And now, a random bit of Who-Speculation
May. 7th, 2010 11:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
And thus, I shouted at the void, after warning it of spoliers:
“Hey, based on the two regenerations in New Who I’ve seen, I wonder if the Doctor’s state of mind at the time of regeneration determines his personality for the next one.
Nine, coming off having had to absorb the Heart of the Tardis, was probably hoping he could have been a bit more clever, so as not to get painted into the impossible Dalek situation that ended up hurting Rose and doing serious damage to the timestream, and created the monster that is the immortal Jack Harkness. Thus, the cooker goes on and out pops Ten, the clever one, who always has his clever save him at the right time.
Ten then loses Rose to an alternate universe, has Martha leave him because she doesn’t want the same fate, watches River Song die, seals up Donna, and in a fit of pique against the universe, saves Adelade from her preordained death, only to have the silly woman commit suicide on him. Then his home planet tries to escape the Time War and he has to send them back to prison, taking the Master with them. It’s brilliantly clever...
...and then that stupid old man knocked on the window. So close, yet so very far away. And so he has to make that ultimate sacrifice to save the humans, so that they can live while he regenerates. One might suspect Ten of feeling anger at humans for being so stupid and getting them into situations, depression from all his cleverness still resulting in a regeneration and the stupid humans not learning anything from it, and we once again fire up the pressure cooker, and out pops Eleven.
Eleven still has the clever, but it’s sort of on mute for the most part, and he’s prone to RAGE! against the stupid humans, despite having an even fiercer desire to protect them because the first person he met when he climbed out of the TARDIS was clever and likable. Even when she tries to come on to him. And River, still alive at this point, reminding him of all the things he’s already lost. So far, it seems like Eleven’s dominant mode reflects a Doctor questioning whether his clever will fail him at some important point along the way, but without the ability to take a day off or retire while he’s still on top. There might be a little resentment at having to save the day so many times, the kind that expresses itself in telling Amelia Pond to never withhold information from him or try to make decisions for him.
Sound like a crackpot theory? Any comments?”
“Hey, based on the two regenerations in New Who I’ve seen, I wonder if the Doctor’s state of mind at the time of regeneration determines his personality for the next one.
Nine, coming off having had to absorb the Heart of the Tardis, was probably hoping he could have been a bit more clever, so as not to get painted into the impossible Dalek situation that ended up hurting Rose and doing serious damage to the timestream, and created the monster that is the immortal Jack Harkness. Thus, the cooker goes on and out pops Ten, the clever one, who always has his clever save him at the right time.
Ten then loses Rose to an alternate universe, has Martha leave him because she doesn’t want the same fate, watches River Song die, seals up Donna, and in a fit of pique against the universe, saves Adelade from her preordained death, only to have the silly woman commit suicide on him. Then his home planet tries to escape the Time War and he has to send them back to prison, taking the Master with them. It’s brilliantly clever...
...and then that stupid old man knocked on the window. So close, yet so very far away. And so he has to make that ultimate sacrifice to save the humans, so that they can live while he regenerates. One might suspect Ten of feeling anger at humans for being so stupid and getting them into situations, depression from all his cleverness still resulting in a regeneration and the stupid humans not learning anything from it, and we once again fire up the pressure cooker, and out pops Eleven.
Eleven still has the clever, but it’s sort of on mute for the most part, and he’s prone to RAGE! against the stupid humans, despite having an even fiercer desire to protect them because the first person he met when he climbed out of the TARDIS was clever and likable. Even when she tries to come on to him. And River, still alive at this point, reminding him of all the things he’s already lost. So far, it seems like Eleven’s dominant mode reflects a Doctor questioning whether his clever will fail him at some important point along the way, but without the ability to take a day off or retire while he’s still on top. There might be a little resentment at having to save the day so many times, the kind that expresses itself in telling Amelia Pond to never withhold information from him or try to make decisions for him.
Sound like a crackpot theory? Any comments?”