Doctor Who Series 10 Recap: The Pilot
Doctor Who returns for the Twelfth Doctor’s last season, and Moffat’s last run heading up the show, with an episode heavy on the romance of science fiction.
Since the return of Doctor Who to the airwaves in 2005, the science fiction program has at times been criticized as trending too romantic. From Rose’s romance with the Tenth Doctor to Martha’s unrequited crush, to the weirdness between Amy and the Eleventh Doctor to River Song, fans have argued that the show makes too much of the Doctor-Companion relationship, and trends too close to love affair.
Bill: “What good is getting into a box going to do?”
The Doctor: “What an extraordinarily long and involved answer this is going to be….”
But the truth is, ever since the show returned, it has been a romance. An escapist romance, one of being in love with adventure, with the unknown, of the escaping the humdrum every day cares of the world, and running away. The defining moment for me of the Davies era was not the image of Ten fading out just before he tell Rose he loves her. It’s that moment at the end of the very first episode with the Ninth Doctor, as Rose runs away from Mickey, from the present, from the life of failed O-levels and shop girl jobs. Her face is one of a girl who is running towards her greatest love–jumping into the TARDIS and going anywhere.
