Doctor who is a TV show, whose protagonist is an alien called the Doctor. He travels through time and space, saving lives on his various adventures. He has two hearts thanks to alien biology, but his extra heart is more than just a genetic feature, it is also symbolic of that extra emotion, compassion and empathy he is capable of feeling.
He tries to do the right thing, tries to do good by people, tries to follow the rules a good man never has too and in that way he is an alien more ‘human’ and more humane than humans themselves.
And even though he’s always the doctor, he keeps evolving both mentally and physically and we the audience evolve with him, we learn as he learns. His alien biology allows him to renew his body.
His face and persona keep changing, allowing us to view new aspects of him along with his old aspects in new lights throughout the years and thus not getting bored of the same, but not the same, character. This also keeps re-emphasizing the good we can do in society by constantly learning from the doctor.
He can be both a hero and a villain, though for most of us he’s a hero, a saviour, even if he’s just pretending to be one we feel empowered. He carries a very technologically advanced screwdriver in lieu of a gun or a sword or any other weapon.
When under attack, he points he screwdriver at the weapons, as if to say ‘you want to hurt me but I want to help you’. This shows that he is more concerned with constructing than destructing, that he doesn’t want to harm people, but to fix them if possible, truly bringing out the promise behind his self-assigned name: The Doctor; a healer, not a warrior. We should learn to do the same globally.
Similarly, his mode of travel, is not in the shape of a tank or a warship, but a in the form of a ‘Call Box’, free for anyone to call on for help.
It symbolizes his approachability and his willingness to aid people. The ‘Call Box’ shows the connections and relationship between the Doctor and the people.
He’s also a person carrying around huge amounts of guilt and pain from all the tough and bad choices he’s had to make and live with. The burden and emotion, perhaps stronger because of his extra heart, makes his shoulders slump due to their sheer weight and erode away at parts of him. This guilt though makes him pick up his screwdriver and save the people he can; people he won’t have to let down; so that others won’t have to go through what he did or what his planet did; so that if he pretends to be a hero, other people inspired by him can be heroes in his name.
He still can’t seem to fix himself and his grey past and so tries to fix and empower others. But in the end he’s always left alone, everyone leaves and he goes back to the universe, still trying to save it. His not giving up after everything he’s been through can inspire us to do the same and trudge on even in the most difficult of situations. Critically assessing this alien, he still seems more human and humane than humans and thus we should learn from him.
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