I have sort of watched the first episode of Original!Who

[kiya]

Or rather, been in the room while artan_eter was watching it.

I have realised something important about the Doctor.


The Doctor is one of the Good Folk.

Consider:

He lives in a space that is larger within than it appears from the outside.
He has a distinct code of rules for behaviour that humans do not always understand.
He is quite touchy about having his rules broken.
Those who venture into his realm (or are kidnapped, as happens occasionally) have wild and complex adventures and are returned home at a time that does not linearly match what they experienced.
He is mutable, complex, difficult to kill, and, well, fey.
His sense of humor is sometimes wacky and sometimes cruel.
His magic can be as capricious as he is.
He is kind of fascinated with humanity and will prod at it to see what it does.


I'm sure there are other things, that's just what I have at the moment.

And of course in what way he's of the Good Folk changes by incarnation - some darker or more malicious in overall flavor, some more lighthearted and trickstery - but always he's kind of like that.


This thought brought to you by watching Hartnell's First Doctor cackle semi-malevolently at Susan's schoolteachers trying frantically to pry open the TARDIS from the inside.

Comments

[duane-kc.livejournal.com]

You know, I think you may have hit on something here. I'd never thought of it, but you're entirely right...

[erstwhiletexan.livejournal.com]

. . . huh. That kind of makes sense.

[elynne.livejournal.com]

heee, yes. :D Oh, wow, that really explains a lot about him. It's something that seems somewhat inherent in his species - the Master has a lot of that going on, too, just more on the Banesidhe side of the fence. Or... it's something that the Time Lords (TM) have pretty much strangled out of their society, so those who get the fey itch have to go "renegade".

Also, the About Time books makes fascinating reading about the series. Originally, the Doctor wasn't the central character; Ian was supposed to be the "hero", and the Doctor was - essentially the plot enabler, the excuse for Ian to have adventures. Susan was the child-identifcation character, and Barbara was the love interest/"normal" character, providing the sensible modern human baseline.

Went to choose the userpic and whoah, suddenly there's a popup instead of the drop-down list for them there. WTF LJ. o.O

[artan]

the Doctor was - essentially the plot enabler, the excuse for Ian to have adventures

That kind of thing does stick out a bit when pointed out. It also carries that period flavor of "the British male is the superior being of reason and competence" about it.

Early in the series the Doctor was more Outsider, unable to be identified with directly (in theory), as opposed to now when he's more super-hero, much more self-identifiable even in that separate level.

I think that the type of people who watched the show more regularly ended up identifying more with the Outsider than their self-identification plot-enabler characters, and with a naturally evolving and replaced character personality the slip into filling both roles becomes fairly simple.

[pameladean]

Oh, very nice theory indeed.

P.

[thomasyan.livejournal.com]

Pretty neat! He's also got that long life / immortality going for him. But where's the weaknesses to things like cold iron or running water? Or do Earth women count?

[amberite.livejournal.com]

Hee. I think I put forth a very similar theory at one point, though I'm not sure if I set it out online or just told my partners. Watching a bit of the First Doctor stuff is really revealing - seeing what has remained consistent over the course of years gives some interesting perspectives.

[tzeenj.livejournal.com]

yeah- Hartnell in particular, Troughton in a different way too. But it does make perfect sense. Any other Time Lords qualify? Romana 2 was a bit fae in some instances.

Salyavin (my fave long-lost character, and one I hope someone will realize could circumvent the "If they still existed, I could feel them." rule) fit the being-of-great-power-in-deceptively-harmless-disguise model.

Hmmm...Drax was a bit Puck-ish...

Not sure about the Meddling Monk.

Others I'm not as certain if they would qualify, at least not on first thought. Off the top of my head I'm remembering Rassilon, The Rani, Omega, The War Master, Borusa, K'anpo/Cho Je, Morbius. Each an archetypal figure in their own right, tho