The Familiar Face Doctor Who Theory Part 2
Why does the Doctor have a face so familiar? In thinking about Ashildr, a major epiphany hits him. The moment has to be one of the most epic scenes in all of Moffat’s time as showrunner.
“I’m so sick of losing,” the Doctor tells Clara. But losing what? He’s “sick of losing people.”
I love that, again, this really goes back to series 4 after he lost both Rose and Donna. Although, I’m sure this references the later companions as well, there IS still something very series 4 about this scene as we soon learn…
He continues to explain to Clara that one day he will lose her too, that it will be painful:
“One day… the memory of that will hurt so much that I won’t be able to breathe, and I’ll do what I always do. I’ll get in my box and I’ll run and I’ll run, in case all the pain ever catches up — and every place I go, it will be there.”
The Doctor is always on the run because he can’t face the pain of all that loss; the Time Lord always alone in his long life. But seeing as how this episode is extremely reminiscent of series 4, the Doctor then turns semi-Time Lord Victorious.
Consequences and Time Lord Victorious
After Clara comforts the Doctor by saying there was nothing he could have done to save Ashildr, the Doctor becomes angry and arrogant. He says:
DOCTOR: I can do… anything. There’s nothing I can’t do. Nothing. But I’m not supposed to. Ripples, tidal waves, rules… I’m not supposed to.”
The Doctor here reminds me of the 10th Doctor in “The Water of Mars” when he haughtily begins spouting how he doesn’t have to follow rules, refusing to accept any consequences of his actions (changing a fixed moment in time just because he could). It should be noted that “The Water of Mars” also references “The Fires of Pompeii:”
DOCTOR: Imagine, imagine you knew something. Imagine you found yourself somewhere. I don’t know, Pompeii. Imagine you were in Pompeii.
ADELAIDE: What the hell’s that got to do with it?
DOCTOR: And you tried to save them. But in doing so, you make it happen. Anything I do just makes it happen.
In “The Water of Mars,” the Doctor also returns to some memories in his mind, memories that help him make one of his darkest choices:
“I’m not just a Time Lord, I’m the Last of the Time Lords…. They’ll never come back. Not now…. I’ve got a Tardis. Same old life, last of the Time Lords…. And they died and took it all with them…. The walls of reality closed, the worlds were sealed, gone forever. The Time Lords kept their eye on everything. It’s gone now. But they died, the Time Lords! All of them, they died. I’m the last of the Time Lords.”
With these thoughts, he attempts to change a fixed moment in time. The Doctor arrogantly claims:
DOCTOR: For a long time now, I thought I was just a survivor, but I’m not. I’m the winner. That’s who I am. The Time Lord Victorious.
ADELAIDE: And there’s no one to stop you.
DOCTOR: No.
ADELAIDE: This is wrong, Doctor. I don’t care who you are. The Time Lord Victorious is wrong.
Here, the Doctor was wrong. Similarly, it is in the Doctor’s 10th Doctor like speech, that the Doctor then remembers why he believes he has this face. He remembers where it came from!
“I think I know why I chose it. It’s like I’m trying to tell myself something. I think I know what I’m trying to say.”
He remembers, “The Fires of Pompeii,” the moment when Donna asks the Doctor to “Just save someone.”
The flashback to this powerful scene just tugged at the heartstrings! Oh, Donna, how we’ve missed you! The Doctor then remembers saving the family, including the man of the face the Doctor now wears.
The Doctor tells Clara he knows why he chose this face. It’s, “To hold me to the mark. I’m the Doctor and I save people.” (Maybe this face can also work as a reminder for showrunner Moffat that he can actually references series 1-4 without changing his own vision for the series; it can also remind him of traits the Doctor presented in New Who we love and at times feel is lost or forgotten. But I digress…)
But he doesn’t stop there. While I loved this moment of revelation (including the Doctor’s reminder from a past companion like Donna that he needs to save people), the Doctor also makes a choice that may be considered dark, and again, a little Time Lord Victorious. He shouts to the skies since he is no longer the Last of the Timelords:
“And if anyone happens to be listening, and you’ve got any kind of a problem with that, to hell with you!”
Instead of being the victor, the Doctor just scorns rules and authority like the Byronic Hero he is.
And to save Ashildr (despite the so called rules), the Doctor reprograms a repairing medical tab from the Mire helmet and sticks it on her forehead. Dissolving into her skin, Ashildr is saved, the program constantly healing her. The Doctor made her immortal as she will constantly be repaired by the alien tech.