Missing the point?
1 Nov 2017 11:15 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ebenbrooksA friend of mine and I recently had occasion to discuss Doctor Who. He does not like Doctor Who, and he believes it is a poorly-written show. His argument was that the Doctor consistently acts in an irresponsible and reckless way and really should have destroyed the timestream with all of his antics by now, and the fact that he hadn't was, in his opinion, just lazy writing. Interestingly enough, he offered The Flash as a counterpoint, saying that, although Barry does time-travel fairly extensively, there are usually consequences when he does. He rewrites history, creates paradoxes, breaks things, and often makes things worse when he's trying to make them better.
My counter-argument was, basically, "Different show, different rules, different audience." I wasn't upset about his not liking Doctor Who—it's anyone's prerogative to like or dislike anything, and arguing that someone should or should not like a given thing is usually useless—but I was a bit put off by his reasons for saying that it wasn't a good show. It took me a while to figure out why, though, and even longer to put it into coherent thought. But on my way to work this morning, I was able to mentally articulate my counter-argument more clearly.
The Flash has, basically, two central themes. The first is this: Sometimes, no matter how good your intentions, you're going to make bad choices ... and when you do, you have to live with the consequences. Barry makes a lot of bad decisions in The Flash. Sometimes he's able to correct the bad decision and fix what he broke, but other times he can't. And it's at those times, when he has to accept the fact that he screwed up and there's nothing he can do to fix it, that he becomes a better person. The second theme is this: No matter how badly you may have screwed up or how hopeless the situation seems, if you have even the slimmest chance of making things better, you have to try. Barry never gives up hope for long. Oh, sure, he may go through a crisis of conscience for an episode or two here and there, but he always comes back to himself. His driving emotion is hope, and that what makes him a powerful character.
These themes work well in the context of The Flash ... and they really don't work in the context of Doctor Who. The central theme in Doctor Who is not about choices, or consequences, or hope, but about the Doctor's overwhelming drive to save people. The Doctor is a man who, despite whatever quirk of personality his current incarnation displays, always tries to save people. His TARDIS takes him to where he's needed, often against his will, and when he finds out what's going on, he does everything he possibly can to save everyone, even if—heck, especially if—in doing so he puts himself in mortal peril. And yes, sometimes he breaks things. But they don't stay broken for long, because he fixes them, which is yet another aspect of his drive to save people. All people! Even the bad people, because he would rather redeem than destroy, even if the chance of redemption is extremely slim.*
For years, his greatest regret was the destruction of his home planet and his species, along with the Daleks. Even though he felt it was necessary in order to save the rest of the universe, he always considered it his greatest failure. And then he discovered that he hadn't actually destroyed them, just isolated them from the time stream and then made himself forget so that he wouldn't be tempted to bring them back and potentially endanger the rest of the universe again. This is another example of the Doctor's willingness to sacrifice himself for the greater good.
So to evaluate Doctor Who using the themes and values of The Flash is missing the point—just as evaluating The Flash using Doctor Who's themes is. From the point of view of The Flash, yes, the Doctor is a reckless maniac who screws with time willy-nilly in ways that should create ridiculous, possibly universe-ending paradoxes and temporal fractures, yet somehow doesn't, and so he comes across as a Deus ex Machina more often than not. But from the point of view of Doctor Who, the Flash is playing with forces he cannot possibly understand, and yet the one thing that he has tried hardest to do is the one thing that he has always failed at—saving his mother. The Flash's fans might say of Doctor Who "Where are the consequences of his actions?" But Doctor Who's fans might say of The Flash "What kind of hero gives up on saving someone?"
And both are wrong, because both are missing the point. If the Flash saved his mother, it would negate who he is as a character: a man who, despite all of the forces arrayed against him and all of the mistakes he has made and all of the people he has hurt, continues to hope for the best. And if the Doctor failed to save people, even if the reason for it was his own hubris or recklessness, that would also negate who he is as a character: the one who saves everyone. That's not just what he does, it is what defines him. The Doctor without this quality is not the Doctor, just as a Barry Allen who gives up hope in the face of long odds is not Barry Allen.
It's fine to not like something, and it's fine to not like it for reasons that may seem trivial or meaningless to others. But it's always a good idea to try to remain aware of when you're applying standards to it that are secondary or superfluous to its theme and purpose.
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*Yes, I am aware that the Doctor has killed people on many occasions and failed to save them on many others. Usually, there was a very, very good reason for his making those decisions, but not always. I chalk this up to the fact that it's a TV show, and not every writer for the show is in total agreement with each other as to the Doctor's central ethic.
My counter-argument was, basically, "Different show, different rules, different audience." I wasn't upset about his not liking Doctor Who—it's anyone's prerogative to like or dislike anything, and arguing that someone should or should not like a given thing is usually useless—but I was a bit put off by his reasons for saying that it wasn't a good show. It took me a while to figure out why, though, and even longer to put it into coherent thought. But on my way to work this morning, I was able to mentally articulate my counter-argument more clearly.
The Flash has, basically, two central themes. The first is this: Sometimes, no matter how good your intentions, you're going to make bad choices ... and when you do, you have to live with the consequences. Barry makes a lot of bad decisions in The Flash. Sometimes he's able to correct the bad decision and fix what he broke, but other times he can't. And it's at those times, when he has to accept the fact that he screwed up and there's nothing he can do to fix it, that he becomes a better person. The second theme is this: No matter how badly you may have screwed up or how hopeless the situation seems, if you have even the slimmest chance of making things better, you have to try. Barry never gives up hope for long. Oh, sure, he may go through a crisis of conscience for an episode or two here and there, but he always comes back to himself. His driving emotion is hope, and that what makes him a powerful character.
These themes work well in the context of The Flash ... and they really don't work in the context of Doctor Who. The central theme in Doctor Who is not about choices, or consequences, or hope, but about the Doctor's overwhelming drive to save people. The Doctor is a man who, despite whatever quirk of personality his current incarnation displays, always tries to save people. His TARDIS takes him to where he's needed, often against his will, and when he finds out what's going on, he does everything he possibly can to save everyone, even if—heck, especially if—in doing so he puts himself in mortal peril. And yes, sometimes he breaks things. But they don't stay broken for long, because he fixes them, which is yet another aspect of his drive to save people. All people! Even the bad people, because he would rather redeem than destroy, even if the chance of redemption is extremely slim.*
For years, his greatest regret was the destruction of his home planet and his species, along with the Daleks. Even though he felt it was necessary in order to save the rest of the universe, he always considered it his greatest failure. And then he discovered that he hadn't actually destroyed them, just isolated them from the time stream and then made himself forget so that he wouldn't be tempted to bring them back and potentially endanger the rest of the universe again. This is another example of the Doctor's willingness to sacrifice himself for the greater good.
So to evaluate Doctor Who using the themes and values of The Flash is missing the point—just as evaluating The Flash using Doctor Who's themes is. From the point of view of The Flash, yes, the Doctor is a reckless maniac who screws with time willy-nilly in ways that should create ridiculous, possibly universe-ending paradoxes and temporal fractures, yet somehow doesn't, and so he comes across as a Deus ex Machina more often than not. But from the point of view of Doctor Who, the Flash is playing with forces he cannot possibly understand, and yet the one thing that he has tried hardest to do is the one thing that he has always failed at—saving his mother. The Flash's fans might say of Doctor Who "Where are the consequences of his actions?" But Doctor Who's fans might say of The Flash "What kind of hero gives up on saving someone?"
And both are wrong, because both are missing the point. If the Flash saved his mother, it would negate who he is as a character: a man who, despite all of the forces arrayed against him and all of the mistakes he has made and all of the people he has hurt, continues to hope for the best. And if the Doctor failed to save people, even if the reason for it was his own hubris or recklessness, that would also negate who he is as a character: the one who saves everyone. That's not just what he does, it is what defines him. The Doctor without this quality is not the Doctor, just as a Barry Allen who gives up hope in the face of long odds is not Barry Allen.
It's fine to not like something, and it's fine to not like it for reasons that may seem trivial or meaningless to others. But it's always a good idea to try to remain aware of when you're applying standards to it that are secondary or superfluous to its theme and purpose.
-------
*Yes, I am aware that the Doctor has killed people on many occasions and failed to save them on many others. Usually, there was a very, very good reason for his making those decisions, but not always. I chalk this up to the fact that it's a TV show, and not every writer for the show is in total agreement with each other as to the Doctor's central ethic.
