Humans are full of moral ambiguity not only do they make good companions, heroes, and villains, but the best of them have elements of each, whether doing the right things for the wrong reasons, like John Lumic in "Rise of the Cybermen," or doing the wrong things for the right reasons, like Harriet Jones in "The Christmas Invasion." The more complicated the characters, the more interesting they become. Naturally, as the species of the audience (as far as is known, Doctor Who is watched mostly by humans and the cats who own them) is made up of humans, the opportunity to examine all aspects of the race, from ambition to hubris to creativity to carelessness to love, can be examined in all the dark and light colors in which they express themselves. Lately, it seems as if much of that has been lost in the frantic action of the situation, and the more people start to see this again, the more they will start to realize how much more the show can be. Of course, this human lesson, could, by the same token, could be applied to any race that might be created; rather than creating polar, "good aliens or bad aliens," much more nuanced characters allow for much richer and more unpredictable stories, which can only be better for the audience.
Michael Marcus is a game designer, author, and mad scientist living in Hamtramck, Michigan; his current project list include a series of comic short-stories collectively called "One-Punch," a book on hypnosis and language called "The Prometheus Codex," a collaborative game project called "Art War," and a fun spy story called "The Adventures of Jack Uzi" at http://tinyurl.com/JackUziChannel (for those interested).
