The Doctor and Rose

*Edited because the ep "Parting of the Ways", which this image is from, has now aired, so I took down the spoiler-warning preview and changed the desc a bit. What an awesome ep!

For those who haven't seen the ep but want an explanation, in this scene, Rose has looked into the "time vortex" of the TARDIS, the Doctor's time-traveling ship, and basically been filled up with a bunch of cosmic power, which she uses to stop the Daleks and their Emperor. Unfortunately, the power is killing her: to save her life, the Doctor kisses her, taking the power into himself -- it "kills" him, causing him to regenerate. I watched the clips of this on the BBC website before the ep aired here in the States, and they have a wallpaper of this image here: [link]

Unfortunately, with the light flare, it's hard to see the details of their faces, so I used another ref or two and "cleaned it up".

I don't agree with series producer Russel T Davies that Rose is "the only companion that is the Doctor's equal" -- that would be the second Ramona in my book, and a few other companions besides (although I have a theory now that Rose may be evolving into a Gallifreyan like the Doctr, especially after this thing with the TARDIS). And Rose is a tech Mary-Sue, truth be told, especially in this ep... but despite this fact, I AM a total Rose/Doctor shipper, and therefore I will forgive/overlook any possible Mary-Sueness. *G*

It figures we wouldn't get this moment until right before he regenerates; while he still is the Doctor afterwards, he's always a bit different each time he regenerates, and I don't just mean in appearance. Though I'm sure she'll get cozy with the 10th Doctor, I'm sure for a least a little bit after this happened, Rose must have felt a bit as if the Doctor really had died. How sad

This poor Doctor has seen his entire race wiped out, giving him a bit of a bitter edge. He still smiles a lot, and is even boyish at times, but there are moments when he's all "big picture-crusader" and forgets the little guy. Rose is both a beacon of hope and, at times, an impromptu conscience for a man who's recently gone through as negatively life-altering an event as anyone ever could. Rose might not always be terribly tech-savy and may sometimes seem to lack an ounce of common sense, but she has a good heart. There's no doubt that, possibly for the first time in the franchise's 25-year+ history, the Doctor's in love -- a deep love born of friendship and shared experiences, the most beautiful kind of love there is, to my mind. ^^ It's really brought a fresh new perspective to his character -- it's a hoot to see him jealous! And I love whenever he grabs her hand and they walk off together -- so cute! ^^ Of course it helps that Eccleston (the Doctor) and Billie Piper (Rose) have really brilliant chemistry together!

I adore Eccleston -- I dare say as much, maybe even more, than Tom Baker. Some of the scripts have been, well, dogs, but he's made even the worst stuff bearable -- his enthusiasm is just so infectuous! I'm heartbroken that I've seen all there is of his Who eps now (though there's still the books! If I can ever find them -- I live in a cultural desert, I swear, no store is carrying them around here!). While I'm be very sad to see him go, I'm not angry with him like some fans (there seems to be a lot of conflicting info around his departure, too). I wish him all the best. He's very involved with charity work, and that makes him a great fellow in my book!

I tend to listen to music that's themed to what I'm working on while I work. For this pic, I chose John Farrar's "Suspended in Time," from the Xanadu soundtrack (warning, this lyric site has popups) [link] , and Bryan Adams' "Don't Let Go", from the Spirit: Stallion of the Cimmaron soundtrack (this link leads to the lyrics page at his official site) [link]

Done on (really crappy) orange construction paper, with an H-lead pencil, black, white, canary yellow, and burnt umber Prismacolor pencils, and an ebony pencil. I'm actually pretty pleased with this one, it came along pretty smoothly

The Doctor and Rose © The BBC