I agree with a lot of what you say here, though not all of it; for instance, I don't think that death would have been a better outcome for Donna. Yes, the Doctor could have spent some time earlier, with his other half and with Jack, and with Donna's intelligence too - and, hey, even Rose and Martha and Sarah-Jane and Mr Smith and the Torchwood pair - running some experiments, discussing theories and so on. A better way should have been found.
But that's what fix-its are for. So far, I've written one where Donna never loses her memories in the first place, and another where she is brilliant without remembering. dark_aegis has written a couple of great post-JE Donna fics; check her LJ. I'm also working on a multi-chapter post-JE in our universe, so far with Jack and the Doctor, but Donna will be included too.
I agree that the Doctor does far too much decision-making for people, though, and he's now done it for Rose a third time. Even if I think she's going to be happy with what he's now given her, she should have had a choice. I really like your rewrite. That needs to be a fic :)
Torchwood... as I understand it, Mickey and Martha were to have been the new members, but rumour has it that Martha walked out to join an ITV remake of CSI. Since I tend to prefer her in fic to episodes, I'm not all that sorry - there's just something about her on screen that doesn't work for me :(
The half-human Doctor, or the Duplicate Doctor as the BBC and Teaspoon call him - you're absolutely right that being tied to the same place and time would be even harder on him given he's also going to have to get used to a human lifespan. In the original script, the first Doctor gave him a piece of TARDIS coral so he could grow his own TARDIS. That part was cut (though will be included in the S4 DVDs), but it's been referred to as canon in an official DW magazine, so many of us are taking it as canon.
Second only to Donna's exit, what disappointed me most about this finale was the complete lack of Jack and Rose together. Rose is shocked and distressed to see Jack killed, but beyond one gasp when he appears again alive there's no more reaction. We never see her being filled in on his immortality, and beyond Jack holding her as the Doctor regenerates there's no reunion hug. Some people have written fill-in-the-gap fics to show the conversations that must have happened - after all, how do we know how long it took to get everyone organised inside the TARDIS, and before people started to leave? I remember one fic - I think it was by catsfiction which posited that a party took place in the TARDIS once the Earth was home and before the Doctor started taking everyone back where they belonged. (And, yes, I adore that flying-the-TARDIS scene too, and that Ood song brings a lump to my throat every time).
I think that's about it. Good luck catching up on all the post-JE fic! There's a lot of it, with quality varying from very good indeed to... not so good. And, if you - like me - believe that Rose is going to be happy with her Doctor, look out for the character-assassination fic which either has her being a total bitch to him because he's 'not the Doctor', or him turning into some kind of unspeakable bastard who bears no resemblance to the Doctor. Or fic where all Rose can do is work out a way to get back to the 'real' Doctor. (I don't mind AU endings, but not ones which have to character-bash to get where the author wants to be).
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I agree with a lot of what you say here, though not all of it; for instance, I don't think that death would have been a better outcome for Donna. Yes, the Doctor could have spent some time earlier, with his other half and with Jack, and with Donna's intelligence too - and, hey, even Rose and Martha and Sarah-Jane and Mr Smith and the Torchwood pair - running some experiments, discussing theories and so on. A better way should have been found.
But that's what fix-its are for. So far, I've written one where Donna never loses her memories in the first place, and another where she is brilliant without remembering.
I agree that the Doctor does far too much decision-making for people, though, and he's now done it for Rose a third time. Even if I think she's going to be happy with what he's now given her, she should have had a choice. I really like your rewrite. That needs to be a fic :)
Torchwood... as I understand it, Mickey and Martha were to have been the new members, but rumour has it that Martha walked out to join an ITV remake of CSI. Since I tend to prefer her in fic to episodes, I'm not all that sorry - there's just something about her on screen that doesn't work for me :(
The half-human Doctor, or the Duplicate Doctor as the BBC and Teaspoon call him - you're absolutely right that being tied to the same place and time would be even harder on him given he's also going to have to get used to a human lifespan. In the original script, the first Doctor gave him a piece of TARDIS coral so he could grow his own TARDIS. That part was cut (though will be included in the S4 DVDs), but it's been referred to as canon in an official DW magazine, so many of us are taking it as canon.
Second only to Donna's exit, what disappointed me most about this finale was the complete lack of Jack and Rose together. Rose is shocked and distressed to see Jack killed, but beyond one gasp when he appears again alive there's no more reaction. We never see her being filled in on his immortality, and beyond Jack holding her as the Doctor regenerates there's no reunion hug. Some people have written fill-in-the-gap fics to show the conversations that must have happened - after all, how do we know how long it took to get everyone organised inside the TARDIS, and before people started to leave? I remember one fic - I think it was by
I think that's about it. Good luck catching up on all the post-JE fic! There's a lot of it, with quality varying from very good indeed to... not so good. And, if you - like me - believe that Rose is going to be happy with her Doctor, look out for the character-assassination fic which either has her being a total bitch to him because he's 'not the Doctor', or him turning into some kind of unspeakable bastard who bears no resemblance to the Doctor. Or fic where all Rose can do is work out a way to get back to the 'real' Doctor. (I don't mind AU endings, but not ones which have to character-bash to get where the author wants to be).