Steven Moffat has been recently quoted as saying :

"I don’t think the Doctor is the role model of Doctor Who. He isn’t. Because you can’t really base yourself on the Doctor.”

His argument for this is:

“He’s off the spectrum, barking mad, from space and has lots of mysterious abilities that we do not. How do you base yourself on that?”

He goes on to suggest that the companion is in fact the role model.

“The role model is actually the other character, his best friend, the person who deals with this out of control, overgrown schoolboy racing around the universe being rather too imperious and too interfering for his own good.”

http://www.kasterborous.com/2015/05/...runner-moffat/

Now, I have to say that I completely disagree with this. His view basically boils down to the idea that you can't compare to the doctor because he is an alien. I think he is completely missing the point.

The doctor's species, point of origin and special abilities are completely irrelevant. To me, the doctor is a role model because he is brave, smart, caring, respectful to others, generally handles situations without resorting to violence, and is genuinely willing to go to whatever lengths needed to do what he believes is the right thing. These are qualities which make him admiral, and which we can all aspire to. Even his flaws are a good thing, because seeing that he has flaws show that any of us can still be capable of many good things even if though we aren't perfect.

The idea that the companions should be a role model more than the doctor, to me is ludicrous. They are just the people lucky enough to bask in the splendor of the doctors amazing life for an amount of time, and though there have been many noble and worthy companions, not one matches up to the doctor in my eyes. The fact that Moffat thinks they are says a lot about the way he has written Clara and to a lesser extent Amy. It also tells me that he dosen't quite understand the value of the character as well perhaps as other writers, and in a way almost sounds like he looks down on him a bit.


So anyway. What do you think? is the doctor a role model?

I don't expect everyone will share my point of view, but it's just interesting to see what people think.

I'm also off the spectrum, barking mad and have loads of 'mysterious abilities'*. Also, technically we're all from space because Earth is, of course, in space.

*The last part may not be true.

Some aspects of The Doctor are role modelish

When The Doctor is having a good day, all is well.

When The Doctor is having a bad day, well he wonders, what was that all about. Why did you do that? There you go again but, there is always a but, a reason, has to be a reason, surely, why? You keep me waiting, I've waited before, why wait again. so many questions, as always. And then we have calm.

Cool answer

Thank you.

I agree with you 100%. Steven Moffat has got that wrong I think. Still, each to their own.

The two female companions that Moffat created are/were both domineering, in-your-face control freaks who kept their men (including the Doctor) under thumbs.

Clara spent most of the last series lying to and deceiving her boyfriend

Are these Moffat's ideas of a role model?

The Doctor is a great trickster god, but he's a rubbish human. Human beings can't deal with problems like the Doctor does - we can't flick a screwdriver, spout a line of technobabble and fix everything.

The Doctor has great principles, but he's also arrogant and unpredictable. You couldn't actually act like him and still be allowed in society!

There are plenty of eccentic backpackers in the world, some who spend their time saving people through charity work in poor area's of the world, and probably many most don't always get it right and their are probably many who have an ego, and they aren't exactly banished from society.

The technological side of him isn't important, were talking about who he is as a person rather than what tech he has, and to me, as said above, he's just a traveler who likes to help, but he is much better and more dedicated to helping than any other person and is often willing to sacrifice to save the day. He does his best to do what he thinks is right, even though he isn't perfect. for these reasons I think he is a perfectly fine role model.

In the context of the quote, they were discussing casting a woman as the Doctor. Some people say that regardless of whether or not the Doctor would work just as well as a woman. they shouldn't do it, because the Doctor is a rare male role-model that favours the use of intelligence over violence.

While I don't personally agree with that view, it seems Moffat is trying to be debunk it with the angle that; the Doctor is detached from humanity, and therefore can't be a role-model. I don't personally agree with that view either.

To be honest, I don't think even he agrees with it. It comes across as a little overcompensating, like the counter-point is throwing the baby out with the bath water.

It's nothing to do with whether he's a traveller or a hero, and nothing to do with technology. It's about him being an alien that can resolve any problem in the way that the plot requires. No matter the scale of his sacrifice or his genius, he comes up with solutions to problems from a perspective that no human has. Whereas his companions have to be resourceful and intelligent on a scale that we can identify with.

Whilst it's true we can't solve every problem we'd like neat and conveniently in a short space of time, it's more his morals, ethics and general approach for life that I see as the most important.

To give an example of what I mean, take the idea that the doctor is a problem solver. Now we could never have his level of knowledge in real life but we could certainly look at him as a character and aspire to be educate ourselves to the point of being good at real world level problem solving in our real lives. To give another example, the doctor is often willing to sacrifice to do the right thing, now again, most of us won't be putting ourselves in life or death situations on a daily basis out of kindness, but there are real world situations where we will sometimes have the option to forgo comfort so that we can make something better for someone else, and we can aspire to be the kind of person that would be willing to do that.

To look at someone as a role model is not always to imagine you could have an identical life to them, it's about the fact that you see their good points and think that you would like to be the kind of person who has similar points but in the context of your own life.

"Everybody lives".

Do you wish you could sound like Tom Baker whilst saying, "They're all one title! Gallifrey falls... no more!"

If yes, then yes, Doctor Who is your roll model.

Simples.

Moffat strikes me as a character somewhere inbetween William Shakespeare and Fulton MacKay.

Yes, a role model is someone to emulate. At the risk of inciting religious war - who's the more appropriate role model - God, or Jesus? Why is the phrase 'What Would Jesus Do?' a positive thing, while the term 'playing God' is negative?

I think comparing God and Jesus to tv characters isn't exactly equal, and certainly I don't think any companion of the moment is as equal to the doctor as Jesus is to God, but even still I can explain why I don't agree with your above assertion.

The term 'playing god' is about power and almost exclusively used to talk about biological tampering. It is a negative thing because it is thought by some that no-one should presume to meddle in what are seen as god's affairs in that way. The term has nothing to do with personality. Jesus is more used as a role model just because their is more to know about him, chronicles off his life etc, whereas god is a more of a vague entity, and as such, you can't exactly reel off who he is as a person. The positive's we know about god, such as being kind, loving and ultimately forgiving are traits most do tend to try and emulate in their lives.

I believe by trying to use God as an example that you seem to still be hung up on the specifics of the power/overwhelming intelligence of the doctor, whereas I have tried to explain it''s more about emulating positive personality traits to me that make him an appropriate role model.

But that is exactly what I'm talking about. We can't know what it's like to be the Doctor. We can follow the teachings of a god and understand why they're good principles to live by, but we don't seek to be like them.

David Beckham can be a role model for kids wanting to play football, or even for kids who want to model underwear. Sure, whether he's a nice guy that gives to charity is important too, but you can want to strive to be like him regardless. We can know what it means to be a good footballer, or a generous celebrity, or a good father. We can't know what it's like to be a man who feels the whole of time and space and what it's like to condemn your species to death.

Or, to put it another way - if the Doctor is at all an entity you can understand and identify with, then he's being written wrongly.

I'm not suggesting you can know what it feels like to be inside his head, no one can do that to anyone they consider to be a role model. You like someone as a role model because of what you see of them, and in the doctors case, there is a 52 year period's worth of footage to know him by. Again you are getting hung up on what you perceive to be his god like status where as I see it as :

The doctor is brave - who wouldn't want to aspire be more brave

The doctor is intelligent - many of us would like to think we could aspire to improve our intelligence through further learning etc.

The doctor is adventurous and optimistic - who wouldn't want to aspire to try and be more positive in life and hope to try and be more adventurous

The doctor sacrifices to help others - whether it is true of us now, most people would probably like to think that in important situations where they could help others at the expense of their own personal comfort, that they would be the kind of person who would be willing to do so.

It's these kind of things above that are plentiful enough that you can look at the character and think 'yeah, i'd like to be more like that'. That's the character as in his personality, not his intelligence rating, not any special powers, not any tech, just who he is as a person day to day.

Also, regarding your last paragraph, if the doctor wasn't someone to understand and identify with at times then no one would care about him as a character at all. Sure he's eccentric, has a mysterious past and is hyper intelligent, but when you see him save an innocent you identify with that because seconds earlier when you see them in peril thats what you think should happen. When he's in a no good option, impossible choice type situation, you feel his pain and recognise that you would be equally torn. If we never understood him or the decisions he made, he wouldn't be very fleshed out as a character.

At the heart of him, the doctor is a optimistic, ever curious traveler, striving to see as many wonders as he can. As such I identify with him, and see him as a role model as i'd like to be more like that, and I can say these things about him more than about any one companion.

I think you have a funny idea of what my argument is. It's not about what powers he has, it's about who he is.

You appear to only be describing the good bits, not the person as a whole. I'd argue that a role model is more than just a shopping list of good bits. Footballers are good role models, and can even do good things - until the inevitable sex-and-drug tabloid headlines. The Doctor is not a good role model because he has lots of bad bits - he brings danger wherever he goes, he puts his closest friends at risk through his carelessness, he's pushy to the point of arrogance and conceit and beyond. He would make a good Dalek - when has that ever been something to aspire to?

My point is that everyone has good qualities, and principles that can be learned from. But on balance, he's not someone whose life you'd want to live. The companions, on the other hand, are people you could actually be, that you could actually stand with as an equal if you worked hard.

True, he has his bad bits, but as you've just said yourself, footballers, celebrities and the like have dark sides too, and yet look how many people consider them role models regardless.

No-one is perfect, you can find a flaw, no matter how small, in even the nicest, most genuine sort of people.If having flaws ruled someone out as a role model, no-one could ever consider anyone a role model ever. The point with the doctor is that the good in him far outweighs the bad, and so he is a good candidate for being a role model as he has many good traits you can aspire to incorporate in your own life. I've said previously that no-one thinks that the doctor being a role model to them means that they are going to try and be identical to the character, just that they see the many good points, try to aspire to those, whilst also recognising that the fact the character has flaws is why they wouldn't want to be exactly like them and obviously not try to emulate those parts.

Also, with the doctor, I'd say he is a far better role model than those footballers or celebrities because at least when he does wrong, it's usually in the pursuit of doing right, he just lets his ego get in the way a bit sometimes.

Even diamonds have flaws and look how marvellous diamonds are, sparkling, shining, light reflecting, precious to some but indifferent to others, until there may come a time when wow, I never knew diamonds did that.