Warning: contains spoilers forDoctor Who.
Its Valentines Day, or thereabouts, so theres romance flipping everywhere.
Mostly though this is in terms of saving planets rather than marrying Lizzy Bennet.
(Fan-fiction and spin-off media, incidentally, often layer romantic plots on top of existing scenarios.
Shipping is powerful, but not really what were talking about here.)
Its a heightened, idealised version of love.
Love Conquers All?
Moffat regularly puts his characters through a worse time than theyd get in a rom-com.
Happy romance times ensue.
This is a poor attempt at addressing an incredibly traumatic sequence of events.
It concludes when the Doctor engineers a situation whereby Amy and Rory can resolve their problems, apparently forever.
Idealised love conquers all.
Head in the Stars
All of which brings us neatly onto Susan.
The Doctor does this because he knows Susan wont leave him voluntarily.
And so Susan is left in the ruins of London with the first person she seems genuinely affectionate towards.
David will most likely die centuries before Susan.
Also she did not choose this for herself.
Youd be forgiven for thinking this wasnt all thatromantic.
Romance as a genre has some acknowledged problems (Clearly the First Doctor and Susan have never seenFrozen).
Doctor Whocan, and does, acknowledge reality sometimes, but often its head is in the stars.
If you think of the contrivances of Shakespeare comedies this sort of thing makes more sense.
The key thing here is that Jo falls for someone who reminds her of the Doctor.
This ending is similar to the waySteven Moffatended his series.
The main character finds broken things and strives to mend them.
Most of the time, they manage to do so.
By any analysis, evil should always win, and yet… no.
Theres your romantic ideal.
