2. A Long Way Gone
Death is quite often a casual thing in Doctor Who. Beings die all the time. I mean really quite a bit. I honestly think that if you see the Doctor and you want to live a while longer youre probably better off running the other way. The same way that no one in the Star Trek universe should ever wear red. The Doctor himself can appear quite cavalier in his attitude towards all this suffering either showing no emotion or making jokes. He makes fun when the undertaker tells him the victims died of the Crimson Horror. He views the bodies with a kind of scientific detachment. My own theory about this is that the Doctor is a soldier who has witnessed untold horror and anguish. Like many trauma and abuse survivors he copes with these overwhelming feelings by laughing about it. I myself have a very dark sense of humor. Its a survival mechanism a way to cope in an intolerable situation. It doesnt mean you dont care, only that you need to laugh about it otherwise you wont be able to function within the crisis. Abuse survivors are masters of emotionally detaching themselves from fearful situations. If you dont learn to do that you may not get out alive. Its that simple and that complex. Whats even more interesting is Claras reaction upon seeing the dead bodies. She appears merely curious. This is in marked contrast to the way she responded to the dead bodies in Cold War, also penned by Mark Gatiss. Has her travels with the Doctor already changed her so much? If we must withdraw emotion to withstand crisis, how do we fight evil and retain compassion? The Doctor treats Ada with great empathy, gentleness and kindness, as does Clara following his example. Even now he does not ignore the cries of the wounded child.