Doctor Who_ Companion Piece - Mike Tucker [1]
Christianity (and the ancient Jewish creation stories) seeks to explain the uniqueness of humanity and what it means to be truly human — made in the image of God, with the capacity to relate and to love, to be creative, to share in responsibility and in care for planet Earth. The concept of 'soul' (meaning we are more than just the physical and emotional) almost symbolises the link between creature and Creator and eternal element, and the essence of the person. Angican priest and poet David Scott says (in his Moments of Prayer — SPCK, 1997) that the soul is that part of us which responds to God. He is reminded of black box flight recorders on planes, which preserve crucial details and hold the secrets,
the story; the soul records the way we are in the eyes of God.
There is also in many faiths a strong tradition of the sacredness of all creation and of the love of God for all his creation. Is it, therefore, not impossible that alien beings have souls, the ability to relate to God? W ould they, in their own particular world or situation, need their own Christ figure, to fulfil their spiritual need?
Perhaps the frightening prospect of the Cyberman, an even more
chilling possibility today than nearly forty years ago, may help us to define what we mean by 'being human. Originally human themselves, do they retain their own soul or do they mark the end-point, once free will and emotions have been engineered out of the person?
Religion has an inherent power and can easily become oppressive and manipulative. In this novella, on the planet Haven, it produces a reaction of fear, and fear itself is one of its motivating forces. Freedom poses a threat to it, so religion is prepared to fight and kill for orthodoxy. Del Toro's Church, with its wealth and militia, demonstrates the corruptive tendency of power and is a perversion of the true aims of religion.
Similar corruption has been explored in the Gallifreyan corridors of power and perhaps the Seventh Doctor, more frequently than his preceding incarnations, is aware of his personal capacity for the use or abuse of power. Manipulation for good or bad? The Seventh Doctor lives in a grey area, rather than one of black and white morality. Previously, in many adventures, the Doctor had an almost Christ-like role — he comes into a world and shows it a better way forward with good overcoming evil, solutions given to problems, the healing of a situation, and the gift of hope. But the Seventh Doctor often sets in motion events that can either save or destroy. W e see the responsibility that must accompany knowledge and power, and the possible subsequent agonies of conscience. 'W e did good, didn't we, Professor?'
The Doctor, so often respectful of alien creeds and cultures, sees straight through the trappings of Del Toro's Church, identifies the evil threat that has to be countered, then plunges into the conflict. It's left to Patriarch Julian, physically the frailest, most vulnerable character, to represent the more traditional face of 'good' religion and to express the value of love and hope, wisdom and compassion, and to echo the Gospel worlds, 'You must become like a little child: W ithin the conflict, those values may seem as frail and vulnerable as Julian himself, but we know that they are also very dear to the Doctor's own hearts.
Images run through my mind . . . Gothic buttressed spaceships. Torture
chambers. Killer priests. Heretic Time Lords. The Doctor alongside a new
companion . . . What would the Archbishop have made of all this?
Revd Colin Midlane, Parish Priest & Hospital Chaplain, Brighton, August 03
space in a blaze of ionised