There is perhaps no better time to re-watch the full extent of the
classic series of Doctor Who than when we are ordered to stay at home
except for absolutely essential activities in the midst of a pandemic. For one
thing, it can easily keep you occupied for an
entire month or more, and that’s if you
don’t take breaks to sleep. But Doctor Who offers something more than
just a lot of episodes to fill the time, even if you limit yourself to a mere 50 of your favourite
episodes. Global pandemics, isolation,
mass hysteria and panic, and many other things that concern us right now are
featured plot elements in episode after episode. The show offers much more than
a way to fill time. It can fill it meaningfully.
It is also a good time to reflect on the religious and spiritual
themes on Doctor Who. It isn’t just the most recent Doctor who talks
about her faith and expects a place of worship to be shown some respect. Right
from the outset there was room for faith, if also critique of the worship of
those the Doctor continues to categorize under the heading of ‘false god’.
The spiritual topics Doctor
Who explores intersect repeatedly with other timely yet perennial themes.
Consider fear of death and disease, for instance. That was one of the
factors that led the inhabitants of Mondas to seek technological replacements
for failing and vulnerable organs, eventually leading to the existence of Cybermen who ‘never sicken.’ Disease threatened to take the life
of Abigail in A Christmas Carol. The overwhelming number of human
illnesses led the Cat Nurses to experiment on a small number of them ‘for the
greater cause’ in the episode New Earth. Doctor Who also shines a
spotlight often on questions such as the relationship between the scientific and
the spiritual, the ethical aspects of medicine and technology, and whether
immortality is even desirable. The show can be helpful in wrestling with the
challenges that we face individually and as a society, and in finding reasons
for hope and faith. It can help us find a sense of community even in our time
of social distancing from one another. Indeed, fans of Doctor Who and of
other science fiction franchises have formed communities that are and remain
connected online, perfectly poised to provide us with a support network at
times like this, or perhaps just people to talk with as we re-watch the show
from its very beginning as a separate-yet-communal undertaking. That might lead
to consideration of the ways in which fan communities can provide something of
what church does, and what might be missing if the stories about the Doctor are
substituted in the place of scripture.
The book that Andy Crome and I edited, Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith: Religion and Doctor Who, explores the themes I mentioned above, as well as many others, and does so in great detail. It is available as an ebook, and so there is no need to leave your home and endanger yourself or others to read it.
***
Each day, we
will post a short article by one of Darton, Longman and Todd’s amazing authors,
offering a personal reflection on our current situation in life. Sometimes this
will be written with reference to one of their books, and sometimes about how
they are living in response to the coronavirus and our current world situation.
We hope it will give you a taste of the depth and diversity of DLT’s list –
books for heart, mind and soul that aim to meet the needs and interests of all.
Today’s post is
by James McGrath, co-author with Andrew Crome of Time and Relative Dimensions in Faith: Religion and Doctor Who.
You can buy a copy of the book here.
And in case you missed it, The Doctor appeared on social media with a message for us in our current crisis ...
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