drainedYup. Decided to try it. Wow, is it ever a massive time waster ... and oh, my goodness, is it ever fun wasting time on. So, where do I start? Oh, right.
Day 01 – Your Favourite Quote
I cheated: I have more than one.
1) I'll start with my favorite quote from the First Doctor - his farewell to Susan at the end of "The Dalek Invasion of Earth.""One day, I shall come back. Yes, I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxieties. Just go forward in all your beliefs and prove to me that I am not mistaken in mine. Goodbye Susan. Goodbye my dear."
I like it for a lot of reasons; Hartnell's delivery is suitably elegiac without being sappy. He references what I think are two recurring messages in the show over the years: He will be back (and he always is, give or take the occasional temporal or emotional glitch); and he wants those he loves (Susan, his companions, humans in general, and everyone he meets, frankly) to be principled, and thereby prove themselves worthy of the pride he feels in them. And finally, I love it, because of the gentleness with which he tries to leave a child he loves, even though he's awkward in that emotion.
2) Too many to number, and all from The Ninth Doctor's time.
2) Too many to number, and all from The Ninth Doctor's time.
Hell, everything everyone says in most of "The Empty Child" and all of "The Doctor Dances" could count as one quote for me, from Dr. Constantine to Nancy to my favorite threesome as they meet and escape death together. This one in particular is brilliant: "Right now, not very far from here, the German war machine is rolling up the map of Europe. Country after country, falling like dominoes. Nothing can stop it—nothing. Until one tiny, damp little island says "No.". "No. Not here.". A mouse in front of a lion. You're amazing, the lot of you. I don't know what you do to Hitler, but you frighten the hell out of me. "
However, the discrete ones I recall most quickly are:
However, the discrete ones I recall most quickly are:
- Jackie Tyler's "Stitch this, mate!" when she confronts and slaps the Doctor for taking her daughter in "Aliens of London." It encapsulates the fearlessness, crude energy, intention to take no shit, and protective mama-tiger aspect of Jackie's nature. No wonder Pete fell in love with her ... despite the fact that he probably had to duck a few slaps himself.
- Pete Tyler's "Who am I, love?" asked of Rose, in "Father's Day," followed by her tearful, "You're my Daddy." I grew up without a father, thanks to divorce, and even though I later regained some contact with my dad, this two-line piece of dialogue never fails to bring me to tears. It reminds me that there are heroes in the Whoniverse beyond the Doctor, and who the Doctor respects.
- And finally (although it's out of chronological order,) the speech the Ninth Doctor gives to Rose in "Rose," trying to give her just the tiniest hint of who he is: "Do you know like we were saying? About the Earth revolving? It's like when you're a kid. The first time they tell you that the Earth's turning and you just can't believe it because everything looks like it's standing still. I can feel it: the turn of the Earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour. And the entire planet is hurtling around the sun at 67,000 thousand miles an hour and I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me. Clinging to the skin of this tiny little world and if we let go... that's who I am." When I heard that? That's when I knew that the revived Dr. Who was going to be Very Much More Than Fine.
- Oh, hell: forgot nearly all of "Parting of the Ways," which is also eminently quotable. Forgot it, I suppose, because I wish so much that it hadn't ended as it did. But there is one quote from it that I have to include in this bloated love-fest with which I've presented you: "I am the Bad Wolf - I create myself." With that, the Blue Rose announces Herself, and goes on to say more, in language both lyrical and terrifying, pronouncing sentence on The God of All Daleks. Every time I hear it, the hair rises on the back of my neck, and I'm reminded of why I love both Rose and the TARDIS.
