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2 comments

Comment from: admin [Member]  

After reading and absorbing this, I’d like to add another SFF Picar hero to the list: Doctor Who. An outlaw, an outcast, and an adventurer, he traveled through time and space with each new story being a new episode in his epic tale. More importantly, he consistently defeated his enemies not through brute force, but by outwitting them.

As a child, I instantly fell in love with the Doctor because, in truth, trickster heroes were in pretty short supply back then. Keep in mind that I grew up during the Regan 80s, where almost all heroes were tough, muscle-bound, and carried weapons. Meeting a threat with anything less than heavy artillery meant you were a sissy. Even as a child I somehow recognized that Captain Kirk was essentially just a cowboy in space. Heck, even Luke Skywalker carried a lightsaber and defeated his enemies through combat (personally, I always preferred Han Solo). It was hard for me to identify with these action heroes because I was most certainly NOT He-Man, Conan, Rambo.

Then into this setting walked a goofy-looking clown with a long scarf who defeated hordes of bad guys by outsmarting them over and over again. He didn’t even carry a weapon - just a tool, his sonic screwdriver. Now THIS was a hero I could identify with!

Thankfully, after a twenty-year hiatus, the Doctor is back with a vengeance and winning over a new generation of fans who love seeing a mild-mannered trickster hero defeat armies of Daleks with only a tool, his friends, and his brain.


10/01/12 @ 10:42
Comment from: Christopher Stasheff [Visitor]  
Christopher Stasheff

Yes, the Doctor is definitely a prime picaro, possibly the best we’ve ever seen. Living by your wits does seem to hold down on the violence as, per example, McGyver. The Doctor may be the best on TV or in film, but he is not, thank Heaven, the only one.

10/05/12 @ 15:40