Doctor Who: 10 v. 1
If you're not a Who fan, go on to the next post.
Ten first; just saw "Planet of the Ood." Interesting, but the ending (which I will not divulge) was very, very creepy indeed. I also have a separate thought about the episode as a whole, but it might be too close to the edge of spoiler to say here, for now.
Now for One, the original, Bill Hartnell's Doctor. Over the past week I've worked my way through the first thirteen episodes of the show, plus an abridged audio-only of "Marco Polo," the video for which is presumed lost forever.
The original Doctor is a very, very unlikeable fellow. He's arrogant. He's condescending. He's stubborn. He has no interest in the welfare of others (except for his granddaughter). His opinion of humans ranges from outright contempt to, at best, useful for amusement purposes only. He is very inflexible in his thought patterns- inflexible and, moreover, unimaginative. He only possesses, especially in these first episodes, three positive qualities: unreserved affection for his granddaughter; the intelligence of a vastly superior technology; and a first instinct for curiosity rather than self-preservation. (Though self-preservation is a very, very strong second.)
Which- if you'll stop to think about it- makes him pretty much a Time Lord, Standard Issue.
The period of time that the Doctor and Susan have been on the run is deliberately left vague, but it can't have been terribly long, at least by Time Lord standards. The only significant difference between the Doctor and the general run of Gallifreyans we see over the years to come is the insatiable curiosity that caused him to steal the TARDIS in the first place. What's more, aside from occasional stops to hob-nob with figures of Earth history (and, presumably, other worlds), he's spent his time away from Gallifrey almost exclusively with Susan, also a product of that civilization. The Doctor had no humanizing influences to speak of until the first episode, when he essentially shanghaied two British schoolteachers.
These humans, and the many, many human companions who followed, each had their effect on the Doctor's personality. (As did the show's writers, but let's not go there.) As the Doctor was essentially forced into prolonged contact with human beings, he began thinking and feeling in new ways, learning respect, imagination, intuition, and courage. Over time, and through subsequent regenerations, the Doctor became reliant, even dependent, on the human perspective... even when that perspective consisted mostly of shrieks, incomprehension, and troublemaking.
The process of humanizing the Doctor, of course, did not always run smooth- Six and Seven both ran strongly against the process (thank you SO much, John Nathan-Turner you jackass). The brief glimpse we get of Eight (not counting novels or radio, which we in the States mostly don't have) shows movement back in the other direction- indeed, Seven had shown signs of improvement before that. Nine, though, had not only undergone possibly the most traumatic experience imaginable, but he'd spent a prolonged time with no company at all, human or otherwise. When we first see him, he's gone a good long way towards insanity- manic-depression, nervous energy, displacement. Rose, for him, represented desperately needed healing.
And so we come back to Ten. He's not human, quite, but he's very similar; he's essentially a human who has seen far, far too much and had to make far, far too many life-and-death decisions. He has mixed views of humanity, but they tend more towards admiration than contempt. Where One had little or no empathy, Ten has empathy checked only by his severe moral code. He's still high-handed and arrogant on occasion, but unlike One he owns up to his own mistakes when they bite him.
And there is one final difference: responsibility. One felt little or no responsibility- Susan was nearly the total extent of it. Ten feels it to excess; not only does he still feel the horrible responsibility of the Time War, but he has the lesser feeling that, since he has the power to intervene against evil, he must use it. This difference is the main reason why One's adventures focused on survival alone, whereas Ten tends to control his own destiny.
And that difference is, very much, a human difference.
One is a Time Lord when we first see him, in An Unearthly Child; it's what happens after that makes him the Doctor.
Ten first; just saw "Planet of the Ood." Interesting, but the ending (which I will not divulge) was very, very creepy indeed. I also have a separate thought about the episode as a whole, but it might be too close to the edge of spoiler to say here, for now.
Now for One, the original, Bill Hartnell's Doctor. Over the past week I've worked my way through the first thirteen episodes of the show, plus an abridged audio-only of "Marco Polo," the video for which is presumed lost forever.
The original Doctor is a very, very unlikeable fellow. He's arrogant. He's condescending. He's stubborn. He has no interest in the welfare of others (except for his granddaughter). His opinion of humans ranges from outright contempt to, at best, useful for amusement purposes only. He is very inflexible in his thought patterns- inflexible and, moreover, unimaginative. He only possesses, especially in these first episodes, three positive qualities: unreserved affection for his granddaughter; the intelligence of a vastly superior technology; and a first instinct for curiosity rather than self-preservation. (Though self-preservation is a very, very strong second.)
Which- if you'll stop to think about it- makes him pretty much a Time Lord, Standard Issue.
The period of time that the Doctor and Susan have been on the run is deliberately left vague, but it can't have been terribly long, at least by Time Lord standards. The only significant difference between the Doctor and the general run of Gallifreyans we see over the years to come is the insatiable curiosity that caused him to steal the TARDIS in the first place. What's more, aside from occasional stops to hob-nob with figures of Earth history (and, presumably, other worlds), he's spent his time away from Gallifrey almost exclusively with Susan, also a product of that civilization. The Doctor had no humanizing influences to speak of until the first episode, when he essentially shanghaied two British schoolteachers.
These humans, and the many, many human companions who followed, each had their effect on the Doctor's personality. (As did the show's writers, but let's not go there.) As the Doctor was essentially forced into prolonged contact with human beings, he began thinking and feeling in new ways, learning respect, imagination, intuition, and courage. Over time, and through subsequent regenerations, the Doctor became reliant, even dependent, on the human perspective... even when that perspective consisted mostly of shrieks, incomprehension, and troublemaking.
The process of humanizing the Doctor, of course, did not always run smooth- Six and Seven both ran strongly against the process (thank you SO much, John Nathan-Turner you jackass). The brief glimpse we get of Eight (not counting novels or radio, which we in the States mostly don't have) shows movement back in the other direction- indeed, Seven had shown signs of improvement before that. Nine, though, had not only undergone possibly the most traumatic experience imaginable, but he'd spent a prolonged time with no company at all, human or otherwise. When we first see him, he's gone a good long way towards insanity- manic-depression, nervous energy, displacement. Rose, for him, represented desperately needed healing.
And so we come back to Ten. He's not human, quite, but he's very similar; he's essentially a human who has seen far, far too much and had to make far, far too many life-and-death decisions. He has mixed views of humanity, but they tend more towards admiration than contempt. Where One had little or no empathy, Ten has empathy checked only by his severe moral code. He's still high-handed and arrogant on occasion, but unlike One he owns up to his own mistakes when they bite him.
And there is one final difference: responsibility. One felt little or no responsibility- Susan was nearly the total extent of it. Ten feels it to excess; not only does he still feel the horrible responsibility of the Time War, but he has the lesser feeling that, since he has the power to intervene against evil, he must use it. This difference is the main reason why One's adventures focused on survival alone, whereas Ten tends to control his own destiny.
And that difference is, very much, a human difference.
One is a Time Lord when we first see him, in An Unearthly Child; it's what happens after that makes him the Doctor.