Doctor Who: Family Matters

In "Arachnids in the UK", the Doctor, while talking a mile a minute as the Doctor tends to do, dropped some knowledge about the Doctor’s past.



"I used to have sisters.”



There have been references to the Doctor having a family. But this is the first time the Doctor has referred to having sisters. 


“I have to really want to remember them, to bring them back in front of my eyes. The rest of the time they sleep in my mind, and I forget.”




Patrick Troughton as the 2^nd Doctor said this about missing his family and how he copes with their absence.  It ws a touching moment for the Doctor but not one to be repeated during the classic series. The idea of the Doctor having a family on Gallifrey was anathema at the time. Heck, there was an effort to ignore that the Doctor had a granddaughter.


In the modern era, the Doctor has dropped references to be a father. And in “Listen” in Series 8, we may have caught a glimpse of a young Doctor, crying himself to sleep to the frustration of who we may presume was his mother.


Otherwise, not a lot of attention is paid to the Doctor’s life with a family back on Gallifrey. 


I think this is a good thing, actually. Too much knowledge of the Doctor’s background can erode the character’s mystery. I’m OK knowing the Doctor had a family. I’m OK knowing that family included sisters. Or not.


I think sometimes the Doctor talks and thinks so fast, ideas and words tumble over each other so rapidly,  the veracity of what the Doctor says may not always be completely assured.


Sometimes I think the Doctor might say stuff to mess with people a bit, keep them off guard, little bits and piece of information swirling around in the ether, putting out color and light but not necessarily a coherent picture. Seeking to protect her secrets, the Doctor gives enough info to make you think you know something about the Doctor but not enough to know for sure who the Doctor actually is.    




There is also the matter that remembering family can be a painful memory for the Doctor. 


"I used to have sisters.”





According to the BBC novel, "A Brief History of Time Lords”, he journey to becoming a Time Lord involves leaving your family behind.


Here’s what it says in the book:





Almost the whole population lives outside the cities, billions of native Gallifreyans in their farms and homesteads, working through the day.


Every 7-year-old on Gallifrey truly dreads is turning 8. Being taken from their family and failing the selection.





Failing to be become…. what?


A soldier? 

A chancellery guard?

Time Lord?

Or worse than failing is passing. Passing the selection and being consigned to the bubble enclosed cities. Consigned to a sterile existence by shutting out all your past life. 

One presumes the Doctor passed the selection process and became a Time Lord.

What of her sisters?  The Doctor believes they're dead.

"I used to have sisters.”

If they didn’t make the cut to be Time Lords, they have long since lived out their mortal lifespans. 


With a such a sad awareness of the mortality of the family left behind by a Time Lord, I imagine it is hard to think back on that family.