Doctor Who Emotional Clip Analysis

Doctor Who Emotional Clip

By Stephanie Rallison

     The clip I will be discussing is a scene from Doctor Who, The end of time; this is the last episode where the Doctor is played by David Tennant. From this scene we see a different side to the Doctor, we the audience see the Doctor as the hero with no fear, he has come close to death many times and still lives another day. But now we see the hero crumbling before us, devastated that he could be dyeing and will be unable to prevent it. We can see the Doctor coming to an end as he slowly breaks down devastated about the idea of him dying like a human, he has been able to cheat death many times but could this be his end?

     The camera is focussed only on the Doctor’s face so the audience can see the fear and true emotion that the Doctor has, but never shows; this is a key scene of the supposing ending of the Doctor’s life. As he stands alone facing death fear surrounds him and all he can say is “I don’t want to go”. His cracking voice adds the breaking of the heroic figure that is the Doctor.  The emotive language tears at the hearts of the audience, the Doctor has always been there to save everyone but he cannot save himself and no one is here to save him.

     The theme of loneliness is very noticeable throughout the scene, the Doctor is an intelligent character but being the last of his kind he has no one to share his knowledge and no one can relate to his life, this makes his life lonely yet mysterious and he hasn’t noticed it as much until this moment standing alone in a large space ship, this can also reflect on his mind a vast amount of knowledge yet only one who can understand it, which is himself.

     The background is slightly blurred only the Doctors face is truly clear this can represent life at a standstill, this can also reflect on the name of the episode “The end of Time”. In addition with slow dramatic music we can feel the presence of death coming closer to the scene. The bright light in the background could represent death, the light to heaven this is unusual because the Doctor doesn’t talk much about an afterlife, could this be a  message showing there are something’s even the Doctor cannot explain.

     Overall the scene is a very dramatic moment which makes everyone who watches it feel emotional as well as they are witnessing the end to a noble character who is never thanked for his actions or his decisions, all he does is arrive, be the hero and nobody ever notices. Almost like a shadow he protects the human race from the true threats in the universe like a parent protecting the innocents of a child.