9 fell in love with life again because of Rose. Then on Satellite 5 he thought he saw her die before his eyes, got her back, then almost watched her burn from the inside out because she loved him enough to sacrifice her life for him. He then died for her.
Of COURSE Ten is afraid of love, and specifically loving Rose. He's held what he thought was her ashes in his hand, and his whole existence he's known that one day he might lead her to her death for real.
Nine fell in love with his pink and yellow human.
Ten was born in love with her, and that terrified him.
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Sarah Jane: I waited for you. I missed you.
The Doctor: Oh, you didn’t need me. You were getting on with your life.
Sarah Jane: You were my life.
Sarah Jane: You know what the most difficult thing was? Coping with what happens next. No, with what doesn’t happen next. You took me to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, you showed me supernovas, intergalactic battles and then you just dropped me back on Earth. How could anything compare to that?
The Doctor: All those things you saw, you want me to apologize for that?
Sarah Jane: No! But we get a taste of that splendor and then we have to go back.
The Doctor: Look at you, you’re investigating. You found that school. You’re doing what we always did.
Sarah Jane: You could have come back.
The Doctor: I couldn’t.
Sarah Jane: Why not?
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The Doctor Who Script collection dropped earlier this week and I've already spent, uh, many hours digging through various scripts (including all of the SJA scripts!), but if you've been here awhile, you know that the first one I went for was School Reunion.
It was really fun reading through what was changed, what beats were scripted vs. which weren't, and the emotional backdrops. One of the things that struck me most was that, for a very bittersweet episode, the script absolutely leaned harder into the bitter side of bittersweet than the episode as aired did. There were elements that I'm very glad didn't stay as well as moments I desperately wish had been kept. Overall, it was a joy to see the original draft of the story that got me into Doctor Who all those years ago.
He's so happy. Transported. Mesmerised. Dazed, reeling from the encounter. Oh, my HEART. This scene was pretty much aired as written, and David played it to the nines, of course, but it's really sweet to see how explicit the script is about how overwhelmed the Doctor is in this moment. So much of the episode focuses on Sarah's emotional reaction (rightly, if not always perfectly) and the hurt/discomfort that colors their relationship once she realizes it's the Doctor, so to have this moment of the Doctor's unadulterated happiness to see her is really lovely.
More highlights (including things that were cut, changed—for better or worse, and just directions that made me happy or that I found interesting) under the cut!
This scene was definitely different. The script didn't include the bit about them both investigating at the school and it has a bit more flippancy. I can't imagine this scene without the iconic slow shot of Sarah backing up and turning to see the Doctor behind her, so I'm really, really glad that they moved away from the idea of them colliding into each other and leaned into the gravitas a bit more.
Oh, what I would've given for them to have kept this!!!
On to the diner scene...oh boy, feelings about this. I've written essays about this scene—how in some ways it feels perfect and appropriate and Sarah's grief/lines like "you were my life" make a lot of sense in the context of the shock and hurt of an old wound reopened so violently, how that shouldn't be taken to mean that she'd wasted her life or that she's been paralyzed by a broken heart for thirty years, how everything is heightened and that's okay even if, on their own, some of these beats paint a grim picture—but whew. This would've been harder to swallow with the last bit, which I remember Lis having mentioned as something she fought back against.
I actually do love that she mentioned UNIT and Harry! But yeah, very glad that Lis talked them out of the last lines. There clearly wasn't an effort to adhere to Big Finish canon but minimizing and deflating her successful career on top of everything else would've been upsetting, and there just wasn't a good reason to paint her entire life as tragic outside of the raw reactions the Doctor's return illicit.
"If I thought about you..." Project it onto my GRAVESTONE!
THIS WAS SCRIPTED I AM SCREAMING, this is one of my FAVORITE little beats of the episode (so much so that I made a gif out of it like 13 years ago!)
The Sarah/Rose dynamic was a little 🙄 in the episode and a little more-so in the script, but I liked this bit:
The explicit apology is nice, but goddamn, I wish they'd kept "He doesn't deserve us."
I'm fascinated by the fact that in the script, she shrugs him off! The script generally has a slightly more bitter tinge than the episode itself did, which is so interesting to me, and that I'm glad was tempered.
The goodbye scene as scripted is set in the ruins of the school. I like that they moved it and created some space and time—everyone's changed clothes, they've had some breathing room, emotions have cooled a bit. It serves the scene better than I think this would have. This bit of the script includes a line that I always assumed had been cut given her line in the episode about "And like I said, I wouldn't have missed it for the world". Other than that, the dialogue and beats are pretty much what we see onscreen.
And then:
I have a very messy tangle of feelings about "Last chance" / "I know" that I'll be sorting out for the next 4-6 business weeks, so...stay tuned. (I also have an essay about ace-spectrum Sarah Jane that builds on the "he was a tough act to follow" line that WILL exist outside of my head at some point!)
Anyway! This was a fun deep dive 💞 I got a Doctor/Sarah-inspired tattoo earlier this month so I'm really in my renaissance era here!otp
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