His Darkest Hour

[kerravonsen]

Further thought on a particular thing in New Who Season 6...

I'd always been bothered, in A Good Man Goes To War, when River said, "The Doctor's darkest hour. He'll rise higher than ever before and then fall so much further."

Because it wasn't. It wasn't the highest he'd risen, and it wasn't the furthest he'd fallen. So he had a lot of allies. So what? Does that mean that it's a moment higher than all his others? So he was tricked. Does that mean that it's a moment lower than all his other lows?

One could argue that the Doctor's lowest low ever was the Time War, when he chose to destroy his people in order to save the universe. Even when we thought that he was the sole survivor in a Pyrrhic victory, it would have to be his lowest point, surely?

Or perhaps we aren't talking about emotional lows, but about "oops, that was stupid, wasn't it?" moments.

In which case, there is a MUCH better candidate for both "high" and "low" in the Eleventh Doctor's own era:

The Pandorica Opens.

I was reminded of this because I followed a link to the "Doctor Who At The Proms 2010" music "I Am The Doctor", which ended with his speech at the Pandorica. Remember that? "Do the smart thing. Let someone else go first."

That, I think, was his highest moment. Higher than simply having a bunch of allies who fought against a bunch of soldiers. Here is the Doctor, holding off an entire battlefleet, simply with the force of his reputation. No allies, no backup, no plan. That is his highest hour.

And then, and then, to discover that the being locked in the Pandorica, the terror, the trickster, the destroyer of worlds... was himself. To discover that all his enemies had banded together to put him in a trap so perfect that even death was not an escape... because they thought he was going to destroy the universe.

Surely that was his worst moment, his darkest hour, his most foolish "oops". Even the events at Demons Run are merely fallout of this, the unfolding of the Doctor's reputation as a Warrior rather than a Healer.

Comments

[rothas-writing.livejournal.com]

Very much amen.

[tardis-stowaway.livejournal.com]

Yes, well said! AGMGTW wasn't his highest rise or darkest hour, not even if one only considers Eleven and certainly not for the Doctor's entire 900+ years.

I chalk this comment up not to Moffat's hyperbole but to River Song's incomplete knowledge and exaggerated sense of how important events involving her are to the Doctor. This lack of perspective doesn't make River an unforgiveable egotist. I think many companions probably think of themselves as THE most important person in the Doctor's life, largely because as long as they travel with him they pretty much are. River Song is genuinely really important to the Doctor, but she is still just one of the many people he has cared for over the centuries. AGMGTW involved the magnificent success and catastrophic failure the Doctor had trying to rescue Melody/River and her mother Amy. In all of the Doctor's interactions with River before she made that pronouncement, his failure to rescue her as a child would have weighed heavily on his mind, so it makes sense that she understood it as his highest rise and farthest fall.

River probably knows about many of the other highs and lows in the Doctor's life, but may not really grok just how important/devastating some of them were. TPO is, if I understand correctly, later in her personal timeline than AGMGTW, so she is unspoiled about that.

[kerravonsen]

TPO is, if I understand correctly, later in her personal timeline than AGMGTW, so she is unspoiled about that.

Good point. I haven't really figured out the whole of River's timeline; some points are clearer than others.

In all of the Doctor's interactions with River before she made that pronouncement, his failure to rescue her as a child would have weighed heavily on his mind, so it makes sense that she understood it as his highest rise and farthest fall.

I suppose that makes sense to a degree. Eleven has really put the Time War behind him, I think, so he probably wouldn't have mentioned it much to River, unlike Nine or Ten, for which it was the angstiest angsty thing EVER, particularly Nine.

But still... from the Doylist perspective, I wish those words hadn't been put into River's mouth.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I think that River is given to hyperbole. Also, how much of the Doctor's history does she actually know, to be able to make such a judgement?

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I've just written the same thing, before having read your comment. Only I didn't put it nearly so well.

[jhall1.livejournal.com]

I haven't really figured out the whole of River's timeline; some points are clearer than others.

I don't know if you get to see Doctor Who Confidential in Australia. There was an episode of that where they talked to Steven Moffat, and he explained River's timeline and made it a lot clearer to me than it had been previously. I saw the programme some months ago, so unfortunately I've now forgotten all the details.

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Absolutely agree. I'll be up front and say that, for me, AGMGTW was the absolute low point of S6 (and I generally liked the rest of it a lot - I'm still a big, big fan of Eleven overall). But yes - sheer authorial hyperbole, I thought of the usual "this is the Doctor's biggest challenge/most plucky companion/greatest Xmas special EVAR!" sort that you get regularly in the show's publicity. Only in this case actually put into the mouth of one of the characters, in-story, for some odd reason. Basically trying to trick the audience into thinking that the stakes in what they were watching were higher than they really were, perhaps.

Or... I hope it doesn't count as character-bashing to observe that a) River seems to have a tendency to exaggerate things, including her own importance in the Doctor's ongoing story, and that b) she maybe doesn't know the Doctor and his history as well as she wants people (including him) to think.

[jjpor.livejournal.com]

Oops - should have read your comment before throwing in my own £0.02 below, but yes. This. :)

[brendanpodger.livejournal.com]

I thought it was not because of being tricked but because this was the one moment to get Melody back and he failed. There was that mini-ep which shows the Dr in despair as he listens to Amy beg him to find her baby.

It is very seldom(if ever) that he has ever failed a companion so badly.