Of Wizards and Time-Lords

[Zigûr]

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

I would have chosen a different verb for what Peter Jackson did with (or to) Tolkien's characters - distort and denigrate come to mind

Again, I was merely trying to use neutral language

Originally Posted by Pitchwife

To get a little more back on topic, the Doctor of New Who hasn't been free of moments of hubris ("Time Lord Victorious" in The Waters of Mars), and last season's The Girl Who Died / The Woman Who Lived showed him saving a girl's life with not so pleasant consequences for the girl. I've been thinking about what his desire to save people might turn him into if unchecked by companions, Time Lords and his own wisdom, and was reminded of Gandalf if he had taken the Ring - still doing good, but making good itself seem hateful. What do you think?

I think this also serves as an interesting comparison. I wonder if in Classic Doctor Who the Doctor is more like characters like Gandalf, Galadriel or Faramir who deny that kind of power? One sequence which came to mind is this humorous exchange from the end of Season 16 serial "The Armageddon Factor" in which the Doctor has reassembled the fabled "Key to Time":

The Doctor : "We have the power to do anything we like. Absolute power over every particle in the universe. Everything that has ever existed and ever will exist. As from this moment - are you listening to me Romana?"

Romana : "Yes of course I'm listening..."

The Doctor : "Because if you're not listening, I can make you listen. Because I can do anything. As from this moment there's no such thing as free will in the entire universe. There's only my will because I possess the Key to Time."

Romana : "Doctor, are you all right?"

The Doctor : "Well of course I'm all right... but supposing I wasn't all right?"

The Doctor, despite being threatened by the evil Black Guardian, then scatters the pieces of the Key across space and time once again so that no one can wield that power.
Similarly, at the end of Season 6 and during Season 23, when the Doctor is put on trial for his actions of "interference", as the audience we are positioned to strongly side with the Doctor. It's only in the New Series that the Doctor is shown as going "too far", which is typically the domain of villains in Professor Tolkien's work. At the most the idea of the hero going "too far" in Middle-earth might be comparable to Boromir, but unlike the Doctor (or the characters who resist the Ring's temptation) he's more of a warrior than a man of wisdom (although the New Series would often like to sell us on the idea that the Doctor is a "warrior" but personally I consider this a misinterpretation of the original character on the part of the modern writers; note that even in Series 5 of the New Series the Doctor described himself as a "space Gandalf", but the writers fell back on a more "dramatic" idea of "the Doctor as a warrior" by the end of that Series and for Series 6, parts of 7 and parts of 8).