The 11th Doctor - Billy No Mates?

It's not an idea I'd had myself, but I was chatting about the 11th Doctor's lack of social graces the other night.  As you do, when your girlfriend reads interesting and geeky things for fun.

It occurred to me that, in comparison to other Doctors, 11 doesn't have any friends.

Of course, it's Moffat's fault.  Everything is.  That triple-dip recession?  That was him.

If you look at the post 2005 Doctors, you can see that 9 was more than capable of making friends and being sociable when he chose to.  In fact he's quite the party animal, as Doctors go.  He was perfectly at home amongst other people and for a while he had quite a collection of people travelling in or knocking around the Tardis.

10, by comparison, couldn't be alone if he tried.  And oh, he tried.  But it was all a pose, because 10's exuberance wouldn't let him be moody and broody for more than a few minutes at a time.  We only have to look at Journey's End to see the vast menagerie that he'd managed to attract.

But 11 is much better at being a loner.  It's almost his default setting.

His decision  to travel with Amy was, at first, all about the puzzle of Amy Pond.  He was fascinated by the impossibleness of her, so whatever it took to solve that riddle was what the Doctor was going to do.  We skip quietly past the fact that Amy doesn't have any family and straight into the Doctor realising that she's not just an interesting puzzle when she throws herself at him.  At that point, the Doctor remembers Rory and scoots off to scoop him up.  Does this mean Rory is a mate?  No.  He's Amyproofing.

11 treats people like interesting toys.  River Song, a woman he's ostensibly married to and someone he allegedly cares for deeply, is put back in a box when the Doctor is done with her.  Craig, who has the sort of emotional power that explodes cybermen and who fights off a rogue timeship, isn't a mate.  The Doctor doesn't understand a single thing about him and although he sits back and fixes Craig's relationship, he's really no closer to Craig than he was when they met.  

He's doing the same things with Clara - they meet on Wednesdays, allegedly so Clara can look after a couple of kids.  It's interesting that the Doctor refers to her as another impossible girl.  He likes impossible.  But he doesn't like people.  He even seems to be glad to see the back of Madame Vastra, Jenny and Strax.  

It looks like the 11th Doctor is reverting back to an old personality.  A very old one.  His first, in fact.  Although the performance is pure Matt Smith, there are sides to this Doctor that are quite similar to the selfish old man who we met in the infamous 1963 junk yard.  

I'm not convinced this is a good thing.