A long and lonely life
In his time, the Doctor has done many things, most of them good, but there are things he would change, and times when he has had to do that which goes against his nature. The Time War is one of those, and although I don't know the full details I do know that he virtually wiped out the Dalek race --- and one would assume there was a lot of collateral damage involved in that. So when the Gelth mention that they were left homeless thanks to the Time War, he feels responsible. This is probably a calculated ploy: the Gelth know who he is and how to push his buttons. Trying to make amends, the Doctor agrees to allow the aliens to cross over, and too late sees that he has indeed been played. But when you have the deaths of countless billions on your conscience, this is always going to be a trigger word.
True Companion
Again Rose demonstrates that she is not just along for the ride. The Doctor has had feisty companions before, certainly, but most of them have seemed to accede to his authority, bow to hs wisdom. Rose is the first of a new breed: a modern woman for a new century and a new millennium, and she will be more instrumental to his plans than he could have ever imagined. Really, at the heart of it, all the Doctor wants is company on his lonely, seemingly endless voyage through time and space. But Rose will turn out to be much more than that.
Here, she openly defies his plan to allow the Gelth through, seeing it as a horror when he sees it as practical. She stands up to him --- something few of his previous companions have done --- and he, angry at her for not toeing the line and bringing what he sees as outdated moral baggage along with her, snarls that she can go home if she doesn't like it here. But in the end he has to apologise as it turns out he has made the wrong decision and it looks very likely that they will both die at the hands of the Gelth. It's only the quick thinking of Charles Dickens --- a man from the nineteenth century able to see a solution where a man who has all of time and space at his command cannot --- that saves the day, and that must humble him. It's vindication for Rose though, vindication she would probably have preferred not to have, given that it's meant the death of a girl she was beginning to see as a friend, an innocent, and the near enslavement of the Earth.
But she's learned now that she can challenge him. The Doctor, despite his age and experience, is not infallible. He is not a god, and he sometimes gets it wrong. And she must be there to point out when he does, and to resist him, explain her position, propose an alternative course of action, or just simply dig her heels in and say “No!” when necessary. Although he is technically her protector --- she knows little of the vast realms of time and space, and he seems to know all or most of it --- she must also at times act as his guard, against his overconfidence, his arrogance and his belief in himself when she knows he is wrong. She must be the little pin that bursts the balloon of his self-confidence, and not be afraid to deflate his ego when it needs taking down.
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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018
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