Doctor Who: Boom Town

In episode 11 of season 1 of Doctor Who, entitled "Boom Town," we have the reintroduction of the family Slitheen from the planet Raxicoricofallipatorious (spelling?).

This was a very interesting episode, especially in relation to the Doctor's characterization as a god.  The series has constantly been playing with the idea that the Doctor should be viewed as some sort of god.  The show's background is, of course, not that of Christianity, Judaism, or Islam.  It does not suppose one, all powerful God, besides which everything else is part of creation.  Rather, we are closer to ancient polytheistic mythology.  Each alien species might be considered a "god" due to their advanced technology. Yet, the show is always pushing right up against the notion of the Doctor as a god in relation to humanity.  Indeed, the Doctor does fit into such a characterization, especially in this episode.

The episode starts as if it were going to be just boring day.  The Tardis is recharging (didn't know it had to do that) on the space/time rift in Cardiff of Wales that we encountered in 1-3, "The Unquiet Dead."  Captain Jack Harkness has joined the show and is along for the ride.  The Doctor, Rose, and Jack meet up with Mickey (Rose's old boyfriend) in Cardiff for a day on the town while the Tardis recharges.

The day of relaxation is interrupted when the Doctor notices the image of Margaret, the human body suit that contained one of the family Slitheen members from the double episode 1-4/5 "Aliens of London/World War III"  The Doctor knows something is up, and it is.  In the meanitme, Margaret Slitheen has become Mayor of Cardiff and has plans on building a nuclear power plant designed to fail, causing the time rift to implode, allowing Margaret to ride the shockwave on her special surfboard (huh?).  Of course, the Doctor will not let this pass, and with little ado, the Doctor, Rose, Jack, and Mickey are able to apprehend Margaret and take her into custody.  Now comes the real intrigue in the episode.  Margaret's wicked plan seems to be merely an attempt to escape from Earth.  The Doctor offers to return her to her home planet Raxicoricofallipatorious.  The problem: she has been condemned to death on her home planet, to which the Doctor responds: "not my problem."  The Doctor will coolly and without emotion deliver Margaret Slitheen to the justice she so deserves.

Yet, as the episode plays out, the question shifts: is the Doctor as innocent as he seems?  Is he in the moral position to judge.  He carries the responsibility of a god, to judge or not to judge, yet can he play that role? The Doctor is in a position to either condemn to death or extend mercy and life to this known criminal.  This is nowhere more evident than in the Doctor's dinner conversation with Margaret (known to her own people as "blond) Slitheen.

In their conversation over dinner, Margaret (Blond) Slitheen tries to kill the Doctor 3 times separate times, highlighting her murderous tendencies. After describing the type of death that she will endure after she is taken back to her home planet,  the conversation goes as follows:

Doctor: "I don't make the law."
Slitheen: "But you deliver it...."

And a little bit later, Blond Slitheen explains how she had mercy on a person just that day, she had a moment of conscience and resisted the urge to kill them.  The Doctor responds that that is how she justifies her existence, by the fact that from time to time she lets one go, has mercy on one, saves one.

Doctor: "And that's how you live with yourself.  That's how you slaughter millions.  Because once in a while, on a whim, if the wind's in the right direction, you happen to be kind."

Now Blond Slitheen turns the tables.

Blond Slitheen: "Only a killer would know that.  Is that right?  From what I've seen, your funny little happy go lucky life leaves devastation in its wake. Always moving on because you dare not go back.  Playing with so many people's lives, you might as well be a god.  And you're right Doctor, you're absolutely right, sometimes you let one go."

Back on the Tardis, at the moment of decision, the Doctor opens up the central panel to reveal the heart of the Tardis, the Time Vortex itself.  Upon looking at it, Blond Slitheen is "Reborn."  Contemplating her life and looking at the heart of the Tardis, she regresses to an egg, a restart of her life.  Perhaps the Tardis is the real god, able to extend mercy, forgiveness, and a new life.

Doctor Who: Empty Child and The Doctor Dances

Episodes 9 and 10 of season one form a two-part episode: The Empty Child and the Doctor Dances

[Spoilers]

This still remains one of my favorite episodes of Doctor Who.  I did not know this at the time, but it was written by Steven Moffat.  Moffat has written many of my favorite episodes, including "The Girl in the Fireplace," "Blink," and much of seasons 5-7.  Moffat is more into the fairy tale aspects of story telling.

In this episode, the Doctor and Rose are in London during the Blitz in WWII.  We get the introduction of Captain Jack Harkness, who will become a regular on the series and the star of the spinoff Torchwood.  Harkness, a former time agent (what?) turned con man, saves Rose from falling to her death during the Blitz.  He then proceeds to try and seduce her, but his angle is primarily a con.

The episode is high on the creep factor.  The creepy comes in the form of a little kid with a gas mask who keeps repeating, "are you my mommie?" This child can make telephones ring, radios blare, even if the telephone is not connected (like the phone on the Tardis police call box).  Moreover, people all over the area are developing "injuries" that match those of the boy.  Namely, they are replicating his physical injuries, as well as growing gas masks out of their very skin.  The implication, given time, humanity will be reduced to a bunch of walking, mommie-spouting, zombies with gas masks.

There is not a lot of fodder for religious/sci-fi intersections.  The Doctor figures out the problem: the alien tech nano-genes that crashed on earth are doing their best to "heal" the human race, but the best model of the human race that they have to work with is this little boy who was killed during a bombing raid while wearing a gas mask.  With this genetic information, they nano-genes are repairing all with whom they come into contact by replicating the state of the boy.

The Doctor figures out what is happening, but does little beyond making the solution possible. He introduces the nano genes to the boy's mother, and hopes that they will recognize what a human truly should be like.  They do, and the true healing commences.  At the end, the Doctor revels saying "everybody lives."  Life triumphing over death is the greatest possible outcome for the Doctor.

Doctor Who: Father's Day

Episode 8 of season one of Doctor Who deals with the common trope of "changing the past," especially when it comes to interfering in one's own timeline.

[SPOILERS]

This was an interesting episode in that we got to travel into the past to see the death of Rose's father.  At first, Rose just wants to go back in time to be with her father as he dies, having been killed by a hit and run driver.  As the scene unfolds, Rose cannot bring herself to be with her father, but just watches him die from a distance.  She asks for a second try, but when the time comes, she cannot help herself, she rushes past herself and the Doctor (the previous versions) and pushes her father out of the way of the oncoming car, saving her father from death.  She has changed the past, her father survives.  But, as any sci-fi fan will no, all hell is about to break loose.  You cannot mess with history in this way, especially when it comes to your own past (Back to the Future anyone?).

The Doctor, of course, goes on a condescending tirade against Rose, calling her just another "Ape."  He had thought her smarter than that, but in the end he just has another stupid human ape.

The "all hell breaking loose" comes in the form of really cheesy computer animated dinosaur-bird type creatures who are devouring all of time (including the people).  Rose, her father, mother, and a select few are holed up in a church where they were supposed to be attending a wedding.  The "old" walls of the church serve as a protection agains the creatures.

At one point, when one creature manages to get into the church, the Doctor, in a reversal of his M.O., i.e., sacrificing someone else, he actually sacrifices himself, offering himself to the creature as the "oldest thing in here."  His sacrifice is pointless though and is to no avail.  In the end, it is the sacrifice of a human that will set things right.  Pete, Rose's dad, must submit to death by throwing himself in front of the car that was originally meant to kill him, thus healing the wound in time.

Couple of notes.  In this episode, the Doctor seemed really helpless, he literally had no solutions, nothing that could heal the wound in time that Rose had caused.

When the doctor seemed to have a solution, a way to make the Tardis appear in the church and thus bring salvation, the Doctor, like a good authoritative preacher, stepped up to the church pulpit and announced the "good news" of coming salvation.  Unfortunately, like I have noted before, all of the efforts of the Doctor in this episode came to naught and in the end it was the sacrifice of Rose's dad that brought salvation.

Doctor Who: The Long Game

[SPOILERS]

Episode 7 of season 1, "The Long Game" takes place in the year 200,000, the fourth great human empire.  This was supposed to be the height of human achievement.  Yet, things have gone terribly wrong.  Humanity seems stunted, people are rude, and the diverse alien life is nowhere to be seen.

The Doctor and Rose have picked up another passenger in the Tardis, Adam, a tech guru they picked up in the last episode.

This episode was filled with subtle and interesting satires of religion.

First, the setting is on a broadcast satellite, Satellite 5.  This satellite is responsible for broadcasting all of the news from the entire galaxy.  The workers on this satellite all want to be promoted to "floor 500" where apparently the walls are made of gold.  This was an interesting intersection with religion with the commonplace that in heaven the streets are made of gold.  One can see similar motivational tactics on Satellite 5 and in some stereotypes of Christianity:  Do good and you will be promoted to/inherit walls/streets of gold.

Of course, this is a lie.  Floor 500 is actually a frozen waste, and the only people promoted there are done so because they have come too close to discovering the truth that Satellite 5 is actually being controlled by a malicious alien (I won't even try to spell its name) who is controlling the human race by controlling all of their news media.  This served as a double layer satire in my mind.  On the one hand, the show was providing a satire of current news media, perhaps even and especially Fox News, as a media outlet that controls the news stories, thus shaping the realities of its viewers.  On another level, this could be a satire of religion, which once again stereotypically, has been seen as an institution that must carefully guard and control the flow of information in order to control its constituents.

One final and non-related intersection with religion was the short story arc of the character of Adam.  Adam appears on Satellite 5 and is immediately blown away by the strangeness of this new world.  But, as a computer geek it takes him almost no time to get in trouble.  He starts exploring Satellite 5's computer terminals but keeps getting locked out due to his lack of human chip technology.  Adam is directed toward the medical level to have a chip installed, where he is seduced with the possibility of knowledge by having a chip installed in his brain, in fact, having his brain itself become the computer processor.  Adam's primary motivation seems to be self interest, as his plan is to call home and leave a voice message with 200,000 years worth of technological advances, presumably setting himself up to be rich and powerful.   Adam's pursuit of knowledge almost becomes disastrous as he betrays information about the Doctor and Rose to the satellite's administrator, "The Editor" (played by Simon Pegg).  I think Adam's name was chosen nicely, as this is a nice parallel to the biblical Adam sinning in a pursuit of knowledge in the Garden of Eden (though actually it was Eve, but Adam is the more visible of the pair).

In the end, the Alien is defeated, all is set right with the human race, Adam is ditched back on earth, and Rose and the Doctor are off to more adventures.

Doctor Who: Dalek

In episode 6 of season 1, "Dalek," we are once again dealing with a earth-ending crisis.  

[SPOILERS]

We see two things in this episode that are very rare for Doctor Who.  1) The doctor is scared for his life, and 2) The doctor does not mind wielding weapons for himself.  What prompts these Doctor Who rarities? The Dalek, the Time Lords' arch enemies and adversaries in the Time War which wiped out both species save for the Doctor, and it appears, one lone Dalek.  This was obviously an interesting episode as it had the mirror images of two lone survivors.  Both feel alone in the world.  

When the Doctor first recognizes the Dalek, we see true fear.  The Dalek belts out its usual "TERMINATE" slogan, and the Doctor, realizing that he is locked in a room with the Dalek literally tries to claw the doors open, but only for a second.  Once the Doctor realizes that the Dalek is powerless, his fear turns to immense anger, vitriol, hatred, and vengefulness.  Like I said, it is rare to see such emotions from the Doctor.  Sure he is often condescending to humanity's stupidity, penchant for violence, and lack of forethought, yet, here the Doctor seems all too human.  The Dalek brings out what is usually hidden in the Doctor. 

As we've seen in previous episodes, the Doctor's guilt (or possible guilt) over his past or future actions paralyzes the Doctor, and it is no different here.  As the Dalek is regenerated (by Rose's DNA), the Doctor scrambles for a solution.  He knows that this one single Dalek could wipe out humanity and that the only solution is to lock him 53 floors below the earth.  Yet, the complicating factor is that Rose is stuck down there with him.  In the end, his fear/anger toward the Dalek trumps all else and Rose and the Dalek are trapped.  Yet, proving once again that the Doctor cannot think clearly when Rose or the Daleks are involved, he lets them out of the trap. 

In comes the twist.  The Dalek is changing.  It is no longer the purely evil killing machine bent on destroying all things non-Dalek.  It cannot kill Rose.  Her DNA is causing the Dalek to mutate, to change. 

The climactic scene comes as we have a face-off between the Doctor, now wielding an alien tech weapon bent on wiping out the last of the Daleks, Rose, caught in between, and the constantly evolving Dalek who is beginning to see the uselessness of his quest.  The Dalek is evolving into a feeling creature, the Doctor is is devolving into a raging murderer, and Rose brokers the deal between them.  In perhaps one of the more touching scenes of the series so far, the evolving Dalek asks Rose to order him to kill himself.  The Dalek appears unable to act without orders, yet he seeks death as the only solution to his evolving with emotions.  The Doctor wades through this scene with a flabbergasted look on his face.  He can't believe what is happening before his eyes.  

It is good to finally meet the Doctor's arch nemesis and realize that there are primarily two situations in which the Doctor is fairly useless: when he is confronting the Daleks and when he is fearing the loss of his companion.  In those two situations, the Doctor cannot control his emotions, cannot think clearly, and appears to revert to just another "human" character, one as flawed as the next. 

Doctor Who: Aliens of London and World War III

"Aliens of London" and "World War III," episodes 4 and 5 of season one form one two-part episode focusing around another grave threat to planet Earth.

[SPOILERS]
The earth has been covertly invaded by a family of aliens intent on sending the world into a nuclear war, effectively wiping out the human race and turning the earth into a radioactive rock which can then be sold to scavengers from across the universe.

The special effects are perhaps less than special, and the directors seemed to love their shot of the aliens unzipping their human costume foreheads to allow the alien to emerge.  The effects were actually somewhat humorous, akin to the early seasons of Buffy, but I digress.

This episode had less to do with the intersection of scifi and religion, so I will keep it short.

We learn a little more information about the Doctor.  In "Aliens of London." Specifically, we learn that he is around 900 years old.  How does he look so young?

We do get some interesting insights in "World War III" about the psychology of the Doctor.  He is asked to promise by Jackie, Rose's mom, that Rose will be safe, a promise he is reticent to make, and in fact never does.  This desire to keep Rose safe, and his apparent knowledge that he cannot guaranty her safety, seems to paralyze the Doctor and keep him from acting.

In the climactic scene, Rose, the Doctor, and Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North, are trapped in the Cabinet room at Downing Street.  The Family Slitheen (the aliens) are about to gain control of nuclear weapons to destroy the earth, and the Doctor knows what he must do, but he cannot because it means putting Rose's life at risk.  It is an interesting ethical moment, where the Doctor cannot bring himself to trade the life of Rose for the lives of all humans (including Rose, himself, and Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North).  At this point, trapped by guilt, or at least possible future guilt, Harriet Jones, MP Flydale North must intervene, take control, and command the Doctor to execute his plan which consists of firing a missile from a British submarine with a target of Downing Street.

It is interesting  that now, in two consecutive episodes (counting 4 and 5 as o episode) we have guilt as a primary motivating factor for the Doctor.  In both cases, submitting to that guilt would have disastrous effects.  In "The Unquiet Dead" it is the Doctor's guilt which causes him to act to bridge the Rift and he almost succeeds in condemning humanity to death, and here,  in "World War III" his (future) guilt keeps him from acting, which would similarly lead to the condemnation of humanity to death.

Doctor Who: The Unquiet Dead

On two episode 3 of season 1 of the Doctor reboot for the episode entitled "The Unquiet Dead."

[SPOILER ALERT]

This episode was rife with intersections between scifi and religion.

The year is 1869, the place: Cardiff of Wales.  Charles Dickens is performing in Cardiff and gets caught up in the adventures of the Doctor and Rose.  The problem: ghosts appear to be invading the dead and causing them to walk about.

Dickens plays the consumate man of the enlightenment, a believer in science and only what he can see, taste, touch, feel, and smell.  He sees his lifelong work as dedicated to eradicating superstition in order to fight for social causes.  His world is decidedly unenchanted.  Thus, as he is swept into this adventure of ghosts and zombies, he is at first skeptical, but becomes a convert by the end of the episode after the evidence is undeniable.

Another interesting character is the introduction of Gwyneth, a servant at the undertaker's house.  I say "introduction" because this is the same actress who plays Gwen in the Doctor Who spinoff, Torchwood. I think that the two must be connected, but as I have only watched a few episodes of Torchwood, that I cannot say for sure.  But, the similarities seem to big to ignore: same actress, similar character name, the location of Cardiff, the Rift (more on that below).  Gwyneth has the "sight," an apparent psychic ability.  She can see into Rose's mind.

Enter the Rift, a weak spot in space and time, allowing certain things to slip through.  The "ghosts" of course are not ghosts at all, but a species of alien, all but wiped out by the time war (The war of the Time Lords, of whom The Doctor is the last).  These "gaseous" beings are looking for bodies, and through the "medium" Gwyneth, are able to communicate their plight to the Doctor and his compatriots.  The Doctor, always rushing to the rescue, intends to use Gwyneth as a doorway to lead the aliens to take human corpses as their new bodies.

This is of course highly offensive to Rose who has a sense of propriety and reverence for human corpses which the Doctor clearly does not share.  Here the Doctor clearly asserts his superior morality, in a "my way or the highway" attitude.  He plays off of Gwyneth's "faith" in her "angels" (read ghosts/gaseous aliens) to achieve his ends of providing salvation for these aliens.  He seems more driven than usual, clearly feeling guilty that it was the war of his people that had decimated this alien population.

As the climax approaches, and Gwyneth begins to bridge the gap in the Rift, it becomes clear that these aliens, called the "Gelf" are not so innocent.  They turn from angel-like creatures, to demon-like creatures, bent on earth's destruction as they will use human bodies as vessels to take physical form.  The night of the living dead commences as Rose, the Doctor, and Dickens are forced to run for their lives.  It is Dickens who comes up with the solution: fill the house with gas to draw out the creatures from their host.  This works and then Gwyneth uses a match to light the gas-filled house and destroys the "Gelf."

Couple of notes: As the "Gelf" begin to come through the Rift, they are shouting "Praise be the Doctor," in a first possible reference to the Doctor as some sort of divine being, maybe.

Sacrifice:  Once again it is a human, Gwyneth, who sacrifices herself to save the day, and she only does this after she is dead (how?  Don't ask!).  But she is in this situation because the Doctor pandered to her "faith" in her "angels."  The Doctor shows little, if any, remorse for his actions.  He pushed for the alien crossing to assuage his own guilt, yet takes little or no responsibility for the fact that he was just flat out wrong.  If the show is going for portraying the Doctor as a divine, or semi divine figure, then he is certainly a flawed God.

Finally, in an interesting conversation, Rose notes the difference between humans and the Doctor.  Humans see time in a line and can only experience a specific moment in time "once."  The Doctor, on the other hand, can experience any moment at any time, over and over if he pleases.  I was reminded of Augustine's contemplation of God and time.  God, being "eternal" does not see time as humans do, but being outside of time, he views all times simultaneously.  Though there is a clear difference between Augustine's conception of God as "eternal" and the Doctor's ability to travel through time, the implications are perhaps similar.  The Doctor has a fundamentally different experience of time.