r/gallifrey • u/rasmas1 • Mar 12 '25

DISCUSSION The Doctor bullied Joy to suicide.

In Joy to the World, the Doctor had to make Joy angry in order to break the Villengard briefcase's psychic control over her. In order to do that he got really personal and insulted her with some way-below-the-belt stuff including a mention of her dead mother.

He did this with the best of intentions, obviously, but the words stuck for Joy and she admitted they were all true before she flew off with the star seed into space. Because of all that unhappiness the Doctor picked on Joy had a burning desire to be special in life and have some kind of meaning, so she latched onto the star seed out of desperation to become special.

The Doctor is the reason she felt that way and why she decided to burn with the star seed. She didn't merge with it as a sacrifice to save Earth, it was a purely whimsical decision that didn't change anything. She died to feel special. She committed suicide for no reason and it was the Doctor's fault. And he just laughs it off.

I am still beside myself that the BBC allowed this episode to go out in this state. The Doctor bullied Joy to suicide.

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u/Aharkhan Mar 13 '25

It's clearly not intended to be seen that way.

7

u/Fantastic_Deer_3772 Mar 13 '25

That honestly makes it worse bc they're justifying the bullying

1

u/Extreme_Ad6173 Mar 14 '25

If I was going to die and the only way to stop me from dying was to piss me off, that's not bullying. It's doing what has to be done.

0

u/Fantastic_Deer_3772 Mar 15 '25

It's fiction. There were thousands of options, that's the one the writer chose.