Why are pears so important to the Twelfth Doctor in Doctor Who?
Doctor Who, BBC
This might seem like a completely out-of-place post, but permit me one post when something bothers me on a personal level. This is definitely a little weird to write about, but in a hiatus, we take what we can get.
What does the Twelfth Doctor have against Pears?
We all know that there was a deleted scene in which the Tenth Doctor mentioned briefly about how he hated pears. In fact, I always assumed it was David Tennant speaking and not the Doctor at all! So imagine my surprise when the Twelfth Doctor mentioned pears in his final speech.
In fact, I was so confused about this that it took away from the final speech. Why does the Twelfth Doctor hate pears? Why haven’t we heard this before? What do pears do to Gallifreyans that is so important that it would make the final speech? Do they have some kind of horrible effect on Gallifreyan Women and he knew he was regenerating into a woman?
(You have to understand, details that bother me tend to stick with me.)
By the time I had finally let it go, I decided to watch one of the most controversial episodes of the Moffat/Capaldi era Hell Bent. Many people don’t like to talk about the episode, but it happens to be one of my favorites. (Judge me if you will)
As I was watching the episode
and crying
I realized the finale isn’t the first time the Doctor mentions pears. He tells Clara not to eat pears as well, right before he forgets all memory of her.
Uhh…thanks, Doc.
I’m still incredibly confused. It’s not like Steven Moffat wrote Human Nature, where the clip originated. It was never mentioned again, so why bring it up? Not to mention: why bring it up in the two most emotional scenes?
Maybe the Doctor has some horrible thing against pears? Maybe we translated the saying wrong and it’s a pear a day keeps the Doctor away?