10. The Doctor Gets All The Punchlines
Something else you may notice, while reviewing Matt Smith's turn as the Eleventh Doctor, is that often he just makes you want to roll your eyes and sigh. Not in a good way either. Not crazy uncle Al telling his fishing stories again eye-rolling. No, eye-rolling in the geeky kid in high school telling a dirty joke wrong to the head cheerleader way. Just squirm-inducing awkward. If you pay attention to those moments, you'll find they're usually when the Eleventh is laughing at his own jokes. Matt Smith's Doctor, it turns out, unlike his predecessors, somehow gets almost all the zippy one liners. He always gets the last laugh too. On everyone. Not just the villains, which is what we expect and love about the Doctor, but on his companions, on the guest stars, and even on occasion, himself. Why is this a problem? It makes Doctor the Eleventh an incredibly unlikable character! Perhaps, more to the point, it strips him of his humanity. Yes, the Doctor is so much more than human. But he isn't NOT human. Part of what added depth to, say, Tennant's portrayal of the Tenth was that things could, and often did, happen to him that sent him for a loop. Take Donna Noble's entrance and subsequent abuse of the good Doctor throughout "The Runaway Bride". Or Eccleston's continued irrituation with Captain Jack Harkness' flirtatious spunk in "The Empty Child". Both of these are very different ways that the Doctor was shown to be unmistakably human. Other characters got to have a moment in the spotlight. And the inherent humanity of the Doctor is what gives us the depth to really be impacted when he steps beyond his human bonds and becomes something otherworldly. How can we fix this problem? It may be that Clara Oswinn Oswald, the new companion played by Jenna-Louise Coleman stands a very good chance at fixing this problem. Whereas the standard operating procedure for Amy's Doctor was to always be one step ahead, smirking back at Amy (and by extension, we viewers) as if he were telling a joke only he were smart enough to get, Clara's Doctor is immediately put off his game. He's tripping after her, and it is very refreshing to see. In a similar way, River Song has also shared very human moments with the Eleventh Doctor, though this should probably be attributed more to the caliber of acting Alex Kingston brings to her performance, than the writing she is given. Ultimately, what you have to do is let the Doctor make mistakes and not have his ego crushed by them. Which brings us to problem #9.