Now
that we’ve had our first full season of Twelve (even though the show sometimes
seemed to do its best to be stingy with him,) I thought I’d take some time to
explore our new Doctor. As with most
Doctors, you can catch glimpses of others within him, but in the end, the
pieces and composites that come together make up something that’s only
him.
Since
much has been made of Twelve’s less-than-cuddly personality, we’ll start
there. Some of his detachment is
reminiscent of early One, but it manifests itself differently. With One, it’s largely about remnants of Time
Lord imperiousness; he considers himself above humans, and it’s only by getting
to know people like Ian and Barbara that he starts to realize how wonderful
they can be. Not that Twelve never acts
superior (pudding brains, anyone?); however, his coldness is often more utilitarian. As he tries to make Clara see throughout the
season, he can’t let himself regret lives endangered or lost because he’s so
often the only one standing in the way of much greater loss, and he can’t
afford to get distracted.
I see
how his bluntness could be considered Six-like.
Most of the time, he’s just brusque, unfiltered, and can’t-be-bothered,
but sometimes his rudeness grates on me – as I’ve harped on before, his insults
about Clara’s looks and ratcheted-up hatred for soldiers are downright
distasteful (along with his irritating insistence that Danny must teach PE
rather than math.) I’m sure it’s no
accident that the times he reminds me the most of Six are the times I like him
least.
As for
his manipulative tendencies – the moments when he’s holding a lot more cards
than he lets on to Clara and leaves her in the lurch without filling her in on
the plan – I’m reminded of Seven. Seven
doesn’t have the market cornered on manipulative Doctors, of course (though the
ADHD puppy routine distracts you from it, Eleven actually plays a lot of mind games,) but he’s the one
that most comes to mind. With Twelve, I’m
not entirely sure why he does stuff like this.
In a way, it seems like he’s testing Clara – not her aptitude, but her
faith in him. If he appears to have
abandoned her, will she believe the worst, or will she be like Leela in “The
Invasion of Time” and trust it’s part of the plan? The whole season focuses so much on the
fractured relationship between Twelve and Clara that I could buy him trying to
suss out what she thinks of him now. If
that’s the case, though, it’s an unfortunate cycle where she resents being kept
out of the loop and views his machinations as proof that he’s a shiftier Doctor
than his predecessor.
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