BOOK OF LISTS:
10 MOST PIVOTAL MOMENTS IN
THE DOCTOR'S LIFE(VES)
One of the many treats we received
during the fiftieth anniversary season of Doctor Who was that intensely
memorable opening sequence in The Name of the Doctor. You know what I'm talking about: a brief
peak back to "Gallifrey - a long time ago" where we watched that
fateful moment where the First Doctor escaped with Susan in a rackety old
TARDIS and started his adventures in Time And Space. I think we can all agree that this was,
without a doubt, the most important moment in the Time Lord's life. Had he not made this all-important decision
to forsake the ways of his people and go out into the Universe, we would never
have had a show. Or, at best, we would
have had a far more boring one where the Doctor probably just caused some
trouble in various Time Lord council meetings and was shouted down a bunch of
times (a premise that I doubt would've lasted 50 years!).
But one of the most wonderful traits
about this series is the fact that the Doctor's character does evolve and
develop as the the show progresses. So,
while that brief sequence gave us a glimpse of the most pivotal moment in the
Doctor's life, there are many more moments throughout the Classic and New
Series where we see other significant decisions getting made that propel the
lead character's destiny in all kinds of interesting directions. Here, in chronological order, are the ten
most pivotal moments in the Doctor's long and tangled history....
1. Making Amends with
Barbara (The Brink of Disaster)
For the first handful of episodes of
Doctor Who, the Doctor isn't the nicest of fellows. He seems very warm to his grandaughter but
is most hostile towards her two school teachers that have been thrust upon
him. He argues constantly with her
history teacher, Barbara Wright and actually seems to be in a power struggle
with her science professor, Ian Chesterton.
All this tension comes to a climax
in the hastily-inserted third story The Edge of Destruction. Where a
fault in the TARDIS' circuitry actually starts getting its passengers to behave
very erratically. And within all these
strange motives, paranoia begins to flare.
The Doctor and the two teachers make all kinds of accusations back and
forth and it really seems like they are about to become the most hated of
enemies.
But then the problem in the TARDIS
is sorted out and everyone cools back down.
And towards the end of that second episode (titled: The Brink of
Disaster) the Doctor chooses to finally make peace with his two unexpected
companions by offering a legitimately sincere apology to Barbara for his
unacceptable behaviour. In this moment,
the Doctor loses much of the cold and selfish exterior we've been seeing so far
and starts to really let some of his hidden charm shine through. More importantly, he starts to allow
himself to become attached to someone else besides Susan. Basically, he starts letting humans affect
him. This will, forever, change his
attitude.
2. The Trial of a
Time Lord (Episode 10 of The War Games)
Next to his actual escape from Gallifrey,
this is probably the most important moment of them all for the Doctor:
Gallifrey finally catches up with him.
From hereon in, he is no longer slipping between the cracks amongst his
own culture. The Time Lords are now
aware of who he is and what he's up to.
The nature of his journeys will never be the same. Firstly, they will actually end for a while
as he serves out his exile. He will
struggle constantly to escape his imprisonment on 20th Century Earth and fail
again and again. Eventually, he'll be
allowed brief moments of freedom to perform specific missions for the Time
Lords. Even after the exile is revoked,
we get the impression that the Time Lords are watching him more closely, now. Especially since he is still, occasionally,
maneuvered into sticky situations on their behalf. Even three regenerations later, his people
are still observing him intently as he stumbles upon one of their scandals and
is placed on trial, yet again. It seems
he will never escape their all-pervading stare.
The decision to ask his peers to
help him against the evil War Lords has far-reaching consequences for the rest
of his travels. From this point
onwards, he will have to deal with the influence of his own people and the
ongoing restrictions they will impose upon his freedom.
3. Freedom!
At last! (Episode Four of The
Three Doctors)
The tenth anniversary tale packs a
huge wallop in the Doctor's personal life.
He not only gets to know himself a whole lot better (and, oddly enough,
doesn't seem to get on well with his other personaes) but he also meets one of
his greatest boyhood heroes. On top of
all that, he manages to save both Gallifrey and the Universe, itself.
But none of that is as important to
him as those last moments of Episode Four.
Past incarnations have been sent back to their proper timelines. Supporting characters have filed off to their
own business. Jo Grant has had a nice
heart-to-hearts with Doctor Three. And
then, suddenly, we hear the sound of materialisation and witness a familiar-looking
circuit appearing on the time rotor.
As a thanks for all he's done, the Time Lords have revoked his
exile. He's free to roam the universe
again. It almost seems that the
Doctor's love for travel grows stronger from this point, onwards. Not just in the Pertwee incarnation, but in
all subsequent portrayals. Having been
starved of what he enjoys most for several years, the Doctor appreciates his
ability to go anywhere in Time and Space all the more once his punishment has
been rescinded.
4. Meeting his old
Mentor, once more, but having no scarf.... (Episode 6 of Planet Of Spiders)
A moment similiar to the apology to
Barbara. As he re-encounters the old
Hermit that used to mentor him back when he was a young Gallifreyan, the Doctor
realizes he must make a major change in his attitude. In a brief exchange with his old teacher, he
comes to terms with the fact that his love of travel also comes with a greed
for knowledge. And that his desire to
stick his nose into everything and know as much as possible can have serious
consequences. What was meant to be the
harmless acquisition of a beautiful sapphire has turned into a major disaster
that could unleash the most dangerous of meglamaniacs upon the Universe.
Before this moment, the Doctor
always seemed to be running away from accountability. Yes, he saved lives and helped people - but
he also delighted in being irresponsible.
But his encounter with his mentor sets him straight and he takes
responsibility for what he's done. In
so doing, Doctor Three is thrown upon the funeral pyre.
As we watch Doctor Four take over,
we do see more instances of him discussing the duties he has as a Time Lord -
even one that has renounced the ways of his people. In the New Series, this
trend continues. The occassional speech
is declared about his obligations even though he believes there is no one left
from his society to stand in judgement over him. That whole outlook seems to begin during that
fateful discussion in the first few minutes of the final episode of Planet
of Spiders.
5. Accidental
Presidency (Episode Two of The Deadly Asssassin)
What was meant to be just a little
legal trickery to postpone his imminent execution ends up affecting his life
for several incarnations. Having being
framed as the murderer of an outgoing Lord President of the Time Lords, the
Doctor is looking for any way to buy himself more time so he can find out who
the real culprit is. Once again, he is
facing a Gallifreyan courtroom. Having
researched Time Lord legalities, he finds a loophole that will keep him alive
for just that bit longer. He nominates
himself to become the next Lord President.
As the events of Deadly Assassin ensue,
we discover that the only other candidate for the position is the actual
assassin the Doctor has been looking for.
As the killer is brought to justice, the Doctor is faced with the most
ironic of fates. By default, he holds
the highest position in his civilisation.
He has become Lord President of the High Council of Time Lords.
While this status sometimes works to
his detriment (ie: Chancellor Flavia trying to force him to stay on Gallifrey
at the end of The Five Doctors), the Doctor does use his title to his
advantage, now and again. The most obvious example was in The
Invasion of Time where he returns to Gallifrey to receive his coronation
and also thwart a combined Vardan/Sontaran invasion. But we see other instances, like in Timelash,
where he declares his title to the attacking Bandrils in hopes that it will
stop them.
Ultimately, the Doctor's neglect of
his Presidential Duties caused him to lose the title during his Sixth
Incarnation. But, for at least a
century or two, he was the Grand Pooba of all Time Lords. And that had to make him feel pretty special
after serving that nasty exile only a few years earlier.
6. Farewell to the
Mouth On Legs (Episode Four of Ressurection of the Daleks)
Again, a moment of harsh attitude
change. The Daleks are condemned to a
strange toothpaste-spewing defeat at the hands of the Fifth Doctor. Tegan Jovanka, his long-serving companion,
suddenly turns to him and declares: "It's stopped being fun." Tearfully, she bids him farewell and resumes
her life in 1980s London (for the second time, actually).
Peter Davison is well-known for
bringing a huge dose of vulnerability to his portrayal of the Doctor and we
never see it more strongly than in the moment after Tegan leaves. In a brief discussion with his other
companion, Turlough, he pronounces that he "must mend his ways."
It seems, at first, to just be a
reflective moment after losing an old friend.
But as subsequent incarnations start rolling on, we do see changes in
the Doctor's attitude towards his enemies.
He becomes more pro-active and less merciful. Even a bit more devious. His darker side is emerging more and more. Before this incident, the Doctor was more
the sort of protagonist who just seems to stumble into trouble. Afterwards, he seems to seek trouble out and
stare it straight in the face. He also
seems to have more of an "eye for an eye" mentality. Repaying evil with evil. Some versions of him show this attitude
more strongly than others (ie: Doctor Seven) - but it does seem to be his
general approach after he loses Tegan.
Given some of the less-than-compassionate things that he's done, we must
almost wonder if "mending his ways" was such a good choice to make that
day.
7. "Unlimitted
Rice Pudding!" (Episode One of Remembrance
of the Daleks)
Two incarnations later and the
off-hand comment about mending his ways seems to reach its ultimate
fruition. For the first little while of
his Seventh Life, the Doctor is more of a clown with just the slightest hints
of a darker, more manipulative nature.
But then, as Doctor Who begins its Twenty-Fifth Anniversary Celebration,
we start to see the claws come out.
Achieving such ominous titles as the
Cosmic Chess Player, Time's Champion or The Oncoming Storm, the Seventh Doctor
seems to openly declare war on the Evils of the Universe. In the opening few
minutes of Remembrance of the Daleks, we see that he is not accidentally
visitting Earth in 1963 and just happens to run into the Daleks. He's there on purpose. He has a plan.
Yeah, we've seen the Doctor walk in
with a pre-set gameplan before (Invasion of Time is a particularly good
example of this strategy), but we've never seen him with one so thorough. Nor have we seen him execute a plan so
visciously. The man is, basically, out
to destroy an entire solar system so that he can thwart the machinations of his
foes. One must admit: that's pretty
harsh.
In Remembrance, the Doctor
develops a very serious "edge" to his personality. An edge that emerges consistently throughout
the rest of his Seventh Incarnation and continues to reveal itself to a lesser
or greater extent in several subsequent regenerations. Yes, a decision was made way back in the
Days of Five. But the execution of that
decision happens here. The Doctor has
become downright powerful. And a little
dark and forboding on top of that.
Some even believe that this
particular decision was so monumental that it actually became the first shot
fired in the Great Time Wars. How's
that for impact?
8. Physician Healing Thyself (Night of the
Doctor)
Just when we think the Doctor can't
get any darker, a seven minute web-isode takes the character to an even greater
extreme!
Trying to bounce back from all the
cruelty of his Seventh Personae, Doctor Eight does seem to be a much more
merciful manifestation of our title character.
Just look at how he tries to reach out and save the Master as he's being
sucked into the Eye of Harmony. And he
does this gesture after that rotten renegade Time Lord has spent the whole
story trying steal away his remaining bodies.
If that doesn't say "new-found sense of compassion" - then
nothing does!
And that sense of mercy seems to
persist throughout the unseen adventures of this incarnation. Even as the Time Wars begin, he refuses to
participate in them. As important as it
may be for the Daleks to lose, he just sees the whole event as something he
cannot involve himself with. That
fighting in the Time Wars will reduce him to the same level as his
enemies. Instead, he chooses to remain
at the fringes of the battlefield - trying to help the fallen in any way he
can.
But that strategy, ultimately,
becomes his undoing as he finds himself back on the Planet Karn. With a mere four minutes of life left, he
must make the most crucial of decisions: fight in the Time Wars or let the
Universe die with him. In despair, he
decides to be "the Doctor no more" and the secret War Doctor is
born.
A decision that rocked continuity to
its very foundations and revealed a side so dark to the Doctor that even the
Valeyard would feel a bit inadequate.
This is probably the Doctor's blackest moment. It is here that he stops believing in
himself and becomes all that he hates.
A decision that will haunt him for multiple incarnations...
9. Time Lord Victorious (Waters of Mars)
Having dealt with all kinds of levels
of survivor guilt, the Doctor finds himself approaching the end of his Tenth
Incarnation. The various companions
he's had since the fateful day he ended the Time Wars have helped to heal him
from his self-inflicted wounds. But the
weight of those companions ending their travels with him has become too
heavy. It's not like the old days where
he could move on from their departures and find someone new. It all seems to hurt too much, now. And so, the Doctor takes his Lonely God
mantle to its fullest extent: he chooses to travel alone.
But as Donna points out - it's not
good for him to be alone. He no longer
has someone to tell him when to stop.
And so, as his loneliness consumes him more and more, he starts questioning
those duties he must maintain as a Time Lord.
Who is left to punish him should he start breaking the rules? Why must he continue to suffer because of
his respect for the Laws of Time?
And from the Lonely God, the Time
Lord Victorious briefly emerges. As he
lands on the famous Bowie Base established on Mars in 2059, the Doctor knows
that he has encountered a Fixed Point in Time. That he can do nothing to
interfere with the tragic events that are about to ensue. But, just this once, he decides not to
adhere to his all-important principals and attempts what is probably one of the
greatest offenses a Time Lord can commit:
he chooses to change a Fixed Point.
To make things happen the way he'd like to see them turn out rather than
the way they are meant to.
While it was scary to see him turn
into a warrior in Point #8 - it is far more frightening to see him, here. In this case, he has turned into a meglamaniac. And if it wasn't for the suicidal decision
of Adelaide Brooke, he may have stayed that way. For just the briefest of instances, the
Doctor becomes the villain he has defeated so many times before.
A short while later, the Doctor
regenerates. We see a change in his grieving process over the Time Wars after
that. A change so heavy that his Tenth Self is aghast to see how he has “moved
on” during Day of the Doctor. But the
poor choice he made at the Bowie Base has shown him just how dangerous he can
be when he doesn’t do something to lay all that angst to rest. The experience
was a crucial tipping point in his attitude. He never wants to go that far
again and adjusts his attitude accordingly to avoid it.
10. Not Quite the Time War We Thought it Was... (Day
of the Doctor)
No doubt, some of you have looked at
these last few points and remarked to yourself:
"Why hasn't he included Pressing the Big Red Button that ends
the Time Wars?!" And, if it
hadn't been for the Fiftieth Anniversary Special, it would have been Point
#9. But Day of the Doctor sheds
new light on that particular moment and shows that the decision made on that
day wasn't quite as it seems.
After having made multiple decisions
since his Fifth Incarnation that have taken him down a darker and darker path,
the Doctor achieves the ultimate triumph in this tale. He returns to the Doctor he once was: the Man
Who Finds a Better Way.
The tremendous emotional toll of the
last seven seasons of the New Series is reversed in an instant as three
different incarnations of the Doctor stand in some lonely alien barn - ready to
initiate the most painful choice he has ever made. And then, in a stroke of genius, the Doctor
realizes things don't have to happen the way they do. In the same way that he avoided his future
without actually changing the established order of events at the end Series
Six, he now does the same thing with his past.
To all intents and purposes, the galaxy believes that the Doctor
unleashed The Moment and wiped out the Time Lords and the Daleks during the
Fall of Arcadia. But now, he knows
differently. Somewhere, in a pocket
universe, Gallifrey Stands.
A whole new direction is presented
in the Doctor's life. Thanks to the
decision of this day, he has truly begun his long journey home.
