You Get Out What You Put In.

[crycrywolf]

spoilers up through 4x10.

An examination of the Doctors character. Quite long. So pull up a chair, stay for a while.

Comments

[chloris]

Interesting thought on the what the alien is. The question is whether it was simply reflecting back what it was given (fear and anger) or whether it was causing those emotions (or at least increasing them). I don't think it was clear in the episode.

The thing about the Doctor is that he *is* arrogant and condescending. Without a companion to translate and buffer his interactions with others, he just isn't very good at understanding human motivations. From his point of view, everything he says makes perfect sense and should be accepted by those around him.

But here he was, more terrified than he's probably ever been and he was completely taken over. Even though he was obviously fighting back tooth and nail. Eventually he was able to fight back a little bit, but it almost wasn't enough.

I just wrote up some meta about the connections between this episode and 42, which is the last time we saw him so scared. Being possessed is, I think, the worst thing he can imagine. Add a mob on top of it, and I'm not surprised he's still shaken up at the end.