I have always loved science fiction, and Doctor Who is a
great example of sci fi that embraces the human element. Cheesy, campy, goofy –
sure. But also charming, heartbreaking, inspiring and wonderful. Just like the
newest series of Doctor Who is an updated version of the old silly classic, the
Doctor’s story can be seen as a re-imagining of mythology and folklore.
“He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night and the storm in the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the centre of time and can see the turn of the universe. and... he's wonderful.”
Because we’re always telling and retelling stories, right?
We’re always reinventing and recreating the same old stories because the same
old stories mean a lot to us. Like the Doctor, stories have the same old
heroes, just with different faces. So we create these stories and then pretend
it’s weird when people Fan Girl about them, but myths and religions are just
made-up stories, too. So what’s the difference between the Doctor and Odysseus?
Jesus and Harry Potter?
“Who am I then?
Nothing...? I'm just a story?”
The Doctor is constantly waking up to realities of the
universe all around him. As much as the Doctor has seen all of time and space,
there is actually very little he knows about the grand scheme of things.
“Turns out I've had
the most terrible things happen. And the most brilliant things. And sometimes,
well, I can't tell the difference. They're all the same thing. They're...
they're just me. You know, Stephen King said once, he said, 'salvation and
damnation are the same thing.' And I never knew what he meant. But I do
now.”
The Doctor, although an alien called a Time Lord, struggles
with his own humanity. He clings to it and loves it, is disgusted by it, can’t
escape it, doesn’t want to escape, must escape.
“The way I see it,
every life is a pile of good things and bad things. Hey. The good things don't
always soften the bad things, but vice-versa, the bad things don't necessarily
spoil the good things and make them unimportant.”
Life, to the Doctor, is a beautiful, wondrous gift and
blessing. Heaven on Earth, because the Kingdom is here and now. And so is Hell.
Tragic, terrible, and awesome.
"Across the entire
universe, never stopping, never faltering, never fading. People and planets and
stars will become dust. And the dust will become atoms and the atoms will
become... nothing. And the wavelength will continue, breaking through the rift
at the heart of the Medusa Cascade into every dimension, every parallel, every
single corner of creation. *This* is my ultimate victory, Doctor! The
destruction of reality *itself*!"
He reminds us that You Are Not Alone. The loneliest man in
all of time and space, and he’s not alone, and neither are you.
“When you're a kid,
they tell you it's all... grow up. Get a job. Get married. Get a house. Have a
kid, and that's it. But the truth is, the world is so much stranger than that.
It's so much darker. And so much madder. And so much better.”
And isn’t that what a religious life is all about, anyway?
“Do you wanna come
with me? 'Cause if you do then I should warn you, you're gonna see all sorts of
things. Ghosts from the past; Aliens from the future; the day the Earth died in
a ball of flame; It won't be quiet, it won't be safe, and it won't be calm. But
I'll tell you what it will be: the trip of a lifetime.”
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