Uploaded November 2013 | Updated September 2026, 2 days ago

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Turn on subtitles! Flash warning. Please read description for extra Ten love. #doctorwhotribute #doctorwho #tenthdoctor

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Rash, reckless, passionate, righteous fury, fear and courage, loneliness, loss... the glorious, tragic burning soul of a Time Lord who gives so much and gains so little.

It's what makes the Doctor such an engaging, admirable character, because at the end of the day, he's the one who'd risk everything to prove that each life, alien or human, small or great, friend or even foe, is important, that life is important.

He's the last of his kind, a powerful species nearly gone because of the double genocide he was forced to commit, for the good of all creation. The blood of all Daleks and Time Lords on his hands, he can never come to terms with his past, and never really believes that the sacrifice of others for him is ever really worthwhile. He's driven by guilt, that others would be willing to lose their lives for him, when in his eyes he only absorbs those lives and prevents them from fulfilling themselves apart from him and the wandering nature of his existence. He lives longer than they do, he's different from them, and their lives would only be wasted loving him, or so he believes. He desperately needs a hand to hold him, a heart to heal him, and a soul to love him, and without someone he deteriorates and shatters into darkness, even when trying to do good.

"But it was, it was a better life. I don't mean all the traveling and seeing aliens and spaceships and things. That don't matter. The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life. You don't just give up. You don't just let things happen. You make a stand. You say no. You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away."

But he inspires others. This is the Doctor's legacy, his reward. Though he brings peril to the lives of many, they are still better people for it, people who try to walk in his footsteps of fighting against evil. The Children of Time, his family, little people, giants to him, the stupid, beautiful race of humans who give him humanity, who carry on his battle for peace when he is gone.

Who is the Doctor? A man with secrets, guilt, pain, but in his heart a heroism and a selflessness that conquers all and brings love and gratitude to his desperate, lonely soul.

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This vid tries to explains the Doctor, from his glory to vulnerability, the tragic sadness that is his life. It celebrates his selfless acts, every time he put himself out as the sacrifice for someone, up to the climactic act of his life, when he suffered the fatal effects of radiation in the place of an old man, whose life was good and full, not even a very close friend, someone so small compared to him and his role in the universe. But no life is unimportant, not even a simple old man compared to the powerful glory and authority of the final good Time Lord.

"All right, so it's my turn, then kill me. Kill me if it'll stop you from attacking these people."
"I've got to give them a choice."
"Let me do this."
"Put me in her place. You can do anything to me, I don't care. Just get her out of there!"

In the end he made good on that promise, all those times he put himself at risk, willingly offering his life to give even his enemies a choice to do good. All those times others died for him, in place of him, instead of him. That shame he was running from, once for all atoned in a small radiation booth, an inglorious end made after the great battle was won. But the glory lies with the humble, and for him, it truly is an honor to offer up the life he valued.

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This video came out of a really purging time for me, a product of the month in which I refrained from all online social contact. I'd been burned a long time by pressures in the HTTYD fandom and I just needed a real break, an escape. Enter the 10th Doctor. I've concentrated on spending time with my sis, mostly fangirling over the Doctor's playfulness and selflessness, and Tennant's incredible acting range. This song came from my Jack Frost fandom days (it was on a RP blog), so it was fun to recast it in a new light. And it fits the Doctor so well!

We really both created this vid, my sis and I. :) I tried a lot of new things, learned from all the Who videos we've been watching. There's a couple segments that are faster than anything I've done (the running area at 1:43-1:50 and the pain/self-sacrifice sequence from 3:42-4:03). "Don't blink" takes on new meaning in the Who fandom, LOL: youtube.com/watch?v=jKXLkWrBo7o Another fun thing was the text effects for the credits at the start and end. Official Who title font and a subtitle font from the "Aliens" movie. Perfect! Then the circle pattern which is actually pseudo-Gallifreyan text (Gallifrey being the Doctor's home planet). So translation: the opening credits read Tenth (down) and Doctor (across), while the end credits read David (across) and Tennant (down).