The Doctor (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hulloeverything) wrote2012-07-19 03:50 am
hulloeverything) wrote2012-07-19 03:50 am
Entry tags:
DDD Application (AKA why do I keep finishing apps at 3 AM?!)
Player nickname: Laurel
Player LJ:eternalferret
Way to contact you: Plurk, email, AIM or PM
Email: eternalferret@gmail.com
AIM: eternalferret
Other: Plurk: eternalferret
Are you at least 15?: Y.
Current Characters: Pepper Potts, Nick Fury, Agent Jay
Character: Eleventh Doctor
Fandom: Doctor Who
Character Notes:
I played Eleven for about 2 and a half years in another game. It’s not nearly as applicable anymore but here’s a link to his application that was written after Series 5 Episode 2 (Wow I still can’t believe I apped him that fast).
Also, with the Doctor comes all the wibbly wobbly timey wimey world hopping goodness that is the TARDIS. So, yeah, there is that.
History:
((OOC Note: The Doctor has been alive for thousands of years (no matter what he says). Needless to say, that’s a great deal of life to go through. For brevity…ish (and sanity’s) sake I’m going to primarily stick with the history of his current regeneration.))
The Doctor was born on the planet Gallifreya long time ago in a galaxy far far away. At a young age he was made to look into the time vortex. Like others before him that sight made him want to run. And, as he’s said, he never stopped running. When he was older he stole a TARDIS. Well… in reality she left the doors unlocked and let him steal her but either way he hopped into the type 40 TARDIS and started his new life.
Through the centuries he’s had many companions and countless adventures and he cherishes each and every memory. Well… almost all of them. Time Lords’ bodies are miracles. From their binary vascular system to their incredible brains and everything in between behind and around they are incredible beings. One ability Time Lords have is the ability to regenerate. When a Time Lord is near death, whether naturally or through injury of some kind, they regenerate – transform into an entirely different person. They have different appearances, different mannerisms, different tastes, everything. The Doctor has regenerated ten times, bringing him to his Eleventh incarnation. Of course, within this regeneration he’s died a couple of more times but we’ll get to that later.
One of the most significant events in the Doctor’s previous regnenerations is the Time War. It was the last great Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks. A war for time itself. Needless to say it didn’t end well. Well… what war does? In this case there was no discernable end in sight and the only way to stop the war was to put the entire shebang into a Time Lock, seal it from time to save the rest of the Universe. The Doctor made the hardest decision of his life that day. He not only destroyed the Daleks (or so he thought) but he destroyed his own people. Gallifrey was lost and he was left – the last of the Time Lords. It’s unknown how he actually regenerated from his eighth to his ninth regenerations, but it’s safe to assume it had something to do with the end of the war.
His ninth regeneration was brooding and snarky, his tenth cheeky and unrelenting. He received a prophecy about when he would regenerate again. He was told “he will knock four times.” Now, with everything that was going on – the Master duplicating himself all over the world, Gallifrey trying to break out of the time lock, Rassilon going batshit insane – one would think those would have had something to do with his regeneration. But no. The “he” in this case was Donna’s loving grandfather, Wilf, knocking to be let out of the radiation chamber before it was flooded with radiation.
Radiation poisoning is NOT a fun way to go.
One explosive regeneration and destroyed TARDIS later we get Eleven. He crash lands into Amelia Pond’s garden, and works his way into her heart with fish fingers and custard and a promise to take her to see the stars. Thirteen years later he makes good on that promise… even if he got a cricket bat to the face for his troubles. The Atraxi he meets on that fateful day tells him that “silence will fall.” Cryptic, right? Yeah, he had no idea what that meant so he just filed it away for future reference.
Now this is when shit gets crazy. Not only are the Daleks back (no really where the hell have they been?) and evolved themselves into this new crazy technicolor version of themselves but River Song sweeps back into his life in a most spectacular way bringing him to a ship filled with, yep, you guessed it, Weeping Angels. There are cracks all over the universe, cracks in time and space and they seem to be wiping things out of existence. And something big is supposed to happen… on Amy Pond’s wedding day. Whaaaaaaaaat?
There’s clearly something about Amy (and not just the fact that she totally wants the Doctor.) So the Doctor snatches Rory from his bachelor party (jumping out of cakes wooot!) and makes their merry duo a trio. Cue some vampires and a psychedelic pollen that makes the Doctor’s subconscious into a twisted madman called the Dream Lord and we’ve got ourselves a party.
So it turns out that those cracks in time? Totally the TARDIS exploding and tearing apart the universe. Also? It’s totally NOT the Doctor’s fault. But that fact seems to elude the cunning minds of… every bad guy the Doctor has ever taken out. Yeeaaah it turns out that they all had a meeting and decided that the Doctor was going to destroy the universe so they had to put him in a box. No really. They used stuff from Amy’s subconscious to bring the Doctor to Stonehenge at the right time to open the Pandorica. The Pandorica had always just been a myth about a tomb containing the most vicious warrior who ever lived. Turns out it was built to be a prison for the Doctor. He gets stuffed in a box by representatives of every race he’s ever defeated in any way. It’s really kind of epic and touching in a weird sort of way. Wibbly wobbly timey wimey and he shows up outside the box with a fez and a mop and a vortex manipulator to give Rory some very easy to follow instructions for how to get his Time Lord butt out of there. Long story short (too late) he’s nearly killed by a Dalek, saves both Amy and River’s lives, shoots himself into the heart of the explodey TARDIS and saves the day… and wipes himself out of existence. But not to worry, Amy remembers him and brings him back just in time to dance the Drunken Giraffe at her wedding!
Christmas is business as usual – Amy and Rory on their honey moon, stuck on a doomed cruise liner while Eleven becomes the Ghost of Christmas Past to melt the heart of a stuck up old man so he can save the day. Oh and the screwdriver gets eaten by a shark… sigh.
Fast forward through his ridiculous escapades waving to the Ponds through history and we come to Eleven getting a mysterious blue envelope sending him to a restaurant in America. There he meets his very confused companions… and gets slapped by River. No one will tell him anything except he has to go to 1969 to find a man named Canton Everett Delaware III. As much as he hates being in the dark he’s forced to trust Amy and go along with it. And in doing so one of the mysteries of his life is solved. He meets the Silence, thus explaining “silence will fall.” Nasty beings that erase themselves from your memory the moment you look away (and thus millions of paranoid television viewers were born). With the help of Canton and Richard Nixon, Eleven manages to save the day (again).
Eleven’s recent escapades have been numerous but the most significant ones include meeting the TARDIS. No, really, someone took the soul out of the TARDIS and put it in a human body. There have also been pirates, a duplicate Doctor, Hitler and a child’s nightmares among other things.
The largest thing learned is the fact that River Song is, in fact, Amy and Rory’s daughter. Not only that, but she’s a “daughter of the TARDIS” and had the power to regenerate as a Time Lord. Oh and she was kidnapped at birth and raised for the sole purpose of killing the Doctor. When River Song – born Melody Pond – was taken, Eleven swore he would find her. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to keep that promise. She grew up as Amy and Rory’s childhood friend until she finally meets the Doctor and, well, kills him. But while he’s dying of the poison she’d infected him with he manages to touch her heart and change it enough for her to give him her remaining regenerations and save his life. That won’t be enough, however, to keep the mysterious woman who’d taken her in the first place from forcing River to do what she’d been conditioned to do. The question is – will Eleven be clever enough to figure out a way to thwart that?
Personality:
The Doctor is a difficult person to break down in terms of personality and history since one is so entirely wound up and dependant on the other. He is a mysterious enigma known only to those he chooses to become close to, and even then it’s often limited. Everything about him is carefully guarded - his origins, his age, even his name. But that doesn’t prevent him from being absolutely and unequivocally brilliant.
To start – the Doctor gives his age as 909. This is most certainly not true. Between the ages given by previous incarnations and the sheer multitude of things he’s been through he is more likely thousands of years old. Headcanon (and an interview with Steven Moffat) says that he has long since forgotten how old he really is so any age given is a grossly reduced estimate. Besides, who wants to tell people they’ve just met that they’re millennia old? And with a face like his? Pssh.
The Doctor is on his eleventh incarnation. A previous incarnation (the Fifth) stated that Time Lords only had 13. However, Eleven’s own experiences (particularly River giving him her regenerations) bring this into question. Whether or not he will be able to regenerate beyond lucky number 13 remains to be seen but regardless of this fact he knows his life has likely passed the midpoint and nothing lasts forever… not even Time Lords. Granted, by his current canon point he has already died once and been wiped out of existence once but who’s counting? Needless to say he’s begun to think more about mortality, his own as well as that of those around him. The fact that he has a file showing the date and location of his death isn’t helping ease his fears at all – especially taking into account that it’s only about 100 years in his future. Time is running out fast. The question is what to do with the time he has left.
Generally speaking the Doctor is Peter Pan. He swoops in, eternally young despite his years talking of fantastic far away lands and adventures before whisking his young friends off to see the stars. When Amy Pond becomes the newest in a long line of lovely female companions he doesn’t even ask, assuming without question that she’d come along for the ride. And when she says she’s grown up he assures her that he’ll soon fix that. It’s been some time since Amy and Rory started traveling with the Doctor and he hasn’t grown up a bit. From becoming a grumpy old man’s ghost of Christmas past to adding a lemonade tap and dancing furniture to a dusty old house he strives to charm his way into everyone’s inner child’s heart – whether they like it or not.
However, that childlike exterior is often used as a disarming ruse to cover up for the Oncoming Storm that lay just below the surface. It takes a great deal to bring shades of anger and darkness rising through the flailing and sharp sarcastic remarks. But when it does it would be a good idea for whoever brought out that side of the Doctor to run to the other side of the universe and fast. You do not put him in a trap, you do not mess with Earth, you do not put innocent people in danger and, above all, you do not mess with those he loves. He will put everything he is, everything he has on the line to save the day and keep everyone safe. There is nothing that can stop him, not so long as he has one shred of hope and the faintest glimmer of a plan. He also has no fear of stepping face to face with whatever the big bad of the week is and introducing himself and telling them precisely what he plans to do and give them a chance to change their mind. Oftentimes his name will be enough to strike fear into the hearts and minds of baddies everywhere. Of course… that’s been becoming a bit of a problem.
The Doctor is currently in one of his most manic incarnations, yet. He races from place to place with all of the enthusiasm of a sugar high five year old at Disneyland. He gestures as he speaks, often only looking directly at the person he’s speaking to if they’ve said something very important or it’s an otherwise Very Serious Moment. He rambles on regardless of whether or not anyone’s actively listening and darts around rooms touching and playing with everything. To the untrained observer he’s rude, annoying and has no attention span to speak of. In actuality he uses that time to learn about his new surroundings by poking, prodding, looking at (and, yes, tasting) everything while people are distracted by his rambling. He also uses it to buy time to size up the people around him, whether they’re possible companions or enemies. He also has a habit of working through thoughts and problems out loud, much to the confusion of whoever’s within earshot. At some points he may appear as if he’s talking directly to them or asking them questions. However, if they attempt to answer or contribute they may find themselves with a finger on their lips as he continues rambling away.
The Doctor is not annoyed or put off when others step up to contribute answers or solutions, or just to be downright clever. In fact he applauds and encourages it… when he’s not on a tear of his own that is. He loves how brilliant people can be and when someone else – especially a human – turns out to be clever and not just follow him blindly he lights up and they immediately move to the top of his list of favorite people. That’s part of how he chooses his companions. They have to be able to stand up and figure things out – or at least try to. Even if one of his rules is “don’t wander off” he’d much prefer a companion who does. For example – Rory was nothing more than Amy’s boyfriend until he began showing initiative, striking out on his own and going against the Doctor. At that point he became a companion in his own right.
For all his happy aspects there is still a great amount of sadness in the Doctor. Since the Time War he has changed a great deal, the pain receding a little more with each regeneration. However, as it’s pointed out, wherever the Doctor goes death is sure to follow. As loathe as he is to admit it there has been a great deal of death in his very long life, much of it because of him or as a result (direct or indirect) of his actions. This has affected him more than he outwardly shows. He has had a hand in the destruction of the Time Lords (twice. Even if the second time was mostly the Master’s doing), the Daleks multiple times (which he doesn’t regret) and untold numbers of others. He’s had a hand in Pompeii, was at the Titanic and his actions have caused riots, death and wars whether he intended them to or not. Each death weighs heavily on his hearts and that’s part of why he does what he does – to save as many lives as he can to help ease that immense burden. Even he doesn’t know the extent of the damage he’s done. They say a butterfly flapping its wings can cause a hurricane a hemisphere away. Who knows what the wake of the TARDIS has brought.
One of the largest of the swords hanging over his head has two words carved into it – River Song. They’ve each changed the other a great deal without even meaning to. The spoilers they hold have slowly directed the other’s life. The worst tragedy is the fact that he holds the largest spoiler of them all – how she dies. At first he was reluctant to admit that she would become more than a beautiful mystery who would cross his path from time to time. But through the years she has become so much more. She’s killed him, kissed him, saved him, tormented him, confused him and, soon, will marry him. It took him a long time to admit it but he does love River Song and he is doing everything he can to make sure she has the best life possible before her trip to the library.
One thing the Doctor has said through his regenerations (particularly since the Time War) is that he doesn’t do domestic. However, he has slowly been proving himself wrong. He didn’t want to admit it to himself but the Ponds have become family – even before they become his in-laws. He cares deeply about them and has become increasingly worried about the danger they’re consistently putting themselves in because of him. He knows it’s their choice but he also knows they won’t be the first ones to say “when” and walk away. With the knowledge of his own mortality hanging over his head he has a large decision to make, he just doesn’t know if he’s really ready to let go of the first family he’s had in a very long time.
On the whole Eleven is childlike, impulsive, brash, sarcastic, genius, independent and fiercely loyal. He’s young at heart, yet still incredibly old. While he keeps a hold on what youth he has he is becoming increasingly aware of his own mortality and how fragile it may be. As willing as he is to sacrifice himself to save the universe he is terrified of the idea that this time it may be for good. He simultaneously wants to cling onto the family he’s grown to love and push them away so he can find some way to die, yet save his own life. It’s bringing many things into focus, including the fact that maybe, just maybe, the universe does need to lose the Doctor.
Additional Links:
The Doctor’s page on the TARDIS wikia
First Person (entry type):
[The feed flickers on Eleven’s smiling face in the console room. He waggles his fingers in a wave]
Hullooo everyone out there in Duckland! Though not the actual Duckland. That would be embarrassing. I had a rather unfortunate experience with the Prime Minister, his pet Aenid, a loaf of bread and a sponge. [He pauses, cringing as he remembers the incident for a moment. Ahem. He claps, grin plastered on his face once again.]
But that is not what I wanted to talk to you all about. I was curious, actually, about how many worlds are represented in this community. Aside from the fact that the entire idea of an internet community branching out through worlds, universes and even time is absolutely impossible the amount of energy that would be necessary to allow something like that to exist is even less possible. Like a sort of… double impossible. Or an impossible squared. [He pauses, thinking about this possibility… or impossibility as it were]
Anyway! I’d really like to know what worlds and time periods all of you are currently in so I can have an idea just how impossible this whole… impossibility… is… [… yeah even HE’S getting confused, now]
Third Person:
Eleven smiled as he watched Amy and Rory canoodle their way down the hallway to their bedroom. He had been apprehensive when he first realized he’d be traveling with a married couple – and that was well before he discovered their connection to River. River. Oh River River River- woman of intrigue, mystery and spoilers hidden within a TARDIS blue journal. River Song, the girl who waited and the Last Centurion. How he always managed to find these people he didn’t know.
He spun a lazy circle, looking around the empty console room. Thoughts whirled in his head as he turned. So many things had happened in such a precise order to bring him to this point. And so many things yet to come. He paused, tugging the mysterious blue envelope from his jacket pocket. To interfere in his own timeline. It was a drastic move – precisely the type he was prone to. However, there’s a difference between drastic and deadly. He could have destroyed the universe to save his own life. Something he can’t even do, not without unweaving the fabric of time itself. One thing was certain – he was going to have to come up with something completely brilliant and, let’s face it, that’s what he’s best at.
Like a tightly wound spring he suddenly let loose, leaping towards the console. He spun knobs, hit buttons and typed coordinates into the typewriter. He had about a century left to live, what was he doing moping around?
He smiled, watching the glass pedestal rise and fall in the center of the console and whispered to himself, “Geronimo.”
Player LJ:
eternalferretWay to contact you: Plurk, email, AIM or PM
Email: eternalferret@gmail.com
AIM: eternalferret
Other: Plurk: eternalferret
Are you at least 15?: Y.
Current Characters: Pepper Potts, Nick Fury, Agent Jay
Character: Eleventh Doctor
Fandom: Doctor Who
Character Notes:
I played Eleven for about 2 and a half years in another game. It’s not nearly as applicable anymore but here’s a link to his application that was written after Series 5 Episode 2 (Wow I still can’t believe I apped him that fast).
Also, with the Doctor comes all the wibbly wobbly timey wimey world hopping goodness that is the TARDIS. So, yeah, there is that.
History:
((OOC Note: The Doctor has been alive for thousands of years (no matter what he says). Needless to say, that’s a great deal of life to go through. For brevity…ish (and sanity’s) sake I’m going to primarily stick with the history of his current regeneration.))
The Doctor was born on the planet Gallifrey
Through the centuries he’s had many companions and countless adventures and he cherishes each and every memory. Well… almost all of them. Time Lords’ bodies are miracles. From their binary vascular system to their incredible brains and everything in between behind and around they are incredible beings. One ability Time Lords have is the ability to regenerate. When a Time Lord is near death, whether naturally or through injury of some kind, they regenerate – transform into an entirely different person. They have different appearances, different mannerisms, different tastes, everything. The Doctor has regenerated ten times, bringing him to his Eleventh incarnation. Of course, within this regeneration he’s died a couple of more times but we’ll get to that later.
One of the most significant events in the Doctor’s previous regnenerations is the Time War. It was the last great Time War between the Time Lords and the Daleks. A war for time itself. Needless to say it didn’t end well. Well… what war does? In this case there was no discernable end in sight and the only way to stop the war was to put the entire shebang into a Time Lock, seal it from time to save the rest of the Universe. The Doctor made the hardest decision of his life that day. He not only destroyed the Daleks (or so he thought) but he destroyed his own people. Gallifrey was lost and he was left – the last of the Time Lords. It’s unknown how he actually regenerated from his eighth to his ninth regenerations, but it’s safe to assume it had something to do with the end of the war.
His ninth regeneration was brooding and snarky, his tenth cheeky and unrelenting. He received a prophecy about when he would regenerate again. He was told “he will knock four times.” Now, with everything that was going on – the Master duplicating himself all over the world, Gallifrey trying to break out of the time lock, Rassilon going batshit insane – one would think those would have had something to do with his regeneration. But no. The “he” in this case was Donna’s loving grandfather, Wilf, knocking to be let out of the radiation chamber before it was flooded with radiation.
Radiation poisoning is NOT a fun way to go.
One explosive regeneration and destroyed TARDIS later we get Eleven. He crash lands into Amelia Pond’s garden, and works his way into her heart with fish fingers and custard and a promise to take her to see the stars. Thirteen years later he makes good on that promise… even if he got a cricket bat to the face for his troubles. The Atraxi he meets on that fateful day tells him that “silence will fall.” Cryptic, right? Yeah, he had no idea what that meant so he just filed it away for future reference.
Now this is when shit gets crazy. Not only are the Daleks back (no really where the hell have they been?) and evolved themselves into this new crazy technicolor version of themselves but River Song sweeps back into his life in a most spectacular way bringing him to a ship filled with, yep, you guessed it, Weeping Angels. There are cracks all over the universe, cracks in time and space and they seem to be wiping things out of existence. And something big is supposed to happen… on Amy Pond’s wedding day. Whaaaaaaaaat?
There’s clearly something about Amy (and not just the fact that she totally wants the Doctor.) So the Doctor snatches Rory from his bachelor party (jumping out of cakes wooot!) and makes their merry duo a trio. Cue some vampires and a psychedelic pollen that makes the Doctor’s subconscious into a twisted madman called the Dream Lord and we’ve got ourselves a party.
So it turns out that those cracks in time? Totally the TARDIS exploding and tearing apart the universe. Also? It’s totally NOT the Doctor’s fault. But that fact seems to elude the cunning minds of… every bad guy the Doctor has ever taken out. Yeeaaah it turns out that they all had a meeting and decided that the Doctor was going to destroy the universe so they had to put him in a box. No really. They used stuff from Amy’s subconscious to bring the Doctor to Stonehenge at the right time to open the Pandorica. The Pandorica had always just been a myth about a tomb containing the most vicious warrior who ever lived. Turns out it was built to be a prison for the Doctor. He gets stuffed in a box by representatives of every race he’s ever defeated in any way. It’s really kind of epic and touching in a weird sort of way. Wibbly wobbly timey wimey and he shows up outside the box with a fez and a mop and a vortex manipulator to give Rory some very easy to follow instructions for how to get his Time Lord butt out of there. Long story short (too late) he’s nearly killed by a Dalek, saves both Amy and River’s lives, shoots himself into the heart of the explodey TARDIS and saves the day… and wipes himself out of existence. But not to worry, Amy remembers him and brings him back just in time to dance the Drunken Giraffe at her wedding!
Christmas is business as usual – Amy and Rory on their honey moon, stuck on a doomed cruise liner while Eleven becomes the Ghost of Christmas Past to melt the heart of a stuck up old man so he can save the day. Oh and the screwdriver gets eaten by a shark… sigh.
Fast forward through his ridiculous escapades waving to the Ponds through history and we come to Eleven getting a mysterious blue envelope sending him to a restaurant in America. There he meets his very confused companions… and gets slapped by River. No one will tell him anything except he has to go to 1969 to find a man named Canton Everett Delaware III. As much as he hates being in the dark he’s forced to trust Amy and go along with it. And in doing so one of the mysteries of his life is solved. He meets the Silence, thus explaining “silence will fall.” Nasty beings that erase themselves from your memory the moment you look away (and thus millions of paranoid television viewers were born). With the help of Canton and Richard Nixon, Eleven manages to save the day (again).
Eleven’s recent escapades have been numerous but the most significant ones include meeting the TARDIS. No, really, someone took the soul out of the TARDIS and put it in a human body. There have also been pirates, a duplicate Doctor, Hitler and a child’s nightmares among other things.
The largest thing learned is the fact that River Song is, in fact, Amy and Rory’s daughter. Not only that, but she’s a “daughter of the TARDIS” and had the power to regenerate as a Time Lord. Oh and she was kidnapped at birth and raised for the sole purpose of killing the Doctor. When River Song – born Melody Pond – was taken, Eleven swore he would find her. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to keep that promise. She grew up as Amy and Rory’s childhood friend until she finally meets the Doctor and, well, kills him. But while he’s dying of the poison she’d infected him with he manages to touch her heart and change it enough for her to give him her remaining regenerations and save his life. That won’t be enough, however, to keep the mysterious woman who’d taken her in the first place from forcing River to do what she’d been conditioned to do. The question is – will Eleven be clever enough to figure out a way to thwart that?
Personality:
The Doctor is a difficult person to break down in terms of personality and history since one is so entirely wound up and dependant on the other. He is a mysterious enigma known only to those he chooses to become close to, and even then it’s often limited. Everything about him is carefully guarded - his origins, his age, even his name. But that doesn’t prevent him from being absolutely and unequivocally brilliant.
To start – the Doctor gives his age as 909. This is most certainly not true. Between the ages given by previous incarnations and the sheer multitude of things he’s been through he is more likely thousands of years old. Headcanon (and an interview with Steven Moffat) says that he has long since forgotten how old he really is so any age given is a grossly reduced estimate. Besides, who wants to tell people they’ve just met that they’re millennia old? And with a face like his? Pssh.
The Doctor is on his eleventh incarnation. A previous incarnation (the Fifth) stated that Time Lords only had 13. However, Eleven’s own experiences (particularly River giving him her regenerations) bring this into question. Whether or not he will be able to regenerate beyond lucky number 13 remains to be seen but regardless of this fact he knows his life has likely passed the midpoint and nothing lasts forever… not even Time Lords. Granted, by his current canon point he has already died once and been wiped out of existence once but who’s counting? Needless to say he’s begun to think more about mortality, his own as well as that of those around him. The fact that he has a file showing the date and location of his death isn’t helping ease his fears at all – especially taking into account that it’s only about 100 years in his future. Time is running out fast. The question is what to do with the time he has left.
Generally speaking the Doctor is Peter Pan. He swoops in, eternally young despite his years talking of fantastic far away lands and adventures before whisking his young friends off to see the stars. When Amy Pond becomes the newest in a long line of lovely female companions he doesn’t even ask, assuming without question that she’d come along for the ride. And when she says she’s grown up he assures her that he’ll soon fix that. It’s been some time since Amy and Rory started traveling with the Doctor and he hasn’t grown up a bit. From becoming a grumpy old man’s ghost of Christmas past to adding a lemonade tap and dancing furniture to a dusty old house he strives to charm his way into everyone’s inner child’s heart – whether they like it or not.
However, that childlike exterior is often used as a disarming ruse to cover up for the Oncoming Storm that lay just below the surface. It takes a great deal to bring shades of anger and darkness rising through the flailing and sharp sarcastic remarks. But when it does it would be a good idea for whoever brought out that side of the Doctor to run to the other side of the universe and fast. You do not put him in a trap, you do not mess with Earth, you do not put innocent people in danger and, above all, you do not mess with those he loves. He will put everything he is, everything he has on the line to save the day and keep everyone safe. There is nothing that can stop him, not so long as he has one shred of hope and the faintest glimmer of a plan. He also has no fear of stepping face to face with whatever the big bad of the week is and introducing himself and telling them precisely what he plans to do and give them a chance to change their mind. Oftentimes his name will be enough to strike fear into the hearts and minds of baddies everywhere. Of course… that’s been becoming a bit of a problem.
The Doctor is currently in one of his most manic incarnations, yet. He races from place to place with all of the enthusiasm of a sugar high five year old at Disneyland. He gestures as he speaks, often only looking directly at the person he’s speaking to if they’ve said something very important or it’s an otherwise Very Serious Moment. He rambles on regardless of whether or not anyone’s actively listening and darts around rooms touching and playing with everything. To the untrained observer he’s rude, annoying and has no attention span to speak of. In actuality he uses that time to learn about his new surroundings by poking, prodding, looking at (and, yes, tasting) everything while people are distracted by his rambling. He also uses it to buy time to size up the people around him, whether they’re possible companions or enemies. He also has a habit of working through thoughts and problems out loud, much to the confusion of whoever’s within earshot. At some points he may appear as if he’s talking directly to them or asking them questions. However, if they attempt to answer or contribute they may find themselves with a finger on their lips as he continues rambling away.
The Doctor is not annoyed or put off when others step up to contribute answers or solutions, or just to be downright clever. In fact he applauds and encourages it… when he’s not on a tear of his own that is. He loves how brilliant people can be and when someone else – especially a human – turns out to be clever and not just follow him blindly he lights up and they immediately move to the top of his list of favorite people. That’s part of how he chooses his companions. They have to be able to stand up and figure things out – or at least try to. Even if one of his rules is “don’t wander off” he’d much prefer a companion who does. For example – Rory was nothing more than Amy’s boyfriend until he began showing initiative, striking out on his own and going against the Doctor. At that point he became a companion in his own right.
For all his happy aspects there is still a great amount of sadness in the Doctor. Since the Time War he has changed a great deal, the pain receding a little more with each regeneration. However, as it’s pointed out, wherever the Doctor goes death is sure to follow. As loathe as he is to admit it there has been a great deal of death in his very long life, much of it because of him or as a result (direct or indirect) of his actions. This has affected him more than he outwardly shows. He has had a hand in the destruction of the Time Lords (twice. Even if the second time was mostly the Master’s doing), the Daleks multiple times (which he doesn’t regret) and untold numbers of others. He’s had a hand in Pompeii, was at the Titanic and his actions have caused riots, death and wars whether he intended them to or not. Each death weighs heavily on his hearts and that’s part of why he does what he does – to save as many lives as he can to help ease that immense burden. Even he doesn’t know the extent of the damage he’s done. They say a butterfly flapping its wings can cause a hurricane a hemisphere away. Who knows what the wake of the TARDIS has brought.
One of the largest of the swords hanging over his head has two words carved into it – River Song. They’ve each changed the other a great deal without even meaning to. The spoilers they hold have slowly directed the other’s life. The worst tragedy is the fact that he holds the largest spoiler of them all – how she dies. At first he was reluctant to admit that she would become more than a beautiful mystery who would cross his path from time to time. But through the years she has become so much more. She’s killed him, kissed him, saved him, tormented him, confused him and, soon, will marry him. It took him a long time to admit it but he does love River Song and he is doing everything he can to make sure she has the best life possible before her trip to the library.
One thing the Doctor has said through his regenerations (particularly since the Time War) is that he doesn’t do domestic. However, he has slowly been proving himself wrong. He didn’t want to admit it to himself but the Ponds have become family – even before they become his in-laws. He cares deeply about them and has become increasingly worried about the danger they’re consistently putting themselves in because of him. He knows it’s their choice but he also knows they won’t be the first ones to say “when” and walk away. With the knowledge of his own mortality hanging over his head he has a large decision to make, he just doesn’t know if he’s really ready to let go of the first family he’s had in a very long time.
On the whole Eleven is childlike, impulsive, brash, sarcastic, genius, independent and fiercely loyal. He’s young at heart, yet still incredibly old. While he keeps a hold on what youth he has he is becoming increasingly aware of his own mortality and how fragile it may be. As willing as he is to sacrifice himself to save the universe he is terrified of the idea that this time it may be for good. He simultaneously wants to cling onto the family he’s grown to love and push them away so he can find some way to die, yet save his own life. It’s bringing many things into focus, including the fact that maybe, just maybe, the universe does need to lose the Doctor.
Additional Links:
The Doctor’s page on the TARDIS wikia
First Person (entry type):
[The feed flickers on Eleven’s smiling face in the console room. He waggles his fingers in a wave]
Hullooo everyone out there in Duckland! Though not the actual Duckland. That would be embarrassing. I had a rather unfortunate experience with the Prime Minister, his pet Aenid, a loaf of bread and a sponge. [He pauses, cringing as he remembers the incident for a moment. Ahem. He claps, grin plastered on his face once again.]
But that is not what I wanted to talk to you all about. I was curious, actually, about how many worlds are represented in this community. Aside from the fact that the entire idea of an internet community branching out through worlds, universes and even time is absolutely impossible the amount of energy that would be necessary to allow something like that to exist is even less possible. Like a sort of… double impossible. Or an impossible squared. [He pauses, thinking about this possibility… or impossibility as it were]
Anyway! I’d really like to know what worlds and time periods all of you are currently in so I can have an idea just how impossible this whole… impossibility… is… [… yeah even HE’S getting confused, now]
Third Person:
Eleven smiled as he watched Amy and Rory canoodle their way down the hallway to their bedroom. He had been apprehensive when he first realized he’d be traveling with a married couple – and that was well before he discovered their connection to River. River. Oh River River River- woman of intrigue, mystery and spoilers hidden within a TARDIS blue journal. River Song, the girl who waited and the Last Centurion. How he always managed to find these people he didn’t know.
He spun a lazy circle, looking around the empty console room. Thoughts whirled in his head as he turned. So many things had happened in such a precise order to bring him to this point. And so many things yet to come. He paused, tugging the mysterious blue envelope from his jacket pocket. To interfere in his own timeline. It was a drastic move – precisely the type he was prone to. However, there’s a difference between drastic and deadly. He could have destroyed the universe to save his own life. Something he can’t even do, not without unweaving the fabric of time itself. One thing was certain – he was going to have to come up with something completely brilliant and, let’s face it, that’s what he’s best at.
Like a tightly wound spring he suddenly let loose, leaping towards the console. He spun knobs, hit buttons and typed coordinates into the typewriter. He had about a century left to live, what was he doing moping around?
He smiled, watching the glass pedestal rise and fall in the center of the console and whispered to himself, “Geronimo.”