You know when the Doctor does something immensely clever to solve a problem? It’s one of the highlights of the series. But what about when things are a little more… lucky? Do you get the same satisfaction from Liz Shaw unplugging and plugging something in to save the Doctor from the Nestene Consciousness, or the Doctor finding that the monstrous-but-susceptible-to-sonics Professor Lazarus has hidden in a cathedral that just happens to have some very loud bells in it?
James McLean and Brian A Terranova discuss this and more…
Shownotes
- Spearhead from Space
- The Lazarus Experiment
- Space: 1999
- Rose
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ingenious solutions, always, for me. I love the new series. I love the old series. But the new series, in my view, tends to push the idea that the Doctor’s genius doesn’t really exist, that he’s just a doofus with great luck, when that beautiful mind of his was highlighted quite brilliantly in the old series, and to a certain extent in RTD’s stuff. Although I could be missing something. ;O
I’ll take the Doctor being clever over being lucky anytime but I don’t see why it’s necessarily an issue. I defy anyone to name even one other hero who doesn’t rely on a bit of dumb luck here or then.
The 7th Doctor is a favourite of mine in part for how clever he is. He’s the ultimate chessmaster but even he has to rely on the situation being just right and people behaving in certain ways for his plans to succeed.
I like when we see the Doctor use a bit of both luck and genius. Using the Pandorica to reboot the universe in The Big Bang comes to mind, as does the church organ defeating Professor Lazarus in The Lazarus Experiment.