Doctor Who Series 10: 7 Big Questions We're Asking After 'The Eaters Of Light'
3. What Has The Doctor Got Against Brave People?
The characterisation of the Twelfth Doctor isn’t easy to get
a handle on. Specifically, how far is his standoffishness and snarkiness an act?
After wrestling with his morality in series 8, some of those rough edges had
been smoothed, but it was a short lived respite for an audience fearful of
another Sixth Doctor type misstep.
The death of Clara, followed by his imprisonment in the confession dial at the hands of the Time Lords, sent the Twelfth Doctor over the edge. A twenty-four year holiday with River Song seemed to have healed those wounds. But increasingly the Doctor has reverted back to an almost unpleasant persona, evidenced by his psychotic grins.
This week he went full on Malcolm Tucker, coming across as particularly harsh and unforgiving with young Kar. But among his many dislikes, brave humans is surely a bit rich. After all, the Doctor’s mantra is ‘never cruel or cowardly’, and over the years he has surrounded himself with the most courageous of companions.
Earlier in the series we pointed out that whereas he once saw fear as a superpower (Listen) now he is highly critical of such a quality (Knock, Knock). It sounds like the complete opposite of what he’s saying in The Eaters of Light. Perhaps it depends on the context. But whilst there’s a thin line between bravery and foolhardiness, it’s one the Doctor is always willing to cross.
Another possibility is that his words are echoes of the Clara effect – subconscious efforts to free himself of any lingering guilt about her death. It would tie the contradictory strands together since Clara was the one to teach him that fear was a superpower, and Clara’s final words as she faced the raven were ‘let me be brave’.