Clara #2

Who pros Phillip Culley and @willbrooks1989​ were pondering old classic Who scripts which alternate between identifying the speaker as “DOCTOR” or “DOCTOR WHO.” During the discussion, Phillip asked an intriguing question:

Thinking about it, when does he first call himself The Doctor, rather than a companion introducing him as such?

Tracking down references is my version of solving crossword puzzles, but this was a toughie. Summary of results:

At first he only identifies himself as a scientist, evading specifics. Either companions introduce him, or others see them calling him “Doctor” and follow suit. (It originated with Ian, using “Doctor” in desperation because he didn’t believe “Foreman” was his real name.)

Eventually— and the first time he does so is to Cameca in The Aztecs— he’ll come out and say “They call me the Doctor.” But he still doesn’t do it very often, and only in response to queries.

Just as rarely, he’ll refer to himself jokingly in third person “your old friend the Doctor” or something of that sort to Barbara (Reign of Terror) or Victoria (Enemy of the World). He’s quoting their nickname for him when reminding them of their friendship. 

Starting with The Dalek Invasion of Earth, the First Doctor begins correcting strangers if they call him Doc, Mister, Professor, or anything else. He tells them “I prefer Doctor” or simply cuts them off with “Doctor.” 

Starting with The Celestial Toymaker, he’ll say “This is the Doctor” under very specific circumstances: when he’s using a long-distance communication device to identify himself to someone who knows him. He’s letting them know this is the person you call the Doctor when they can’t see him. 

Starting with The Gunfighters, he’ll occasionally invent an alias (”Doctor Caligari, Doctor Wer, Doctor John Smith” on the spur of the moment when a stranger demands a name. 

Right after regenerating, the Second Doctor forgets he is the Doctor and refers to the Doctor as if he’s somebody else, the first instance of post-regeneration amnesia (it wears off quickly).

In The Seeds of Doom and Enemy of the World, he says he’s the Doctor (or tells Victoria “you wouldn’t hit your old friend the Doctor, would you?” in order to correct someone’s misidentification of him (see #4). 

From Season 9 onwards (The Mutants, Carnival of Monsters, Invasion of the Dinosaurs) he FINALLY starts introducing himself to random strangers routinely as “I’m the Doctor.” Whereas before it was only under rare circumstances, in response to specific prompts or necessity, and usually only to people who already knew him.

Leading to the newly-regenerated Fourth Doctor telling Harry, “You may be a doctor, but I am the Doctor. The definite article, you might say.” It’s no longer simply a label, alias or handle, but an expression of his core identity. It’s become how he thinks of himself as a person: THE DOCTOR. 

He owes Chatterton a great deal of thanks for coming up with the nickname. ;) 

Okay. Under the cut are relevant excerpts tracing the gradual evolution from “What’s that boy Chesterfield calling me?” to “Helllo, I’m the Doctor!” 

Paragraph from Chapter 3 of Intentional Dissonance, the future novel from the writer of I Wrote This For You. This is gonna be the most beautiful novel, I can’t wait to read it.  (via theglasschild)

Yesss…

Clara Oswald sending a Time Lord, thousands of years old, The Oncoming Storm, out for coffee. And he goes. Clara Oswald learning to ride a motorbike because riding on the back of Eleven’s was fun, but she could do it so much better on her own. Clara Oswald gaining access to the Black Archives because her world-saving antics are as renowned as *his*. Clara Oswald grading papers on the TARDIS while casually putting out the diplomatic fires the Doctor starts on multiple worlds. Clara Oswald seducing Jane Austen and influencing the character development of Liz Bennett. (Guess who influenced Darcy’s.) Clara Oswald riding into this world on a leaf and soaring off of it in a TARDIS she shares with yet another woman who was supposed to die thousands of years ago, but who the universe wasn’t ready to live without. 

ROGUE ONE CREW →  LAST MOMENTS

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as i look at this great gifset now, i realize something: that was the problem. it wasn’t his face, it was the change, the CHANGE, of a man who left her repeatedly, constantly, despite her pleading. and while she took comfort in him leaving her that message in the paper, she wasn’t going to let him off the hook about him LEAVING her.

and i mean that in a literal sense. after the christmas special, where 11 constantly left clara behind or forced her away, 12 wakes up and what does he do, the first chance he gets? he leaves. and that just put her into immediate and instant anxiety-mode, because being left behind is just another way of getting lost. you’re abandoned and alone and sure, she’s resourceful and brave, but her faith is gutted. and clara’s biggest fear, as we know from clara herself, is getting lost.

at this point, she was still trying to come to terms with the regeneration. we as viewers have the benefit of time to cope with show-based change, but for the characters, this was so new–and not just new, it was happening immediately after the damage of trenzalore. she was angry and hurt, and now she couldn’t figure out if she should hold this face accountable for what the last face did, or if she should let it go–but how could she let it go when he was doing exactly what the old doctor did? how could she take the good from this doctor and the one before, without also acknowledging the bad, or the questionable, or the painful?

so the episode’s end, with 12 saying he’s the doctor–that he’s not on the phone (despite that doctor being him, just in a previous regeneration) but he’s standing there, in front of her–is just a beautiful way of framing that complicated duality that clara struggled with for all of series 8. and she struggled with it because he’d hurt her so badly. series 8, at its core, was two things: the constant damaged state of a survivor (either a survivor of war or loss or other trauma), and the struggle of loving someone who was essentially formless. and for clara, an anxiety-addled young woman who was terrified of abandonment, this lesson was one of the most painful things to learn.