Human is as human does, ma'am

[scarfman]

I had occasion to post a portion of this stock essay of mine in an LJ comment today, which made me realize I've never posted it here before.

The "Not everything Doctor Who characters say is true" continuity patch is useful in debunking one or two contradictions in an otherwise unambiguous set of data. But if you go applying it arbitrarily to anything you just don't like, you might as well apply it to everything and admit that it's all fiction anyway. Not that it isn't, but there you are.

It's one thing to apply it to, e.g., the Doctor's single mention of TARDIS isomorphism in Pyramids of Mars, when there are many examples of other people successfully operating the TARDIS.

It's another to apply it instance-by-instance to every occurrence of the phrase half-human in Season 1996: "He was wrong there." "He was lying here." "He was joking that time." "It's part of a scam." "It's just a coincidence that they both say it." "Now this contradicts something the examining physician said in Episode 2 of Enemy of the Wheel in 1967." "I looked in the almanac and the moon wasn't full that night." ...

Whether the Doctor's physiology is part human is an ambiguous question - he doesn't seem to have grown a second heart until Spearhead from Space, and seemed to be otherwise indistinguishable from human to a physician on at least one occasion before then (Moonbase I think Wheel in Space according to a comment below) and to Ian Chesterton taking his pulse (whereas when Turlough took his pulse Tegan had to explain).

The "Not everything" school in this case answers no old questions while uselessly generating new ones. The new questions generated by denying the Doctor to be half human can only retcon; as in, "Then why did he say it? Then why did the Master also say it? Then what about the retina and Eye of Harmony things?"

The reason accepting the Doctor to be half human is smarter is that it generates new questions that point to whole new stories; for starters, "How the hell could a Time Lord and an Earthwoman happen to have a baby?"

And as for the complaint, "The Americans had to have a half-human Doctor because of the Spock precedent": that strikes me as gross ignorance ("gross" as in "substantial" and "gross" as in "icky"). Contemporary folklore heroes have always been part-human. Hercules was half-human. Gilgamesh was 1/3-human (now there's a neat trick). Merlin was half-human. Merlin! Matt Jacobs didn't make the Doctor half-human, Ben Aaronovitch did.

crossposted to doctorwho

Comments

[devi42.livejournal.com]

I’m actually rather intrigued by the idea of a half human Doctor and I think it explains why he tends to be drawn to Earth and human companions (personally, I don’t buy the theory that it’s because he developed a liking while in exile).

I think it’s rather easy for people to shrug of the mention in the movie as a plot element to reel in Americans (after all, they had likely included the romance angle and setting for that purpose). I don’t however, think that was the case.

[elliptic-eye.livejournal.com]

Whether the Doctor's physiology is part human is an ambiguous question - he doesn't seem to have grown a second heart until Spearhead from Space, and seemed to be otherwise indistinguishable from human to a physician on at least one occasion before then (Moonbase I think)

The Wheel in Space, if memory serves. Further to the ambiguity, though, he somehow got it past the majority of Royal Hope hospital. That a wink worked on Martha was unusual enough; it's hard to buy it working on a series of intake nurses.

Merlin! Matt Jacobs didn't make the Doctor half-human, Ben Aaronovitch did.

Interesting point—though with Romana trying on an alien physiology or two, is Terry Nation actually responsible?

[qtrhorserider.livejournal.com]

Actually, if you browse through a book called The Nth Doctor, about the movie scripts that were worked on but never made, the idea that the Doctor was/is half human goes back a long ways. I'm trying to work some of that into my fic at the moment.

These are scripts commissioned and accepted by the Beeb, but for one reason or another, the projects were dropped. It was interesting to see how one morphed into the other with each successive project until we end up with the Eighth Doctor. So, it isn't a distinctly American prediliction, since these scripts had British authors.

According to the book, his mum's name was Annaliese.

[gillyp.livejournal.com]

The point is the canon *is* very contradictory and people will have what they like. If you like half-human have it, if you don't like it, there really are a myriad of ways to enable you to successfully junk it.

It really isn't important, you know. (o:

[wiseacre.livejournal.com]

The half-human thing was a bit of a shock, but I've quite warmed to the idea. I wonder if David Tennant uses it in his characterization? My cousin showed me the film at Xmas and since then it's added a new dimension to the stories and his performances.

[uncledark.livejournal.com]

Thanks for pointing me here, Paul.

In a comment to another post, I said that I liked to think that the Doctor was lying about being half human. I was at least half joking, there.

I suspect you and I may have differing attitudes towards canon in Doctor Who. Personally, I don't think there is any, at least not in the common fandom sense of "a single coherent timeline of really true events."

I prefer to approach it as a series of more or less random stories the Doctor is telling to an audience down at the pub. Sure, what he said in tonight's story contradicts one from last week, but who cares? Buy the man a beer and let him get on with tonight's story...

[scarfman]

I suspect you and I may have differing attitudes towards canon in Doctor Who. Personally, I don't think there is any, at least not in the common fandom sense of "a single coherent timeline of really true events."

No, we're quite in agreement on that, as you may see from this other essay of mine over this way. Based on observation of yourself and myself, I posit that the relaxed attitude toward the half-human issue and toward canon may be causal from the latter to the former.

That doesn't mean people who think the Doctor was kidding don't have additional explaining to do, even if it's only, "I ignore that." "I deny your reality and substitute my own." "I'm not listening la la la la la la la la."

Thanks for reading.

[uncledark.livejournal.com]

heh.

Actually, reading that essay several months ago is what helped to crystalize my thoughts on canon in Doctor Who, as written here (http://uncledark.livejournal.com/289558.html).

And so it comes full circle...

[scarfman]

I stand corrected. Actually, I kinda thought I'd linked you there before. Thanks for reading.