Meta: The God Complex.

[elisi]

This week’s Doctor Who is without a doubt one of my favourite things ever. It was beautiful and heartbreaking and hit one of my major, major kinks and it also - miracles of miracles - treated religion with intelligence, rather than just steal some imagery and then sneer. Basically it was [metaphorically, and literally] 1 Corinthians 13, 11-12 in

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[elisi]

based on what the Doctor said to try to destroy Amy's faith made him "face up" to himself and his flaws. If he can't believe in his own abilities ... we're kinda screwed.
Oh he's ALL bluster! Here, I shall let the mighty Moff speak for me (I love Moffat, I truly truly do):

"...[The Doctor is] just a lunatic who’s capering around trying to have lunch somewhere nice, and all these people think that he’s this massive, mighty foe... I think that’s a fun thing to play with. Because we know he isn’t. We know he hasn’t even got a plan. He can’t even drive the box. We know that’s not true. So I think that makes it a fun thing to play with. It’s a dangerous card for the Doctor to play because the more he makes his enemies fear him, the more powerful they will become in response to what is, in fact, an unarmed man who can’t drive."

From the podcast for Forest of the Dead, with Moffat, RTD and DT, talking about the moment when River whispers the Doctor's name in his ear:

Moffat: And I have to say, David, I think your performance in this is astonishing. There are two bits that are brilliant. It’s this, where you’re just flung back to being a man - you’re just an ordinary bloke for a minute - and this bit here where you shoulder the Doctor again… There we are, the mask back on!
RTD: You see how much the Doctor is-
Moffat: -is surface
RTD: -a pose
Moffat: It’s the interesting thing about the Doctor, isn’t it? What is it that’s special about him? In terms of writing him he’s not faster or stronger, actually. He can regenerate, which is pretty cool, but not all the time... and he’s superclever, but actually the people he’s up against are superclever, so it’s not that. I think it’s almost the power of the greatest gob in the universe - he can sort of talk his way, confidently, past anybody.
DT: Which he slightly abuses there because he’s been slightly undermined. He shouts too loudly and is a bit nasty to the team…
Moff: But look - they’re all confident in him now. [umming awing] He’s almost a charlatan - in a good cause! - he poses, doesn’t he? He makes it seem like he’s this god-like creature, and he kinda, really, there’s just a bloke under there.
RTD: Oh absolutely.
Moff: Which I think makes him great fun to write.

'Unarmed man who can't drive' might be my favourite description of the Doctor EVER. And this is very much what the season plays on - Moffat is trying to undo the whole 'Larger than life' persona, and (we hope) return the Doctor to be someone just capering around space, not someone great big warrior hero. :) Incidentally this is why I think River is so perfect for him - the very first lesson she learns is that the Doctor can't save her... He can't even save himself. So she has an extremely realistic understanding of him, which means that she admires the fact that he always tries to do the right thing, no matter what, even more. She never needs the speech he gives to Amy, because she knows exactly who he is.