Originally Posted by Abomination:
“It's kind of odd really as I can't fault RTD's writing of Rose's character - nor Piper's acting. She didn't feel like she had a personality transplant between the two series or anything quite that bad (a fate I can't say didn't befall Mickey) but I think it was more a case of the direction they took with the character. They did decide to transition from a platonic relationship with Nine, to a romantic one with Ten. And if Eccleston had stayed for Series 2, I don't get the slightest impression that they would have pursued this romantic direction.
In some respects I also feel the romantic approach also interferes with some of the stories a little too strongly - mainly those not written by RTD. School Reunion was a good episode, but I felt it also a bit of a shame to have both Rose and Sarah-Jane fawning over the Doctor rather than envying eachother's adventures which would have been enough. The Girl in the Fireplace felt really odd in some respects, as the Doctor fleetingly discarded the ongoing romance with Rose as soon as Reinette was on the scene. For a while it felt a little too much like Tennant was portraying another casanova. Rose then later became part of a romantic double act with the Doctor (her peculiar behaviour in The Idiot's Lantern, to a lesser extent then also in The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit). It just felt like the character, though competently written enough, had been reduced to a far simpler, far more romantically-oriented version of what she'd been in Series 1. It was natural character development to an extent, but it wasn't particularly satisfying.
I think for some this is made all the worse by the constant references to Rose in Series 3 as well. At the time we had no idea she'd be back for Series 4, and so the references took their toll and gradually wore down some people's liking of the character. I do agree though that pursuing the route of unease towards the Doctor wouldn't have been particularly realistic or sensible - it worked for Clara in Series 8 of course, but Ten was much more of a socialite than Twelve. I just think the romantic route was one that cheapened both the direction of the character, and to be honest the relationship between the characters. Keeping it more mysterious, unique and subtle worked wonders for Series 1. Going full on with the romantic angle was a bit...dare I say it, predictable.”
“It's kind of odd really as I can't fault RTD's writing of Rose's character - nor Piper's acting. She didn't feel like she had a personality transplant between the two series or anything quite that bad (a fate I can't say didn't befall Mickey) but I think it was more a case of the direction they took with the character. They did decide to transition from a platonic relationship with Nine, to a romantic one with Ten. And if Eccleston had stayed for Series 2, I don't get the slightest impression that they would have pursued this romantic direction.
In some respects I also feel the romantic approach also interferes with some of the stories a little too strongly - mainly those not written by RTD. School Reunion was a good episode, but I felt it also a bit of a shame to have both Rose and Sarah-Jane fawning over the Doctor rather than envying eachother's adventures which would have been enough. The Girl in the Fireplace felt really odd in some respects, as the Doctor fleetingly discarded the ongoing romance with Rose as soon as Reinette was on the scene. For a while it felt a little too much like Tennant was portraying another casanova. Rose then later became part of a romantic double act with the Doctor (her peculiar behaviour in The Idiot's Lantern, to a lesser extent then also in The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit). It just felt like the character, though competently written enough, had been reduced to a far simpler, far more romantically-oriented version of what she'd been in Series 1. It was natural character development to an extent, but it wasn't particularly satisfying.
I think for some this is made all the worse by the constant references to Rose in Series 3 as well. At the time we had no idea she'd be back for Series 4, and so the references took their toll and gradually wore down some people's liking of the character. I do agree though that pursuing the route of unease towards the Doctor wouldn't have been particularly realistic or sensible - it worked for Clara in Series 8 of course, but Ten was much more of a socialite than Twelve. I just think the romantic route was one that cheapened both the direction of the character, and to be honest the relationship between the characters. Keeping it more mysterious, unique and subtle worked wonders for Series 1. Going full on with the romantic angle was a bit...dare I say it, predictable.”
With regard to Sarah Jane and Rose, wasn't the point that by the end of the episode that they were envying and respectable of each other?. Always seemed that way to me. Their reaction at the start was to both be instinctively posessive of the doctor, which seemed natural when both had experienced being the only woman at his side, in what is an intense relationship for any companion who travels with him. Then though they quickly realise what there is to appreciate what they have in common.
I'd agree with you on the jarring nature of the girl in the fireplace. It's a brilliant episode of course, but in terms of the doctor/rose relationship it felt very strange. We see the doctor and Rose gradually build up their relationship in series 1, and then that seems to become a closer still relationship as series 2 gets going, and at every point after girl in the fireplace, but for that one episode it's like she's completely inconsequential to him, as though he just picked her up, or it was her first day like it was mickeys. The only way it could have been stranger is if it had been later in the series, but even as is, watching the series as a whole his attitude of almost forgetting rose and wanting to seemingly have a full blown relationship with madame du pompadour is quite odd in the context of everything else.
In fact, now that I think off it, I always chalked up some people's dislike of the 10/rose relationship to be because they didn't like the idea of the doctor being in love with a human, yet girl in the fireplace seems almost universally agreed to be a good episode, and I don't think I've ever heard people complaining about the doctor and reinette's relationship even though he has as much of a close relationship with her in one episode as it takes for him to have with Rose in an entire series. I wonder why one seems to bother people but the other doesn't.
