Doctor Who: 10 Huge Problems Nobody Wants To Admit About The Doctor

Now before you spit your drink out, give us a minute to explain!

The legendary Tom Baker once suggested that the Doctor is not really an acting part, and there’s definitely something in that. The character is not a traditional acting role, where there are lots of opportunities for change and development.

On the contrary, in order for the show to keep going they must remain fairly static, and sketched fairly broadly.

For instance the Doctor can’t become very mean and vengeful all the time, as it would make them a fundamentally different person. Backstory is largely off limits too, as it pins the character down too much and potentially limits what future writers can do (just look at what happened recently when they tried to delve into the Doctor’s past).

Even when there are deviations, we quickly revert to the status quo. Five minutes after torturing Kid in The Interstellar Song Contest Fifteen is hugging Belinda in a corridor, as if nothing ever happened.

It's really the companions that get all the great stories and character moments, and rightly so too considering they're the audience surrogate. The Doctor is fun and quirky and mysterious, but their depth as a character is inherently limited.

There have been attempts to do more, but it basically boils down to a moody Doctor becoming more mellow (One, Six, Nine, Twelve), or a carefree Doctor becoming more troubled (Five, Eight, Ten, Thirteen). And none of it holds a candle to stuff like Amy's Girl Who Waited arc, or the story of Rose Tyler.

Maybe they should rename the show... although "Companion" doesn't have quite the same ring, does it?