The Doctor - Hero, Anti-Hero, Maverick or Something Else?

I prefer the old man with a box, just trying to help where he can but mostly just adventuring around the cosmos. It's the only description that fits all the incarnations of The Doctor. If you go too far from that interpretation you can end up in some seriously smug places as the VNAs and New Who have done. I don't mind when a mythos has built up aroud him, but prefer when that's from other planets and cultures, I don't like him joining in the ego-trip so much as Tennant's Doctor as written by RTD tended to do. Moffat, to me, nails it. The Doctor just does his thing and leaves, he may become a legend to those left behind (like A Good Man Goes To War, or hey, TImelash) but it's not him acting as some messianic force. When the show goes too far that way it can often be unbearable. No TImelor Victiorious cry-fests for me - give me Matt Smith spending his last days fixing kid's toys and going to puppet shows any day.

I think he is all those things, and many more besides. He is indefinable. The First Doctor (in my view), is the best example of this - a mass of contradictions: frail, strong, brave, disinterested, understanding, tetchy, intellectually brilliant, scatty, hero, anti-hero.

He is at his best, in my view, as the random traveller, who - perhaps because of the TARDIS' own 'agenda', as has been suggetsed in 'The Doctor's Wife' - gets involved in something unpleasant, does what he thinks is right to correct events, and then quietly slips away ("I hate goodbyes"). I love it to bits when it is suggested his interference has only opened up a whole new lot of problems (the end of 'Vengeance on Varos', for example, when he has helped cut off the Varosians only distraction from the horror of their lives, is air-punchingly good). The idea that his fellow Gallifreyans' assertion that he 'shouldn't interfere' is somewhat justified places the Doctor right in the middle of many 'Have I the Right?' situations. I love that kind of moral dilemma, anything but clear-cut, and open to the viewers to make up their own minds.

I like it when he does dark things. In 'Into the Dalek', when someone asked if their colleague had been reduced to liquid as they stand in a huge puddle, the Doctor replies 'Yes. He's the top layer if you want to say a few words.' An absolutely brilliant moment, defining at once Peter Capaldi as The Doctor for me. He says things and acts in a way that 'mere humans' - especially good guys - wouldn't dream of saying.

Only the self-conscious, cocky and assured Timelord Victorious concept falls flat with me.

As long as the Doctor keeps doing/saying the unexpected and not always getting it right, the longer I'll keep watching.

I accept its a logical continuation, but it's still a continuation I have issues with. I find Big Finish's interpretation a nice middle area, he's still manipulative and has a tendency to see the bigger picture over individuals' feelings but it's not quite NA Doctor who seems almost entirely focused on the bigger picture at times.

I rather enjoyed the character arc it offered him, fluctuating between the two aspects. He eventually comes full circle in The Room with No Doors, which shows how far that this Doctor and the others have gone to try and protect others from harm:
And they bury him. Because he was told he'd die in an accident and Chris believes that this was the moment, but that isn't the end of him. Oh, no... He claws his way out of his own grave leading to this scene:
That's the Doctor at his best, I think. Challenging evil and injustice however much it may wound him personally to dabble and interfere. Because despite everything he's seen on his travels, the poor devil still cares about us. He hasn't given up and that's wonderful.

Oh, god, I'm still waiting for a physical copy of The Also People that isn't over $60 AUD. I managed to get The Dying Days as a present from a friend and it wasn't cheap. It's understandable though, there's a lot of him to see over those 70+ books ranging from the inscrutable force of nature in things like Warlock to the deeply human old man who's broken and frightened of dying in So Vile a Sin. He's probably one of the most complete incarnations we see in terms of range, we see both his vulnerability and his indomitability. Within the same range, we have a six-part Pertwee-style romp in Shakedown, a beautiful character study in Human Nature, a giddy comedy in Sky Pirates! and a dark existential horror in Falls the Shadow.

The universe of the New Adventures isn't an easy one. Cold Fusion is a good example, there are no true villains as such. Not even the Ferutu. They're all just people and unfortunately, that just makes things so much harder. Consequently, when a genuine bad guy comes along, they're truly nasty little creatures like Joachim Wolff, Guzzman or the Yssgaroth. It's an interpretation of the Whoniverse where there the universe is nothing but shades of grey. It gets... messy.

As simple as this and I don’t know why people are always so wrong when trying to describe what the Doctor is. The simple fact of the matter is that he is the very definition of a Gallifreyan Buccaneer.