REMYTHOLOGISING THE DOCTOR
Season twenty-five saw something of a re-imagining for Doctor Who. Twenty-five years into the show many of the viewer’s questions about the Doctor had been answered. Gradually, the history of the Doctor and of his people, the Time Lords, had been revealed. The mystery and mystique of the character had essentially been removed. Script editor Andrew Cartmell wanted to return to the mystery of the character, and he formed a plan for the remythologisation of the Doctor. The ‘Cartmell Master Plan’ would introduce a new series of questions about the Doctor’s origins[1]. The Doctor was now “Far more than ‘just another Time Lord’”[2].
Peinforte: Doctor Who? Have you never wondered where he came from? Who he is?
Ace: No one knows who he is.
Peinforte: Except me. … I shall tell them of Gallifrey. Tell them of the Old Time. The Time of Chaos.[3]
The new Doctor was a Machiavellian manipulator and stories often pivoted on the Doctor dealing with ‘unfinished business’. In 1989, four out of five stories involve the Doctor defeating ancient gods or demons of one form or another
This has further-reaching consequences for the questions that Doctor Who asks, and the manner in which it asks them. For example, in the new, more mythological Doctor Who, when the Doctor faces evil, it is not merely an amoral scientist, nor a devil of alien origin. The Doctor faces evil itself:
The Doctor: Evil. Evil since the dawn of time… The dawn of time. The beginning of all beginnings. Two forces only, good and evil. Then chaos. Time is born, matter, space. The universe cries out like a newborn. The forces shatter as the universe explodes outwards. Only echoes remain, and yet somehow, somehow, the evil force survives. An intelligence. Pure evil![10]
Here, the Doctor’s twenty-five years of battling evil in its many forms are repainted in the language of the the Hero in eternal battle against the force of evil.
The Monomyth
“Doctor Who is the truest expression of Joseph Campbell’s Hero With a Thousand Faces ever conceived,” writes Lou Anders. “The idea of an alien, come down to earth, repeatedly dying and resurrecting for the salvation of others is as close to the perpetual re-enactment of the eternal Hero’s Journey as you can hope to find.”[11] This observation alone is deserving of its own dissertation, but it is worth mentioning a few points of comparison between Doctor Who and Joseph Campbell’s Monomyth[12]. In many ways it is the companion’s story rather than the Doctor’s that best fits the archetype of ‘The Hero’s Journey’. The stories of the three most recent companions; Martha, Rose and Ace have provided an arc for their respective series. Each passes recognisably through all the stages of Departure while the first two stages of Initiation arguably compose the ‘adventure’ narrative of the stories[13]. In this model, the Doctor is representative of Supernatural Aid –often an elderly Wizard figure who protects and mentors the hero, encouraging them to undertake the daunting task ahead. In Anders’ version, the Doctor represents the hero on the return journey. He is Master of Two Worlds- able to perceive both the human and the ‘divine’[14]. He represents Saint and Warrior, but most fully fulfils the role of ‘World Redeemer’.
The Lonely God
“I certainly thought it was an interesting notion if he turned out to be the Prime Mover. The butterfly wing that causes the hurricane. After all, that's virtually what his power amounts to. Doctor Who as God was considered a somewhat controversial notion, though.”[16]
The suggestion that the Doctor is God is born of both the old von Däniken device, and the new mythological slant. The being who witnessed and influenced ancient events is a pure Chariots of the Gods idea but, divorced of the series’ previous naturalism, ‘scientific explanation’ is never the purpose of such a suggestion. Rather, the intention is to advance the significance of this Hero to the very highest level. The Doctor’s godhood is alluded to again at the end of the 2005[17] series and explicitly in the 2006 series where the Doctor is referred to as ‘The Lonely God’[18]. In School Reunion he is tempted by the godlike power of the Skasas paradigm, and in New Earth he states “If you want to take it to a higher authority: there isn't one. It stops with me.”[19]
In many ways the Doctor has always represented a ‘God’ figure. The First Doctor fulfils the role par excellence as the authoritarian but loveable grandfather figure with his Victorian manners and ‘Father Time’ white hair –in many ways a parody of popular images of God. Even before we knew he was alien, the Doctor was ‘other’. His superior knowledge makes him appear omniscient, his morality makes him law-giver and he guides his ‘followers’ in his role as mentor.
Saviour
Grace: Somehow I don’t believe the second coming happens here…
Pete: Right… you think he’d go to a better hospital? [20]
Later, when his life force is being drained by the Master, he is seen hanging by his arms from a horizontal metal beam, with a crown-of-thorns type apparatus on his head. Perhaps the intention here is to transmit the idea of the Doctor as hero to an American audience. The above quotation aside, messianic allusions in the 1996 movie are only visual. In fact, the Doctor exhibits very little heroism in this story, and the theme of sacrifice is conspicuous by its absence.
Just as the Doctor can be identified as the World Redeemer of Campbell’s monomyth, so he is an archetypal saviour. Seventh Doctor Sylvester McCoy states:
“It’s that classic tale of the little man against great odds. That, and the other classic story of someone coming from outside our world coming down to help us. That makes it very attractive to human beings. I don’t mean to be sacrilegious, but Jesus came down from outside the world to save us and it’s that kind of arena.”
The Doctor saves not only our world, but many other worlds as well. The questions we must ask of any salvation are: ‘What is salvation from?’ and ‘What is salvation to?’ Within the scientistic framework, the Doctor fulfils a Shivaite role of the defeat of ignorance. “The scientist doctor as saviour”[22] offers an admonition to ask questions, rely on wits and intelligence and keep an open mind. Even when the Doctor literally saves a world from destruction it is usually by his superior knowledge. Substitionary sacrifice appears surprisingly little for a series about a saviour, the most notable example being The Caves of Androzani[23] where the Doctor dies, having given his companion the entire antidote for a deadly toxaemia they had both contracted.
As well as a literal saviour, the Doctor is also redeemer. Particularly in the 2005 series the focus is on how the Doctor ‘makes people better’. The Doctor does not himself save the world; rather he enables others to take extraordinary action[24]. Captain Jack says before leaving the Doctor: “Wish I’d never met you, Doctor. I was much better off as a coward.”[25]
The Ultimate Human
The Doctor has an interesting role in exploring what it means to be human- a theme that runs throughout all sci-fi and is particularly prominent in the 2007 series. The theme is most starkly and simply presented in1967’s The Evil of the Daleks. This story is the first to ask what it means to be human by comparing Human and Dalek traits, an oft-repeated device seen recently in 2005’s Dalek and 2007’s Evolution of the Daleks. In Evil of the Daleks, the Doctor isolates both ‘the Human factor’ and ‘the Dalek factor’- two diametrically opposed principles that can be inserted into the brains of Humans or Daleks, transforming them. The characteristic Dalek features are ruthlessness, violence and just a hint of fascism. The Human factor includes ingenuity, pity and inquisitiveness. (Thus, in 2007’s Evolution of the Daleks Dalek Sec, infected with humanity, begins to question.)
Intriguingly, while the Daleks are the epitome of the evil ‘Dalek factor’, it is not humans that embody the good ‘Human factor’, rather it is the Doctor. Human beings have the choice of either path -the ‘evil of the Daleks’, or the good represented by the Doctor. The use of an alien character to show what it means to be human is common in sci-fi, but it is generally by means of comparison. Here the alien Doctor who is other and indeed better than us becomes a model for human attainment. The Doctor, Christ-like[26], becomes the apotheosis of humanity.
[1] Though the plan never reached fruition on-screen, it culminated in a visit to the Doctor’s home where he was to have been revealed to be the shadowy third member of the triumvirate who discovered Time Travel.
[2] Aaronovitch, Ben Remembrance of the Daleks (1988) BBC DVD. BBC Worldwide Ltd. 2003. 00h 09m 47s
[3] Clarke, Kevin. Silver Nemesis (1988) cited in Kistler, Alan. The Seventh Doctor. Montior Duty http://www.monitorduty.com/mdarchives/2006/04/alan_kistlers_p_13.shtml (11/5/2007)
[4] The gods of Ragnarok in The Greatest Show in the Galaxy, The Destroyer in Battlefield, Light in Ghostlight, and Fenric in The Curse of Fenric.
[5] From Stephen Wyatt’s The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (1988).
[6] Most notably Ian Briggs’ 1989 story The Curse of Fenric.
[7] Indeed, in Time and the Rani, the first story of the Seventh Doctor’s tenure, we hear the phrase “The barrier to understanding time is empirical thinking”.
[8] Ghostlight (1989) deals with science, though the themes are famously impenetrable and it is difficult to derive any clear meaning. It does feature one scene where we are reminded of Doctor Who’s anti-religious stance. Alien experiment and Victorian gentleman Josiah Smith causes The Reverend Ernest Matthews to transform into an ape whilst he decries Darwin’s ‘blasphemous’ theories.
[9] “There are undoubtedly stories were some degree of occultism is recognised; Lady Peinforte’s time travelling skill in Silver Nemesis (1988) are simply described as the use of ‘black magic’ by the Doctor, but then, he might just be using such a description of alchemy to save himself the tedium of a longer, more detailed explanation.”
Arthur Chappell ‘The meaning of belief and religion in Dr. Who’, cited in Couch, Steve; Watkins, Tony; Williams, Peter S. Back in Time: A Thinking Fan’s Guide to Doctor Who. Damaris Books, Milton Keynes. 2005. Pg. 153
[10] Ian Briggs The Curse of Fenric (1987) Memorable quotes for Doctor Who: The Curse of Fenric IMDB http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0562902/quotes (5/5/07)
[11] Lou Anders, cited in Couch, Steve; Watkins, Tony; Williams, Peter S. Back in Time: A Thinking Fan’s Guide to Doctor Who. Damaris Books, Milton Keynes. 2005. Pg. 36
[12] See appendix 2
[13] Ace is a particularly strong example of the journey. Andrew Cartmell intended to end Ace’s bildungsroman story arc by revealing that the Doctor had been secretly training Ace to become a Time Lord. (A story which was retold in 2001’s webcast Death Comes to Time) In that way she achieves the boon and her mentor represents a higher aspect of her self, not yet discovered.
[14] It has been suggested that, as a Time Lord, the Doctor can perceive possible futures. Christopher Eccleston’s Doctor makes appropriate references at both the beginning and end of his tenure. In Rose the Doctor can feel ‘The turn of the earth’. In The Parting of the Ways he says he can see ‘All that is. All that was. All that ever could be.’
[15] This has been recognised by Seventh Doctor, Sylvester McCoy. The theme was taken up in the New Adventures (A series of novels published by virgin in the 90s) where the Doctor becomes ‘Time’s Champion’. Also, in 2001’s webcast Death Comes to Time, the Doctor describes himself as ‘the god of the Fourth’.
[16] Andrew Cartmell in Interview: Andrew Cartmell. Doctor Who. http://www.bbc.co.uk/doctorwho/news/cult/news/drwho/2004/01/01/13691.shtml (11/5/2007)
[17] In Boom Town Margaret says of the TARDIS ‘This is the technology of the Gods.’ The Doctor replies: ‘Don’t worship me, I’d make a very bad God. You wouldn’t get a day off, for starters’. Doctor Who: The Shooting Scripts. BBC Books, BBC Worldwide Ltd, London. 2005. Pg. 413 This introduces the theme of godhood for Parting of the Ways, which is addressed in more detail in Chapter 2 “Russell T. Davies”.
[18] In Davies, Russell T. New Earth (2006).
[19] Davies, Russell T. New Earth cited in ‘New Earth’. TV.COM http://www.tv.com/doctor-who-2005/new-earth/episode/449730/summary.html (14/5/2007)
[20] Jacobs, Matthew. Doctor Who: The Script of the Film. BBC Books, BBC Worldwide Ltd, London. 1996. Pg. 41
[21] Sylvester McCoy cited in Couch, Steve; Watkins, Tony; Williams, Peter S. Back in Time: A Thinking Fan’s Guide to Doctor Who. Damaris Books, Milton Keynes. 2005. Pg. 36
[22] May, Stephen. Stardust and Ashes: Science Fiction in Christian Perspective. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, London. 1999. Pg.58
[23] Holmes, Robert. The Caves of Androzani. (1984)
[24] Rose ‘saves the day’ in Rose, Gwyneth in The Unquiet Dead, Cathica in The Long Game.
[25] Davies, Russell T. The Parting of the Ways in Doctor Who: The Shooting Scripts. BBC Books, BBC Worldwide Ltd, London. 2005. Pg. 485
[26] It should be made clear that the parallel drawn here is not implicit in the programme itself.
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