_______ The Ever Expanding Universe of Doctor Who
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murder or genocide. In the second season, the Doctor cheekily expresses
his pacifist stance to his companion Rose:
ROSE:
Doctor, they’ve got guns.
DOCTOR: And I haven’t! Which makes me the better person,
don’t you think? They can shoot me dead, but the moral highground is mine! {Doctor Who “Army of Ghosts”)
Despite facing life-and-death situations at every turn, the Doctor attempts
to resolve conflicts with words rather than physical aggression.
Nevertheless, his energetic pacifism dwindles progressively, and by
Season Six, the Time Lord has become both angry and militant. In the
tellingly-titled episode, “A Good Man Goes to War,” the Doctor calls in
favors and raises an army to fight his own personal vendetta, causing
many to lay down their lives for this previously peaceful man during the
Battle of Demon’s Run. After a massive and bloody defeat, other
characters see the overwhelming shift in the Doctor’s personality, and
encourage him to reflect on his attitude and behaviors, reminding him of
who he used to be and forcing him to acknowledge what he has become:
When you began all those years ago sailing off to see the
universe, did ever you think you’d become this? The man who
can turn an army around at the mention of his name? Doctor, the
word for healer and wise-man throughout the universe. We get
that word from you, you know. But if you carry on the way you
are, what might that word come to mean? To the people of the
Gamma Forests the word doctor means mighty warrior. How far
you’ve come. {Doctor Who “Good Man Goes to War”)
Ignoring the warnings of his closest friends, the Doctor continues down
this dark path, reaching a head in his journey to the Wild West, and the
association between this space-time continuum—the mythical Wild
West, perhaps the most primary stereotypical environment associated
with the United States—and the new tendencies of the good Doctor
towards aggression can be seen as an “Americanization” of the character.
In an extreme moment of anger, panic, and fear, as he witnesses the
execution of the insidious character of Kahler-Jex, an act which is
supposed to save the rest of the village, the Doctor grabs a revolver and
prepares to shoot at point-blank range, causing one of his