Typing Doctor Who: Eleventh Doctor (ENTP)

ENTPs:

Quick, ingenious, stimulating, alert, and outspoken. Resourceful in solving new and challenging problems. Adept at generating conceptual possibilities and then analyzing them strategically. Good at reading other people. Bored by routine, will seldom do the same thing the same way, apt to turn to one new interest after another.

This was an easy one, because ENTPs are one of the easiest types to pick. Do you know anyone who speaks predominantly in memes and puns, with whom every conversation feels like an exhilarating rollercoaster ride, and who relishes debating and arguing — about anything — just for the thrill of it? If so, you have yourself an ENTP friend, and you should consider yourself privileged, because they’re one of the rarest, but also the most awesome and engaging types (in my opinion).

ENTPs are ruled by Extraverted Intuition (Ne), which means their heads are constantly brimming with new ideas and possibilities which they can get very excited about, and allows them to perceive connections between ideas and phenomena very quickly and instinctively. Their Ne is supported by auxiliary Introverted Thinking (Ti), which processes and analyses the many ideas that present themselves to the ENTP with internal, subjective logic, making them a very rational and logical, but also profoundly intellectually creative personality.

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It’s pretty clear to me that the Eleventh Doctor (who also happens to be my favourite Doctor), is an ENTP. For one thing, the Eleventh Doctor positively bleeds Extraverted Intuition (Ne). He’s constantly excited by the many new ideas and possibilities that his intuition generates, leaping dizzyingly from idea to idea, leading to his appearing hyperactive. Dominant Ne-users (ENTPs and ENFPs) are very easy to spot because of their Extraverted Intuition, and the way it constantly generates a slew of ideas, which tends to lead Ne-dominants to have a very animated and hyperactive, and often whimsical and child-like, manner. The Eleventh Doctor definitely conforms to this stereotype: he has a goofy and whimsical manner and comes across as unfocussed and excitable. Another great fictional ENTP character characterised by Ne-dominant “goofiness” is Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean.

One thing that struck me as a very ENTP thing Eleven did was in Flesh and Stone, where River chided him “Time’s running out!” while they were being pursued by Weeping Angels, and Eleven momentarily scoffed at the remark before becoming captivated by another completely abstract idea that his intuition generated from that innocuous remark of River’s: “maybe time could run out? Maybe time can be unwritten?” So Eleven was distracted by arcane metaphysical ideas in the middle of a life-threatening crisis situation. ENTP af.

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It’s also clear that, frivolous and goofy and personable as Eleven may be, he’s also highly rational and calculating, sometimes coldly so. That’s his auxiliary Introverted Thinking (Ti). Behind those animated, childlike eyes lie cool, rigorous mental processes with which he makes judgments and decisions. In The Girl Who Waited he comes to the conclusion which his logic tells him is the only feasible one — that the elder Amy must be left behind — and, putting sentimentality aside, manipulates and lies to Rory and the two Amys in order to bring about this resolution. In The Big Bang, with some quick and agile mental analysis, he figures out why the Pandorica restored the Dalek, and how he can use the Pandorica, in combination with his exploding Tardis, to restore the rapidly decaying universe. The way he puzzles continuously over Clara, the “Impossible Girl”, in Series 7 is also indicative of Ti in that he simply can’t rest until he understands it, he can’t just let it remain a mystery—a very Ti thing.

Another, more empathetic and sensitive side of Eleven’s is represented by his tertiary Extraverted Feeling (Fe), which makes him sensitive to the feelings of others and concerned about maintaining group harmony. Eleven’s Fe is fairly well-developed, I think. He knows when people need emotional support, and how to give it to them. Eleven is adept at comforting and giving reassurance to his companions and friends. In Vincent and the Doctor he comforts Amy after she becomes upset at finding that, even after all they did for him, Vincent van Gogh still took his own life within months of their visit. His taking Amy to see Van Gogh’s paintings at the Musée d’Orsay and lots of other things she wanted to see is itself a manifestation of his Extraverted Feeling, in his empathy and generosity towards Amy after Rory’s apparent death. His Fe also manifests itself in his need for affirmation, for example, of his fashion choices (“bowties are cool”).

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Eleven also has a darker, brooding, tortured side to his personality which simmers beneath the surface. I think this is a manifestation of his inferior Introverted Sensing (Si), particularly in the way his subjective memories, and the sensations and emotions associated with those memories exert an influence over him. The negative emotions associated with his negative memories (negative because his memories are processed through the subjective, internalised filter of Si) of things like the Time War, his past companions, and his own actions weigh intensely heavily upon him, and create this bubbling well of regret and self-loathing inside of him which sometimes boils over onto the surface. I also think we see him in the throes of a Si-grip in The Snowmen, where, after losing Amy and Rory, he retreats into reclusion and self-hating isolation, spiting the thought of engaging with the world and with new people again, being full of regret over the fate of his two best friends (for which he blames himself).

Typing Doctor Who

So there’s not much going on in the world of Doctor Who at the moment. No new episodes until Christmas, and the next series won’t be on our screens for at least another 12 months. The new companion should be announced imminently, and I’ll do a post about that when it happens, but, otherwise, there’s not much for this blog to do at the moment in terms of Doctor Who-related content.

I want to keep this blog active during these dark, Who-less times, though. Apart from devoting more attention to non-Who topics to make up for the dearth of Doctor Who material, I’ve also decided to embark on a project that I’m sure many of my readers will find interesting and which I’ve no doubt will keep me busy and engaged on this blog.

So, recently I’ve become very interested in MBTI (Myers-Briggs Type Indicator). For those who don’t know what it is, MBTI is a very well-known theory of personality types. The theoretical foundations were laid by psychologist Carl Jung, which were later developed and expanded upon by Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs Myers (thus “Myers-Briggs”). It’s by a good length the most popular “personality type” theory (it’s certainly the most accessible to laypeople), and, although it’s not really rigorous, scientific psychology, as far as I know it’s generally accepted among psychologists as a legitimate and useful, albeit limited and rudimentary, theory.

You might have worked out where I’m going with this. It’s popular among lay enthusiasts of the MBTI to attempt to work out the personality types of fictional characters. I’ve become so engrossed in this theory that I find myself silently typing not only every fictional character I watch or read about, but also every person I meet. I find it a very fun mental exercise, and it helps me understand how others work and how they’re different from me. Inevitably, I’ve thought about the MBTI types of the characters of my favourite TV show, and I thought you all might be interested in knowing my thoughts and my reasoning.

So that’s what I’m going to be doing with this blog (among other things) over the coming months. Hopefully, at least once a week (if I have time), I’ll do a post about a Doctor Who character and their MBTI type, giving my reasoning behind why I’ve typed them the way I have. You needn’t worry—this isn’t going to be a set of impenetrable, arcane, theory-heavy pseudo-academic discussions: MBTI by its very nature is a very simple and accessible and easy-to-understand theory, which is part of the reason it’s so popular. And, of course, I’ll try my best to keep my posts as readable and relevant as possible.

As general disclosure, I’ll say that I’m by no means an expert on MBTI, but I have a decent amateur’s understanding of the theory (which is what at least half the people who run MBTI Tumblr blogs have). But I don’t claim that my typings will be definitive, they’re just my best estimations using what mastery of the theory that I have (which is the best anyone can do when you’re dealing with made-up characters anyway). I certainly invite those with a more thorough understanding of the theory to share their thoughts and feel free to disagree with my conclusions.

This is just an introductory post—my next post will be my first character typing. But here’s a teaser of what’s to come: some of the characters I’ve typed and which I’ll be writing about:

  • Twelfth Doctor — INTJ
  • Clara Oswald — ESFP
  • Eleventh Doctor — ENTP
  • Amy Pond — ENFP
  • Rory Williams — ISFJ
  • Tenth Doctor — ENFP
  • Ninth Doctor — INFP
  • Fourth Doctor — ENTP
  • Etc.

Stay tuned!

Some resources:

For the uninitiated, although I’m going to make these posts as readable to those completely ignorant of MBTI as possible, it still might be useful to have at least some basic grasp of the theory. It’s not difficult to understand at all.

  • Here is a brief basic overview of MBTI.
  • Here is a slightly more in-depth overview of the cognitive functions (which are the fundamental underlying theory of MBTI—yes, it’s more than just the four letters).
  • And, if you’re interested in working out your MBTI type, this is probably your best resource. Regarding quizzes, MBTI quizzes are fun to take, but they’re not the most accurate or reliable way of working out your type, simply because the nature of the theory actually makes it quite difficult to test accurately with an online quiz. If you can’t be bothered learning the theory and want to take a quiz, try to take a few different quizzes and see if your results are consistent.