Messianic themes in Dr Who
I’ve really been enjoying the new series of Dr Who (many thanks to Nick here).
One of the things that I’ve noticed different to the classic series is the seemingly messianic themes. Yes, the Doctor has always swanned in, saved the day, and taken off again, but in the new series he seems to be much more conscious of the power that he holds and the some of the implications of this. For instance, in the episode that screened on free-to-air last Saturday, he says to the cat sisters “You want to appeal to a higher authority, there is no higher authority!”. Similarly, he has no hesitation in telling Cassandra that she has lived long enough and it is time to die. He seems to believe, to a degree in his own omnipotence. Nevertheless, he is ready at any moment to face obliteration himself to save Rose.
I just find this interesting, and in keeping with the way that the new series is problematising a whole lot of things that the classic series took for granted.
Your Comments
Nick Caldwell writes:
It’s very much in keeping with Davies’ fondness for the New Adventures sequence of Doctor Who spin-off novels, which, in that they were targetted at an older readership than the series’s family audience, frequently called the Doctor to account for his messianic behaviour. Usually by torturing him. A lot.
The new series also hints at this direction a couple of times in its first season. For instance, “The Long Game”, and its resolution in “Bad Wolf” and “The Parting of the Ways”, in which the Doctor, as you say, swans in, fixes everything, and then has to come back 100 years later to find that he’s actually made things much worse.
Posted: 18 07 2006 - 17:33 | Permanent link to this comment
Lisa writes:
Oooh. Think I could do without the torture stuff in the spin-offs.
Random thought occurrence here: I’m also aware that a new superman movie has just been released, and of course, another X-men etc. Have we again reached the point where we want heros? Are we sick of leaders who don’t show leadership? Are we becoming tired of hedonistic adventure romps in our screen fiction? Are we longing again for a society with a social conscience, where people can be held accountable for what they do? Maybe that’s going too far.
Posted: 19 07 2006 - 12:53 | Permanent link to this comment
John Gunders writes:
For me, this is the thing that has sold me on the new series: it takes seriously the “classic series” (as the BBC calls it), but in a way that “writes back” to it. So in Aliens of London, the Doctor is called to account—for the first time—for his actions in taking Rose with him. Similarly (spoiler warning) in School Reunion he has to account for what he has done to Sarah Jane. And to those who complain about Sarah’s back-story, that is the only way the writers could have done it: Sarah couldn’t have had an ordinary life after she left the Doctor, and his real reason for dumping her—that he couldn’t bear to see her grow old—only compounds his crime.
Not very messianic as it turns out, but I’ll get to that later.
Posted: 19 07 2006 - 16:58 | Permanent link to this comment
John Gunders writes:
Now onto the Messiah complex…
I agree with Lisa about the messianic themes, and New Earth certainly emphasises theme: to an extent that I suspect it is deliberate and will become a major theme sooner or later.
But the recent discussion over at Crooked Timber reminded me of one of the best stories from the Tom Baker years: Genesis of the Daleks. In that, the Time Lords (evocative name: who had the complex?) sent the Doctor back in time to destroy the Daleks before they were created. The Doctor wrestles with his mission, culminating in this exchange with Sarah, which I reproduce from memory (oh alright, from the BBC website)
Not much of a messiah complex here, although I’m sure you can find plenty examples of it in the classic series.
But the new series gives the Doctor a lot more power: mainly because he is the last Time Lord, and because it turns out that the TARDIS has more power than was ever even hinted at…. And, as Lisa says, because the new series is good at problematising themes from the old.
Posted: 19 07 2006 - 19:00 | Permanent link to this comment
Catherine Howell writes:
Interesting… Lisa, I just saw the new superman film, and the messianic theme could not be more explicit. WARNING: mild spoilers follow! (although much worse ones are already public domain, via wikipedia).
Patrilineage is big in Superman Returns… yes, it’s All About Daddy. Hidden / occluded parentage… battling-single-motherdom… (with the inevitable benign-but-unwitting-step-father figure)... Self-sacrifice, the gift, resurrection. Need I say more?
BTW Parker Posey does a kitsch star turn as gangster’s moll in vintage 40s styling.
Posted: 22 07 2006 - 01:29 | Permanent link to this comment
Sam Gunders writes:
I remember a few years ago, seeing an article in The Australian that suggested that superheroes or more specifically superhero movies were becoming more common now that nuclear threat was once again an issue. That was around the time that The Hulk was in the cinema. Now the news is filled with reports that North Korea is testing nuclear weapons and cinemas are filled with Superman while another X-men film has just left and Batman is soon to be on DVD. It seems the article was right. As the world is becoming less secure and faster moving and we are left clinging to something more familiar, I agree that we are more often looking for heroes. And with the recent revelations of leadership troubles in the liberal party it is no surprise we want heroes other than our elected leaders. Look at another hero movie of the last few years, The Incredibles features superheroes who are taken away but the government is unable to keep the region safe so the supers have to return anyway.Posted: 23 07 2006 - 10:41 | Permanent link to this comment
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