some things about the doctor

[iamsab]

I can't sleep, and that usually leads to fantasizing, in this particular case, about Tennant/John Smith's arm, in his white shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and the suspenders. I can get lost in the most absurd things about this man. Yesterday I spent forty five minutes on about four frames from "Utopia", just watching over and over again --

Comments

Oh I agree

[theloa]

He's a wonderfully complex character

[rollerboogie]

This is a real pretty summary of a lot of things that make the Doctor so painful to watch, often. I like it very much.

[iamsab]

SO painful. There were portions of "Family of Blood" I actually can't watch because of all that VULNERABILITY and RAGE.

I mean: what does the Doctor do when he's vulnerable with loneliness? When, on top of that, he's confronted by something he doesn't understand? He fills with RAGE and VITRIOL and destroys people.

What happened when John Smith was vulnerable with loneliness? When he was confronted by something he didn't understand? He armed the whole SCHOOL. Rage, vulnerability, loneliness. In every incarnation.

[rollerboogie]

You know, this is interesting in context of how he treats Harriet Jones at the end of "The Christmas Invasion." We get the rage + vitriol, but it seems to be less about barking at something he doesn't understand and more at punishing his own behavior (ostensibly destroying the Time Lords and the Daleks) as seen in another person. Or does he just not understand her ideas of defense, or her ideas of not at least trying to do battle with them at first? What about Harriet Jones makes the Doctor the angriest? And if so, why?

My friend demonbaby19 wrote recently (in a locked entry, apologies) that after watching "Utopia" it struck her as interesting that the Master was self-sacrificing and brilliant as a human despite the fact that a Time Lord he's totes evil. She wondered what we're supposed to believe/know about the human form of the Time Lord -- do they have an essential self, and if so, is that maybe the part of their personality that tends to reign? Like we know the Doctor is brilliant, but also fearful and with a tendency towards violence.

[iamsab]

That scene with Harriet Jones is one of my favorites of all time. But it's also got to be viewed as pre-Rose leaving, which was a time where the Doctor worked hard at pretending everything was going to work out just fine, and that he'd be able to take care of everyone and everything he loved.

So for humanity, these people he DEFENDS, to take their first contact opportunity and turn it into a war offends the Doctor for exactly that reason -- he HAS to trust and love in humanity, because humanity validates his very existence.

[graycastle]

mmmm, indeed! very well put.

I was watching Terror of the Autons the other day, with John Pertwee, first appearance of the Master and Jo Grant, and when the Doctor objects to having Jo as his assistant, saying he wants a scientist like Liz was, the Brigadier replies, "Nonsense, it's like Liz always said - you don't want an assistant, you want someone to pass your test tubes and tell you how brilliant you are." The thing I love about Martha is that this is the role the Doctor wants her to perform - test tube passing and brilliance-noticing - but it's a role that she constantly refuses and exceeds

[iamsab]

This is great:

Also, I think the Doctor's aversion to Jack is interesting, not just because he can't manipulate him (which is a great observation, btw) but also because he denies the idea that the Doctor need to be alone: here, finally, is a companion who isn't like Rose, or Sarah Jane, or any of the others (excluding Romana) - here's a companion who won't grow old and die, who can take away his loneliness, and despite the fact that the Doctor abhors his loneliness, Jack is suddenly the thing the Doctor's afraid of.

That is spot on, also because Jack poses an alpha-male competitor to the Doctor...another strapping young time traveller who will outlive us all.

AND - I feel like Jack's suggestion that the Doctor's "prejudiced" is totally true -- both for the Doctor having preconceived notions about getting close to a man -- and feeling vulnerable because of that -- and also because it left-handedly points out the Doctor's abject fear of anything he doesn't understand, which are few and are generally relegated to evil in his mind.

[iamsab]

No dude, lemme just say, that whole scene. I mean. Starting with the Doctor saying, "when I ran away from you." :: palpitates ::

Commitment issues, fear of happiness, self-loathing...all it takes to keep one cheeky bastard of a Doctor from snogging the hell out of one cheeky bastard of a Captain. Oy.

[samdonne]

Oh you're good.

Also:

"But all the same, a booster reversal circuit must be, in any time frame, a circuit which reverses the boost."

Can you tell me what's in Tennant's delivery that makes this silly bit of technospeak so hot I must keep rewinding it?

[iamsab]

Us, in the same fandom, having the same opinions about the same character?! The universe must be gearing up to implode.

Yes, he will break you like a china doll, that man.

And the booster circuit bit is that extra bit of confidence he gets when he knows he's about to impress someone and he's gearing up for his applause. Followed, often, but the very literal "I'm brilliant!" in case slower audience members were having trouble keeping up with the text.

Also his pseudo-London accent on top of a classically trained Shakespearean Scottish brogue: the same thing that gets me tromping around the house muttering "Doke-tarr Huuu!" which is, of course, Docktah Who in Scottish.

Be mesmerised by my icon a little. That's screw-drive-uh! + jaw pop

[samdonne]

Us, in the same fandom, having the same opinions about the same character?!

The end of time and space as we know it, beautiful. I pimped myself the whole show in less than a week, all because I caught twenty-five minutes of Blink in my hotel room the other day. Must be some kind of personal record.

"Doke-tarr Huuu!" which is, of course, Docktah Who in Scottish.

Are you speaking Scottish now? /end Catherine Tate

I'm more than a little bit mesmerized.