As long as I’m tackling some of the less polity-oriented items today, I’ll go ahead and do this post on Doctor Who.
Actually, it begins with the actor who plays the title character, David Tennant. Now, this would just be an interesting SciFi bit if it were not for the fact the Mr. Tennant’s father is the Very Rev. Alexander “Sandy” McDonald, a respected Church of Scotland minister and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland in 1997. For more details you can check back to a post of mine about this in September 2006. But as the tenth Doctor Who begins his third season the publicity has increased.
First, there was a very nice tribute piece that David did for his father excerpted on Irregular Bones.
Second, there has been a lot of buzz recently about the theological parallels to Christianity in the Doctor Who series. It appears to have started with a Sunday Telegraph article about a Church of England conference that encouraged the use of the series in sermons and other church contexts as a tool to connect with youth in the church. This has, of course, been picked up in the blogosphere including The Lead on the Episcopal Café, a long article at Heresy Corner, and at Sola Dei Gloria. There are a host of other blogs as well.
Now, I was a fan of the show, particularly the Fourth Doctor, but I have not seen a lot to draw from any more than other forms of popular media. A clip here, a quote there. Just the usual. Now popular media is a useful tool, but I find it interesting that there was a whole conference on this one series.
I watched previous incarnations (lol) of the Dr. before but really like this series. It’s one of my “never miss” series. Hadn’t thought of the parallels with faith. Guess I’ll have to watch more closely.
Alan
Thanks for posting this — our family loves the show and I too will be watching for more of the themes.
There is a need for sober reflection on the connection points between Dr Who and Christian theology. I do see connection points for dialogue and indeed apologetics. The 2007 story “Gridlock” had a lot of allusions imagery of heaven/hell, explicit singing of the hymn “Old Rugged Cross” and “Abide with me”, and the humans are encouraged by Dr’s companion with words to the effect “you have your prayers, songs and faith”. Apocalypticism is vry evident in Last of the Time Lords, as is Martha Jones telling the Dr’s story as part of the remedy to the Master’s dictatorship. Master scoffs at their answer being “prayer”.
The most recent story “Journey’s End” has the Dr regenerating his severed hand to create a 2nd Dr. This one has 2 natures in 1 person (half timelord, half-human) and cannot regenerate. R T Davies is not a Christian (in fact his “Second Coming of Christ” TV film was a sceptical pomo dismissal of religion). However, his recent press remarks coinciding with Journey’s End he admits Dr is a Christ-figure — he is the saviour of the world in this story.
Allusions to heaven occur in Jon Pertwee’s stories (e.g. 3 Drs – from Jo Grant and the 2nd Dr). The Keeper of Traken was a part retelling of Garden of Eden (Chris Bidmead the author is a Catholic and expressly said so in DVD commentary).
However, the disconnection from the Christian past among many young people today points to both promising dialogue and serious pitfalls. I’ve noted some fans scornful of the idea that there’s anything in Dr Who to do with Christianity. Their ability to recognise Christian ideas in the plots (or embodied in characters) is not always good, or even if recognised is then accompanied by hostile atitudes based on disenchantment with a cultural heritage and a religion they have not necessarily been personally committed to anyway.
Lessons from reactions to The Matrix films need to be learned and applied here. Many Christians who blogged/chatted about the films easily spotted Christian themes but did not recognize the Buddhist and neo-Gnostic material; meanwhile non-Christian fans spotted the Buddhist and Gnostic stuff but did not always recognise the orthodox Christian material in the films.
There is a “reality check” needed on the part of Christians engaging pop culture. The gulf in understanding on both sides is sometimes gigantic.