"Better a fallen rocket than never a burst of light."
~ Tom Stoppard, The Invention of Love

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Three Days to Christmas

And here’s part two of my case for PC as the Doctor.  We’ve talked Danny, the British Ambassador, Islington, and Rory.  Now, I submit the following:
 
 
Mark Collins, Psychos
 
Ah, everyone’s favorite bipolar mathematician.  The Doctor’s I’m-clever-and-I-know-it-ness is a big part of who he is.  With Mark, PC shows he can deliver intelligent, cascading monologues with speed and precision.  Adding in some technobabble shouldn’t be a problem.  Plus, Mark’s manic state has him pin-balling from topic to topic; sound familiar?  It’s easily reminiscent of the way the Doctor’s mind races four steps ahead of everyone else in twelve directions at once.
  
 
Malcolm Tucker, The Thick of It
 
Amusing, sweary youtube mash-ups aside, there are similarities between the Time Lord and the foul-mouthed spin doctor.  For starters, the Doctor has boundless energy.  Like with Mark above, this is no problem for Malcolm.  Whether he’s threatening the life of a junior advisor or running frantically across Whitehall, the man has energy in spades.  If you think PC is too old for the physical demands of Who, think again.
 
And of course, there’s the anger.  While the Doctor gets up to plenty of lighthearted antics, he’s also a powerful man who combats a lot of evil.  Anger is a well that different Doctors draw from to different degrees (Six, anyone?,) but all employ it from time to time.  Malcolm is best known from his shouty anger (think Seven taking on Davros in “Remembrance of the Daleks,”) but there are also times when he goes scary-quiet (Ten destroying the Rachnoss in “The Runaway Bride,”) or when he gets in someone’s face and the gangly man suddenly becomes intimidating (Eleven confronting Ambrose in “The Hungry Earth” about his stance on weapons.)
 
And come on – if Malcolm’s business cards don’t refer to him as “The Oncoming F***ing Storm,” they really should.
 
 
Dr. Pete, The Field of Blood
 
True – a depressed alcoholic isn’t the first thing that springs to mind when I think of the Doctor.  There’s a sadness to the Doctor, but it isn’t the ragged type of sadness that clings to Dr. Pete.  The Doctor’s sadness presents itself in different ways (Nine was a raw nerve, Ten was all about the emo, and a lot of Eleven’s ADD-ness masks his pain,) but he never seems defeated by it.
 
No, it’s not the sadness I’m interested in here; it’s the weariness.  The Doctor has lived long and seen a great deal, and sometimes that weighs on him, cutting through his usual mad exuberance.  Dr. Pete has that same sort of quiet weariness.  Now, he basically lives in the state while the Doctor only shows flashes of it, but it’s still an important part of the character.  It’s the accumulation of his experiences, travels, and losses, and PC’s performance as Dr. Pete proves he can deliver there.
 
 
Randall Brown, The Hour
 
Randall is just one of many highly-intelligent characters PC has played.  I’ve already mentioned wise Islington, clever Rory, smart-as-a-whip Mark, and shrewd Malcolm.  But Randall’s special talent is his perceptive nature.  He sees into people, understanding their pain and motivations.  More importantly, he sees himself reflected in them, and he proves capable of great empathy.
 
This is crucial for the Doctor, especially in his relationships with his companions.  I think of how Two connects with Victoria in “The Tomb of the Cybermen” over losing her father, or Eleven’s intuition that Amy is drifting from him in “The Power of Three.”  Though Randall can seem stiff, there’s such warmth in him, and I think the Doctor’s warmth is another of his best traits.
 
There’s also Randall’s tendency toward recklessness.  He frequently breaks the rules, either because he believes it’s the right thing to do or because his curiosity is driving him to see what will happen.  To crib from C.S. Lewis, the Doctor is good but unsafe, and the show frequently sees him diving headlong into dangerous situations.  The overlap with Randall is strong here – sometimes the Doctor dives because he believes in its rightness (like Five searching for Peri’s antidote in “The Caves of Androzani,”) and sometimes he dives because he simply has to see what he’ll find if he does (like Ten lowering himself into the abyss in “The Satan Pit.”)
 
 
Peter Capaldi
 
Finally, PC himself is proof of his ability to bring the Doctor to life.  The picture above is from a letter he wrote to Doctor Who Magazine after he was announced as Twelve.  PC is a Whovian from the early days who has a genuine love for the show and wants to do it, and us, justice.
 
Furthermore, he just gets it.  I’ve grown wary of Moffat playing with classic series continuity, because his penchant for leaving his mark often feels like he’s writing “STEVEN’S – DON’T TOUCH” on the show in a big black crayon.  But PC seems to understand that Who belongs to everyone who loves it.  It’s his Who, Moffat’s Who, the cast/crew’s Who (past, present, and future,) and it’s our Who as well.  I have every confidence that, for his time with the series, he’ll be its steward and look after it for us.

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