David Tennant ’s Doctoris very big on hands . Well , most biped android , Time Lords include , are quite piercing on hold all their limb . But recollect the blade fight in “ Christmas Invasion”?Remember the scrap mitt ? recollect how he grow awhole other versionof himself out of that hired man four years later ?
But , most significantly , remember the hand pose ?
Every Thursday in November , io9 is celebrating the history ofDoctor Who , its legacy , and its anniversary solemnization across 60 years of dangerous undertaking in Time and Space , as we gear up for the big day itself on November 23 — and anew era beyond itshortly after …
Image: BBC
The Doctor is a curious character to photograph for promotional material . They do n’t always do props — outside of the Sonic Screwdriver , and even that was n’t always guaranteed back in the mean solar day . They do n’t have any power or ability to gesture for , they ’re not , for the most part , physical fighters . The affair the Doctor is good at — their compassion for others , their power to utter their way out of problems , their sprint tread down any given distance of corridor — are not really things you’re able to entirely get across when doing a publicity shoot . They do n’t really have mannerism , either .
Except one . unfaltering stance . gaze down the photographic camera . Dominant arm raise . Hand spread out . Never pointed , never beckoning , not even really gesturing . Just … splayed . The helping hand pose !
The Doctor hired man gravel – going strong for 60 old age 🖐 ️#DoctorWhopic.twitter.com/0Dba4AgmYo
— Doctor Who ( @bbcdoctorwho)August 5 , 2023
I joked about David Tennant ’s Doctor and hands before ; away from the odd grandness a literal , peculiar hand had to his first term of office in the TARDIS , the man loved himself a hand amaze . It ’s all over the press picture of Tennant ’s years on Doctor Who , to the point in time that , now that the actor is back in natural action as a raw incarnation of the Doctor , he ’s doing all over again in the promotional picture for the sixtieth anniversary specials — as if that is as nostalgic and deserving celebrate as part of this day of remembrance as anything else . And in a way it is : the affectedness is n’t just Tennant ’s , he was in all likelihood inspired by a celebrated promotion shoot of Tom Baker ’s Doctor doing much the same . But almost every MD had one .
Jon Pertwee ’s Doctor was affectionate of a Doctor Strange - ian horn . Baker arguably started the more world-wide dim hand - splaying espouse by Tennant . Peter Capaldi , in turn , made the hand pose his own , jiggle his fingers with reckless abandon . Hell , Ncuti Gatwa ’s Doctor is n’t even here yet and he ’s already doing it ! There is just something that read as unambiguously physician - ish about the whole matter . An air of secret to it that befit the Doctor ’s own beguiling allure . What does it mean ? Who know . What does it invoke ? No idea . Why do it ? you could only put your hand in your pockets or on your hip so many times , I guess . Why does it feel so Doctor Who anyway ? Do n’t know , it just does .
And perchance that ’s why it ’s deserving celebrate , this weird fiddling part of an ever - evolving case picked up and iterated on by generation after coevals of player to inhabit the role . That ’s part of the joy of Doctor Who survive on for so long — even the littlest brandish can spark a legacy across Time and Space .
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