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The Doctor and Them Part II

The Doctor and Them Part II

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In the final part of ‘The Doctor and Them’, the other half of the Who relationship, Ryan, talks about his first experiences with he doctor and how the show and the legend have impacted on his life!

If you missed the first half of the article, where Naomi discusses how the Doctor brought them together you can find it just by clicking here.

The Doctor and Him

It was a little while after Christmas when I was twelve, I think. Still full of all that delight that comes with that time of the year when I sat down to watch TV. BBC One came on, and the first thing I saw was a blue phone box falling through the air, crashing against buildings and then hitting the ground. A man in a leather jacket stumbled out of it, said “Merry Christmas!” to someone named Jackie, and then fainted. This, and the rather cool title sequence that followed it, was enough to get me interested in this show, Doctor Who. I’d heard some things about it but I’d never watched it myself, so I figured, “why not?”

Years later, I’ve watched every episode of the revived series at least three times, I’ve seen as much of the classic series as I can get my hands on. I’ve watched through eleven brilliant faces of the universe’s most brilliant hero, and the countless people who get drawn into his adventures. I’ve seen alien empires, planets destroyed, cataclysmic wars. I’ve laughed, I’ve been frightened, I’ve cried, I’ve been inspired. It’s led to so many brilliant experiences, led to meeting so many brilliant people. It’s not an exaggeration to say that it’s had the most effect on my life out of anything I’ve ever been a fan of.
 And above all, I’ve believed in him. I’ve believed in the Doctor, just like every other fan who ever falls in love with the show does. And that’s quite a fandom.

 I suppose by its very nature the Doctor Who fandom is one of the most divided ones you can find around. The Whoniverse is one of the largest universes in all of sci-fi, practically prevalent in pop culture, from that wonderful iconic blue police box that is the TARDIS to the distinct form of the dreaded Daleks.A dedicated Doctor Who fan (and, to be honest, there are very few who aren’t very dedicated) will know a lot about that universe. There are eleven different faces of the main character, there are countless companions and supporting characters to be fans of, there are truly immense numbers of enemies and aliens, almost 50 years of backstory, almost 800 episodes, different showrunners, different writers, different composers, two spin-off series, and indeed, two very different main series.

There is a lot to take in, and there is a large part of the fandom who will nitpick and decry certain aspects of the show practically at random. The kind of people who will say “X is the worst Doctor ever!” or “Writer X has no talent!” or “Showrunner X is ruining the show forever!!!” (For the record to answer those questions, subbing in the most common X values, Matt Smith is far from the worst Doctor ever, Russell T. Davies is extremely good at writing if a little less polished on his endings from time to time, and Steven Moffat is an absolute genius).

 But we’re not here to talk about those people, because there’s no reason to. Every fandom has its dark side, and quite frankly, the (unfortunately large) contingent of people who dislike parts of the canon for no adequate reason aren’t even worth talking about.

Seeing as my part of this article is the male perspective and the companions will be covered in the other side, I think I’ll have to look at the man himself.

The Doctor, as a character, is arguably one of if not the most complex, fleshed out, masterfully-crafted character in all of fiction. A bold claim, but he’s had literally generations of writers working together to help him along the way.  For nearly 50 years in real life and more than 1100 years in the universe, this wonderful, bizarre, incomprehensible, amazing being has been swanning around the galaxy seeing sights and battling evil, saving lives and generally being brilliant. Fans of the show have watched him grow over the time we’ve spent with him, and we’ve seen drastic changes. From old, cranky gentleman to impossibly-mad bowtie-wearing youth, from minor annoyance and troublemaker to universally-feared legendary force of nature from beyond the stars, from unwilling puppet of the Time Lords to the last surviving member of their race, the Doctor has changed dramatically since we first met him in that junkyard all those years ago.

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The First Doctor, grumpy and irascible but kind-hearted all the same. The Second, a clownish old man. The Third, a dandy old charming gentleman. The Fourth, an enigmatic and extremely eccentric oddball. The Fifth, a quiet and more youthful brave heart. The Sixth, self-assured and as good hearted as ever, if somewhat more egotistical. The Seventh, a cunningly disguised old chessmaster. The Eighth, a dashing and more romantic chap. The Ninth, a cheery and earnest if slightly more subdued man. The Tenth, a conflicted and dark mind behind a happy face. The Eleventh, a young-looking old mad man with a box.

No matter how much he may have changed externally and superficially, the Doctor is still the Doctor (something that seems to not quite ring true with that very specific “X is the best everyone else is horrible” section of the fanbase, unfortunately). It’s reassuring, really, to see it. Watching William Hartnell first encounter the Cybermen, watching Jon Pertwee break out some Venusian aikido on his enemies, Peter Davison staggering, poisoned, across the planet Androzani to save his companion, Sylvester McCoy talking a Dalek literally to death, David Tennant sprinting through the biggest library in the universe in a desperate rush to save the day again, or Matt Smith flying into the heart of a universe-destroying explosion to save all of reality, no matter how different the adventure, it’s still that man at the heart of it all, still fighting as strongly to save humanity as he did when he first began. He may look different, but he’s still the same at his hearts.
I guess that’s one of the highest appeals of the show. It’s something that’s a genuinely interesting fact. You watch this show, you don’t feel that the Doctor is a mere character on-screen. 

You start to believe in him, you start to feel for everything he does. When the Doctor is being awesome (quite a lot, as it happens), you’re grinning to yourself just because it feels like someone you know is doing all of these awesome things. You feel his pain, you sympathise for him, even on the many occasions where he does wrong. Essentially, you discuss the Doctor as if he were a completely real person, and that is the mark of a great character. His adventures are our adventures, his victories are our victories, his trials are our trials. It’s practically impossible to watch an episode and not become completely engrossed in every little thing that’s going on. I treat the Doctor with practically religious reverence. If I could be more like him, embody what he stands for more, that for me would practically be mission complete, as it were.

All that said, it’s undoubtedly true that the show’s cast of supporting characters and villains are amazing in their own right and the show wouldn’t be anything without them.

So much of the entertainment in the show comes from seeing the way that the Doctor and his companions interact. The way that these mostly-ordinary people react to this bizarre man swooping out of the sky and whisking them off to see a universe they could never even have dreamed about has always been one of the key points of the show.

The companions of the Doctor are our way of relating to him, our connection point to this insane man and the insane universe he lives in. It’s the ever-present wish in a Whovian’s head. We could be the person that the Doctor whooshes down and collects, we could be the next people to travel in the TARDIS. It makes the impossible possible, seeing ordinary humans travelling around in that vast universe. I’ve seen so many variations on it in fan images and the like. “Drop everything and run to the TARDIS,” that sort of thing. And it’s true. There’s not a Doctor Who fan alive who wouldn’t give up absolutely everything they had without a second thought to run at that vworp vworp vworp sound that means the TARDIS has come calling, no matter the danger, no matter the peril, no matter the trouble. 

After all, as a certain man once said, “Trouble’s just the bits in-between! It’s all waiting out there!”


[words by Ryan O’Connor]

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