Regeneration can be a tricky business, not just for a Time Lord but also for all those new Whovians who are about to lose their Doctor. Guest contributor Stacy Embry is one of them...
"...his name is the Doctor. If you love him, and you should, help him" emotes companion Clara Oswin Oswald to the crack in the wall. The doctor had just gone to face his bitter foe, the Daleks, and meet his death with diginity. In The Night of the Doctor, this character defends her doctor.
Many people, myself included, found the regeneration of the eleventh a distasteful mulligan stew of the Doctor's enemies. A fairytale narration spoon fed this weak broth leaving Matt Smith's tour de force performance languishing in an unsatisfying soup. He deserved more. We deserved more and I'm standing up with those who came on board during his tenure who are, frankly, screamingly angry. Not at Moffat or Capaldi---but at the Doctor.
Huh?
Yes, we are mad at a fictional character. He's our friend---our hero and a pure light of joy and hope in an often darkened world. "We never walk away..." Eleven tells Clara in her first adventure on Akhaten. So why did the series walk away from him? Many of us felt a rush to judgment to make room for twelve. Why?
It doesn't matter why, we've learned what long-time fans know-- that's the nature of the beast, (a term applied to Capaldi's Doctor before we've fully met him), and we are Clara. Tossed aside so Amy Pond can say goodbye. Lost as Eleven humbly exits and horrified as Twelve stares us down. But we are there in the TARDIS. We are onboard in a battle for our lives.
I have no history with Doctor Who. I don't know how long I can tolerate the change, but I've chosen to meet Twelve. I don't want to do so. I want my Eleven back. I don't want anyone else to comfort Clara. She should always be angry, right? After all, her Doctor left her, and therefore, us. But we left her alone with this stranger and I can't abandon her, too.
That seems to be what I read in fan fiction, in op-ed pieces and the myriad of articles posted about Doctor Who. Everyone says that after we've bonded we can't just walk away. We can't leave him or her. The Doctor lives. No matter how we feel about it, he doesn't leave us because he regenerates. Twelve has Eleven's memories and so do we. Longtime fans have all their Doctor's memories, too. Our beloved gentle wizened supermodel has become a old man. But, it's him...and we love our Eleven and his Clara.
Ultimately, we need to give him a chance. So yes, Clara, there is a Doctor. He is time tested, occasionally experience poor, but usually entertaining and wise. He exists only if we believe in him, but as in all valued concepts such as love, joy, fear and loyalty--we must be true to the intent of the Doctor. If you believe he exists, then can he ever really be gone? Yes he can, because if we quit watching, we become the thing that kills him.
Stacy is a new Who fan. She came on-board with The Snowmen and binged Matt Smith's catalog--even using him in her classroom. An Educational Psychologist and Drama Director, Stacy teaches secondary education in Indianapolis, IN.
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