Date: November 19th, 2014 08:44 pm (UTC)From:arcanetrivia
the feeling I got is the Doctor is a pretty cold character in a lot of respects
He can be, and also a control freak, having a very high opinion of himself, and other lovely traits, but he can also be a pretty hot character (an emotion/passion/righteousness kind of thing, I mean, though I haven't seen any of Doctors Five through Eight yet and David Tennant notwithstanding). Some of that is different aesthetic in how to write this kind of TV in the 60s-80s vs. the 21st century, I think, and partly what actors were being written for. But one of the essential things about him is that he is an ancient alien and sometimes just does not get all the weird ways human emotions can work, for all they are his pet favorite species, and he can be incredibly insensitive. Having to make terrible choices many times in his life has both hardened him and, paradoxically, sometimes over-softened him, almost to the point of bleeding heart(s), gaping wounds it's all too easy for someone with the inclination to do so to exploit.
Sorry for all the edits. Apparently I am having thinky thoughts. I am also nervous about treading into a fandom that has such a natural split in it - I get the feeling that the female-dominated, often porny approach to fandom I am familiar with in HP was virtually absent in DW before the new series. It's sort of a "oh you only like Snape because of Alan Rickman" type of accusation. So that's part of the reason (besides general nerdiness) we've been watching what we can of the older shows, so I can get a broader look at the character beyond the new series (and the tiny glimpses I remember from PBS as a kid, heh).
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Date: November 19th, 2014 08:44 pm (UTC)From:He can be, and also a control freak, having a very high opinion of himself, and other lovely traits, but he can also be a pretty hot character (an emotion/passion/righteousness kind of thing, I mean, though I haven't seen any of Doctors Five through Eight yet
and David Tennant notwithstanding). Some of that is different aesthetic in how to write this kind of TV in the 60s-80s vs. the 21st century, I think, and partly what actors were being written for. But one of the essential things about him is that he is an ancient alien and sometimes just does not get all the weird ways human emotions can work, for all they are his pet favorite species, and he can be incredibly insensitive. Having to make terrible choices many times in his life has both hardened him and, paradoxically, sometimes over-softened him, almost to the point of bleeding heart(s), gaping wounds it's all too easy for someone with the inclination to do so to exploit.Sorry for all the edits. Apparently I am having thinky thoughts. I am also nervous about treading into a fandom that has such a natural split in it - I get the feeling that the female-dominated, often porny approach to fandom I am familiar with in HP was virtually absent in DW before the new series. It's sort of a "oh you only like Snape because of Alan Rickman" type of accusation. So that's part of the reason (besides general nerdiness) we've been watching what we can of the older shows, so I can get a broader look at the character beyond the new series (and the tiny glimpses I remember from PBS as a kid, heh).