{"id":6133,"date":"2011-09-13T20:06:37","date_gmt":"2011-09-14T00:06:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/?p=6133"},"modified":"2011-09-13T20:06:37","modified_gmt":"2011-09-14T00:06:37","slug":"the-dark-side-of-the-doctor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.geekworldordersite.com\/blog\/2011\/09\/the-dark-side-of-the-doctor\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dark Side of the Doctor"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dark Side of The Doctor<\/p>\n

by Ryan MacDonald<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Doctor Who<\/em> has been on the air on BBC for almost 50 years, and part of the reason it\u2019s lasted this long is partially due to the ever changing faces of the show.\u00a0 But no matter how many regenerations he goes through one thing remains the same; as whimsical and fancy-free as he may be, there\u2019s another side to The Doctor, a dark side, and in this past week\u2019s episode it was definitely on display.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One of the best things this show brings to the table is a continuity that spans decades.\u00a0 Nothing and no one is ever forgotten.\u00a0 Before she passed, Elisabeth Sladen reprised her role as Sarah Jane Smith several times with David Tenant.\u00a0 And Davros and the Master are two villains who keep on showing up time and time again.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>In the most recent episode before writing this, \u201cThe Girl Who Waited\u201d, we\u2019re faced with a side of The Doctor not many people particularly like.\u00a0 When The Doctor makes a mistake, he\u2019s mad at himself more than anything else, and he\u2019s so passionate about his friends and the people he loves that when his mistakes jeopardize their lives he becomes this machine of unfeeling logic.\u00a0 While it\u2019s good to have this in a character when it comes to time travel, The Doctor is one character it\u2019s just scary to see it come from.\u00a0 I think, because he\u2019s seen the repercussions of his mistakes in the past echoing into his present.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

During the run of episodes, Genesis of the Daleks<\/em>, The Doctor is given the unique opportunity to wipe the Dalek race from existence.\u00a0 And he doesn\u2019t take it.\u00a0 The Daleks go on to terrorize and exterminate entire planets and entire races of people.\u00a0 And it all rests on The Doctor\u2019s shoulders because he thought they could be changed, that they could<\/em> be different.\u00a0 So he doesn\u2019t kill them and manages to escape back to The TARDIS.\u00a0 The question is; if you held the switch that would eliminate the Nazis would you do it?\u00a0 A lot of people would jump on this and answer \u201cYes, press the button!\u201d without even considering the repercussions.\u00a0 The Doctor, however, sat there and said \u201cWhat gives me the right?\u201d and eventually threw down the charges, even after being attacked by three of the creatures he was to destroy.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This decision has left the Doctor a changed man.\u00a0 If he had destroyed them back then, there never would have been a Time War.\u00a0 Had there never been a Time War, there\u2019d still be a Gallifrey and Time Lords.\u00a0 He never would have lost them while defeating The Daleks.\u00a0 So the weight of this decision bears heavily on his shoulders and whenever he\u2019s now faced with, even a single, Dalek he\u2019s instantly a different man.\u00a0 Even during his 9th<\/sup> incarnation played by Christopher Eccleston, when he\u2019s first faced with a Dalek, which is broken and mangled, and in chains and being tortured, he\u2019s playing Bad Cop\/Bad Cop with it.\u00a0 There\u2019s no room for niceties with them, ever.\u00a0 Matt Smith grabs the biggest heaviest object he can find and beats the hell out of one for answers; because he feels guilty for not killing them when he had the chance.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It doesn\u2019t end there, though.\u00a0 The Doctor is constantly struggling with loss, loss that could have been prevented.\u00a0 In the episode Doomsday<\/em>, Rose Tyler is almost lost inside of a collapsing dimensional bridge, she\u2019s saved at the last possible second by her father, but she\u2019s trapped now in this alternate time line.\u00a0 In Journey\u2019s End<\/em> Donna Noble creates the Meta-Crisis 10th<\/sup> Doctor from the salvaged dismembered hand of The Doctor mid-regeneration.\u00a0 Through this he becomes half human and she becomes half Time Lord.\u00a0 The transition creates an onset of vast amounts of knowledge flooding into her brain, an amount so large she can\u2019t handle it, The Doctor is then forced to wipe all the memories of their travels together, leaving her with her parents with strict instruction to make no mention of her time with him, otherwise she could\u2019ve die. \u00a0Also, after regenerating he, then played by Colin Baker, attacked and strangled, nearly killing, his companion.\u00a0\u00a0This is just a few recent examples from a history of messing people up.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The man is over 900 years old. He\u2019s been responsible for the near death of not only those close to him but millions of others unbeknownst to them as well as the entirety of his home planet.\u00a0 He\u2019s been to hell and back, he\u2019s stood in the way of death with nothing more than a screwdriver more times than anyone and he comes back every single time.\u00a0 He\u2019s run off invasions with the mere sound of his voice, and fended off the galaxy\u2019s greatest threats with not much more than a bag of jelly babies or a jammy dodger.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So, the next time you want to shrug off The Doctor keep in mind that in a fair fight, I\u2019d put The Doctor at an advantage over The Sith, The Borg, and a handful of Cylons any day.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

New episodes of Doctor Who air Saturdays at 9pm on BBC America with reruns daily at 5pm<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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