Dr Who, Is the Doctor a warmaker or a peacemaker?

Post Reply New Topic

Now I know that many of you fans out there will be saying

"HE'S A PEACEMAKER, COS HE DOES NOT BELIEVE IN WAR!! !"

While this is indeed true (within the context of the show and it's many spin offs) there is one thing that makes me wonder about him....

If you look at most 'Doctor Who' serials/episodes you'll find that there is a pattern to each time the Doctor lands somewhere....

1. The TARDIS lands on an alien planet/historicul era/'contempery' times or whatever.

2. There is a menace (in most cases it will be some sort of alien one) that treatens the people there.

3. While he tries to warn everyone of said menace (and no one listens to him) he may sometimes, try to get the menace to give up his/her/it's ambitions (whatever they may be)

Note: This may not be always bethe case as in the case of races such as the Daleks, or if the writer is of a more warlike world view but it's what he'll often try and do anyway.

4. They don't listen to him and so to cut a long story short he blows up/or kills in whatever metford open to him the said menace!

Now, this sometimes makes me wonder about the Doctor, as I don't think he's really all that much of a pasafist!

I mean surpose if you knew someone that smoked, and he/she had kids, would you really think that it would be OK to then advice them not to do so, and if they refused to act upon your advice for you to go and bucher them or blow there brains out for not doing the right thing?

Yes I know full well that I'm talking about fiction and not the real world, but would anyone really think of a soup opara chacrter who'd go round doing that kind of stuff in the way we think of the Doctor?

And yes while soups and SF are often two diffenret kinds of things altogether, surpose if an episode went out and the Doctor was going round killing humans (in spite of the fact that Earth, and our race is meant to be his faverate planet and race, really if I were him I'd perfer Vortis and the Metropra, hope I spelled it right) who not only did big stuff like wageing wars, but also who did little day to day things like smoking while there were kids about?

He has a TARDIS so he'd not fear getting aressted!

Just a few thoughts that I had, and I was wondering if it has crossed the minds of anyone else.

Goodbye Till Next Time

The Doctor is a Time Lord of action. He may dislike shooting guns and swinging fists, but he never hesitated to do what is right to protect the innocent and has set in motion events that brought the house down on his enemies more than once. He also is willing to allow his allies and companions to fight, and sometimes kill, for his cause, a fact which Davros called him out for. All this is in addition to the unseen events of the Time War, where he may very well have become a traditional soldier for a time, executing plans under the orders of his superiors, at least until he said "screw it all" and finished it. I'd say he's a warrior who chooses his wars, and his weapons, very carefully.

You bring up some very good points BoosterJones. I love the Doctor irregardless of whether he is a peacemaker or a warmonger. He's just an awesome character.

The Doctor is technically a pacifist. Most of the time, he tries to find the diplomatic solution. One of the best examples (of the Doctor trying, and it all going horribly wrong) is in the story Doctor Who and the Silurians, a story which was mirrored in the recent two-parter The Hungry Earth/Cold Blood.

And he doesn't always deal with alien invasions or menaces. One story from Jon Pertwee's time, Carnival of Monsters, involved the Doctor and Jo being trapped in a device called a Miniscope, a kind of menagerie holding real living beings miniaturised in separate environments. While the Doctor was (accidentally) responsible for the release of rather ravenous aliens called the Drashigs into the mechanism of the Miniscope, it was another person, an ambitious and xenophobic alien called Kalik, who released them on his own world, for the purposes of discrediting his brother, the leader of the world. The Doctor's main concern was freeing those within the Miniscope, and it was the man who had the Miniscope, a rather amoral showman called Vorg, who did all the shooting.

The thing is, the Doctor does seem to come up against psychopaths who don't want to listen to reason. Take, for example, Omega. In both times that he and the Doctor have encountered each other, the Doctor has the greatest sympathy for his condition, and tries to offer alternatives to Omega. In The Three Doctors, the Doctor tells Omega that if he reversed the damage he did and return to Gallifrey, he would be allowed into the High Council, but Omega retorts that all he wishes for is power. Because his actions will destroy all creation, he will be alone, but Omega states that since he is used to isolation and will have had his revenge against those he thought that abandoned him, then he will be satisfied. And at the end of Arc of Infinity, the Doctor gives Omega (who has a physical body based on the Doctor, but is deteriorating rapidly) a choice between banishment back to the realm of antimatter, and destruction. Omega would prefer to be destroyed than go back to the antimatter universe, but also declares that if he is denied life, then he will destroy all creation, which he nearly does by willing the rapid decay of his body from matter to antimatter. The Doctor shoots Omega with Omega's own matter converter. Omega doesn't die. The events of the Big Finish audio Omega show what happened next.

I thought Davros' condemnation was interesting. Even the recent change up in actors was predicated on the Doctor proclaiming himself "lord and master" over time and imposing his will...which resulted in his regeneration (in a sense). There was mention by The Master (old series) that in the future The Doctor would be evil, but I don't know if that plot angle was ever canonized.

i have only seen the episodes made after 2005 but he seams to try every alternative (except with Daleks but given his history with them that i understandable) before killing/trapping in black hole/other whereas (as i know the tern) a warmonger would just jump right to the killing/trapping in black hole/other.