My Doctor.

[elisi]

Dear Ten, it is not your fault. You were beautiful and broken - broke far too beautifully to be honest, I couldn’t take my eyes off you - and I loved you entirely too much. Still do, of course.

But - and this is something I’ve come to realise lately - the Doctor isn’t supposed to be a broken, tragic, lonely hero. Nor is the Doctor supposed to be the handsome prince on a white horse. (Even though you carried it off *perfectly*. Because you were Ten, and oh yes, you were just that brilliant!)

You see, the Doctor is supposed to be the wizard. The kind, barmy, wonderful old wizard with his magic box. (Wizards are powerful and can be dangerous, never forget this.)

And it’s only now that we are hearing that story again that I realise that this is how it’s supposed to be.

Of course there’s a princess (when isn’t there? I've loved them all), and I am happier than I can express that this time she’s got her very own prince, a noble young man who wins her hand in a truly marvellous display of love and devotion.

So my dear, dear Ten, believe me when I say that you’ll always be my Ten. But - and I am so, so sorry - I have to confess that Eleven is my Doctor!

ETA: Inspired by these two posts.

Comments

[shipperx.livejournal.com]

The thing that sort of crystalized The Doctor in my head was listening to an audio book on writing where it discussed the need for the protagonist to change over the course of a story then it backtracked to say that this isn't universally true. There are central characters whose purpose is to bring change to other characters. That's The Doctor. His companions and the people he meets should change. Changes (other than in the specifics of his quirks) aren't nearly as important for a 900+ year old alien. It's not really a question of who the Doctor 'will become' it's who he is. And I think Ten drifted away from that which was why, by the end, we kept hitting the same note that The Doctor will be alone... because that is the Doctor. And that is his story. And no companion will ever stay. But that can only be restated in so many ways before it's just the reiteration of the same idea over and over again. I think it helps to go back to showing that what's important are the ways that he changes the people around him.

(And I think poor Donna may have been sacrificed to the Doctor who can't change problem because it ceased to be about her journey and her change in favor of reiterating yet again that the Doctor cannot change. Not really). So as a companion, she got hit with the same stick.

And I'm still irked over Donna's fate. Can you tell?

[frenchani.livejournal.com]

I'd rather say that Ten is my doctor and Moffat's DW is my Doctor Who, if it makes any sense.

I blame David Tennant! ;- )

[gillo]

I think you're right - THE Doctor is 1-7 inclusive. And Eleven. Not convinced about Eight. Nine and Ten were performed by wonderful actors, but they were always a touch too much about RTD's agenda, which is not always The Doctor's. Matt Smith is so very believably related to Hartnell, Troughton and Baker(1).

[calturner.livejournal.com]

S5 has been my least favourite season of New Who so far. Don't get me wrong, I've loved S5 and I love Eleven, but Ten is still my Doctor.

I have to admit that Rory has been the best thing to come out of S5 for me. I adore him! :)

[tempestas-inu.livejournal.com]

I don't really have a Doctor, even though I'm more likely to click on stuff relating to either Ten or Eleven since I like keeping up with the present.... mostly because "my Doctor" is an amalgamation of his various characteristics in various incarnations.... after all he is the sum of his parts.

But I really do love that Eleven has become more like how the Doctor was meant to be initially. To me Ten was a stage where his broken-ness got to a point where he couldn't handle it, but Eleven is where he finally begins to let go.... yet there are still signs of underlying darkness so we don't forget, so that we are reminded of where he's been.

[the-redjay.livejournal.com]

When season four ended, I was heartsbroken; Ten had gotten me into a fandom which got me out of a very rough time in my life, and I was horrified by the idea that my anchor was being taken away and replaced with some new face, and body, and Doctor, that I'd never heard of. I have to admit, with a guilty face, that I was one of the harshest critics of Matt Smith no matter what I saw right up until I saw the first five minutes of The Eleventh Hour. During which I was smitten. Over the next weeks, my friends started to comment that I have many of the same physical quirks that Eleven does. I've always spun, and I flex my jaw a lot, and I hold my fingers up when I'm making a point... I even talk a little like him. And by the time River Song came back into the show, I realised that Ten was no longer my Doctor. Ten, Five... Both firm favourites, and they always will be. But Eleven is, and will be, my Doctor. He's the first Doctor who I trusted IMMEDIATELY, feel such a strong pull to, and rather than my Ten muse, feel absolutely no desire to upset in fanfiction. I want to protect Eleven, and since those "bad times" are back in my life, the way he behaves like a big brother or a father, a protector, someone who can understand... I'm sure it sounds pathetic, but he's actually a dream, right now.

[missmurchison.livejournal.com]

I love my Wizard Doctor.

[gabrielleabelle.livejournal.com]

Yup. That's pretty much it. :)

[the-royal-anna.livejournal.com]

I am about to go to work, and then to Wales for a week, so I will have to catch up on newer posts after that. But in the mean time, this post made me smile very much. And you may well have seen it already, but so did this. :)

[dweomeroflight.livejournal.com]

argh this short post is all kinds of perfect!

You see, the Doctor is supposed to be the wizard. The kind, barmy, wonderful old wizard with his magic box. (Wizards are powerful and can be dangerous, never forget this.)

I see Eleven as a kind of Merlin figure. He is very old and very kind, but he has power, alot of it and he can use that power on demand. If you make him angry, he will turn on you. But then, just as quickly, he goes back to his blue box (his crystal cave) and goes somewhere else, weary, old and tired, but never giving up.

[kikimay]

*quotes every single word*

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Indeed we do, share-a-brain!! OMG. And I read beer's postie. I think I love her, too.

There is so much love, I'm going to have a good cry now...

*SQUISHES YOU*

And yes...he is the Guidepost - but the COMPANIONS are the heroes. We see through their eyes, they save the day, teach the old man new tricks and guide the show. I just...I can't even!!

[timedoctorswife.livejournal.com]

Love this... it is great and totes how I feel only as well as 11 I also love 3....

also I can't have ten as my doctor when I have a friend who looks like this *points to dp

[betawho.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with this. The Doctor is the Wizard. He's the Stranger. He's the Trickster.

And I agree that this is one reason why 11 works so much better for me.

It never occurred to me either that the Doctor should be broken. I always took the Doctor as a man who had figured out his life, figured out what he wanted, and had given up everything that wasn't that thing.

Yes, there is some tragedy in that, but there is also boundless joy. And to me, that's what the Doctor is, a man who may have tragedies, but he acknowledges them and moves on, they don't control him, or limit him, or make him tragic.

Instead he looks toward the future, as a Time Lord he knows he can't change his past (unfortunately something that Moff has messed with, which I think has damaged the dramatic credibility of the show a bit, if the original thing can simply be altered, then what do the consequences of those things matter?)

But, I always took the Doctor to be the sort of kindly Wizard figure. Someone surprising and amazing who appeared and changed your world for the better. Not someone who needed your shoulder to cry on because of his own "tragedies."

So, yeah, I like that aspect of 11. And, frankly, I have more respect for him. For all that Matt looks younger, and 11 acts so childlike at times, I do often feel he's the more mature "wise" one.

So, yeah, I prefer the Wizard to the Tragic Hero. Wizards are supposed to impress and surprise us, not make us pity them.

And I've never been comfortable with the idea that I was supposed to pity the Doctor.

I always thought he was the guy with the greatest life in the universe.

[nuraicha.livejournal.com]

Oh my God. This post is... this is what I think. This is what I discovered going through Eleven, this is when I saw I had gotten the hang of Doctor Who not completely right (because every Doctor is the Doctor and has the right to be a bastard if he wants, or a lonely god like Ten decided to be), and when I devoted my soul to this show completely. Ten is still my Doctor, but thanks to Eleven I realised there is more than him in this show, it broaded my mind and it made me fell in love with the Doctor himself and with the show.

This is so TRUE that it brought tears to my eyes:

And it’s only now that we are hearing that story again that I realise that this is how it’s supposed to be.

YES, YES, YES.

PS: Do you mind if I friend you? I took a look at your meta and there is a lot! I can use some meta for when I want to procrastinate (like right now), especially because I saw you wrote a lot about some of my most favourite episodes. Thanks in advance and I hope you have a good day!