The Doctor's Weapons

Urgh...

So... I really like Doctor Who. I really, really do love Doctor Who. I also really liked David Tennant's portrayal of the Doctor. Heck, every portrayal of the Doctor I've seen thus far has left me pretty happy. It's hard for me to dislike the Doctor, in fact.  However, I do have one problem with the Doctor, ESPECIALLY DAVID TENNANT'S... and that is, his behavior towards guns.

I think this is mostly due to my background. I come from a family of hunters and from a very young age, I was basically taught how to handle and fire a variety of firearms as well as safety rules behind such things. If you broke the safety rules in my family, you were banned from touching all of the firearms and the other kids in the family made fun of you while they got to shoot at the pop cans.  In short, to me a gun is just like any other weapon: a knife, a bow and arrow, a sword, a tazer, your own hands. Yes, they are dangerous. Very dangerous, but they are also dead useful most of the time and completely dismissing them so that your hero can look noble and be all superior with the moral high ground is ridiculous, stupid, big-headed and it pretty much gives people the worst message in my opinion.

Now, I happen to also know that this was something particular mostly to Russel T. Davies' Doctors. The Sixth Doctor used an automatic pistol against a Daleks' eyestalk in Revelation of the Daleks, and the Fifth Doctor used a handgun against a Dalek mutant that had escaped his armor in Resurrection of the Daleks, an episodes where the Doctor nearly kills Davros with the same gun. There's also that incident in The Time of Angels/Flesh and Stone where the Eleventh Doctor fires a gun at a Gravity Globe. Not to mention, the Tenth Doctor, for all his blustering about guns being "wrong" nearly shot Rassilon or the Master before music and a woman looking at him told him to somehow destroy a diamond that had managed to make it through out atmosphere undamaged by shooting it.

The Doctor has no problem wielding a sword.

The Doctor has no problem wielding bows and arrows.

The Doctor got a bit upset, but was willing to set off a weapon that would destroy a group of insane Daleks... and the human race.

The Doctor hates guns and will not use them under and circumstances.

One of those statements just don't fit in my opinion.

Now, let's get into the practical reasons why guns shouldn't be used by any of the characters in the show. The reasons I would like to be presented with besides "guns are bad".

1. Guns don't work against some alien creatures due to their biology--such as Time Lords who can simply regenerate--or armor that they wear--such as the Cybermen and the Daleks.
2. A gun used wrongly or carelessly can possibly harm or kill innocent people who have no part in the conflict.
3. Most people aren't raised from a young age on gun safety or how to properly aim a gun and thus have no business wielding such a weapon where they will obviously be more likely to hurt themselves or innocents instead of the thing they are fighting.

See those things up above? They aren't that difficult of a concept for you to understand are they?  Your brain did not explode upon reading those simple statements, did it? So answer me this:

WHY THE HELL DIDN'T THE PRODUCERS OF DOCTOR WHO PRESENT THOSE SIMPLE IDEAS IN THE SHOW DURING DAVID TENNANTS RUN?!?!

I mean, they sometimes hinted at it. They had the Doctor screaming at U.N.I.T. about how their guns wouldn't work against the Sontarans in such a stupid and hysterical way that of course no one would listen to... especially after the man spent half the episode treating the people of U.N.I.T. like shit and giving Martha shit for joining them. 

No one wants to listen to a hysterical jerk, Doctor.

In fact, no one wants to listen to a jerk.

So, here's another tidbit. If you have great aim. I mean, really great aim. Like, you can hit a small button from a ridiculous distance great aim. AND you have a knowledge of the anatomy of humans and other creatures... You can use a gun to injure people, but not kill them.

Yeah.

We know from the episodes I've watched so far that the Doctor has a medical degree and studied human anatomy. We also know that the Doctor is capable of so much more physically than a human at times. I bet he'd be a good shot and he could use the gun the way just suggested. He could end so many conflicts and save so many lives and gets his "everybody lives" ending.

But he doesn't.

This is why I want to beat the Tenth Doctor with a cricket bat... and the Ninth Doctor as well sometimes. He's intelligent. He knows what he's doing most of the time. He can think things through... and you know, decide to kill the Master or the Daleks before total mayhem happens, but he never chooses to for the moral high ground!

It's enough to make me grind my teeth! If the Doctor really wanted to help people and save the universe, I think he should be willing to sacrifice that high ground to do things to that purpose.

Not get angry when his human clone does it instead.

Not refuse to kill the Master, who has proven himself mentally unhinged and prepared to murder and destroy EVERYTHING for fun, because "he might be worth saving".

However, that's the Russel T. Davies Doctor and I'm glad to say that most of the other Doctors, while not happy about guns and sometimes unable to kill or properly put an end to dangerous people (like Davros), aren't as fucking stupid and self-contradictory as the Doctors as written by Russel T. Davies.

I think that finishes my rant for now. Maybe next time I'll rant about something I don't like about the Moffet-era Doctor Who.

There is something about it that tweaks my nerves a bit too.