Why I like K'an-Po Rinposhe
"The old man must die, and the new man will discover to his indescribably joy that he has never existed"
K'an-Po Rinpoche is the senior monk and head of the Tibetan monastery in "Planet of the Spiders." With his junior monk Chi-Ji, he came to England to teach meditation and inner peace. The fact that his students choose instead to summon giant evil telepathic alien spiders is in no way his fault.
K'an-Po is a somewhat mysterious figure. For the first two thirds of the episode he is secluded in his upstairs room, while Cho-Ji does the leg work and makes occasional somewhat ominous pronouncements about whether to inform him about various going ons. When Cho-Ji does finally decide that things have gotten bad enough that he needs to bring K'an-Po into the picture it gives the impression of raising the stakes. Even getting to Kan-Po at that point is a challenge. Bear in mind that the last time we saw Tibetan Monks the episode 3 reveal (technical term - I don't remember exactly when the reveal came) was that the mysterious Abbot was under the thrall of a malevolent alien intelligence. We therefore have no idea what to expect when we finally meet K'an-Po himself, except that it's a Big Freakin Deal.
And so what we do find is the thing we least expect - a wise and kindly old man, who is exactly what he appears to be. Well, almost exactly. He's also a Time Lord! (whaaa?) In fact, he is generally understood to be the old Hermit who once showed the Doctor the meaning of Life in a daisy. (It doesn't hurt that the same actor played Darius, the King of Atlantis, in the episode in which the Doctor tells his Daisy Story - another wise and kindly old man, incidentally.) We have no idea why he should be running a Tibetan monastery, but really, why do hermits do anything? From a Gallifreyan perspective, 20th Century Earth is farther out in the middle of nowhere than even the Wastes of Outer Gallifrey.
K'an-Po is everything you would expect someone called a Time Lord to be - by stark contrast to what Time Lords are actually like. He is possessed of gentle dignity and kindly wisdom without bureaucratic stuffiness or aloof pomposity. He is venerable and wonderfully pleasant to boot. Seriously he's the single nicest Time Lord we ever meet. He doesn't seem to have any Evil Button whatsoever. He's technically a "rogue" Time Lord in that he's bumming around on Earth being decent to folks - precisely the opposite of everything Gallifrey stands for. Contrast the Doctor, who runs around saving planets and making a nuisance of himself. K'an-Po is helping people, but entirely without meddling. It's impressive. It's unclear whether he has a TARDIS or not - there's no evidence of one, but presumably he got there somehow - nor is there any suggestion he's been sent by the Time Lords to keep tabs on the Doctor and see what he's done with his newfound freedom. He is a powerful character in and of himself, but he engages in precisely no Scenery Chewing or Large Hamminess - he doesn't even suffer from any post-regenerative brain-crazies! (though there might be an in-episode explanation for that).
"Planet of the Spiders" is a regeneration episode. I've mentioned before that at such times it's nice to have a fellow Time Lord around to help things along. And that is precisely what K'an-Po does. He even has the decency to regenerate first and show us how it's done. Seriously, if "the Twin Dilemma" was the hardest regeneration, "Planet of the Spiders" must be the easiest. Kan-Po sits there and talks Sarah Jane (and the audience) through Regeneration 101 (the Brig is there too, but he's an old hand at this by now). It's extremely helpful to everyone involved. That said, his own regeneration is one of the odder things in the series. The careful reader will have begun by this point to wonder what the deal is with Cho-Ji (a hermit with friends?) Is he a Time Lord too? Well...sort of. Cho-Ji is a projection of K'an-Po's future self, presumably similar to the Watcher in "Logopolis" or Doctor 2.5 in "the Ten Doctors." He's not exactly crossing his own time line (thereby violating the first law of time) because Cho-Ji doesn't strictly speaking have any independent existence. When K'an-Po takes a fatal dose of Force Lightning to the chest he becomes Cho-Ji, the latter disappearing mid-sentence...and finishing it as K'an-Po. Sarah Jane explains it all to the Brigadier:
Brigadier: And who, Miss Smith, was that?
Sarah Jane: That was K'an-Po... I mean Cho-Ji... I mean... it looks like Cho-Ji, but it's really K'an-Po Rinpoche! [bursts into tears]
Brigadier: [eyebrow] Thank you. That makes everything much clearer.
It just goes to show that there are a lot more ways to regenerate than exploding into golden sparkles - if you make sure to plan things out in advance. And not only does K'an-Po plan ahead for his own regeneration, he plans ahead for the Doctor's regeneration as well, turning up in time to give him "a little push." (Which is apparently a thing Time Lords can do, who knew?) And it makes sense, since he knew exactly where the Doctor was going, what he was planning once he got there, and what effect it was likely to have on him. K'an-Po plays the role of counselor, helping the Doctor come to terms with what he needs to do, and admit that he's not wholly guiltless in the various goings on in the episode. He is very much a mentor figure, on of the very very few such that the Doctor ever encounters. He's not going to fight the Doctor's battles for him, but he arms him with the wisdom he needs, and takes care of him once the battle's over.
K'an-Po (and/or Cho-Ji) is really just incredibly pleasant top to bottom. He's kindly, wise, and remarkably helpful, without making a nuisance of himself. Imagine that - a Time Lord who doesn't make a nuisance of himself! He's an unironic mentor figure for a hero who is too often a law unto himself. And, like all rogue Time Lords, he really shows us the range of things Time Lords can do and be. They're not all stuffy bureaucrats or madcap wanderers - sometimes they're Tibetan monks, apparently.
K'an-Po Rinpoche is the senior monk and head of the Tibetan monastery in "Planet of the Spiders." With his junior monk Chi-Ji, he came to England to teach meditation and inner peace. The fact that his students choose instead to summon giant evil telepathic alien spiders is in no way his fault.
K'an-Po is a somewhat mysterious figure. For the first two thirds of the episode he is secluded in his upstairs room, while Cho-Ji does the leg work and makes occasional somewhat ominous pronouncements about whether to inform him about various going ons. When Cho-Ji does finally decide that things have gotten bad enough that he needs to bring K'an-Po into the picture it gives the impression of raising the stakes. Even getting to Kan-Po at that point is a challenge. Bear in mind that the last time we saw Tibetan Monks the episode 3 reveal (technical term - I don't remember exactly when the reveal came) was that the mysterious Abbot was under the thrall of a malevolent alien intelligence. We therefore have no idea what to expect when we finally meet K'an-Po himself, except that it's a Big Freakin Deal.
And so what we do find is the thing we least expect - a wise and kindly old man, who is exactly what he appears to be. Well, almost exactly. He's also a Time Lord! (whaaa?) In fact, he is generally understood to be the old Hermit who once showed the Doctor the meaning of Life in a daisy. (It doesn't hurt that the same actor played Darius, the King of Atlantis, in the episode in which the Doctor tells his Daisy Story - another wise and kindly old man, incidentally.) We have no idea why he should be running a Tibetan monastery, but really, why do hermits do anything? From a Gallifreyan perspective, 20th Century Earth is farther out in the middle of nowhere than even the Wastes of Outer Gallifrey.
K'an-Po is everything you would expect someone called a Time Lord to be - by stark contrast to what Time Lords are actually like. He is possessed of gentle dignity and kindly wisdom without bureaucratic stuffiness or aloof pomposity. He is venerable and wonderfully pleasant to boot. Seriously he's the single nicest Time Lord we ever meet. He doesn't seem to have any Evil Button whatsoever. He's technically a "rogue" Time Lord in that he's bumming around on Earth being decent to folks - precisely the opposite of everything Gallifrey stands for. Contrast the Doctor, who runs around saving planets and making a nuisance of himself. K'an-Po is helping people, but entirely without meddling. It's impressive. It's unclear whether he has a TARDIS or not - there's no evidence of one, but presumably he got there somehow - nor is there any suggestion he's been sent by the Time Lords to keep tabs on the Doctor and see what he's done with his newfound freedom. He is a powerful character in and of himself, but he engages in precisely no Scenery Chewing or Large Hamminess - he doesn't even suffer from any post-regenerative brain-crazies! (though there might be an in-episode explanation for that).
"Planet of the Spiders" is a regeneration episode. I've mentioned before that at such times it's nice to have a fellow Time Lord around to help things along. And that is precisely what K'an-Po does. He even has the decency to regenerate first and show us how it's done. Seriously, if "the Twin Dilemma" was the hardest regeneration, "Planet of the Spiders" must be the easiest. Kan-Po sits there and talks Sarah Jane (and the audience) through Regeneration 101 (the Brig is there too, but he's an old hand at this by now). It's extremely helpful to everyone involved. That said, his own regeneration is one of the odder things in the series. The careful reader will have begun by this point to wonder what the deal is with Cho-Ji (a hermit with friends?) Is he a Time Lord too? Well...sort of. Cho-Ji is a projection of K'an-Po's future self, presumably similar to the Watcher in "Logopolis" or Doctor 2.5 in "the Ten Doctors." He's not exactly crossing his own time line (thereby violating the first law of time) because Cho-Ji doesn't strictly speaking have any independent existence. When K'an-Po takes a fatal dose of Force Lightning to the chest he becomes Cho-Ji, the latter disappearing mid-sentence...and finishing it as K'an-Po. Sarah Jane explains it all to the Brigadier:
Brigadier: And who, Miss Smith, was that?
Sarah Jane: That was K'an-Po... I mean Cho-Ji... I mean... it looks like Cho-Ji, but it's really K'an-Po Rinpoche! [bursts into tears]
Brigadier: [eyebrow] Thank you. That makes everything much clearer.
It just goes to show that there are a lot more ways to regenerate than exploding into golden sparkles - if you make sure to plan things out in advance. And not only does K'an-Po plan ahead for his own regeneration, he plans ahead for the Doctor's regeneration as well, turning up in time to give him "a little push." (Which is apparently a thing Time Lords can do, who knew?) And it makes sense, since he knew exactly where the Doctor was going, what he was planning once he got there, and what effect it was likely to have on him. K'an-Po plays the role of counselor, helping the Doctor come to terms with what he needs to do, and admit that he's not wholly guiltless in the various goings on in the episode. He is very much a mentor figure, on of the very very few such that the Doctor ever encounters. He's not going to fight the Doctor's battles for him, but he arms him with the wisdom he needs, and takes care of him once the battle's over.
K'an-Po (and/or Cho-Ji) is really just incredibly pleasant top to bottom. He's kindly, wise, and remarkably helpful, without making a nuisance of himself. Imagine that - a Time Lord who doesn't make a nuisance of himself! He's an unironic mentor figure for a hero who is too often a law unto himself. And, like all rogue Time Lords, he really shows us the range of things Time Lords can do and be. They're not all stuffy bureaucrats or madcap wanderers - sometimes they're Tibetan monks, apparently.