The Doctor in S6.
This is an attempt at explaining my thoughts on the Doctor and various points brought up by comments to this post. Spoilers up to and including DW 6.6.
I’m going to start with a complete gold nugget by promethia_tenk (VERY meta):
AMY: You killed the Doctor, you bastard!
MOFFAT: Yeah . . . but have you considered the symbolic context?
My response to the scene on the beach was never ‘How will Moffat get out of this one?’ (because I don’t even know where to start), but:
‘How and why does the Doctor end up where he is?’
(Much like I knew that S5 had to end with Amy and Rory’s wedding, even though I didn’t have a clue how that would work. I just knew that this was the only ending that would fit.)
Now let’s talk about death for a bit. I’m going to have to bring Rusty into this, I’m afraid, but it’s important, so bear with me. Because (as is pretty obvious) death is one Rusty’s main themes (just look at the new series of Torchwood). Death is something final, the end, both peace and terror. We are human, death is the one thing we can count on. Moffat, however, approaches the concept of death from a different angle - death is not ‘the end’, but a ‘Sea Change’ (A radical, and apparently mystical, change).
From Shakespeare's The Tempest:
ARIEL [sings]:
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
If you die in the dream, you wake up in reality (except both realities were a dream. Oh Doctor, ever the Trickster)...
- Amy's Ganger died and real!Amy woke up, giving birth.
- Idris died, and the TARIS lived.
- Rory died, and became a Roman.
- The Doctor sacrificed himself, and was brought back by Amy.
- River died, and was brought back into the Library.
- Ganger!Doctor died, but will most likely be back.
We see this split in worldviews most clearly in the attitudes of Ten and Eleven to their impeding deaths (Nine, interestingly, being far closer to Eleven, so RTD was clearly making a specific point with Ten. And I'm not saying either is better. Ten's death was Ten through and through and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Sometimes you need to exorcise your demons by following them to the bitter end):
TENTH DOCTOR: But me? I could do so much more! So much more! But this is what I get. My reward. And it’s not fair!
ELEVENTH DOCTOR: Human beings... I thought I'd never get done saving you.
In both cases there’s wistfulness over what can no longer be, but whereas Ten is focussed inward, Eleven is focussed out.
~
TENTH DOCTOR: I can still die. If I’m killed before regeneration then I’m dead. Even then, even if I change, it feels like dying. Everything I am dies. Some new man goes sauntering away. And I’m dead.
ELEVENTH DOCTOR: I've been running...faster than I've ever run, and I've been running my whole life. Now it's time for me to stop. And tonight I'm going to need you all with me.
AMY: OK, we're here, what's up?
DOCTOR: A picnic! And then a trip. Somewhere different, somewhere brand-new.
Ten sees only loss - the unbearable loss of self, fate encroaching on his life. Eleven talks of going somewhere different, somewhere brand-new. Death is an adventure. They both run, but their attitudes as they get ready to face their ending couldn't be more different.
~
TENTH DOCTOR: I don’t want to go.
ELEVENTH DOCTOR: I'm sorry.
And just to belabour the point: The clinging on versus the focus outwards. Ten dies alone, Eleven invites his friends.
Now of course Eleven invites his friends not just so he won’t die alone, but also to set things in motion. And this is where things get interesting. I am certain that whatever happens this season, the Doctor’s actions will lead him to that beach - which is where the Ganger story comes in.
The Gangers, beyond their story, are not particularly important in themselves I don’t think (this season is not a story about Gangers, it just has Gangers in it) - they’re there to illustrate how people’s choices make them what they are. Ganger!Jennifer chooses to be a monster, whereas Ganger!Miranda only wants peace, and dies a hero. (And real!Miranda is the one to start the fighting...)
Now in the context of which Doctor dies on the beach, what matters is this: The Doctor who dies, is the Doctor responsible for the choices he made, at the end of a long story. His story. Ganger!Doctor is [currently] dead, their paths diverging at the end of The Almost People. And - even if he came back, even if he could [magically] regenerate, then he has not been/is not going to be on the journey real!Doctor is now on.
To illustrate: The Doctor, when on Starship UK, wasn't even considering letting someone else kill the starwhale. He saw [what he thought was] the only possible choice, and - despite everything - was absolutely going to go through with it, despite the personal cost. (“And then I find a new name, cos I won't be the Doctor any more.”)
I’m not saying that his actions this season will be akin to those in The Beast Below, plus with Ten we have already had the story of the Doctor ‘sinning’ against the Laws of Time (and reaping death as a result - metaphorically speaking). But we know that he will ‘rise higher than ever before, and then fall so much further.’ (Whatever that means.) I think this is part of what leads to his death.
But to go back to the beginning, then death does not mean The End. Death means change. ('Somewhere different, somewhere brand-new.' Gandalf the Grey died fighting the Balrog, but returned as Gandalf the White. Eleven describes himself as Space Gandalf...) His death will be important and necessary, of that I’m sure.
I know that Moffat has talked about how the Doctor's reputation has become too big (he used to be a renegade, now he's the last bearer of the authority of his people). This could possibly play into it, I don't know, although ep 7 might give us some clues.
Because the storyline this season is huge. We have the mystery of River, Amy's child, a little girl who can regenerate, the Silence, and a good man going to war. We have mirrors, doppelgangers, water that brings death/a sea change, questions of memory and identity, plus about a million other things. And in the middle of all this, the Doctor is going to die: A fixed point for us to navigate from.
Don’t ask me how a Doylist impossibility can be a fixed point. It just is. And actually, I think this is the stumbling block. People KNOW that the Doctor can't die. Another Doctor turns up, and they say 'Oh, he can die instead, problem solved.' But they're focussing on the wrong problem.
Lesson the first: Ask the right questions.
And when it comes to the Doctor's death, 'WHY' (not 'who') is what the whole thing turns around.
~~~
Finally: The opening two-parter begins, and ends, with a death/regeneration. An old man, and a child. One dead for good, the other re-born. All together now:
It's the Circle of Life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Life
(I apologise for nothing!)
I’m going to start with a complete gold nugget by promethia_tenk (VERY meta):
AMY: You killed the Doctor, you bastard!
MOFFAT: Yeah . . . but have you considered the symbolic context?
My response to the scene on the beach was never ‘How will Moffat get out of this one?’ (because I don’t even know where to start), but:
‘How and why does the Doctor end up where he is?’
(Much like I knew that S5 had to end with Amy and Rory’s wedding, even though I didn’t have a clue how that would work. I just knew that this was the only ending that would fit.)
Now let’s talk about death for a bit. I’m going to have to bring Rusty into this, I’m afraid, but it’s important, so bear with me. Because (as is pretty obvious) death is one Rusty’s main themes (just look at the new series of Torchwood). Death is something final, the end, both peace and terror. We are human, death is the one thing we can count on. Moffat, however, approaches the concept of death from a different angle - death is not ‘the end’, but a ‘Sea Change’ (A radical, and apparently mystical, change).
From Shakespeare's The Tempest:
ARIEL [sings]:
Full fathom five thy father lies;
Of his bones are coral made;
Those are pearls that were his eyes:
Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.
If you die in the dream, you wake up in reality (except both realities were a dream. Oh Doctor, ever the Trickster)...
- Amy's Ganger died and real!Amy woke up, giving birth.
- Idris died, and the TARIS lived.
- Rory died, and became a Roman.
- The Doctor sacrificed himself, and was brought back by Amy.
- River died, and was brought back into the Library.
- Ganger!Doctor died, but will most likely be back.
We see this split in worldviews most clearly in the attitudes of Ten and Eleven to their impeding deaths (Nine, interestingly, being far closer to Eleven, so RTD was clearly making a specific point with Ten. And I'm not saying either is better. Ten's death was Ten through and through and I wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Sometimes you need to exorcise your demons by following them to the bitter end):
TENTH DOCTOR: But me? I could do so much more! So much more! But this is what I get. My reward. And it’s not fair!
ELEVENTH DOCTOR: Human beings... I thought I'd never get done saving you.
In both cases there’s wistfulness over what can no longer be, but whereas Ten is focussed inward, Eleven is focussed out.
~
TENTH DOCTOR: I can still die. If I’m killed before regeneration then I’m dead. Even then, even if I change, it feels like dying. Everything I am dies. Some new man goes sauntering away. And I’m dead.
ELEVENTH DOCTOR: I've been running...faster than I've ever run, and I've been running my whole life. Now it's time for me to stop. And tonight I'm going to need you all with me.
AMY: OK, we're here, what's up?
DOCTOR: A picnic! And then a trip. Somewhere different, somewhere brand-new.
Ten sees only loss - the unbearable loss of self, fate encroaching on his life. Eleven talks of going somewhere different, somewhere brand-new. Death is an adventure. They both run, but their attitudes as they get ready to face their ending couldn't be more different.
~
TENTH DOCTOR: I don’t want to go.
ELEVENTH DOCTOR: I'm sorry.
And just to belabour the point: The clinging on versus the focus outwards. Ten dies alone, Eleven invites his friends.
Now of course Eleven invites his friends not just so he won’t die alone, but also to set things in motion. And this is where things get interesting. I am certain that whatever happens this season, the Doctor’s actions will lead him to that beach - which is where the Ganger story comes in.
The Gangers, beyond their story, are not particularly important in themselves I don’t think (this season is not a story about Gangers, it just has Gangers in it) - they’re there to illustrate how people’s choices make them what they are. Ganger!Jennifer chooses to be a monster, whereas Ganger!Miranda only wants peace, and dies a hero. (And real!Miranda is the one to start the fighting...)
Now in the context of which Doctor dies on the beach, what matters is this: The Doctor who dies, is the Doctor responsible for the choices he made, at the end of a long story. His story. Ganger!Doctor is [currently] dead, their paths diverging at the end of The Almost People. And - even if he came back, even if he could [magically] regenerate, then he has not been/is not going to be on the journey real!Doctor is now on.
To illustrate: The Doctor, when on Starship UK, wasn't even considering letting someone else kill the starwhale. He saw [what he thought was] the only possible choice, and - despite everything - was absolutely going to go through with it, despite the personal cost. (“And then I find a new name, cos I won't be the Doctor any more.”)
I’m not saying that his actions this season will be akin to those in The Beast Below, plus with Ten we have already had the story of the Doctor ‘sinning’ against the Laws of Time (and reaping death as a result - metaphorically speaking). But we know that he will ‘rise higher than ever before, and then fall so much further.’ (Whatever that means.) I think this is part of what leads to his death.
But to go back to the beginning, then death does not mean The End. Death means change. ('Somewhere different, somewhere brand-new.' Gandalf the Grey died fighting the Balrog, but returned as Gandalf the White. Eleven describes himself as Space Gandalf...) His death will be important and necessary, of that I’m sure.
I know that Moffat has talked about how the Doctor's reputation has become too big (he used to be a renegade, now he's the last bearer of the authority of his people). This could possibly play into it, I don't know, although ep 7 might give us some clues.
Because the storyline this season is huge. We have the mystery of River, Amy's child, a little girl who can regenerate, the Silence, and a good man going to war. We have mirrors, doppelgangers, water that brings death/a sea change, questions of memory and identity, plus about a million other things. And in the middle of all this, the Doctor is going to die: A fixed point for us to navigate from.
Don’t ask me how a Doylist impossibility can be a fixed point. It just is. And actually, I think this is the stumbling block. People KNOW that the Doctor can't die. Another Doctor turns up, and they say 'Oh, he can die instead, problem solved.' But they're focussing on the wrong problem.
Lesson the first: Ask the right questions.
And when it comes to the Doctor's death, 'WHY' (not 'who') is what the whole thing turns around.
~~~
Finally: The opening two-parter begins, and ends, with a death/regeneration. An old man, and a child. One dead for good, the other re-born. All together now:
It's the Circle of Life
And it moves us all
Through despair and hope
Through faith and love
Till we find our place
On the path unwinding
In the Circle
The Circle of Life
(I apologise for nothing!)