The myth of Doctor Who...

[fajrdrako]

As I ponder the Doctor's character (and I do), I find that more sense of understanding comes when I try not to think of him in terms of ficitonal paradigms or on an alien/human model, but when I think about him in terms of myth.

Nothing new in this, of course. In fact, the characters he reminds me of in other venues have the same sort of properties. In some ways, the idiot-savant - he can see the planets turning but he isn't sure when he makes a rude comment. Godlike but neither omniscient nor omnipotent. Both sage and tease - I could probably make a case for his being any one of the Tarot images, though I think he fits two of my favourites, The Fool and the Magician, best.

I see something of the Wandering Jew in him: for his crimes, he is forced into immortal loneliness and homelessness - not as punishment by angry gods, but by the balances of historical cause and effect. Except that the Wandering Jew doesn't usually manifest with such a light heart, or capacity for love.

He is a Trickster God, of course. In some ways, more human than the humans, because his foibles are exaggerations or wishes of our own.

I don't have the insight I want yet, and I have a suspicion it's so zenlike that it won't be possible to articulate it when I do. But it's such fun to try.