I Love The Idea That The 15th Doctor Is One Of The Incarnations Totally Willing To Manipulate His Friends

I love the idea that the 15th Doctor is one of the incarnations totally willing to manipulate his friends and companions, but he does it THROUGH laughs and smiles and charm, so much so that he barely even registers that that’s what he’s doing. Upbeat darkness.

Of course, “silly Doctor hiding a manipulative streak” is hardly new, but there’s a specific difference between, say, 7 using silliness to trick enemies but manipulating Ace more overtly, and 15 trying to manipulate Belinda, his potential new companion, USING his charm. It’s a (relatively) new angle on the Doctor’s manipulative behavior. I’m not gonna say it’s NEVER been done before (thousands of stories across several mediums over 60 years, I’m sure it’s cropped up), but this is the most overt example of the Doc using this specific manipulation tactic to my mind.

Belinda, having been the victim of a (clumsy) attempt at manipulation by Alan in the past, recognizes it right away and calls the Doc out, and he still doesn’t let the smile drop until he recognizes he isn’t gonna charm his way out of the situation.

And he KNOWS she’s right. But it almost makes him mad that she recognizes it too. You can see it on his face. He wants to argue back. But he knows she’s right, so he doesn’t.