WTH are you talking about sareth01? It is specifically his haphazard way of traveling that gets him into situations where he must fight and kill.

Sareth is right.

The Doctor had to intervene in the Last Time War and basically when the Time Lords had decided that it was better to erase the history of the universe in order to save Gallifrey, the Doctor instead removed Gallifrey from the universe to save the innocent worlds not involved in the war from complete annihilation.  It's also implied a few times that the Doctor was quite the general in the Last Time War and was responsible for many defeats of their enemies.

When seeing the extremes his own kind would go to to save themselves, he realized they were not much different than their enemies--in fact, they had come to see themselves as gods amongst "mere mortals"-- and his view shifted from assuming he was a Time "Lord" to becoming an observer and simply enjoying watching other species live and evolve--particularly humans.  He also began to act as a protector of the innocent and its implied it is because of his guilt and shame for his and the other Time Lord's former arrogance and hubris and guilt for being the one to "pull the trigger" on his own people.

If you note, the Doctor often does not end up where he plans to go and while it's been implied for some time--particularly in the new series--the TARDIS itself has something to do with where he ends up.  The episode recently titled, "The Doctor's Wife" really shows this. The Doctor and TARDIS have a symbiotic relationship and the TARDIS is composed of pure time energy that was present only at the Big Bang and is itself intelligent--with a desire to bond and serve with a Time Lord.

So the TARDIS is like the Doctor's subconscious in a lot of ways and it responds to his desires and motivations even when he isn't consciously aware its doing so.  Because he feels guilt and a need to atone and looks to helping others (particularly humans whom he is constantly shown admiring as unique in the universe), the TARDIS "nudges" his "fun expeditions" to points in time and space where there is a threat to or need by the life forms he is attached to.

So he is drawn by love and desire for humanity's existence but cursed with always showing up at the most critical and threatening points of its existence because of his sense of guilt and the desire to atone.  A hero who must always fight and never is able to lay down his sword--though he longs to.

I love the science fiction strengths Russel brought to the series.

Lol--I was up late...there ya go.

I hate to correct you after that beautiful synopsis, but sareth01 is still wrong. The question Rory posed was why he didn't check the history books before traveling to a specific time and place. His response was that he preferred not to have specific foreknowledge of where he is going. So while it is true that his motivation for traveling and what he does when he gets there is based on what Sinperium briefly described, it is his sense of adventure/senility that puts his traveling companions into danger at every turn.

In this recent season there has been a revealing of the mind of the TARDIS he travels with. Certainly she seems to choose the exact destination, but as I have noticed after seeing every episode that is still available, he could in fact be more specific with his destination. He seems to choose randomness, trusting that she will take him where he is needed. Rory correctly pointed out, as have many that have already left the doctor's side, this is a bad way for a human to travel. 

Now that all the fun has been sucked out of the conversation I want to pose the question of Torchwood. Why does the doctor, protector of Earth, abandon us in such great times of need? Are there parts of humanity that he runs from, just as he is still running form his own self?

We really could have used him for The Blessing...

I guess since the Blessing was solved, there was no need for the doctor to get his hands dirty?

No. Millions of people suffered on a scale not before seen on Earth. The cause was buried a few hundred feet below ground in two of the most populated cities in the world and pretty much everyone important died. The masterminds behind it got away and are working on a new plan. Someone please call the doctor...

Yeah--Torchwood does sort of impinge on continuity sometimes...Cie le TV.

I'll agree the Doctor could check exactly where he is going and that he chooses not to--but I don't think that invalidates my point.  He doesn't want the responsibility after having had it back in the day...it was too much.  It's a psychological coping mechanism that does put his companions at risk...but on the other hand it also puts him at the right place at the right time.

Essentially, he's always is up to the adventure and he is willing to do the dirty jobs that must be done if he has too--he just isn't up to having to face a list of problems and responsibilities so he simply trusts the TARDIS to pick the assignments for him.  Sometimes he gets to have fun and othertimes he has to sacrifice but he's spared the pressure of having to face it daily.

Think about it...all the problems in the world--all life or death--in your inbox every day.  I'd avoid and want a way to cope too without having to always think about it.  I thin k anyone would go insane--even a Time Lord--if they had to carry this.  You could even argue that's exactly what happened to the Time Lords and that's why the Doctor is afraid of the obligation.

Essentially, the Doctor is quite similar to someone dealing with PTSD Can you blame him?

A wonderful question. I pray that no human ever invents a time machine. 

Sinperium answered it before I could :

I would pose a fair question, if you had killed 1 billion + individuals, that their blood was on your hands, and it had really solved nothing (aka daleks are still alive, threatening the universe), would you finally take to heart the lesson that violence is not the answer?

Would you become a paragon of peace, to use reason and discussion to stop the proliferation of violence?

The doctor is in many ways a paragon of peace, and I believe this is his most endearing quality to the viewer.

He is not perfect in this, but the point is that he tries not to use violence.

That is all I was talking about, nothing more or nothing less.

If you want to get some real life experience on this phenomenon, enlist in the army and go overseas and start killing people with the rest of those guys, and/or talk to a few soldiers that have killed a few people in combat and ask them if violence is the right way to go about things. 

Personally, I have never killed another person in combat despite having served in the armed forces in a warzone.  I have had many friends that have however and they are strong supporters of a peaceful solution to solving problems (as am I).  It is the governments/private interests that make money off the conflicts that are the greatest barrier to peaceful conflict resolution. 

I enjoyed the episode where the human bankers had sold out humanity to an alien monster on a media satellite orbiting the earth.  The situational comedy of that episode was downright awesome.  Writers of Dr. Who and I see eye to eye on a great many things, that is one reason I enjoy the show as much as I do.

Yeah that would be a god awful mess!

Oh please... where did you REALLY think the dinosaurs went? Hunted to extinction by humans with super-powered high ballistics explosive shells.

It is not a matter of "if" a human invents a time machine. We are living the results.

Lol good reply!

Maybe dinosaurs invented time machines and then destroyed themselves by altering their past.

My timelord source says no.

Please, everyone knows The Big Giant Head ordered the killing of the dinosaurs. 

The last two episodes of Doctor Who were great, especially since the one with the one before wasn't all that cracked up. I'm really curious to see how/if/when/how they'll tie up the whole story, or even if they plan to do it in this season, considering there's only two episodes left. After all, there's still a lot of stuff unanswered from the previous season. But at least they teased that in the last episode, in the room where the Doctor sees exactly what he expected, and there's that sound that accompanied the "Silence will fall" message a while back.

The good thing about Doctor Who being a series as old as time, is that so many plausible speculations can exist, and none of them may be the answer to the mystery. Still, I wish they could make the series a little more self contained. It started out great, by not mentioning just about everything before the 11th Doctor, apart from a few references, rare ones, but then it started to get bogged down in it's own story, thus making filler episodes, like the one from three weeks ago, very annoying.   

In case you were wondering what he saw, it was just him in there, probably waving enthusiastically. 

You're right, he would be his own worst fear, The Dream Lord proved how much he hated himself.

I think he saw himself, in the Tardis (hence the sound), alone. He fears his own decisions and the guilt and tragedy they incur. This would tie into the storyline with Rory, whom the Doctor puts a lot of heavy decisions on that he doesn't trust himself to make. Also, the episode, where the minotaur basically tells the doctor they are they same - tumbling through space in a box, forever alone, and that death would be an accepted release for such a creature (remember the overarching storyline of this season? yep). And finally, how the episode ends - as many before it - with the doctor alone in the Tardis looking for the next companion.

I am still waiting for his daughter from that episode where they cloned him way back at the beginning of Tenant's career. Maybe she can take over for a while when he is dead. 

Well, this season was filled with more red herrings than something that's filled with a lot of red herrings. Totally did not see that coming, I was expecting  that the Doctor that died was made of Flesh, but not a robot, since well, robots don't die. But there is a logic to it, he didn't need to die, he just had to be there and go trough the events that were fixed in time. The robot being hit and burned, that's all. This ending actually made a lot more sense than the previous season. But still, why did the TARDIS explode last season? Guess we won't find that out until 2012, when it would seem that this Doctor will regenerate. Also, in the 50 years the series has been on, has no one used a plot that involved the title? It's been a running gag, but never a plot? Weird. Waiting a year for the next season is going to be a pain, especially since it will be shorter. Oh well, now I have to write something odd, so when people see the text with the spoiler tag on, they'll go "What!?:. a dinosaur, but whoever thought that the plants would eat everyone.

The episode was a bit all over the place, I think I am disappointed after this season being so great. Also, the whole thing about him being a robot at the lake really felt like a cop-out. I fully expected him to actually die. We know from before that the doctor that dies is actually 200 years older than the one that noticed that he himself was going to die. There's a huge room for adventures and travels there. 200 seasons worth. So he's technically dead, so what. That doesn't stop him from showing up tomorrow in a younger self. He's got a time machine. He could be - and should be - jumping all over the place. Of course it wouldn't really work because he'd regenerate a lot of times before that, but his "death" was in the current form. Still. Also, how bad-ass was that when he put the dalek gadget down at the pawn shop or whatever it was. "Yup, I kill daleks for fun. Now stop giving me lip and tell me what I need to know." Hey, that thing about teasing people who don't read spoilers seem fun, I think I'll join in; so that's a good lesson for all of us - catch a ball.

 On another note, It's interesting that so many have been going around asking the question "doctor who?" throughout the series, and now it turns out that asking the question could destroy reality. Now, I'm just a cautious guy, but that just seems irresponsible. I mean, I would just call myself Albert or something, instead of risking the end of everything because someone asked the wrong question in the wrong place.

Also, aren't these guys and gals getting a bit callous when it comes to killing off people who won't exist due to some time paradox? "Oh yeah, I totally tortured millions - but that's ok, they're not real people." 

The bit with the Dalek was great "Imagine you were dying, imagine you were afraid and a long way from home, in terrible pain, just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, you looked up and you saw the face of the devil himself". That was probably one of the best lines I've ever heard a Doctor say. The nod to Nicholas Courtney, who played the Brigadier, was very touching. In the first episode of this season, the doctor did say he was 200 years older. I thought, that since for him time still passed when it went all wibbley wobbley, he spent most of that time locked up by Churchill, but he was supposed to meet River a bunch of times, like on Easter Island. Also, we didn't get to see him do any of the stuff in the intro to the Impossible Astronaut. That's something that seems to be a common theme in this series, it skips over a lot of things. That's what made the relationship between Amy and the Doctor seem a bit forced at first. If they had actually gone on an adventure, rather than him just barging in and making her cook, it would have made a bit more sense for the Doctor to imprint on her memories a lot more. Hmm, now that I think of it/watching the intro of the Impossible Astronaut on youtube, the question "who" was used a lot in that episode.   giant octopus in his pants.

I just realized something. The doctor leaves his wife to rot in jail, for a murder she didn't commit. Just so he can travel the stars in a more quiet manner. Granted, he does say he will visit plenty, and we know the prison isn't exactly River-proof. Still, it's a pretty scumbag thing to do. Especially since River Song gave up all her regeneration cycles just to save the doctor's life. His life is theoretically infinite. River's isn't.

Well, Doctor Who has been going so long, with so many people involved, that there's bound to be a few paradoxes. ;-)  And personality clashes.

Best regards,
Steven.

Oooh... River says in the silence of the library that she knows his name, and then whispers it to him. And the doctor replies that there's only one reason anyone would know his name. And then the ending of this season. The first question, the question that must never be answered. Doctor Who?

Oh damn unacomm, you're killing me. Well played.

The who question is also the first question in the first episode. I just love how that ties in. Leave it to the doctor to be nonchalant about the most basic question so that everyone asks it, doesn't get an answer and then totally disregards it. He may be using his perception filter powers on some people if you go back and watch every episode. I do find it strange that the question is apparently the first question at the beginning of everything. Are the Timelords god? I wonder if this will tell us exactly what he saw when he looked onto the time vortex that made him run away for so many centuries. 

On a side note, since Melody gave him her regenerative essence, he should be able to regenerate about nine more times. It is possible for Timelords to live forever, but they will naturally die after a dozen deaths if they don't find a way to make themselves immortal. Becoming a fixed point in time seems like a good option.