Viewers have a strange relationship with this show, though. Once you're hooked, you find yourself adoring a millennia-old alien who switches bodies and personalities every few series. Many of you fellow viewers probably haven't ever questioned it until now - that's what the show does to you.
Thinker though I am, I was crying with everyone else when Eleven regenerated. I, too, resented the new Doctor, who was bizarre and seemingly oblivious to everything (especially us, the hurting audience). But I'm more than halfway through the series now, and this might be my favorite one.
Spoiler warnings will be placed throughout.
I know. Everyone else still hates the twelfth Doctor. But, tada! I'm an INTJ. So it isn't much of a surprise that I love him.
His accent is pretty cool. But that's not why I love him, and it's not his lizard face or his stupid outfit. Please. What I really love is the chemistry between him and the brilliant, beaming Clara Oswald.
Each era has had its own beautiful harmony. It brings me so much joy to watch the Doctor's and companions' personalities dance with each other. Because that's how my mind works: I observe, I analyze, and I appraise. If you keep reading, you can come along with me as I unpack the lovely design of season 8.
Steven Moffat has done an incredible job of investing not only in the plot, but in the characters. Davis was good, but in my opinion, he didn't shape the Doctor very much via the companions. The best example of this was the way Rose softened Nine's war-embittered heart. From there on out, though, the Doctor was pretty much our same spunky, galaxy-saving friend (even Moffat's Eleven was strikingly similar to Ten). But Twelve and Clara. Oh, Twelve and Clara.
Clara had clearly begun to fall in love with Eleven, despite her attempts at denying it. Then he was snatched from her and replaced by a gray, unfeeling man who was nothing like the Doctor she knew. Only then did she realize how much she missed Eleven, and adjusting to the new Doctor was a huge challenge. (In other words, she represented all of us at the start of season 8.)
And why did the Doctor become so cold? Why did he change into an old man, whom Clara would resent, if he cared so much about her before? The Doctor has always had his own inward battles to fight, too, and this time more than most.
And thus, their story began. Two confused, hurting people, trying to find answers on their own. Little did they realize that their solutions would be found in one another.
Clara Oswald: ENFJ
The Twelfth Doctor: INTP
Clara's heart radiates compassion and servitude. Her first instinct is to connect with others and to protect and comfort them. She's incredibly perceptive of others, and she can sometimes understand them better than they understand themselves.
Contrast this with the Doctor, who manipulates people and forgets them the moment they're out of sight.
Clara: "I'm his carer."
The Doctor: "Yeah, my carer. She cares so I don't have to."
Clara's also very smart. And she knows what's right and what's wrong. To her, life is a tapestry of spinning galaxies and intertwining stories, and she wants to believe that there is good everywhere if one only looks hard enough.
The Doctor isn't so sure.
*Spoilers from season 7*
If you'll remember, he's just been through an identity ordeal. At the end of season 7, after three hundred years of defending a town from his enemies, the Doctor was about to die once and for all. No more reincarnations. But then, from another dimension, the Time Lords sent him the power to keep regenerating -- to live a long life.
It's like a restart button. He might have another twelve lives ahead of him, or eternal regenerations, for all we know. He gets to start over.
And it's making him think about his purpose. About his role in this enormous universe. He's done many great things, but he's still wondering how many of them were good. Ultimately, he's not entirely sure that he likes the idea of a whole new life in front of him.
I might even venture to say that as Eleven, he was ready to die. He was prepared to retire from his job. He was tired of being the universe's hero because it came far too close to being its villain.
"Sometimes the only choices you have are bad ones, but you still have to choose."
*Spoilers end*
The Doctor has every right to be cynical. And the gigantic ego is but a facade for his insecurity.
It's easy to see how the personalities clash: the blunt Doctor steps on Clara's feelings; Clara's want for justice rubs salt in the Doctor's wounds of regret. He is haunted, still unsure whether the best choices he made were good enough.
"Clara . . . tell me. Am I a good man?"
When the Doctor regenerates into Twelve, he is trying to define himself. He reveals the best representation of his true self to show Clara that he trusts her. As he ponders his place in the universe, he sets out to teach Clara what it's really like. But in the process, she ends up teaching him what he really needs to know.
*Spoilers from season 8, episode 7*
Case in point: Episode 7, "Kill the Moon". In the midst of an impossible choice between taking one innocent life and risking the lives of millions, Clara loses sight of what is right. The Doctor leaves the decision to her, wanting her to choose the path of humanity's future. He admits that, without foreknowledge of what would happen, the situation seems hopeless. He is all too used to choices like this one.
Clara allows the creature to live, knowing it might mean Earth's extinction. And both Doctor and companion learn from the outcome.
Earth survives. A seemingly insurmountable dilemma turns out to have a right answer. Maybe it is possible that good can come from two bad choices.
*Spoilers end*
Clara learns through experience where the Doctor's bitterness comes from. She grows to trust this new man, who perhaps isn't as inhuman as she thought he was. And the Doctor sees through Clara what hope can do. It causes her to want to make the right choice, instead of giving in to pessimism. Clara views life as a gift, and the Doctor wants to do the same.
"However scared you are, Clara, the man you are with . . . believe me, he is more scared than anything you can imagine right now, and he needs you."
Clara gives the Doctor hope. And the Doctor teaches Clara to trust.
Hats off to Moffat for another brilliant chapter of the story. Hopefully you, the reader, have a better understanding of what's really going on in season 8, and you know how to appreciate it now.
Can't wait for this beautiful adventure to continue.
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