doctor who: mirror into the 21st century

Copyright © 2014 Christopher Ritchie

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Doctor Who: Mirror into the 21st Century Christopher Ritchie February 2014

This article examines how Doctor Who encourages us to think about contemporary

society and ourselves.

Doctor Who is a show that captivates its audience on several levels. On one level,

like all great literary and television fiction, it provides escapism and a welcome

distraction from life’s drudgery, monotony and disappointments. Doctor Who’s

longevity, success and broad appeal is largely due to the show’s limitless scope and

its ability to transport us away from the present. In establishing Doctor Who, Sydney

Newman created a screenwriter’s dream – a blank canvas for the artist’s

imagination. Through the adventures of the Doctor and his companions, the

audience can be taken anywhere – we can relive parts of human history, be thrust

forward into speculative futures, and wander the terrain of alien planets.

We have seen the Doctor and his

companions become entangled in,

and even shape, our own history: the

extinction of the dinosaurs, Ancient

Rome, the Crusades, 16th century

Venice, the Great Fire of London, the

French Revolution, the events of the

Mary Celeste, World War I, Nazi Germany and the 1969 Moon landing. We’ve met

historical figures: Roman emperor Nero, King Richard, Marco Polo, Queen Elizabeth

I, William Shakespeare, Napoleon Bonaparte, Charles Dickens, Queen Victoria,

Vincent van Gogh, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler and President Nixon. We’ve been

taken to new worlds: Androzani, Mondas, Karn, Metebelis Three, the Medusa

Cascade, Gallifrey, Exxilon, E-space, Mars, Draconia, bubble universes, Logopolis,

Apalapucia, Utopia and Trenzalore. And we’ve encountered frightening monsters

and unusual extraterrestrials: Sycorax, Autons, Sky Whales, Vinvocci, Judoon, Ood,

Sontarans, Ice Warriors, Jagaroth, Vashta Nerada, Zygons and Vervoids, to name a

few. Doctor Who appeals to our imagination and creativity, thrives off our dreams


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and desires, and taps into humanity’s innate curiosity and penchant for exploration.

Doctor Who is liberating and exciting. For those children and adults who join the

Doctor on his odyssey, it is, quite simply, rollicking good fun.

Yet, it is through the Doctor’s travels in

time and space, showing us ‘everything

that ever happened or ever will’, that the

show resonates with many of us on a

deeper level. Doctor Who, like all great

fiction – particularly speculative fiction –

encourages us to think about

contemporary society and ourselves. In this sense, Doctor Who is following in the

footsteps of H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Aldous Huxley and George Orwell. Through

the adventures of our beloved Time Lord, 20-21st century social, political and

environmental issues are embellished and amplified, making present-day problems

feel apocalyptical urgent. Doctor Who forces us to engage in constructive self-

criticism, to ponder human nature – what makes people tick – and to reflect on our

culture and society. This outstanding feature has been a constant throughout the

show’s history. It’s what makes the show so appealing to adults, and more

importantly, it’s something which helps children learn about the world in which they

live and contextualise, even if it is at a subconscious level, their place within it. This

article will restrict commentary to the revamped show which commenced in 2005.

Christopher Eccleston’s incarnation of the

Doctor fought alien Slitheen who invaded 21st

century Earth and took over the bodies of

Britain’s political and military leaders. The

Slitheen attempt to launch nuclear missiles to

ignite World War III, with intentions to sell off

the radioactive remains of Earth to other

galaxies. Writer Russell T Davies wanted to inform his audience of the dangers of

nuclear proliferation and contemporary desires to harness nuclear power. In The

Long Game, Eccleston’s Doctor visits a news broadcasting station orbiting the earth

200,000 years in the future. Here, people have news transmitted into a microchip in


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their heads by the ‘Editor’ – a man who manipulates the news to control humans by

creating a climate of fear. This episode instructs audiences to be wary of the

modern-day media’s manipulation. In the End of the World, the Doctor encounters

the trampoline-like Lady Cassandra – a paper-thin piece of flesh with eyes and a

mouth, all stretched out on a frame and connected to a tank which houses her brain.

Although changed in physical appearance, Cassandra retains her human greed,

planning to seize corporate holdings to fund her cosmetic surgery. Cassandra’s

narcissism is a commentary on our society’s obsession with self-image and the ends

to which we will go in the pursuit of self-perfection. Her conceited claim to be ‘the

last human’ is both comical and hauntingly ironic. Not dissimilarly, in Tennant’s

Doctor’s adventure, Partners in Crime, humans take Adipose diet pills which make

their fat literally ‘walk away’. The episode Bad Wolf is a parody of society’s

obsession with reality television and game shows. To ensure ratings remain high,

contestants appearing on The Weakest Link and Big Brother in the distant future do

not play for cash prizes, but the right to live.

Through the adventures of David Tennant’s

Doctor, the audience also confronts

contemporary concerns. The harshness and

brutality of enslavement is examined in The

Christmas Invasion when the Sycorax invade

Earth. Similar themes, including emancipation,

reverberate in Planet of the Ood. In his first off-

earth adventure, New Earth, Tennant’s Doctor uncovers a race of artificially bred

humans deliberately infected with pandemics and used as experimental guinea pigs

for uncovering cures. The episode prompts us to ponder ethical concerns

associated with genetic engineering and serves as a warning that even when

science is undertaken with the best intentions, it should not be beyond scrutiny. The

Impossible Planet/ The Satan Pit is a commentary on how those in power can

manipulate their subordinates by exploiting anxieties and resorting to manipulative or

bullying techniques. The Doctor, who nurtures the potential and courage of the

humans stranded in the sanctuary base, stands in marked contrast to the Beast who

seeks to control them by playing on their fears.


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In Smith and Jones we see rhinoceros-like

mercenary policemen called Judoon ignore all

rules of jurisdiction. These aliens clearly

parody many 20-21st century examples of

unilateral military intervention in the affairs of

other countries. Moreover, the futility of war

and loss of young lives is evident in Human

Nature/ The Family of Blood where innocent schoolboys battle invading aliens,

sacrificing their lives for causes beyond their comprehension. We are reminded not

only of World War I’s wastefulness, but also the plight of soldiers and civilians in

contemporary conflicts. The psychology of soldiers in conflict and the idea of the

senselessness of war – particularly mutually assured destruction – is also explored

in Smith’s Doctor’s adventure Cold War.

Gridlock, a critique of 21st century over-

population, pollution, urban sprawl and poor

infrastructure development, sees motorists

on seemingly endless congested highways

take six years to reach their destinations.

The abuse of our planet’s environment is

also satirised in 42, where humans are mining a distant sun for fuel, greedily profiting

through natural resource extraction. Similarly, with their forests cultivated to produce

a Library and the books within it, the villainous piranha-consuming shadows known

as the Vashta Nerada from Steven Moffat’s classic Silence in the Library/ Forest of

the Dead are a radical embodiment of the consequences of environmental

degradation. The theme of man’s hastening of natural devastation is reinforced in

Planet of the Dead where Stingray-like creatures with metal exoskeletons repeatedly

circle planets to devour their ecosystems. The audience learns that this is a

biological imperative of the Stingrays – a forewarning that our society is favouring

consumption at the expense of sustainability.

Dr Lazarus, who builds a machine to make himself physically younger in The

Lazarus Experiment, exemplifies a recurring theme in Doctor Who – the hubris and

nemesis of humanity. If man defers responsibility to technology, he will fall victim to


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the tyranny of his machines. This theme is also explored in The Sontaran

Stratagem/ The Poison Sky where humans become casualties of their car’s ATMOS

satellite navigation systems, in The Next Doctor where Miss Hartigan unwittingly

becomes a pawn of the Cybermen, and later in Smith’s Doctor’s adventure, A Town

Called Mercy where Kahler-Jex’s downfall is a direct result of the legacy of his

cyborg creations. Perhaps most poignantly, The Water of Mars and The End of

Time are overt reminders that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts

absolutely. This is witnessed in the Doctor’s decision to change a ‘fixed point in time’

with the subsequent emergence of his Valeyard-

esque ‘Time Lord Victorious’ persona, and in

President Rassilon’s unchecked resolve for

immortality, where he plans for the Time Lords

to abandon their physical form and become

creatures of consciousness alone.

The time travels of most recent incarnation of

the Doctor, Matt Smith, also exemplify the

show’s fascination to explore contemporary

issues. The Beast Below makes insinuations

about animal cruelty after the Doctor is roused

to fury upon his discovery that humans have

enslaved a Star Whale to carry them across

the stars. Poignant for Australian and U.S. audiences in the context of the plight of

Aborigines and native Americans after European settlement, The Hungry Earth/ Cold

Blood sees the traditional owners of earth, the homo-reptilian Silurians, awake from

a long hibernation and stake their claim for ownership of the planet. The Doctor’s

efforts to negotiate a peace between the humans and Silurians fails, as each party

cannot agree on land rights or co-ownership. Like New Earth, Smith’s Doctor’s

episodes The Rebel Flesh/ The Almost People explore the ethical and moral

dilemmas of human cloning. Quite controversially, The God Complex alludes to the

delusional and debilitating nature of faith, while The Rings of Akhaten is flagrant

condemnation of aspects of religious practice including highly ritualised worship,

veneration grounded in fear, and religion which is all-consuming.


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The character of Solomon in Dinosaurs on a Spaceship reminds us about today’s

global issues of human trafficking and profiteering, while the actions of the Van

Baalen brothers in Journey to the Centre of the TARDIS are reminiscent of modern

day piracy. More lightheartedly, humanity’s fixation with gadgets and fads is

explored in The Power of Three where people collect millions of inert black cubes

which have magically appeared on earth, unaware that they are alien devices

scanning the human race for information. In

the urban thriller, The Bells of Saint John,

humans are uploaded into a virtual

mainframe while using their WiFi. The

episode encapsulates society’s reliance on

the Internet and the perils inherent online.

Commentary on contemporary issues is most

explicitly embodied in the classic Doctor Who

villains. The Doctor’s arch nemesis, the

metallic ‘pepper pots’ known as the Daleks,

are the ultimate tool of racial cleansing.

Shunning multiculturalism and pronouncing

their superiority over all other life, the Daleks are an extreme metaphor of the

political and religious conflict in the Balkans and the Middle East, and an allegory of

Nazi totalitarianism. The Cybermen, another classic villain, are a critique of our

desire for continual self-enhancement. The Cybermen force their human hostages

to be assimilated into their ranks – a process in which the human brain is removed

and sustained within a metal exoskeleton. This ‘upgrade’ removes cultural diversity,

free thought, and feelings and imperfection – the very characteristics that make us

human. Finally, the Master, a renegade Time Lord and chief adversary of the

Doctor, subliminally persuades people to vote for him as Prime Minister in The

Sound of Drums. He epitomises the dangers to free society and how democracy can

be manipulated and abused for self-serving ends. The Master reminds us that as a

21st century audience, we need to be cautious and inquisitive towards the actions of

our own political leaders and figureheads.


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The Doctor’s travels in time and space

also encourage us to reflect on more

individual aspects of human nature – the

way we conduct ourselves and our

interactions with others. In this sense, the

show can be educational and edifying.

The importance of family and friends is

visible in most of the Doctor’s

companions, especially Rose, Martha, Donna, Amy, Rory and Clara (Father’s Day,

School Reunion, Partners in Crime, The Fires of Pompeii, The Eleventh Hour, Amy’s

Choice, A Good Man Goes to War, The Rings of Akhaten). Craig Owens’ friendship

with the Doctor demonstrates the value of mateship (The Lodger, Closing Time).

Importantly, Doctor Who does not shy away from exploring more sombre subject

matter. Since the show returned to our screens in 2005, the exploration of regret,

loneliness and post-traumatic stress have been front and centre, particularly evident

in the Doctor’s character (Dalek, The Girl in the Fireplace, The End of Time, Vincent

and the Doctor, A Town Called Mercy, The Rings of Akhaten, The Name of the

Doctor, The Day of the Doctor). The Girl Who Waited depicts the effects of

abandonment as seen through the eyes of the aged Amy, while the character of

Martha Jones is an examination of unrequited love and coming to terms with it

(Smith and Jones, Last of the Time Lords). With the Doctor losing Rose, Joan

Redfern, Astrid Peth, Jenny, River Song, Donna Noble, the Master, Adelaide Brooke,

Idris, Amy Pond and Rory Williams, Clara Oswald (twice), Cass, and his own people

(at least in the eyes of Hurt, Eccleston and Tennant’s Doctors), the exploration of

death and personal loss are some of the most prominent and poignant in Doctor

Who (Doomsday, The Family of Blood, Last of the Time Lords, Voyage of the

Damned, The Doctor’s Daughter, Forest of the Dead, Journey’s End, The Waters of

Mars, The End of Time, The Doctor’s Wife,

Asylum of the Daleks, The Angels Take

Manhattan, The Night of the Doctor, The

Day of the Doctor). Yet, by delving into the

existential and issues of mortality, Doctor

Who can operate on a therapeutic level.


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Matt Smith’s emotional swansong, The Time of the Doctor, is about change, coming

to terms with it, and the importance of identity and memory:

“But times change and so must I… We all change. When you think about it,

we're all different people all through our lives. And that's okay, that's good.

You've got to keeping moving so as long as you remember all the people that

you used to be. I will not forget one line of this, not one day. I swear. I will

always remember when the Doctor was me.”

With the brilliant Peter Capaldi taking control of

the TARDIS in series 8, Steven Moffat will no

doubt continue to both entertain us and

encourage self and societal reflection through the

upcoming adventures of the Doctor. One of the

great legacies of this extraordinary show is that,

in many ways, it is a record of where we have

been, a mirror to where we are right now, and a

guide to what we should do next. For those who

find themselves on the downside of advantage,

are having troubles in their personal or professional lives, are navigating life’s

setbacks, or are simply less than content with their current situations, as Whovians,

we can rest assured that in our personal behaviour, our interactions, our attitudes

towards society and in our decision-making, we can do far worse than ask ourselves

two questions: ‘what have we learnt from Doctor Who’, and ‘what would the Doctor

do?’

doctor who: mirror into the 21st century

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