News > TW FEATURE: Doctor Who as Allegory -- Regenerations
November 2, 2007
Written by Anthony Burch?
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If anything?s worth loving, it?s worth loving so fiercely and unnecessarily that you destroy it through overexamination and criticism.
That?s the sort of love I have for Doctor Who -- a show which, while at times far too reliant on cookie-cutter monsters and bombastic action, still manages to exhibit a wondrous, childlike sense of discovery with every new episode. Nothing from the show encapsulates this sense of the new, the mysterious, and the wonderful as much as the Doctor himself. A time-traveling alien Time Lord, the Doctor not only provides the narrative thrust, character moments, and intrigue for most all of the episodes, but also possesses a biological ability common to all Time Lords which has done more for the longevity of Doctor Who (the first episode was run the day after JFK?s assassination, the most recent one a few months ago) than nearly any other aspect of the series. I am speaking, of course, of the Doctor?s ability to regenerate.
According to Doctor Who mythology, Time Lords, upon sustaining mortal damage, experience total change to their bodies on a cellular level. In order to prevent the Time Lord from dying, every cell in his body regenerates, totally changing his appearance and, to some extent, parts of his personality.
Now, of course, the ?regeneration? idea was really just an excuse to keep the show from permanently ending when the first Doctor (William Hartnell) wanted to quit, but it?s since become a mainstay of the show and, throughout the show?s history, the regeneration episodes have always gotten bigger ratings than any others.
But how can we apply the idea of regeneration to real, non-time-travely life? In a symbolic, allegorical sense, how does the Whovian concept of regeneration reflect aspects of the human condition? To my mind, pretty damn profoundly.
The following question pops up frequently in philosophy and, to a lesser extent, biology: ?Are we always the same person?? Is the ?you? of ten years ago essentially the same ?you? of right now? Yes, we share the same body as our past selves, and we probably share many of the same emotions, personality quirks, and principles, but time and experience markedly changes us so much that we can look back on past versions of ourselves and view them quasi-objectively. Even the cells of our bodies have died and regenerated multiple times over the courses of our lives; for the most part, none of the original material we were made of at birth is still with us by age 20.
But is this enough to justify viewing our previous selves as totally separate entities? Doctor Who doesn?t necessarily answer this question, but it provides a brilliant sci-fi parallel.
When the Doctor regenerates, his appearance changes completely. This is something most anyone can identify with, to some extent; as fashion changes and our bodies transform and mutate, we look just plain different than we used to. In turn, we act differently, and are acted toward differently; whereas the First Doctor, an old, but wise-looking man was generally treated with respect and humility, the younger and goofier-looking Ninth Doctor (seen above) served as the butt of many ?big ear? jokes throughout his lifespan.
But that?s all purely superficial. Far more interesting is the fact that the Doctor doesn?t just change his physical appearance with every regeneration -- his personality experiences a complete overhaul, as well. The following monologue, spoken by the tenth and most current Doctor, summarizes this question of self identity quite well (skip to 5:45):
Or, presuming the link isn?t working or you?re just too lazy to wait six minutes, here?s a rough transcript:
?Beyond The Doctor I just don't know who I am. I literally do not know who I am. So I'm gonna test it. Am I funny? Am I sarcastic? Sexy? Life and misery? Life and soul? Right-handed? Left-handed? A gambler? A fighter? A coward? A traitor? A liar? A nervous wreck? Judging by the evidence I've certainly got a gob.?
This monologue not only speaks to the monumental personality changes we all undergo throughout the course of our lives, but of our utter inability to understand those changes as they happen. The Doctor knows where he came from and who he was, but actively understanding his current personality requires a great deal of effort, and really can?t be properly done without the benefits of hindsight.
Consider life immediately following puberty. Having thankfully hurdled the major physical and emotional transformations of our young adult lives, we feel somewhat new -- reborn, regenerated. Yet we cannot know who we truly are right that moment, as we?re (hopefully) busy living life and finding out through action. Indeed, the Doctor begins to understand more of his personality through the conclusion of his fight with the Sycorax leader: after sparing his life and walking away, the Sycorax grabs his sword and chases after him, intent on murder. The Doctor immediately, almost instinctively hits a button on the wall which removes the floor under the Sycorax?s feet, sending him plummeting to his death.
?No second chances,? he growls. ?I?m that sort of a man.?
To me, that says a lot about how life works; we live and we change, constantly finding out more about our new selves through our immediate actions while only understanding our previous personalities in hindsight. We?re constantly coming to grips with who we are, and once we?ve totally figured ourselves out, too late -- now we?re somebody new. The question posed by the title --? "doctor who?" -- serves as not merely an eye-catching? name for the show, but as an encapsulation of the constant questioning of? personality that both the Doctor, and we as human beings, undergo throughout our lives.
And lawd knows the Doctor has had some pretty different personalities throughout the span of the show, each a reflection of their time period. Back in the 60?s, the First Doctor makes reference to Native Americans as ?savages,? and up until the Eighth Doctor, none of his incarnations had ever shown romantic interest in a woman. The First Doctor was an unkind grandpa, the Second a deceptively intelligent space-hobo, the Third an over-the-top chivalrous man of action, the Fourth an eccentric wiseman, the Fifth a na?ve and imperfect young man, the Sixth an irascible ass, the Seventh a conniving genius, the Eighth a romantic, the Ninth a sincere oddball, and the Tenth a cocky and rude (yet undeniably charming) adventurer.
While our own changes in personality are probably not as rigidly defined as the Doctor?s (massive trauma or happiness notwithstanding), it?s an integral part of the human condition that we drastically change personality over the course of our lives, much in the same way the Doctor does.
And yet, for all his personality changes, the Doctor still retains certain personality traits: he?s generally nonviolent, he?s a morally good person, and he?s filled with a constant wonder and curiosity which keeps him traveling. No matter how much he may change in terms of emotion or the way he deals with others, the Doctor will always, in a few respects, still be the Doctor.
Again, same deal with most of us as people; part of the reason we don?t immediately pass our past selves off as totally alien, separate entities is that we must share some things in common with them; a lifelong ambition, an attitude toward conflict resolution, and political opinions might not change as we grow older. Damn near everything changes about us, but some things will always remain the same.
Now, because some aspects of ourselves stay constant, does this mean that we are, in fact, the same people ten years ago that we are today, just with some changes? Maybe, maybe not. Nonviolence notwithstanding, there?s almost nothing similar between the Fifth and Sixth Doctors, yet we still call them the Doctor because they kind-of-sort-of share the same body. Is this a logical assumption, or should we not even consider them the same man?
The parallels between the Doctor?s regeneration and our own process of emotional growth/regression may raise as many questions as it answers, I?ll admit. Still, when we see the Doctor?s personality changes happen so definitively and so spectacularly, it can help us think about (and, hopefully, recognize) the own changes we undergo throughout our lives.?
CLICK HERE FOR PART TWO of "Doctor Who as Allegory": The Time War!
