I dont know how seriously i should take this, but the plot of Amy's Choice bothered me a bit.

The lines about how the Doctor knew this person and that the Dream Lord would be the only one who could hate him enough.

Whats he trying to say? That he's ashamed of himself. Does he hate himself?

He's not a bad guy, he's heart/s are in the right place so I don't know why he said that.

Everybody has a dark side to their personality which is at odds with their better self. The Doctor's dark side has emerged once before, as the Valeyard in 'Trial of a Time Lord'. I think he recognised the Dream Lord as another aspect of that dark side, which had already tried to destroy him on previous occasions. He doesn't hate himself.

I guess the dream lord was that tiny but of doubt he has about himself, in a way the dream lord was a more vocal side of what we would call human nature

The Doctor says to the Dream Lord "There's only one other person in the universe who hates me as much as you." This puzzled me for a while, and I wondered if the Doctor hadn't yet "twigged" and was referring to someone or something else. He also says that he doesn't know how the Dream Lord could be there.
I do think it's now pretty clear that although the Doctor still didn't know exactly what had happened by that point, he was talking about himself, and already knew what the Dream Lord was a manifestation of, his own self-loathing.

Emo was a form of punk that emerged from the US HC scene of the eighties. It stands for Emotional Hardcore and was characterised by bands such as Rites of Spring who turned the fury of punk that had formally been outward looking and turned it inward. Later exponenents introduced an even more melodic and 'heart on sleeve' approach such as the bands on Deep Elm records.Emo fans were characterised by their backpacks, thick rimmed glasses and love of fanzines, converse shoes and star tattoos. Its got f*** all to do with this catchall term that people use for anything a little miserable or depressing. Here endeth the lesson.

The idea that the Doctor feels hugely responsible for his actions is.nothing new in nu who look at Davros speech in JE to see the pathos laden Doctor knowing all the horrors he has committed and let others carry out, like Rory commented in the previous episode 'people do things to impress the doctor' being over nine hundred years old he must be aware of this bewitching effect and feel a huge amount of responsoblity from it, this as well as the aforementioned survivors guilt in condemning his worst enemy and race to perpetually death must make the character feel a bit of a douche even if his reasoning was impeccable does not mean it isnt regrettable. I personally love this Doctor as he is no longer the messiah in a twee suit but a good all rounder... I say rock on emo Doc

Considering the Doctor did pretty much murder his entire race I'd say that's enough justification all on its own for a wee bit of self-hatred. It's the payoff to being the 'highest authority' and putting yourself in the position where you have to exercise that power - most of the decisions you'll make are for the greater good but that doesn't make the destruction of the innocents (and those that are the greater evil but not without redeeming qualities) any easier to bear. And that's not a new thing either, just look at Tom Baker's Doctor wondering whether he had the right to end the Daleks back in Genesis...

Heck, is it any wonder that the Doctor has maybe been a bit more open to the idea of deeper emotional connections since the Time War? With the Time Lords gone and all that responsibility on his shoulders why wouldn't he look for someone to help him bear that burden, even if only indirectly.

And the hair. Don't forget the hair.

It's not just a collection of crazed fans extracting every nuance from a 45 minute weekly family show....its educational too

Amazing. I came into this thread to make this post.

Someone needs to point out the difference between a "scene kid" and an "emo" while we're at it. Dyed black hair, skinny jeans, hoodie, back combed hair with fringe, thats your common or garden scene kid thats not really emo. They probably call themselves emo unaware that its an insult that some punks used to reffer to fans of DC hardcore.

Google a picture of weezer for your actual emo stereotype

He never actually gave a toss about the Time Lords when they were around, though. Its not as though he bothered to go home for Christmas...

He's really good on committing genocide

Daleks (several times)
Cybers
Weeping Angels
Saturnynians
Waters of Mars virus
Pyroviles
Racnoss...

... this is a guy with lots of things to hide

Scene kids of today are just the marilyn manson fan spooky kids/goths of ten years ago. Crimping your angular fringe and raiding mummys make up box has nowt to do with Emo. Nor does self harming (which the doctor mentioned in Amys Choice so I am on topic)

And all this after the end of Vampires of Venice when the last female fish-person had a go at him for destroying yet another species and after being unable to save Father Octavian from the Angels and not managing to stop the Daleks getting away, not to mention preparing to kill the space whale if necessary and being told repeatedly that there's something he and the TARDIS 'don't know' as a mysterious and deadly crack in time that he can't figure out is following him about...and what with Rory seeming underwhelmed at times with him (there's more to Rory than meets the eye, I tell you, he's as bad as Amy for not reacting as you think he might as a humble little human travelling with a mega-powerful alien) the Doctor's ego must have had a bit of a bashing lately. I wonder if it triggered off the appearance of the Dream Lord as something that was on his mind when the pollen did its stuff?

I like that explanation. I will go with what you said.

And of course the Vervoids, which he (as the Valeyard) tried to sentence himself for.

However to be fair it wasn't the doctor that killed off the flood in waters of mars. It was captin brooke who set the nuke to go off

Why do people on this forum insist on completely misusing words.

Genocide is the completely wrong word here, emo is a musical genre. It makes a half decent discussion impossible if you just make up your own meanings for words that have perfectly good meanings allready.

I am in complete aardvark with this!

I have parts of my personality that I know aren't very nice, that I keep subdued.
I suspect all of us, even the best of us, have.

I hate to think what would happen if they were given free rein!!!

Those who can't control their darker leanings tend to become serial killers, career criminals and politicians!

And estate agents.

Oh, sorry, you already mentioned career criminals.

Actually, most of the Dream Lord's dialogue was berating the Doctor for his personality and how he treats his companions - suggesting he feels more guilty about those than about how many races he's destroyed!

Or bankers, even though I shouldn't say that out too long my mate works for RBS

Surely all those "Emo" teens just need to grow up?

I am not sure that the Doctor fits the Emo category at all.

You mean Scene kids Chuff. Also they will move on to something else when it becomes the "Next big thing" they always do.