally figured out what the orange bastards are up to. They’re going to convert Earth into one giant breeding planet for their clones, which will produce billions of new soldiers for their war against the Rutans. Clone!Martha dies, but not before urging Martha to do all those things she wants to do with her life.

Martha retrieves her engagement ring from her dead clone’s hand while Donna calls in to let the Doc know she’s finished her homework. The transport is ready, and he retrieves Donna just before she can be blasted away by the Sontarans who just discovered her. The Doc’s able to transport the TARDIS down from the warship and then transports Donna, Martha and the Doctor to Rattigan Academy. Rattigan pulls his gun on them and demands they not tell anyone what he did, but the Doctor quickly disarms him while Donna and Martha continue to bond. Staal orders the ATMOS devices to be turned to maximum, and the human race begins to choke. The Doc begins to rig together all of the bits and bobs Rattigan had prepared to make Rattigan’s World habitable just as Staal orders the clone pods to be ready for delivery. The Doc rushes outside with his new invention and promptly sets fire to the gas filling the atmosphere. Somehow the oxygen doesn’t ignite, and the day is saved! Sylvia, Wilfred and all their neighbors wander outside to celebrate being able to breathe easily again. The people of UNIT are celebrating as well, with Mace and a female officer being so bold as to share a kiss.

Staal isn’t done, though. Since the sneaky route failed he’s going to charge ahead in the standard Sontaran fashion: he’s going to send his troops down and have them kill every human being on the planet. The Doc knows this is coming, though, and prepares to teleport back to the warship in time to stop it. He says goodbye to Donna, Martha and Rattigan and explains that he’s recalibrated his device to ignite Sontaran air. He’s going to go up and burn them out of the sky, but he can’t do it without giving them a chance to leave peacefully first. He arrives and begs Staal to leave, but Staal doesn’t give an inch. The Doctor continues to give warnings, but Staal just keeps calling that bluff while the ship’s weapons prepare to blast Earth. Rattigan, meanwhile, has decided that his character needs a little redemption, so he rigs the teleporter to swap him and the Doctor, sending the Doc back to the academy while he blows up the warship.

Back at the Noble homestead, Wilfred still thinks that Donna should avoid spilling the beans about the Doctor to Sylvia, but he does tearfully beg her to continue to explore with the Doc. Provided, of course, that she bring a little bit of the universe back to share with her grandfather. The two hug and, oh, god, I just can’t with them. Donna tells Wilfred she loves him and makes her leave, returning to the TARDIS. Martha is inside and admits she’s missed the big, blue box, but turns down Donna’s invitation to join them on a trip or two. Before she can leave the TARDIS the doors slam shut and the three get whisked away on a trip that the Doctor apparently has no control over.

The End

~~~~~

Have I mentioned that Donna and Wilfred are just the cutest together? Because they really are. And overall I felt that this was a pretty good wrap up for the story! I’m not sure Martha got to do enough to justify her being in the story, but the moment between her and her dying clone was pretty touching. The Sontaran seem like a really interesting antagonist for the Doctor, and I’m very curious to learn more about them! It was fun to finally get some Action Donna, even if she spent most of this episode hiding in the TARDIS. I’m still not sure about how I feel about Martha getting a miniature revival as a companion while Donna’s still finding her feet, but I guess Jack started moving in on Rose’s territory while we were still in the first series. Speaking of, are we going to have to wait until the end of this series before we find out why Rose is popping up all over the place again? The fun thing is that all three of the Doc’s main companions appeared in this episode, but I’ll be damned if I could tell you what Rose is up to.

I give “The Poison Sky” QQQQ on the Five Q Scale.

Be sure to pop in again on Tuesday when Eli will catch up with more of Dorothy and Sophia’s kinfolk in the next episode of The Golden Girls, “Son-in-Law Dearest”, and then on Wednesday I’ll take the reins and cover the double companion extravaganza that will be “The Doctor’s Daughter”.

Until then, thanks for reading, thanks for choking and thanks for being One of Us!