Doctor Who is built upon a framework that not only supports change but also thrives on it. This is a show divided by eras and Doctors and show-runners and yet unified by the show's ever loving and ever criticizing fans. This year we were introduced to the twelfth Doctor and with a new Doctor came a whole new tone and texture to the show. We were greeted by a dark, haughty and fierce Doctor as opposed to the playful and vibrant Doctor of Matt Smith. The thing with such a change and its relationship with Doctor Who is that it allows the show to constantly explore the horizons and helps the writers engineer something new out of it. I personally feel that Series 8 was step towards making the show a bit more adult which explains the emphasis on the Doctor-Companion relationship dynamic and also the dark and heavy story arc. This change of tone also allowed for exploration of more realistic and human elements that we experience on a daily basis and how it actively affects the Doctor and the people who surround him. Join me as I try to examine some of the prominent realistic elements that were covered in Series 8.
Regrets and Consequences:
Throughout Series 8 we see this fractious old alien who calls himself the Doctor. He is rude, fiery, unpredictable and sometimes even childish. He thinks that ordinary people have pudding for a brain and that people aren't special. What happened to the man who thought that everybody was important, that every life was special? Why does it seem that he no longer cares? In Deep Breath the Doctor confesses that he has made many mistakes in his two thousand year long life and that it was time he did something about them. I think this confession pretty much sums up the drastic change we see in Twelve with respect to Eleven. Of course the Doctor was going to be dark in this Series but the question that needed to be answered was why? Why would he suddenly go from goofy to grumpy?
Throughout Series 8 we see this fractious old alien who calls himself the Doctor. He is rude, fiery, unpredictable and sometimes even childish. He thinks that ordinary people have pudding for a brain and that people aren't special. What happened to the man who thought that everybody was important, that every life was special? Why does it seem that he no longer cares? In Deep Breath the Doctor confesses that he has made many mistakes in his two thousand year long life and that it was time he did something about them. I think this confession pretty much sums up the drastic change we see in Twelve with respect to Eleven. Of course the Doctor was going to be dark in this Series but the question that needed to be answered was why? Why would he suddenly go from goofy to grumpy?
Regeneration is a lottery (at least for the Doctor) but I think his past experiences also have some part to play in shaping who he becomes. Just prior to his regeneration he was single-handedly fighting a war with all of his deadliest enemies just so that he could stop a bigger war, but war has its consequences especially when the war goes on for as long as seven hundred years. Throughout the war he suffered loss and endured loneliness. Regret of all the lives he couldn't save sparked a change in him at a subconscious level and all the loneliness caused his newer incarnation to become more harsh and alien than ever. No more nonsense, no more wasting time. This time he was going to be all business and it turns out the business required professional detachment.
One thing that I think is clearly evident from the Series 8 finale is that he still cares, he still feels but he tries to look at the bigger picture now and doesn’t allow himself to be bogged down by the overpowering circumstances. Of course such a monumental change in identity can be really overbearing and can cause serious self-doubt and this is what I think the whole Am-I-good-man arc was all about, to recover his true nature from the ruins of his past selves.
Addiction:
What happens when you become addicted to something? What happens to the people who are dear to you? And most of all what becomes of you? These are some questions this Series tried to raise which I think was very brave. With people all over the world having all sorts of addictions I think it’s safe to say that there is no one perfect answer to these questions, they are all very subjective and are dependent on one’s own experiences with addiction. It can be disastrous to some and at the same time it can be rapturous (say you become addicted to your passion like music or writing) to others and depends on what you are addicted to.
In this Series we find out that traveling with the Doctor and having adventures with him has become a sort of addiction for Clara. No matter how much she tries to push him away she can’t stop herself from coming back for more. We see her struggle to live two lives at the same time and failing miserably. A departure from her perfect-girl persona, this time we get a more detailed and flawed version of the impossible girl which I think works considerably better than the former and gives a more realistic feel to her character and at the same time gives way to fresh albeit heavy storytelling. Amy and Rory managed their dual live pretty well and Martha understood the consequences of such a dual life and opted to leave which says quite a lot really because it shows that different people when subjected to the same (well not exactly same) thing behave differently.
What happens when you become addicted to something? What happens to the people who are dear to you? And most of all what becomes of you? These are some questions this Series tried to raise which I think was very brave. With people all over the world having all sorts of addictions I think it’s safe to say that there is no one perfect answer to these questions, they are all very subjective and are dependent on one’s own experiences with addiction. It can be disastrous to some and at the same time it can be rapturous (say you become addicted to your passion like music or writing) to others and depends on what you are addicted to.
In this Series we find out that traveling with the Doctor and having adventures with him has become a sort of addiction for Clara. No matter how much she tries to push him away she can’t stop herself from coming back for more. We see her struggle to live two lives at the same time and failing miserably. A departure from her perfect-girl persona, this time we get a more detailed and flawed version of the impossible girl which I think works considerably better than the former and gives a more realistic feel to her character and at the same time gives way to fresh albeit heavy storytelling. Amy and Rory managed their dual live pretty well and Martha understood the consequences of such a dual life and opted to leave which says quite a lot really because it shows that different people when subjected to the same (well not exactly same) thing behave differently.
This addiction also entails the strange fascination Clara has for the Doctor so much so that it was used to comedic effect in Flatline where Clara tries to act like him and dare I say, even becomes the Doctor(Anybody hear the Clara Who fans cheering?). I think at this point it’s quite safe to say that the Doctor himself is addicted to his lifestyle. No bounds, no limits just a pure sense of thrill and adventure, that’s entirely what he requires out of his life. It works well for him because he doesn’t need to hide it from anybody while for Clara it causes a whole lot of trouble but more on that further.
Trust, Betrayal and Forgiveness:
And here we are finally, the elements that I think define this year’s multi-layered narrative. At first sight they don’t appear to be so prominent but I have to say the more I think about it, the more apparent they become. So let’s start it shall we.
Clara trusts the Doctor to always have her back, Danny trusts Clara to not lie to him and be more open with him and the Doctor trusts Clara enough to regenerate in her presence, leave the fate of the Moon in her hands and even tell her how to destroy a TARDIS key. Trust is the necessary yet fragile thing on which all relationships are built. We all have someone or some people whom we trust. It can be instinctive like we trust our families or it can be earned by working on a relationship which generally takes time. However the thing is, just because you trust someone doesn’t mean that they can’t break it which brings me to the next element which is betrayal.
And here we are finally, the elements that I think define this year’s multi-layered narrative. At first sight they don’t appear to be so prominent but I have to say the more I think about it, the more apparent they become. So let’s start it shall we.
Clara trusts the Doctor to always have her back, Danny trusts Clara to not lie to him and be more open with him and the Doctor trusts Clara enough to regenerate in her presence, leave the fate of the Moon in her hands and even tell her how to destroy a TARDIS key. Trust is the necessary yet fragile thing on which all relationships are built. We all have someone or some people whom we trust. It can be instinctive like we trust our families or it can be earned by working on a relationship which generally takes time. However the thing is, just because you trust someone doesn’t mean that they can’t break it which brings me to the next element which is betrayal.
We start the Series with Clara feeling a bit betrayed because the Doctor changed his face. To her it felt like someone replaced her best friend with a grey haired stick insect and she didn’t like it one bit. It took a lot of convincing for her to finally realize that the Doctor was still the Doctor and in Mummy on the Orient Express do we finally see her accepting him for who he is. Then throughout the Series we see Clara lying to Danny, not telling him about her life with the Doctor which I think is a sort of betrayal of the Danny’s trust. Her addiction and her inability to make him understand her weird and complex relationship with the Doctor contributes to this betrayal. I think it is fascinating that even though Clara says she loves Danny in The Caretaker all her future actions say the opposite and work to only jeopardize their relationship. And finally we have the most heartfelt betrayal ever to come out of Doctor Who, where Clara threatens the Doctor to bring Danny back to life in Dark Water. Believe me as I much I loves Clara and can understand why she did it, I absolutely despised her in that moment and I think that’s what Steven Moffat was going for. People do bad things, even to those closest to them and that doesn’t make them a bad person necessarily, sometimes the circumstances are so overwhelming that the line between right and wrong becomes too hazy. Sometimes all the choices are bad ones and you still have to choose.
But what happens when you’ve experienced betrayal? Do you forgive? Do you fight? Or do you simply move on? The answer is of course that it depends on who betrayed you? And how you were betrayed? In Kill the Moon we see Clara lash out at the Doctor because she felt betrayed that her best friend left her in the moment of need but ultimately forgives him when she starts to understands him better. Throughout the Series we see Danny constantly putting up with Clara’s lies because he loves her. We also see the Doctor forgiving Clara for the great betrayal (yeah that’s what I am calling it) in Dark Water because he truly cares for her. So is forgiveness always the right answer? I am going to say no. Like I said it depends on how you were betrayed and the greatest example of this is the boy Danny killed during his time as a soldier. Forgiveness is not always given and is sometimes required from somebody else. When Danny killed that boy (accidentally) he in a way betrayed himself by breaking the promise of a soldier and has ever since yearned for forgiveness for his actions, so when he gets a chance to save the boy he chooses to do so instead of saving himself, in hope of redemption and forgiveness which I think is beautiful because it shows the best that humanity has to offer.
We all make mistakes, some very big ones while we’re at it and it is only after we have made them that we realize that we could have done better. Sometimes forgiveness is the only course of action, be it for somebody else or ourselves because without it we feel stuck in that one moment we regret the most, so better forgive if possible and move forward I say.
Of course these things are always open to interpretations. I personally think that Series 8 has done a fantastic job of making the characters feel more real and of this world than any other past series and such a change is always welcome because it helps the viewer relate to the characters in a better way and also necessary when the series arc is as heavily character driven as Series 8. Thank you for reading.