"The turn of the earth. The ground beneath our feet is spinning at a thousand miles an hour. The entire planet is hurtling around the sun at sixty seven thousand miles an hour. And I can feel it. We're falling through space, you and me, clinging to the skin of this tiny little world. And, if we let go...that's who I am."
I'll be honest: Eccleston is far from being my Doctor. But this speech is a thing of beauty, and he delivers it wonderfully. Looking back, this was probably an essential piece of Doctor Who's revival. If this speech hadn't landed, neither would the Doctor. That would have been the end, finally, for real. This speech really brings home just how "other" the Doctor is. He may look like us, and he may act like us (as Eccleston did, looking like a Doctor you'd meet in a pub). But he's pretending. He's not really like us. He comprehends a universe beyond anything we can imagine, and he's grasping at whatever he can to hold him in the present, in the real. The Doctor sees how fragile the world is, and he just keeps going. It's an essential piece of the character, and expertly established.
Rebecca Kulik lives in Iowa, reads an obsence amount, watches way too much television, and occasionally studies for her BA in History. Come by her personal pop culture blog at tyrannyofthepetticoat.wordpress.com and her reading blog at journalofimaginarypeople.wordpress.com.
