Doctor Who and Philosophy
Page 43
This attempt to teach the audience can be seen throughout the series, but most of the lessons are not historical, they’re ethical, moral, and spiritual. It presents viewers with ways of understanding complex issues, and gives them the tools to reflect upon and arrive at consistent philosophical conclusions. “The Green Death” (1973) teaches viewers about the importance of environmental stewardship, but it never lays down dictates for exactly how one should treat the environment; episodes like “The Silurans” (1970) teach viewers about coexisting with other species; “The End of the World” (2005) raises questions about justice, death, and self-importance; and throughout every episode, viewers are challenged to respect life in whatever form, do what is right, and to live life to its fullest.
Doctor Who never merely tries to persuade viewers about “truths.” Instead, it presents deep philosophical investigations that are designed to teach and challenge viewers to arrive at their own truthful and consistent conclusions. The authors included in this volume do a wonderful job of teasing out the philosophical themes in a variety of episodes, in ways that are easily accessible to readers. More importantly, they illustrate Doctor Who’s influence on the way many of us think about life and morality, and how Doctor Who challenges us all to consider how we view our own lives, how we treat others, and how we understand what counts as truth.
By watching Doctor Who one is forced to deal with Cybermen, Daleks, Sontarans, Ice Warriors, the Master, Zygons, Jagrafess, the surviving brain of the villainous Time Lord Morbius, Absorbaloffs, Sea Devils, Slitheen, Vashta Nerada, and the Weeping Angels, among others. By learning how the Doctor and others deal with such characters, we engage our own beliefs and learn how to deal with people, strangers, and enemies that actually exist here on earth. It’s easy to stereotype all “others” as strangers and enemies, but Doctor Who shows viewers that we must be willing to engage and learn from the strangest of beings. The Doctor is constantly giving second chances, forgiving, and offering his help to those bent on destroying him, the world, and sometimes the universe. It’s this attempt to understand others and their motives that is the mark of philosophy and Doctor Who.
Philosophy and Doctor Who teach us to be proactive in engaging the unknown, rather than ignoring doubts and concerns until we’re forced to blindly react to them like Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart, whose first reaction is always, “Five rounds rapid, Sergeant!” Therefore, if we watch Doctor Who and apply its teachings to our own lives, then we must reflect on our own beliefs, we must reflect on how we treat others and respond to those who are good to us, as well as those who harm us, and we must be willing to change the way we think, in order to live a better life. In other words, Doctor Who teaches us to live our lives philosophically engaged.
Ah, Doctor. We Know You by Reputation
Doctor Who has built up a considerable reputation over the past forty-seven years, and this reputation will undoubtedly continue to grow. Hopefully, this book will increase not only its reputation, but also enlighten readers to new ways of understanding their favorite Time Lord. It’s easy to get caught up in one’s own way of seeing things, and to try and force others to see the world exactly the same way. This mind-set is the driving force behind most of the villains on Doctor Who: the Daleks think only they should exist, the Cybermen want to upgrade inferior species, and the Master wants the universe to recognize his “greatness.”
Doctor Who, like philosophy, teaches us a different ways of thinking. It calls us to engage ourselves and the world around us. It has the potential to change the way we act and the way we treat others. It makes us consider the possibilities of the impossible. And, most of all, it teaches us to strive for something greater: a life lived according to the good.
Doctor Who and philosophy both show us that we, and the world in which we live, is larger on the inside than on the outside, and that it’s this Time And Relative Dimension in all Spaces that makes the world exciting and worthy of exploration. Enjoy the rest of your journey with the Doctor, but just make sure you take enough jelly babies!
Would You Like a Jelly Baby?
WORDS OF WISDOM FROM DOCTOR WHO
LITTLE BOY: Are you afraid of monsters?
DOCTOR: No, they’re afraid of me.
—ELEVENTH DOCTOR, “The Hungry Earth” (2010)
One day I shall come back. Until then, there must be no regrets, no tears, no anxiety. Just go forward in all your beliefs, and prove that I am not mistaken in mine.
—FIRST DOCTOR, “The Dalek Invasion of Earth” (also found on The Hartnell Years)
You know, you are a classic example of the inverse ratio between the size of a mouth and the size of a brain.
—FOURTH DOCTOR to Commander Uvanov, “The Robots of Death”
Two days! I haven’t got time to be lying around for two days.
—FOURTH DOCTOR, “The Face of Evil”
I like lots of people, but I can’t go carting them around the universe.
—FOURTH DOCTOR, “The Face of Evil”
Progress is a very flexible word, you can make it out to mean just about anything.
—FOURTH DOCTOR, “The Power of Kroll”
It is not the oil, the filth, and the poisonous chemicals that are the real cause of pollution. It is simply greed.
—THIRD DOCTOR, “Invasion of the Dinosaurs”
He looks like a man that can see around a few corners himself.
—ANGUS talking about the Fourth Doctor, “Terror of the Zygons”
The thing about ideas is they never come to you all at once.
—FOURTH DOCTOR
Why don’t you give me the gun, so I can keep an eye on myself?
—FOURTH DOCTOR, “Horns of Nimon”
If we fight we will destroy this planet, we will destroy ourselves....
If we fight like animals, we will die like animals!
—SEVENTH DOCTOR, “Survival”
Unless we are prepared to sacrifice our lives for the good of all, then evil and anarchy will spread like the plague: The rule of law must prevail.
—SIXTH DOCTOR, “The Trial of a Time Lord”
Don’t worry Ace, it’s only a trap.
——SEVENTH DOCTOR, “Battlefield”
If you sit there wallowing in self-pity, I’ll bite your nose off.
—FOURTH DOCTOR, “The Brain of Morbius”
Come here ... I think you need a Doctor.
—NINTH DOCTOR, “The Parting of the Ways”
Nice to meet you, Rose. Run for your life!
—NINTH DOCTOR, “Rose”
It was a better life. And I—I don’t mean all the traveling and ... seeing aliens and spaceships and things—that don’t matter. The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life.
—ROSE TYLER, “The Parting of the Ways”
You know, 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. Ah. 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.
—ELTON POPE, “Love and Monsters”
I’ll work with you—gladly—but for the sake of justice, not your own amusement.
—AGATHA CHRISTIE, to the Tenth Doctor, “The Unicorn and the Wasp”
Everybody lives, Rose. Just this once. Everybody lives!
—NINTH DOCTOR, “The Doctor Dances”
Daleks have no concept of elegance!
—The Daleks responding to the Cybermen, “Doomsday”
ROMANA: Where are we going?
DOCTOR: Are you talking philosophically or geographically?
ROMANA: Philosophically.
DOCTOR: Then we’re going to lunch!
—FOURTH DOCTOR and ROMANA on a train in Paris, “City of Death”
You know the very powerful and the very stupid have one thing in common. They don’t alter their views to fit the facts. They alter the facts to fit their views. Which can be uncomfortable if you happen to be one of the f
acts that needs altering.
—FOURTH DOCTOR, “The Face of Evil”
Something’s interfering with time, Mr. Scarman. And time is my business.
—FOURTH DOCTOR, “The Pyramids of Mars”
Courage isn’t just a matter of not being frightened, you know. It’s being afraid and doing what you have to do anyway.
—THIRD DOCTOR, “Planet of the Daleks”
You can’t kill me. I’m a genius.
—SECOND DOCTOR, “The Seeds of Death”
It looks like not even the Sonic Screwdriver can get me out of this one.
—FOURTH DOCTOR, “The Invasion of Time”
Pull a trigger. End a life. Simple isn’t it? Makes sense doesn’t it? A life killing life.... Why don’t you do it then? Look me in the eye. Pull the trigger. End my life.
—SEVENTH DOCTOR, “The Happiness Patrol”
I used my own, special technique ... keeping my eyes open and my mouth shut.
—SECOND DOCTOR, “The Tomb of the Cybermen”
This is my Timey-Wimey Detector. It goes ping when there’s stuff.
—TENTH DOCTOR, “Blink”
Danger Doctor!
—K-9
You can’t rewrite history. Not one line!
—FIRST DOCTOR, “The Aztecs”
It all started out as a mild curiosity in the junkyard, and now it’s turned out to be quite a great spirit of adventure.
—FIRST DOCTOR, “The Sensorites”
That is the dematerializing control. And that, over yonder, is the horizontal hold. Up there is the scanner, those are the doors, that is a chair with a panda on it. Sheer poetry, dear boy! Now please stop bothering me.
—FIRST DOCTOR, “The Time Meddler”
So you’re my replacements—a dandy and a clown!
—FIRST DOCTOR, to the Second and Third Doctors, “The Three Doctors”
When I say ‘run,’ run.... RUN!
—SECOND DOCTOR, (too many episodes to mention)
First things first, but not necessarily in that order.
—FOURTH DOCTOR, “Meglos”
Nothing in the world can stop me now!
—Professor Zaroff, “The Underwater Menace”
So, freewill is not an illusion after all.
—THIRD DOCTOR, “Inferno”
Logic, my dear Zoe, merely enables one to be wrong with authority.
—SECOND DOCTOR, “The Wheel in Space”
I am not a student of human nature. I am a professor of a far wider academy of which human nature is merely a part.
—SECOND DOCTOR, “The Evil of the Daleks”
There are some corners of the universe which have bred the most terrible things. Things that act against everything we believe in. They must be fought!
—SECOND DOCTOR, “The Moonbase”
You’ve redecorated in here, haven’t you? Hmm. I don’t like it.
—SECOND DOCTOR, referring to UNIT headquarters, “The Five Doctors”
You could take the usual precautions ... sticky tape on the windows, that sort of thing.
—THE MASTER, on how to survive a nuclear blast, “Terror of the Autons”
I reversed the polarity of the neutron flow.
—THIRD DOCTOR, “The Sea Devils”
A straight line may be the shortest distance between two points, but it is by no means the most interesting.
—THIRD DOCTOR, “The Time Warrior”
There’s no point being grown-up if you can’t be childish sometimes.
—FOURTH DOCTOR, “Robot”
You’ve no home planet, no influence, nothing! You’re just a pathetic bunch of tin soldiers skulking about the galaxy in an ancient spaceship!
—FOURTH DOCTOR, on the Cybermen, “Revenge of the Cybermen”
Evil? Your evil is my good. I am Sutekh the Destroyer. Where I tread, I leave nothing but dust and darkness.... I find that good!
—SUTEKH, “Pyramids of Mars”
Vaporization without representation is against the constitution!
—FOURTH DOCTOR, “The Deadly Assassin”
If they should break through, run as if something very nasty were after you, because something very nasty will be after you.
—FOURTH DOCTOR on the Ogri, “The Stones of Blood”
Now drop your weapons, or I’ll kill him with this deadly jelly baby!
—FOURTH DOCTOR, “The Face of Evil”
Please do not throw hands at me.
—Robot D-84, on being attacked by robot parts, “The Robots of Death”
Never trust a man with dirty fingernails!
—FOURTH DOCTOR, on Magnus Greel, “The Talons of Weng-Chiang”
Sometimes my brilliance astonishes even me.
—FOURTH DOCTOR, “The Invisible Enemy”
Excuse me, are you sure this planet’s meant to be here?
—FOURTH DOCTOR, “The Pirate Planet”
Don’t you like it? I think it’ll do very nicely. If the arms are a bit long I can always take them in.
—Romana II, on her new body, “Destiny of the Daleks”
I say, what a wonderful butler, he’s so violent!
—FOURTH DOCTOR, “City of Death”
A new body, at last!
—THE MASTER, “The Keeper of Traken”
I’ve just dipped into the future. We must be prepared for the worst.
—FOURTH DOCTOR, “Logopolis”
An apple a day keeps the ... Ah, never mind.
—FIFTH DOCTOR, “Kinda”
Well, it wouldn’t be cricket.
—FIFTH DOCTOR, “Black Orchid”
There should have been another way.
—FIFTH DOCTOR, “Warriors of the Deep”
Build high for happiness!
—THE KANGS, “Paradise Towers”
Oh, marvelous! You’re going to kill me. What a finely tuned response to the situation.
—FIFTH DOCTOR, “Frontios”
That could blow a hole in the space-time continuum, the size of ... well actually, the exact size of Belgium. That’s a bit un-dramatic, isn’t it? Belgium?
—FIFTH DOCTOR, “Time Crash”
My last incarnation ... Oh, I was never happy with that one. It had a sort of feckless ‘charm’ which simply wasn’t me!
—SIXTH DOCTOR, “The Twin Dilemma”
What’s [the Master] up to now? It’ll be something devious and overcomplicated. He’d get dizzy if he tried to walk in a straight line.
—THE RANI, “The Mark of the Rani”
Small though it is, the human brain can be quite effective when used properly.
—SIXTH DOCTOR, “The Two Doctors”
Whereas yours is a simple case of sociopathy, Dibber, my malaise is much more complex. A deep-rooted maladjustment, my psychiatrist said, brought on by an infantile inability to come to terms with the more pertinent, concrete aspects of life.
—SABALOM GLITZ, “The Trial of a Time Lord”
Madam, this revelation should halt this trial immediately. Surely even Gallifreyan Law must acknowledge that the same person cannot be both prosecutor and defendant.
—SIXTH DOCTOR, “The Trial of a Time Lord”
Yes, that’s right, you’re going. You’ve been gone for ages. You’re already gone. You’re still here. You’ve just arrived. I haven’t even met you yet. It all depends on who you are and how you look at it. Strange business, time.
—SEVENTH DOCTOR, “Dragonfire”
I can hear the sound of empires toppling.
—SEVENTH DOCTOR, “The Happiness Patrol”
Anybody remotely interesting is mad in some way.
—SEVENTH DOCTOR, “The Greatest Show in the Galaxy”
Don’t worry, Brigadier. People will be shooting at you soon.
—SEVENTH DOCTOR, “Battlefield”
Good afternoon. The universe is ending. Would you like some tea?
—EIGHTH DOCTOR, Zamper (novel by Gareth Roberts)
These shoes!
They fit perfectly!
—EIGHTH DOCTOR, Doctor Who: The T.V. Movie
I love humans, always seeing patterns in things that aren’t there.