The Many Faces of Doctor Who

Doctor Who. I don't talk about it much on here, but I am a crazed fanatic. 26 seasons, 1 TV movie, 2 more seasons (and counting), and hundreds of fairly canonical stories from novels, short stories, comics, audios and stage plays. It's an immense body of work that appeals to my collector's spirit and I can't get away from it.

One of the things that insured the Doctor's longevity is the concept of regeneration, a crazy beautiful idea (especially for the mid-60s) that allows the show to recast its star and reinvent itself every few years. For the uninitiated, it works this way: When the Doctor suffers some massive trauma that would normally kill him, he regenerates every cell in his body. It doesn't just change him physically, but psychologically as well, in effect giving each actor the chance to create his version of the character. All the Doctors have some traits in common - a bohemian obsession with freedom, a keen scientist's mind, the ability to be immediately underestimated, excentric habits, empathy mixed with a certain impatience, and the proverbial curiosity that killed the cat - but personalities vary greatly within those parameters.

One of my pet theories is that the Doctor's new personality is a direct response to his previous incarnation's failings. Obviously, this is born of producers' and actors' necessity to contrast with the previous Doctor, but I'm using onscreen evidence to propose that the regeneration process actually takes into account what killed you to better prepare you for the next life.

In-continuity, 10 actors have played the role, starting with William Hartnell. His Doctor was an elderly grandfather-type, gruff and intolerant, but whose heart could definitely be melted. His death was due to old age and the rigors of space-time travel. In "The Tenth Planet" he regenerated into Patrick Troughton.

"The Mighty Trout"'s version of the Doctor had the vitality that Hartnell lacked. Indeed, one of Troughton's catch phrases became "When I say run.... Run!" I don't think Hartnell could have kept up. Well obviously, you should regenerate into a younger body, right? But if regeneration has a way of "fixing" your faults, then we have to look at the psychology of the character. Not just what killed him, but what HURT him, what weakened him, his very malaise. In the first Doctor's case, he was an exile in every sense of the word, especially once his granddaughter Susan left the TARDIS crew. A lonely old man who started taking on companions perhaps never to be alone again (this trait has stuck). His gruff personality worked to keep people at arm's length. Cut to Troughton and his clownish behaviour. Gone is the authoritative patriarch that acted as the figurehead, Henry IV-style. The second Doctor forged deep, warm friendships with his companions and was totally unassuming.

He didn't die. He was caught by the Time Lords and forced to regenerate as punishment for his flight from Gallifrey. The third Doctor was played by Jon Pertwee as a kind of elderly James Bond, a dashing dandy with little patience for bureaucrats, but who enjoyed the finer pleasures of elegance, wine and conversation. In his previous life, he had been a clown, been caught, been unable to convince the Time Lords of his position, blathering through his mock trial. He had thus regenerated into a man of action, authoritative once again. This Doctor would be able to stand up to the Time Lords. His huge ego would draw no quarter.

Five years later, this Doctor would be killed by a massive dose of radiation and pass the mantle on to Tom Baker, the actor most associated with Doctor Who, especially here in North America. It's not so much the circumstances of his death that are important here, as the circumstances of his life. Exiled to Earth by the Time Lords, Pertwee's Doctor only infrequently left 1970s Earth and though he would have been loathe to admit it, became attached to that world and era, with an extended family, a car and probably a home there. It was in defence of that world that he died, and one might say that this attachment was everything he once stood against. In reaction to that kind of psychic damage, the fourth Doctor is a true bohemian who immediately wants to leave Earth and only rarely come back. This Doctor knows instinctively that his nature calls for him to be a traveller, free from all ties. In this incarnation, he becomes a lot more excentric, often reacting to events in an "alien" way. It shows up the fact that the third Doctor was in many ways the most human of all incarnations. He was incredibly well integrated into British society. Tom Baker's version is nothing of the sort.

Tom Baker stayed with the character for seven years, some say too long, and progressively took the Doctor towards the comical end of the spectrum. His bohemian, laisser-faire attitude made him laugh in the face of danger as he took his adventures less and less seriously. That would be the end of him. In "Logopolis", the entire fabric of the universe is at stake, and the Doctor's greatest enemy, the Master, returns to destroy him. Suddenly, it's all very serious, and the Doctor falls to his death and dies/regenerates. Had he become too careless? Perhaps, because the fifth Doctor, as played by Peter Davison, cares too much! He acts as the "big brother" to his TARDIS crew, and though there's a lot of needless arguing in this era, he always gives his companions the benefit of the doubt, even when they turn out to be insupportable (Adric, for example) or traitors (Turlough).

It's that kind of compassion that will get him killed when he sacrifices his incarnation to save the life of Peri in "The Caves of Androzani". Did he give too many chances to too many villains? According to his next incarnation, yes. Colin Baker's sixth Doctor is a loud, arrogant blowhard that is more likely to throw out a Bondian pun when a baddie meets his end than, as with previous Doctors, decry the waste of life. We like to call this a failed regeneration, because the Doctor isn't as likeable or even heroic as usual, but fact is, it's a direct response to his previous self's failings. Namely, that he was "too nice". Kudos to Colin Baker and Big Finish Productions for totally redeeming his character in their audios, by the way.

More than any other Doctor (since perhaps Hartnell), no Doctor has been as much a victim of the producers as the 6th. Consider how he dies: At the start of the the season, he bangs his head under the console and regenerates. Wow. That's epic stuff. In other words, the producers required a new actor in the role and the Doctor was killed off in the most expedient way possible. Colin Baker thus gives way to Sylvester McCoy. He was as small and discreet as the previous Doctor was loud, maybe because Doc #6 got into too much trouble calling attention to himself. In the excellent novel "Love and War", author Paul Cornell introduces the idea that "Time" asked the Doctor to become its protector, and that the fateful bang on the head was, in a way, a kind of suicide because #6 wasn't up to the job. A controversial idea, but I like it, because the 7th Doctor, for all the clowning of his first season, soon becomes the master manipulator. He's always ten steps ahead of his companions, his enemies and the audience, making seemingly innocent decisions only to later reveal that it was all a big trap for the villains. He doesn't just react to enemy threats, he actively seeks them out and destroys them. So how perfect for his to have manipulated his former self into offing himself in a seemingly random act? Randomness had always been a failing of the Doctor, who is usually barely able to control his TARDIS' flight, but now the regeneration process finally reacts.

The original series ended during McCoy's tenure, but the 7th Doctor continued his travels in a large number of novels. He will only die in the TV Movie however, catching some stray bullets when he walks out of the TARDIS. A truly random act. Oh, the irony. Again, difficult to tie the circumstances of his death to his regeneration, as played by Paul McGann, but his life bears more fruit. His incarnation was a real puppet master, which led even his companions to distrusting him (especially in the novels). Is it a coincidence, then, that he dies alone? Has he pushed everyone away because of an overriding need for control? He knows too much, so can't get too close. Enter the 8th Doctor: He's an innocent, partially amnesiac. He's a romantic, for the first time kissing a girl. And physically, he's handsome and charismatic, and more of an action hero than his previous self. It fits the mold.

The TV Movie was it for onscreen appearances of this Doctor, but he too appeared in a long series of novel and audio adventures, which haven't really ended yet (the audio adventures are still ongoing, with McGann still in the role). So we don't know how he is forced to regenerate, though from what we're told in the new series, it most likely happened in the Time War that destroyed Gallifrey. Christopher Eccleston's 9th Doctor is a lonely soul, the "unpopular" kid that gravitates towards pretty people and is desperately looking for companionship. The loss of his people has left a deep wound, which would be odd since the Doctor has always rebelled against them. Every time we've seen the Time Lords in the original series, they've generally been stuffy, corrupt hippocrytes. So why all the angst now? Regenerating in the middle of the Time War may be the cause. We don't know the exact circumstances, of course, but since he seems to blame himself for the destruction of Gallifrey, maybe he regenerated some loyalty for the Time Lords. If his autonomy was the cause of the disaster (he wasn't there to help), then his new self will need others. He becomes a catalyst for OTHERS reaching their potential and saving the day. He empowers others rather than fix things himself.

Unfortunately, it also makes him a victim. In the end, his need for Rose's companionship will turn to love and he will make the ultimate sacrifice for her. David Tennant takes on the role, and his Doctor tries to remedy some of the previous incarnation's problems. He's a dashing young lad that would be much more attractive to Rose, and with a more overt sexuality - a way to fix the 9th Doc's fatal loneliness? And from his first story, he's the hero, not a facilitator and not a victim. He takes charge, he makes hard decisions, he jumps in, and he relishes in it. In place of the sad sack, we've got a wizard who uses the sonic screwdriver as a magic wand. He's supremely confident in his abilities and cannot be stopped. Tennant's got a 3-year contract, which means that in a couple of years, we may see that confidence be the end of him. What will that mean for the 11th Doctor?

ADDENDUM: THE CASE OF ROMANA (because I didn't think this post was already long enough)

The only other sustained look at a Time Lord with multiple regenerations is Romana (we don't see the Master regenerate per se). In the middle of Tom Baker's run, Mary Tamm came on as an aristocratic know-it-all to help the Doctor find the six segments of the Key to Time. She doesn't die, she chooses to regenerate, but there's some hand-waving as to why. It's perhaps not unlike the 6th Doctor's suicide. After the Key to Time season, they were on the run from the Black Guardian and she had decided not to return to Gallifrey and keep adventuring with the Doctor. A new look might add a level of difficulty for the Guardian to find them.

More than that, Lala Ward's Romana was a lot closer to the bohemian Doctor. A free spirit, just like he was, she was much better at coping with the randomness of that life than her original self had been. So did she initiate the change on purpose to give herself the tools to not only survive, but enjoy this new chapter of her life? Is this closer to the way Time Lords actually make use of their 12 regenerations? Was the Doctor a revolutionary even in keeping his original form for 500 years until it really did wear out? Food for thought if you're a Whovian...