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Old 03-16-2016, 11:40 PM   #21
Zigūr
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In some respects, despite them even trying to convey it in the show, the Gandalf comparison doesn't entirely work, because unlike the Doctor, Gandalf had a mission, a reason for all his wandering: "I was the Enemy of Sauron; and my work is finished. I shall go soon."

The First Doctor, by contrast, describes himself as "a citizen of the universe." He's an explorer and traveller for its own sake: he left his home planet because he was bored! The most recent Series of New Doctor Who tried to retcon this motivation, but I consider that to be a cynical effort to try to ramp up the show's "drama".
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Originally Posted by Pitchwife View Post
Agreed. At most I think he works like a martial artist using the enemy's strength to deflect their attacks.
There was a good line in the New Series episode "Flatline" about this: "rule number one of being the Doctor... use your enemy's power against them."
Note that this is something that needs to be broken down in a comparison with, say, The Lord of the Rings. In Professor Tolkien's writing, if you use the weapons of your enemy against them you become them, or just as bad as them. The Doctor, however, tends to do as you have said and "reflect" these attacks back in some way, and in that sense there is a point of comparison. Gandalf's plan involved using not Sauron's Ring against him, not a physical weapon, but another thing that could be construed as one of Sauron's "strengths": his ruthlessness and cynicism, which seemed to serve him well as an all-conquering tyrant, but made him hopelessly blind to his enemies' plan to destroy the Ring rather than use it. The Doctor similarly rarely succeeds through physical force but often overcomes his enemies by exploiting their arrogance, overconfidence or cynicism and lack of faith in the human spirit. A good example might be Sutekh the Destroyer in my favourite serial, "Pyramids of Mars", who is so confident of his inevitable victory that he ends up making his move too early and allowing the Doctor to trap him for the rest of his lifespan.

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Originally Posted by Galadriel55 View Post
Maybe, in several months, when I've actually watched the entire show, my Doctor comments would be more grounded. Now, I don't have enough of an impression of him in all his incarnations, so I feel like every new episode swings my perception around.
Absolutely, and apologies for littering this thread with things that would constitute spoilers. I heartily recommend watching the Classic Series when you are done with New. There's no need to watch Classic in order, really, as the Classic series has little serious continuity in the sense that plot developments very rarely come back later; it's more focused on the plot of each individual serial. It's a very different show in my view to the new one, and old-fashioned at times, but many of the Classic Doctors are very engaging characters and it often deals with interesting "science fiction" style issues. I think you'll have many more points to discuss in comparison to Professor Tolkien's work as a result of watching the Classic serials.
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Last edited by Zigūr; 03-16-2016 at 11:47 PM.
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