“Deep waters, Sherlock – all your life, in all your dreams. Deep waters.”
In Sherlock Series 4, it’s revealed that Sherlock’s associated deep water and drowning with the bad things in his life since childhood. His sister Euros drowned his best friend and gave the information to Moriarty and that’s why he first met Sherlock by a swimming pool.
In Series 12, I think a similar association may have been drawn between the Doctor and falling. The finale, The Timeless Children shows the Doctor’s real first regeneration as a child from falling from a cliff on Gallifrey. That’s the Doctor’s first original death - one she can’t remember but is seared onto her hearts.
The Fourth Doctor has one of the most memorable and iconic regenerations of the classic series. After battling the Master, he falls from a great height and regenerates into Peter Davison after declaring “it’s the end, but the moment has been prepared for.” The Master makes reference to this death at the start of Series 12, asking if he ever apologised for Jodrell Bank. Clearly the Doctor falling is on his mind after his recent discoveries.
The 10th Doctor’s regeneration also includes a dramatic fall as part of his last stand. But the regeneration of most interest is the Twelfth Doctor’s. His final battle is an episode literally called the Doctor Falls. The Master makes reference to the Fourth Doctor’s death again when taunting him with the different ways he’s died. The Doctor declares where he stands is where he falls. Falling is the Doctor’s chosen metaphor for dying. Note also in Heaven Sent, his own personal hell always starts with him falling from a window (coincidentally into deep waters) and he has to live through that fall over and over and over again for 4.5 billion years.
And what about the 13th Doctor, the one who discovers her secret past as the Timeless Child who fell? She starts her regeneration by falling from the Tardis towards Sheffield. (In fact it seems not uncommon from the Doctor to start their regenerations in recent years with the Tardis crashing and falling). She loses Grace as a companion in her first episode to a fall. And how does the Master try to kill her in the opening of S12? By making the plane she’s on fall from the sky.
I think the Doctor will be haunted by the memory of falling for the rest of her lives.
Comments