Originally posted on https://thestoryclub.locals.com/
One of my favorite moments of characterization comes from Doctor Who, a story arc titled, The Green Death. In the final scene, once all the weird sci-fi stuff is over (I suppose a spoiler warning is due), the young Professor Jones proposes to Ms. Grant, the Doctor’s current companion. She accepts, which means saying goodbye to her adventures with the eponymous Doctor. As the Brigadier draws the company around himself to give a toast to the happy couple, the Doctor slips away. We see him silently walking up a dark path, and then cut back to the noisy party inside. We’re then shown a setting sun and watch the silhouette of the Doctor driving alone into the night.
Not only is this a good characterization of Jon Pertwee’s version of the Doctor, but I think it gets to the fundamental of an admittedly fluid character. As many know, the actor who plays the Doctor changes periodically, and with that change, the actor brings in a new persona: You have Hartnell’s grumpy grandpa, Troughton’s intergalactic hobo, Pertwee’s Sherlock Holmes, Tom Baker’s mid-life crisis, Davison’s soyboy (fight me), Colin Baker’s insane, half murderous clown, McCoy’s Abraham Van Helsing, McGann’s loverboy, Eccleston’s lonely soldier, Tennant being the best thing ever, Smith being a lesser, immature version of Tennant, and me not caring after that. With all these different takes on the same character, what makes him one? what is the quintessential aspect of the Doctor?
My answer, that he is an alien, that like Moses, he might say, “I am a stranger in a strange land.”
Tale Told 