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Does the Doctor have a character arc?

Joe Washington

Fleet Captain
Fleet Captain
Does the Doctor have a character arc in which he has developed as a character beyond his physical transformations?
 
Not that I've been able to tell since tunin' in for Christopher Eccleston's premiere episode.

Seems he's just in it for the fun & adventure of travelin' 'round with hot chicks & Donna Noble in a blue box.
 
No real character arc that I can ascertain. He's essentially doing the same things now as he was in 1966. All that's really happened is that the show has moved with the times and its mythology has deepened.
 
Does the Doctor have a character arc in which he has developed as a character beyond his physical transformations?

Yes.

During the first few stories of the classic series the Doctor was quite a different character. Heck, if you hadn't seen any of Doctor Who before and saw the first episode, you'd think he was a villain.

More so then anything the new series has done, the first few stories show his companions making him into a better person.


Other then that - No.
 
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Does the Doctor have a character arc in which he has developed as a character beyond his physical transformations?

Yes.

During the first few stories of the classic series the Doctor was quite a different character. Heck, if you hadn't seen any of Doctor Who before and saw the first episode, you'd think he was a villain.

More so then anything the new series has done, the first few stories show his companions making him into a better person.
And certainly RTD went out of his way to let us know Rose (and the others) have brought the Doctor out of his deep dark place he went to from his part in the Time War.

I think, too, that as the Regenerations have come, the Doctor has indeed matured (sure there was a slip back with Colin Baker, not that that was necessarily as bad thing), but, Doctors 1-4 were much younger acting and more "innocent" seemingthen their predecessors.
 
I think the Doctor has had limited character arcs. He certainly went through a "survivor's guilt" arc in Series One that was resolved when he sacrificed himself and regenerated to save Rose in "The Parting of the Ways," for instance, and I'd say that he went through a "moving on after losing your beloved" arc in Series Three and Four -- and I'm counting both Rose and the Master when I say "your beloved," mind you. And certainly he went through an arc in the Specials.
 
I think Sindatur meant successors lol. I would agree with Sci's assessment. He has had limited character arcs...the ones before 9,10, and 11 maybe had more defined ones.
 
I think the Doctor has had limited character arcs. He certainly went through a "survivor's guilt" arc in Series One that was resolved when he sacrificed himself and regenerated to save Rose in "The Parting of the Ways," for instance, and I'd say that he went through a "moving on after losing your beloved" arc in Series Three and Four -- and I'm counting both Rose and the Master when I say "your beloved," mind you. And certainly he went through an arc in the Specials.

The way he cradled Simm & sobbed on made me imagine seeing Pertwee do the same with Delgado, or Baker/Davison/Baker/McCoy do the same with Ainley.

A good example of how whiny Tennant could really be.:lol:
 
Well Eccleston definitely had a character arc, he spent that year basically learning to like himself again, just a shame he had to regenerate to complete the process, couldn't he have just seen a therapist.

And Tennant obviosuly became more and more arrogant as he went along, culminating in time Lord Victorious (for 3 seconds) and "I don't want to go."

Smith now has something of an arc tied to River, even in just a few episodes he's clearly becoming more comfortable with having her around, and with the idea of the two of them ending up together (assuming she's not lying through her teeth!)
 
maybe the references to "everything changes" by River song is a lead up to Moffat expanding on the Doctor's life..I mean as character arcs go, having a cloned daughter is certainly a development, and the knowledge that in the future, the Doctor gets married (IF that is indeed the case) those would certainly qualify.. not to mention the loss of his home world..
 
There were some plans to develop McCoy's Doctor more (The Cartmel Masterplan). Also the original season 23 would've had more of an arc for Colin, including a possible finale where Gallifrey would be destroyed (Years before BBC books and later the new series did it).
 
There were some plans to develop McCoy's Doctor more (The Cartmel Masterplan). Also the original season 23 would've had more of an arc for Colin, including a possible finale where Gallifrey would be destroyed (Years before BBC books and later the new series did it).

it would have been interesting to see how that turned out..
 
The Prison in Space by Dick Sharples returned to the idea of a female-dominated planet. The Doctor and Jamie were to be imprisoned, and Zoe was to start a sexual revolution and then be brainwashed. The story was intended to inject humour into the show, and was to feature Jamie in drag and end with the Doctor deprogramming Zoe by smacking her bottom.
Something all of us have probably imagined doing.
 
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