I would describe her personality as being the Doctor. A lot of people have complained that she's not very unique in her personality, and I completely agree, but I don't see it as a bad thing - she's a culmination of everything the Doctor represents and I think that's a very clever decision given what we've just learnt about the Timeless Child. She is the Doctor who learnt that she wasn't who she thought she was, whilst being everything she always has been. She's an explorer, excited about life and the universe like the first and eighth Doctors, she's lighthearted like the second, fourth, seventh, and eleventh Doctors, she's a scientist like the third Doctor, she's kind like the fifth and twelfth Doctors, but with a darker side like the sixth, seventh, War, ninth, and twelfth Doctors. She definitely isn't unique, but she's definitely the Doctor.

I would describe her as the Doctor who destroyed Doctor Who.

When they are writing her the best, she is using her outwardly caring/friendly but eccentric persona to mask how little she reveals about herself.

There are some great scenes in a Series 12 where Graham confronts the Doctor about how little they know about her and she demonstrates huge reluctance to discuss her true origins with any of them, things that the Doctor has casually discussed off screen with past companions.

This version of the character is running from who (haha) she is. Maybe what happened with Bill and Missy at the end of 12 was to much, but 13 is looking for a reset. She wants to escape all the awful things she’s gone through and just have adventures with friends.

Bland

Absent

I think all the Doctors are stages of grief

9 is denial. I don’t think he really GETS the fact Gallifrey is gone. Or at least, it’s too raw for all of his darkness to be on full display. He’s just…drifting.

10 is anger. All the Doctors get angry, but 10 was a ruthless cold fury none of the other doctors post time war had. He could do the most unhinged punishment to you and not even blink.

11 is bargaining. Specifically, bargaining with himself. Wrestling with how horrific a person he’s capable of being, and trying to make amends with himself.

12 is grief. He’s old, he’s grumpy, a jaded, traumatized veteran whose scars remain sensitive if prodded, and he’s still trying to get a grasp of himself as a person. But he’s the most sincere when he’s kind. It’s not a mask anymore to cope or think “see? I’m a cool guy.” That’s simply what he does naturally, even if he struggles to account for that in his view of himself.

13 is acceptance. She’s learned to forgive herself for what happened, or at least live with herself. She’s far happier, genuinely at least, compared to previous doctors.

It’s by no means a perfect analogy, but the way I see it, the 10th is the Doctor at his lowest point across his entire life. The Doctor who is drowning in self disdain and a willingness to do the unthinkable, or think the worst of others. 9 is what precedes this; a Doctor in “shock” and not really in a place to truly confront what he did.

I think what happened with 10 is 9’s arc of learning to like himself again manifested itself with 10’s massive ego. By thinking he was cool, it meant thinking all of himself was cool. Which caused a lot of friction with the time war guilt he already had.

Also consider that the s1 finale basically revealed that his sacrifice of galfirey was pointless, because some daleks still survive. I think a reason 9 was more, I want to say mellow, was because he thought the sacrifice he made at least worked. It’s the next regen that has to live with the knowledge it didn’t.

I think that connection is just the through line of him still being the same person, deep down at his core. It's a new personality, a new incarnation, but that doesn't change the trauma and history he has that's still affecting him.

9 gradually improved himself 

10 gradually got worse

I don’t think I quite agree with the assessment of 13. There’s a bit of an acceptance of self but with the introduction of Gallifrey destroyed definitively, the Flux along with the Timeless Child bombshell I think all these revelation made her’s kinda fall back to where 12 or 9 was. Seeing 10 as 14 with 13’s trauma made 15 more of that accepting type so much so he could openly talk about Susan while the prior incarnations couldn’t.

The Inner World of Doctor Who: Psychoanalytic Reflections in Time and Space

Book by Iain MacRury and Michael Rustin

I was at a conference for the past two days and saw this book there! Didn't pick it up so not sure if it's exactly what you are looking for but may be worth a try!

As you might have guessed from my username, I quite like Doctor Who :)

I haven't read anything psychoanalytic about the show but there is The Black Archive series put out by Obverse Books which features monograph-style books on each episode. From the description, the one on Listen seems to incorporate Freudian ideas.

I mean, I don't love The Doctor's character because of their overwhelming presence. The Doctor is a person who tries to be good despite all their flaws. The Doctor is always scared but tries to cover that up and be in control, sometimes it won't work but The Doctor still tries to help.

The Doctor being 10 steps ahead is cool for sure, and it shows that they're willing to be secretive and sometimes manipulative in order to keep their friends calm and their enemies unaware. That being said, it's ultimately just a method The Doctor uses, it's not the core of them.

The Thirteenth Doctor doesn't have the same presence as the Twelfth Doctor, but her core is still the same. She's scared but she wants to help. That's why I love The Doctor. They may put on a brave face but they're ultimately still that little boy crying in a barn not wanting anyone else to see.

I love the Twelfth Doctor because he's deeply flawed but he's ultimately trying to do the right thing and he's working to fix himself. His presence is at least partly a mask he puts on to convince himself and others that he's in control, but you can still see the scared boy underneath.

In fact I love the Thirteenth Doctor partially because this presence isn't always there. It can be easier to see her fear and to see she's still pushing through it like she's always done.

The Doctor being able to sense time, being able to think ahead of everyone and be 10 steps ahead, those are all "toys" as the Fourteenth Doctor put it. They're cool but they aren't the core of The Doctor. No matter what though, The Doctor is a flawed person who still tries to do the right thing.

The Fifteenth Doctor has shown moments where he's scared as shit but still has to figure something out. When he's on the landmine for example, he had to stay as calm as possible and push through his fear to figure something out. We see him in The Well being terrified about what the entity knew but still trying to figure out how to get who he can out of there. He's terrified of these Gods but knows that there is a way to beat them no matter how unlikely so he outwits them when they're arrogant and new to this world.

So no, it's definitely not The Doctor's presence that makes me love their character. It's not The Doctor being in control. It's knowing that The Doctor is really none of these things but still tries to help.

I never felt that Jodie Whitaker was ever given a big grandstand moment to make her Doctor stand out. The show spent waaaay to much time on her companions, as if it didn't trust her enough to be the lead - which is crazy, as she's genuinely a brilliant actor. Ultimately, the writing let her down.

13 suffered from poor characterisation, basically being an inferior 11.

A better characterisation in my opinion would have been closer to Luna Lovegood from Harry Potter. A more ethereal, kooky potrayal but one who's nevertheless wise, brave, tough and loving.

Jodie never got her Pandorica speech moment.

I've always thought that they missed a serious opportunity to do a Jenny spin off. A young Time Lord without all the Time Lord BS. They still could, as she could have regenerated multiple times since we last saw her, so she could be played by anyone.

Season 4 Rose was basically her own Doctor, especially in Turn Left.

I think Zoe from classic who would also work,

I dont think any of them could play the Doctor because of the following Reasons:

Clara practically is "The Doctor" in some episodes and she leaves with a tardis

Donna, She shares a similar personality sometimes and is fun af but she works more as The Special Companion / The Best Companion lmfao

River Song she also is very Similar to the Doctor

Amy just wouldnt work imo

Rose is like a god and she also Is again... basically her own doctor

I mean, that was Clara's ending, in no uncertain terms.

Martha

It reminds me of the change from 4 to 5. Baker, and Pertwee before him, were oversized, outlandish, and occasionally bombastic, all things 5 was not. What made that so important was that it showed how broad the possibilities were for adding character types to the Doctor. 13 has been a similar change. After 10 years of messianic, demi-God, oncoming storm, which I loved, there was little room left for development in that direction. I love Jodie's quiet optimistic, childish, Doctor of Hope and think that it's a much needed reset. There's room for her version to grow. So ... her personality? "Quiet Steel"

She's a lot more childish; she's impulsive and doesn't really think things through too much. When she's angry at someone, she doesn't get serious and dramatic like previous Doctors, she just tries to wind them up or, in the case of Krasko, deliberately provokes him into attacking her, knowing that his neural restrictor will activate and cause him pain. (Seriously, anyone who says we never saw 13's darker moments needs to watch that scene again, because taunting a guy into torturing himself was pretty damn dark. More of that please, Chibbers)
On the other hand, she's also more willing to admit when she's wrong about something, and doesn't feel the need to take control of every situation if someone else has an idea of their own. She even credits Ryan for the plan to pose as Kerb!am workers, even though it was her idea.

What I really like about Chibnall’s Doctor is that she isn’t always needing make Pompeii-equivalent decisions to save the world. I think that’s the point he’s trying to make. Especially with “Rosa.” All they need to do is sit down in a bus to change the shape of history - little things like that.

She’s found Gallifrey, she has a team. Honestly, it’s been so long that she’s had an entourage that I think she is still adjusting. But she is happy if still a bit unsure of herself. She’s never been a woman, and didn’t quite know how to react in “Witchhunt.” Even said it’d have been different if she were still a bloke.

She’s a new, new Doctor! Probably has her equivalent of fingers in a jar of jam, or fish custard. She doesn’t feel lost and alone in the universe anymore. As a trauma victim myself, I recognize the signs of recovery. If something terrible happens to her, we might yet see another side. The grandiose Doctor of War may return.

But this is my point: I think instead of the grand, sweeping gestures the Doctor has needed in the past, the 13th is showing us that it’s the little things that make all the difference. That we can be the Doctor. Rather than Ten’s reply to Martha in The Shakespeare Code, after she reminds him of the Butterfly Effect, and he shrugs her off and says “just don’t step on any Butterflies - what have butterflies ever done to you?” Love the cheek. Chibnall is emphasizing the importance of butterflies, of that tiny push - Neil Cross’s beautiful story of Clara’s leaf that was the most important thing in human history.

It’s different, seeing humanity able to save itself with the help of the Doctor. It takes us back. I love it, and I also love the Doctor Who blows up Cyber Legions to make a point. I love them both.

Series 11 was too short in my opinion and there was one character in the TARDIS too many (Yaz), so it didn't spend as much time as it should have defining Thirteen's personality, but her personality is there.

Ten, Eleven and Twelve were all pretty haughty and overconfident in different ways, believing they could do almost anything as time lords until they would get a reality check that they really couldn't. During the Moffat era, the Doctor had a string of painful, increasingly sad failures. He couldn't give Melody a normal childhood, he couldn't save Amy and Rory from the Weeping Angels, he couldn't help Clara save Danny, he couldn't do more for Clara than buying her some more time before having to face the raven (and he nearly went insane doing that), and finally, when the Doctor tried to reform Missy, he, Bill, Nardole and Missy all died, and as far as the Doc knows, it was all for nothing since Missy abandoned him. Twelve was in a pretty dark place when he regenerated, and as a result, Thirteen's confidence levels seemed to have taken a hit. In "The Ghost Monument", Thirteen is mortified that she's gotten Ryan, Graham and Yaz trapped on a desert planet where they'll eventually be murdered by flying rags, and she's only just met these people. In "Arachnids In The UK", she admits she isn't sure she'll be able to get them all home safe and alive, despite how much they trust her. Throughout the season, Thirteen is very worried about what effect her meddling could have on history, which finally comes to a head in "The Witchfinders", when she becomes more involved than usual, spurred on by the injustices she couldn't prevent in "Rosa" and "The Demons Of Punjab". In general, Thirteen seems to be more unsure of herself than her three predecessors, and more reliant on her friends / sidekicks for support.

Mind you, Thirteen's worries are not entirely unjustified, because we've seen her make some really bad judgment calls. Thirteen's primary character flaw, and the one that's been acknowledged in-universe, seems to be carelessness and impulsiveness. Her plan to retrieve the TARDIS in "The Woman Who Fell To Earth" gets herself and the others sucked into the vacuum of space, where they would have choked if dumb luck hadn't bailed them out. In "The Tsuranga Conundrum", Thirteen having them all scrounge through a junkyard, looking for who knows what, gets them all blown up, and afterwards she gets chewed out by Astos for almost making everything worse than it already was because she was only thinking about herself and the TARDIS. In "Resolution", Thirteen's crazy plan to get rid of the Dalek almost gets Ryan's dad sucked into the vacuum of space (I don't suppose there was another space race out there in that supernova, ready to bail him out?). Like most NuWho Doctors, Thirteen can be very self-righteous when it comes to her distaste for weapons, and very inconsistent about it. In "The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos", she freely admits to Ryan that she's a hypocrite and that her rules change every week, depending on what's convenient at the time, which is annoying.

Thirteen considers herself to be an optimist, and in times of high stress, she'll try to take someone aside and give them a motivational pep talk ("The Ghost Monument", "The Tsuranga Conundrum"). She values her friends a great deal and she makes an effort to get involved in their personal lives, which ties into an arc the Doctor has had throughout the show: Nine tried to avoid 'domestics' entirely, Ten didn't mind mingling with family members, and Eleven and Twelve were both very involved in Amy and Clara's lives. Thirteen sticks around for Grace's funeral in "The Woman Who Fell To Earth", she enjoys spending time with Yaz's family in "Arachnids In The UK", and like Graham, she's a lot colder than usual to Ryan's dad on Ryan's behalf in "Resolution", for the man being such a useless deadbeat.

Idk. I got nothing from her.

I’m of the opinion that people that complain that the Doctors sometimes act out of character or a bit incompatible with how they were earlier on in their tenure forget that the Doctor is actually one single person who has been at least 13 different people.

A lot of people complain about the exact same thing with 12 when Capaldi would be leaking mannerism and personality traits from other incarnations.

And people also forget that we’re all ever changing. You’re not the exact same person you were last year. If even we ordinary and mundane people change because of silly and ordinary little things, imagine someone that has lived 13 lives and not all of them good.

Also, if you agree that 12’s characterisation came out of nowhere, then I recommend paying closer attention. Everything is there on screen, on the smallest details. From him doing a “boo gesture” to Clara in “Into the Dalek” from him being really competitive with Robin Hood and challenging the universe in order to save Clara to him throwing a 3 week party in the Middle Ages with a tank and a guitar and dying in a coat with red inseam and flamboyant cuffs. Those are all traits from past incarnations.

11 is also my least favourite. I don't hate him. Matt Smith is excellent. I just love the others more. But I love every Doctor, which makes ranking them so far. Also I think I know which video you watched because I saw someone put 11 last and make that exact argument.

A lot of statements here that just aren't true and give nothing to support them.

>Then in A Christmas Carol onwards it becomes the main personality of The 11th Doctor. Too much craziness came out of nowhere.

No it doesn't.

>this happened completely off-screen just like 12th Doctor time jumps

12s character development is almost entirely on screen and if you can't see that it explains the rest of the post.

>Then some sudden dark strikes also came out of nowhere.

No it doesn't.

>And this dark side of The Doctor was different than the Series 5 one.

No it's not.

>But this doesn't feel natural

Yes it does.

>So what do you think about this?

Guess.

I personally really love Eleven (always have done), and the old soul behind the flamboyant exterior is really why, I found there to be a good level of silly and dark.

I was surprised to find a lot of people, on Youtube and Reddit, who feel his character went through too much flanderization in series 6 and 7 (too much hand waving and silliness), where I did notice it increase a bit it did not bother me, it was just Eleven fully developing.

My point being you were fine to love/like him before for whatever reasons you did and shouldn't feel forced to change your mind because of some Youtube opinions, however your opinion changing is also completely valid too if you do agree with the points from those videos and I can see where the points are coming from (although I don't agree with them).

Be for-warned some people will definitely take "negativity" towards 11 badly and tell you your opinion is wrong even though it is an opinion which you are allowed.

>This goofy childlike Doctor with dark side thing continued until the end of 11's run.

But this is exactly why I love the 11th Doctor? The old man in a young man's body was executed perfectly by the stories and by Matt Smith's performance.

11 has shades of 2 and 4 but also 7 in him. His goofiness and childishness are sometimes genuine but are also a wishful façade. He wants to be young at heart but it is covering a deeper darkness in him that has come with his old age. He has deeply hidden rage hidden under the surface and can give in to anger and manipulation at times.

It's not as apparent in series 5 but even in his second episode he says "Nobody human has anything to say to me today!" And it's natural that this becomes more apparent in series 6 and even more after he loses the Ponds in mid-series 7, despite knowing the danger he puts them it.

And this doesn't go unexplored. The series 5 finale sees the his enemies work together to lock him away in a personal prison. A Good Man Goes to War is obviously an exploration of this. The Colonel Runaway scene is fabulous as we see the Doctor is so desperate to save Amy that he gives into deep-seated anger that makes him unnecessarily humiliate the Colonel. And at the end when he fails, River chews him out for his hubris. We also see him recognize that he's gotten too well-known for his own good and deletes information about himself

This whole obsession with The Doctor and his companions is very atypical for The Rani. The lack of a personal relationship with him is one of the things that made her different from The Master.

Given some of her lines, I'm hoping it turns out to be more of an interest in the vindicators and they lean heavily into her nature as an amoral scientist.

I'm not sure why one of them seemed immediately happy to be subservient to the other. Looking forward to seeing how it plays out at least.

I said this in r/gallifrey, but I think that the way the Rani acts at the end of the episode is a good sign she won’t just be The Master But Different. If it was the Master getting revived and bigenerating at the end I feel like that, as he’s written in NuWho at least, he’d have went and killed Mike and Gary for shits and giggles. The Rani just kind of said “alright I’ve got evil schemes going on out of my way.”

Oh yeah, she's different, that is one reason she is interesting.

For example, she could decide to end all illness and disease on a planet or even turn that planet into a perfect utopia.

On another planet she could want to make a virus that would wipe out every living thing inc animal and plant life.

Both to her would be exactly the same

Belinda is an experiment created by Mrs. Flood/The Rani to follow The Doctor and enable bi-generation for other Time Lords.

Belinda has false memories implanted of parents which is why we never see them.

The Rani could always use a spare pair of hands so she’s planted the seeds of tri-generation within Belinda to create The Unholy Trinity but the blast from Belinda destroys Earth. /s

That episode had so many twists especially Susan being in it, but yes i really hope the ‘new’ rani isn’t just a master rewrite

War doctor's reminds me of like bone or dying coral. But as he came back around and grew, the coral began to feel the love of life again and started to blossom again as 9/10's console room.

Also worth noting that the 12th Doctor's TARDIS is actually the one the 11th Doctor switched to when he was mourning the loss of Amy and Rory.

He switched from the whimsical design of his original to a darker, more serious TARDIS.

Everyone calls War's TARDIS soulless or bland even though it's a mix of 5/6/7's and 9/10's. I personally love the white TARDIS look and don't find it bland at all. The newest interior is my second favorite, beaten only by 12's. The 80s interior is third place though

Interesting analysis.

What would you say for 13 and 14/15’s interiors?

I like your analysis. The 11th Doctors first Console room is my favorite. At times to me 11:felt like a perfect balance of 9s Rage, 10s cheerful laid back energy and his own childlike whimsy.