Guest contributor Aaron Young shares his views on the subject.
In the Series 9 Finale, Hell Bent, Ashildr poses an interesting question:
“Tell me, Doctor, I’ve always wondered. You’re a Time Lord, you’re a high-born Gallifreyan. Why is it you spend so much time on Earth?”
Now, we all know the real-world reasons for this. Obviously, the show is made by humans for humans, and we like to feature ourselves. The budget also limits the amount of alien worlds and characters we can see in a given season. However, I’m not really interested in the real-world reasons; it’s the in-story explanation for those facts that intrigues me. Why does the Doctor, a high-born member of the super-advanced Gallifreyan race spend so much time on primitive, 20-21st century Earth? Well, I have a theory, and it isn’t because the Doctor is half-human.
The reason that the Doctor spends so much time here is because He is fond of humans. He genuinely loves humanity and the people that comprise it. This love truly came about, I believe, while the Third Doctor (a true favorite of mine) was forced to spend a lot of time on Earth in exile. However, this simple answer begs a simple question: why does the Doctor care about us? After a careful analysis of the show, the Doctor’s character, and the Doctor’s relationship with both humanity and the Time Lords, I have come to the conclusion that the reason the Doctor spends so much time on Earth and with humans is because they remind him of the Time Lords. My theory is that the Doctor sees in humans the amazing potential the Time Lords have wasted and wants to make sure humanity doesn’t squander their potential as they did. As the Doctor has stated in the past, humans “look Time Lord,” and the combination of our physical resemblance with our similar potential for grand achievement has led the Doctor to see in us what the Time Lords could have been: a universe-spanning force for good that always adapts and survives.
This is especially poignant after the Time War when the Doctor is reeling from Gallifrey’s destruction. We find the Ninth Doctor (one of my all-time favorites, I might add) in Series 1 in the throes of intense anger and grief as a result of the Time War. He is dealing with the new reality that he is the last of his kind, and it is his fault. He seeks out humanity and uses our similarities to help assuage his pain which eventually helps him begin to heal. This potentially serves as an in story explanation for why Series 1 spends 30% of its episodes in modern day Earth and why 100% are on or in orbit around our planet and its people. The revival series Doctors spend time with humans and on Earth, in part, because they are using us to help cope with their grief.
Evidence for this can also be seen in the classic series, where the Doctor shows a similar fondness for our people and a contrasting disdain for his own. While the Nu-Who Doctors sought out humanity to fill the void left by the Time Lords’ apparent demise, the Classic Doctors did so because they could not tolerate their people’s corruption, greed, stagnation, or complacency. This was never made clearer than when the Sixth Doctor (yet another favorite of mine) berated the Time Lords for their corruption during his trial in The Ultimate Foe:
In all my travelling throughout the universe, I have battled against evil, against power-mad conspirators. I should have stayed here. The oldest civilisation: decadent, degenerate, and rotten to the core. Power-mad conspirators, Daleks, Sontarans, Cybermen – they’re still in the nursery compared to us. Ten million years of absolute power. That’s what it takes to be really corrupt!
The Doctor never remained on Gallifrey because he disagreed, to put it lightly, with their way of life. He found in humanity, however, a species of similar biology that strived for the same ideals that he did. Humanity wanted to explore, to learn, to strive for achievements and knowledge just as the Doctor did, and, because of this, he found us to be very agreeable travel companions.
There is an element of a self-fulfilling prophecy in this. The Doctor spends so much time with humanity because he loves our species, but he loves our species as a result of how much time he’s spent here. Likewise, the Doctor’s efforts to help us excel have caused him to spend a lot of time on Earth, and the Doctor spends a lot of time on Earth because he has, as the Eleventh Doctor (one of my other all-time favorites) says on multiple occasions, “put a lot of work into it.” He put a lot of work into Earth because he loves it, and he loves it because he put a lot of work into it. This may seem like the logical fallacy of begging the question (using the thing you are trying to prove as proof for itself) but it’s actually an ever-increasing loop of love that started when the Time Lords exiled the Doctor to Earth. Whilst there, he developed a relationship with humanity that started this circular loop, a loop that increases the love and respect of both parties for each other.
The Doctor’s relationship with humanity has allowed Doctor Who to save money and place ourselves in the spotlight while also providing an interesting way to analyze both ourselves as a species and the Doctor as a character. It is the human focus that lets the show’s writers comment on what makes humanity both virtuous and depraved and try to inspire us to achieve our best. The Doctor sees humanity as what he wishes the Time Lords were, and so he helps us see the species that we can be and supports us as we strive to achieve those heights. When he lost his people, he gained a new one in ours. That is why I think the Doctor spends so much time on Earth.
“This is my world, too. I walk your Earth. I breathe your air”.
– The Twelfth Doctor (my favorite, favorite), In the Forest of the Night
So, what do you think? Got any theories of your own? Sound off and let us know in the comments below!
