Theory Time

[meddow]

I really, really should be writing an essay and not this.

Basically, my theory is based on the premise that the Bad Wolf = all of the power of the TARDIS + the emotions and wisdom of Rose Tyler. The Bad Wolf is not a particularly wise or fair being, if she was all-knowing she would not have screwed up Jack’s rebirth and Jack was singled out to be saved where all the others slaughtered that day were not. Those people deserved to live just as much as he did. But the Bad Wolf’s just a little selfish. Essentially, she’s a child god, like Jamie or CAL.

In those few moments on Platform One, the Bad Wolf could see the past, present and future. She could see the events of season two and Bad Wolf Bay, and further to Donna, Martha the Master etc. But also she saw that in Journey’s End it is quite literally the end of the universe, and the two people there at the epicentre are the Doctor and Donna. They fail to save the day. The Doctor and Donna die and so does everything else.

So, having the heart of Rose Tyler, the Bad Wolf decided to prevent this catastrophe. She looks to the people there available to stop it and chooses Donna. She travels back on Donna’s life, right back to her birth, and gives her something: the key to saving the day. Or maybe the Bad Wolf gave both Donna and the Doctor something, and it requires both of them. Either way, nobody knows about it except for the Bad Wolf, who on ceasing to exist forgot it all. The only noticeable trace is what Rose and UNIT picked up around Donna in Turn Left, which is the fingerprint of the Bad Wolf’s meddling. Rose’s journey in series four has been her trying to figure out what she did as the Bad Wolf and make sure everything remains on track. If she can figure it out tell Donna and the Doctor about it, they can use it.

The price, however, for Donna is that she is still going to die. One person who was going to die anyway for the whole universe doesn’t seem that bad a trade off, but Donna’s going to lose her life and the Doctor’s going to lose his best friend. And there we have the tragedy that brought about River’s reaction to Donna.

Although from that point forward, the Bad Wolf loses her hold on the universe. She never saw further than the end and now they have moved past that she has no longer has influenced events. The Doctor and the show if finally free from the shadow of the season one finale and Rose Tyler’s journey ends along with Donna’s.

This would satisfy me quite a bit. Donna’s not a superwoman, nor a Time Lord, but rather an ordinary person whose specialness and destiny only emerges in one moment and is the result of her own choices mixed with chance and the meddling of a child god.

Comments

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

I think it'd be really cool if somebody other than Rose was the manifestation of the Bad Wolf this time. Because, as far as I can tell, it's just the heart of the TARDIS in the flesh, and the phrase is the retroactive warnings it puts out. Which means, I guess, that it'll need to come into play at some point in the next two episodes, in order to do that retroactive-warning thing. I've taken Rose's whisper to Donna as a warning put into her mouth by the Bad Wolf just like all the other warnings in text and in mouths that it put up at the end of Turn Left and throughout s1 and other places. Rather than as the essence being carried around in her long after the heart was removed, because I think if something like the TARDIS was at play in her constantly it'd be far more apparent rather than something that subtly becomes a functional part of your usual self. So technically, Bad Wolf isn't specifically -- or doesn't have to be specifically -- Rose-related.

[meddow.livejournal.com]

I do take the view that the Bad Wolf is Rose related, since I view it as the TARDIS + Rose. If the heart of the TARDIS combined with anyone else, it would form a different being. But that the Bad Wolf only existed for that for a few minutes, I don't like the idea that Rose carries the Bad Wolf around with her at all and ever since she had been special. In my view the Bad Wolf was born when Rose looked in, and dies when Nine kissed her (it was one hell of a kiss). Although Rose and the TARDIS may have the lingering memories of what they did somewhere.

Plus in the confidential RTD was really emphasizing Rose when talking about the Bad Wolf. Though it would be kind of cool to see someone else as the Bad Wolf. If I had a vote, I'd go for Jackie!Bad Wolf.

[rockthetardis.livejournal.com]

Could actually be Donna herself. One of the things that struck me about Turn Left was the fortune teller backing away in fear and yelling at Donna, "You're so strong! What will you become? What will you become?" That line just seemed a bit odd to me.