Forum:Guns and The Doctor

The use of guns in TV
Children are part of the target audience for Doctor Who and over the years different production crews have had different views on The Doctor using guns.

It is interesting to note the use of hand held weapons by The Doctor increased as the show moved into the 80's. The De-mat Gun, a weapon that can remove it's target from time and space, is introduced in TV: The Invasion of Time, the sixth serial of Season 15. 9 years previously, in the last episode of TV: The War Games The Time Lords did such a thing to the War Lord stating that he would be dematerialized, as if he had never existed. The Time Lords exacted this punishment without the use of any gun or any other prop, they simply had the power to do it. It can be argued that the two methods produced two distinct results but in essance they had the same effect, removing somebody from ever having been. The difference is in the show's attitude to The Doctor using such types of weapons.

Two further examples of The Doctor using guns can be seen in Season 20's Arc of Infinty and Season 21's Resurrection of the Daleks. There might be other examples. In contrast the 2005 revival series established that the Tenth Doctor repeatedly states in at least one episode that he hates guns and doesn't even like having them around him (TV: The Sontaran Stratagem). --Stillnotginger 04:39, February 26, 2010 (UTC)

Well, kids like guns. I loved seeing them used in shows as a child, too. The children of today especially aren't too bothered about seeing mild violence on TV shows. I think there was one old Doctor Who episde where a man's face got slowly melted, and another where two Cybermen broke a man's hands or something. In actuality, Doctor Who can be more violent than people think - when you look back and put all the clips together. Adelaide commited suicide using a gun in The Waters of Mars, and the Doctor almost shot the Master in the head in The End of Time. I think we can agree that Doctor Who is beyond the normal level of a family show - family show with death and mild violence. :) Delton Menace 07:33, February 27, 2010 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure they actually talked about this on an episode of Confidential. Paraphrasing my vague memory of what RTD said:

Doctor Who has more death than every other kids' action show combined, including many episodes that deal with death in very realistic and sobering ways, and others that are pretty graphic or horrifying. And yet, every other kids' action show, the hero carries around a gun, and fires it at people all the time (although never killing them), while The Doctor almost never uses a gun.

If I remember right, they kind of rambled for a while about what this means, referring to the "I never would" bit from The Doctor's Daughter (later echoed by The Master in The End of Time) and so on, without coming to a real conclusion other than that it was something interesting about Doctor Who. --99.20.129.165 09:22, March 3, 2010 (UTC)

Interestingly, while the 10th Doctor was highly reluctant to take Wilf's gun in The End of Time, the 11th asked for a gun and fired it without a moment's hestiation in Time of the Angels. Of course the 10th had no idea what he was going to end up shooting and had good reason to expect it would be the Master, while the 11th just wanted to knock out a gravity globe. But still, it's hard to imagine the 10th Doctor doing the same thing so casually. The 11th also just generally seems more comfortable around guns and people carrying them.

I think in a way, it shows the progress of his recovery from the LGTW. The 9th Doctor had a sort of morbid fascination with guns, as do many veterans suffering from PTSD. The 10th Doctor had a fervent hatred for them. The 11th is able to see them as just a tool like any other. --Falcotron 11:38, April 25, 2010 (UTC)