Hidden impact

[scarfman]

compiled from my comments in other journals, mostly doctorwho; so I can link back here and stop typing the same thing over and over

There's a perfectly in-text cause for Rose to have affected the Doctor the way she has (whether it was True Love or not): She was his first companion after the Time War, since which he has been unwilling or unable to keep the distance he used to keep. It's the same in-text cause for his new attachments to companions' families; his is gone. (Plus his companions have stopped being people who have lost their family in his latest adventure. I'm not sure which direction the causality goes on that one; we may have to step outside the text for that. Not that there aren't out-text causes for the other bits too, but there you are.)

It further occurs to me that the Doctor's obsession with the loss of Rose may also be due to a lack of realization that Rose is only part of the loss he suffered, and feels; that he's personifying Rose as the whole of his loss when it's really not just the unique to date loss of Rose but also the unique to date losses of Jackie, Mickie, Pete and even Jake that he's feeling.

It was having found a place in Rose's family (even if that place was the crazy-dangerous boyfriend) that allowed the Doctor to own and move past the pain of the Time War (that, and regenerating out of Post Traumatic Stress Doctor). Then, he lost Rose's family too, which was, emotionally, tantamount to going through the Time War all over again. What the Doctor's feeling which he mistakes for the overwhelming loss of Rose is overwhelming because it isn't just the loss of Rose; it's the loss of her whole family, and by extension the loss of the Time Lords again. He's as damaged as he was in Season 2005 (though probably, hopefully, not for all season) and doesn't properly see why, and that's what Martha's having to put up with.

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Comments

[scarfman]

This isn't meant to be excuses, but an explanation. I'm saying, "Here's why he treats Martha the way he does, and obviously even he doesn't know it;" not, "Get off the Doctor's back for how he's treating Martha!" No judgment on whether Martha should sit back and take it or give him a smack is explicit or should be inferred.