Eleventh Doctor - Analysis

Analysis

Following the airing of "A Good Man Goes to War", in which the Doctor is told by River how the legend of the Doctor is a problem which perpetuates disharmony in the universe, Charlie Jane Anders compared the Eleventh Doctor to the DC Comics superhero Batman. "Just like Batman," Anders writes, "it turns out the Doctor has created his own adversaries, by fostering his own dark legend. It's been a major theme in the Bat-comics since the 1980s, the idea that the Batman is such an extreme figure, who inspires so much fear, that maniacs like the Joker cannot help springing up in response." Anders links this development to a particular motif in Steven Moffat's stories. In a 2005 episode written by Russell T Davies, the Ninth Doctor (Christopher Eccleston) instructed Mickey to erase all references to him from the Internet, and in Davies' "Last of the Time Lords" (2007), the Tenth Doctor (David Tennant) had companion Martha spread his legend the world over, although the timeline in which this occurred was since erased. In "Forest of the Dead" (2008), however, Moffat has the Tenth Doctor tell the Vashta Nerada to "look him up".

When Matt Smith takes over the role, as the Eleventh Doctor in "The Eleventh Hour" (2010), he boasts of his own legend to terrify the Atraxi, and attempts this once again in series finale episode "The Pandorica Opens" later that year. Anders refers to this as the Doctor's "Batmanification", which she sees culminate in "A Good Man Goes to War"; new villain Madame Kovarian (Frances Barber) seemingly wages an endless war against the Doctor of which he is as of yet unaware. Throughout the episode, various characters all discuss the legend of the Doctor and how his name inspires fear; they revere it with "religious awe". River Song reveals that the Doctor's name, in fact, takes on two meanings across the universe: in many cultures, as in English, "doctor" means healer. Yet in a number of others, it means "mighty warrior". It is this very legend of the last of the Time Lords, which the Doctor perpetuates, which leads his enemies to capture Amy and steal her baby so that Melody Pond can be an adequate "weapon" against him.