Religion and Doctor Who Day: Recap and Commentary Part Three

The third of our four part recap of the Religion and Doctor Who Day from earlier this month in Manchester, England.

RELIGIOUS AND MYTHICAL THEMES IN DOCTOR WHO

The Doctor and his iconographic search for an ecstatic human experience (Stacey Embert)

Embert’s study discusses in depth the characterisation of the eleventh Doctor who had been surprisingly under represented in the previous papers given that Matt Smith is the present incumbent. Up to the last series the Doctor has been a “benevolent overlord” the saviour of the lost without emotional motivation. The eleventh Doctor begins his journey rejoicing in the human form with wonder and abandon and embraces death as the birth of a new life and new possibilities. Embert goes so far as to liken the process of regeneration to that of a religious ecstatic experience. However, the temporal nature of each regeneration means that the high is quickly supplanted by a low and in the twilight of the eleventh Doctor’s long incarnation such is his malaise that he declares bodies to be boring.

The tenth Doctor and his predecessors “understand life is death, making the timelord feel he has nothing to lose” However Embert argues that following the loss of Rory and Amy The Doctor enters a deep depression and his living in a box on a cloud is akin to Jesus’ withdrawal in the wilderness or the Gethsemene before the cross. Clara rejuvenates the Doctor who up to then with the spectre of regeneration always looming over him had never embraced life in the present moment. In The Snowman the Doctor gives in to the fragility of human love and therefore attains the status of a Christlike figure acting through emotion rather than reason and love not duty to save Clara. The eleventh Doctor makes viewers believe they can be immortal through love.

“Nothing will ever be the same” exploring faith, doubt, and the disciple journey of a companion to the doctor (Jasper Peters)

The heart of Peters’ paper is that parallels can be drawn between the disciples of Jesus and the companions of the Doctor. However in contrast to Embert’s paper he is careful to cast the relationship between the Doctor and his companions as one of equality and mutual companionship. Peters is opposed to a hierarchical view of the Doctor as a messianic saviour figure. Instead he links the Doctor to the sociological image of Jesus as Rabbi. For Peters the Doctor’s tendency to travel with a companion reflects his own unfulfilled quest for family. For the companion figure their challenge is to journey into a place of full trust in the Doctor. Starting out as a companion requires a leap of faith based on insufficient evidence, a quality Peters likens to Christian discipleship.

Largely supporting Paul Tillich’s view of faith as acceptance and surrender the paper advocates a transcending of self to embrace the object of ones faith. Such a movement allows for doubt and questioning but perhaps with a mind to James Fowler’s Stages of Faith, this is a temporary phase that can be superseded by a place of intimacy and risk (he cites the example of River Song leaping off a building) Clara Oswald in this respect has journeyed to that place of acceptance by dying multiple times to save the Doctor, joining in his story and indeed the angst of his existence beyond time and space. Peters boldly suggests that companions having encountered and journeyed with the Doctor go back to their own lives better than they were before. In the subsequent question time inevitably the exception of Donna came up but here Peters argues that despite the tragedy of not being able to remember the Doctor her life has turned for the better in that she marries and rather crudely gains the winning lottery ticket. In The End of Time she certainly is quite different from the mouthy and unfulfilled temp of series 4.

Doctor Who and Immortality (Leena Vuolteenaho)

The final part of this trilogy of papers looks specifically at the theme of immortality. Limiting her comparative study to traditional Christian eschatology and Buddhist spirituality Vuolteenaho highlights the shows negative assessment of the quest for immortality. When in the hands of a villain the quest is selfish and doomed to failure. Humans should not seek to extend life for in so doing they are playing god. The Five Doctors, Mawdryn Undead and Enlightenment are morality tales decrying the pursuit of eternal life. Even the hero who accidentally finds immortality (Captain Jack) discovers that it is a curse. The doctor wryly reflects on the downside of his long life having watched so many friends depart and die.

Although Vuolteenaho lays her cards on the table and admits she is working with a deliberately restricted view of Christian and Buddhist beliefs it is a shame that for the former tradition she equates the kingdom of God with an afterlife in heaven. There is scope for a much fuller treatment of the subject by considering realised eschatology and the counter tradition of the kingdom of God being “within you.” Gridlock is a case in point. Having exposed the futility of the quest for paradise with the moving use of the funereal hymn The Old Rugged Cross Russell T Davies ends the tale on a note of hope with a realised eschatology in which salvation is found by embracing the natural world and the present moment. Exchanging ones cross for a crown at some undetermined point is replaced by finding the divine in the here and now - “Abide with Me”. This ties in with Peters conclusion that the journey is only complete when the companion gives up looking for completion. The enlightened ones are those who have left the journey, forsaken the quest and accepted life in all its fullness.

Summary/Evaluation

Embert and Peters compare the character of the Doctor with Jesus as Messiah and Rabbi respectively. However in view of the richness and diversity of Christology and the varied historical reconstructions of Jesus’ life and teachings there would be some value in looking at a wider range of models of Christ and comparing them with the characterisation of the Doctor. For example, Jesus as healer; Jesus as cynic prophet, Jesus as apocalyptic preacher and Jesus as storyteller would all generate fascinating and diverse associations.

Considering The Last of the Timelords was the most explicit Messianic positioning of the Doctor, its lack of mention throughout the Doctor Who and Religion day is curious, none more so than in this section of the day. It is the humans’ belief in the name of the doctor that saves them and the tenth doctor is rejuvenated because of that faith, Doctor Who therefore has some interesting contributions to make on discussions regarding the nature and efficacy of faith. But central to the canonical counter testimony of the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament is the importance of questioning, with Psalms of protest and disorientation making up a third of the Psalter. Mature faith is not the abandonment of the question, but the treasuring of the question. Peters wrongly sees the questioning as a phase that can and must be passed. Unlike other speakers such as Rawle and Collins Peters’ view of time is linear and consequently salvation is reduced to cause/effect and a trajectory of growth that in practice is proven idealistic wish fulfilment.

Join us tomorrow for our final part of Paul’s recap, the keynote speech of Caroline Symcox