One of my favorite religion blogs is Butler’s Dr. James McGrath, as the Professor has the nigh-perfect mixture of biblical commentary, science fiction references, and humor. He’s a great blogger and I appreciate the quality and quantity of his work–he’s even liveblogging his way through re-watching LOST.
Recently he posted a one hour lecture he gave on Doctor Who and Religion. While I’m not a Whovian, it’s a good speech for those who are. Plug in the headphones and jump right in (yes, the video is missing the first 30 seconds of his speech).
(video link)
Hope you enjoyed it! Thoughts on the content, those of you who know who the Time Lord is?
I am a bit of a Whovian although I must confess I’m not entirely happy with how the series has treated religion. Even in the Third Doctor era we had del Gado as the master dressed as an Anglican priest. In the new series there has been persistent anti religious theming, including demons swarming outside of, and eventually entering, an Anglican parish church, an Anglican priest who turns out to be a giant wasp who mocks humanity for believing in a sky god, and in the same episodes, laughing youths who steal altar vessels without remorse from the parish of said heirowasp, a malevolent organization known as The Church of the Papal Mainframe manipulating and repeatedly trying to kill the 11th doctor, an episode entitled “The Rings of Akhaten” depicting a malevolent deity, with atheistic theming, a 19th century British non-conforming female circuit preacher selling the idea of a religious community to the hymn “Jerusalem”, whilst masking her secret plans, and finally, in the 12th doctor, the Mistress uploading the recently deceased into an artificial heaven. Much of this however is at on a par with the treatment of religion in genre SF, although I find it sad that the show has never accomplished the kind of mature, uplifting treatment of religion seen in 1990s era Star Trek, whose gleaming Bajoran monasteries helped inspire my own vocation.
The Doctor Who spinoff Torchwood however is almost literally beneath contempt as an SF treatment of religion, with lines such as “I was a Catholic, and then I got better.” Setting aside entirely the programs openness about homosexuality, the extreme contempt of religion voiced throughout nearly every season should make it unpalatable even for progressive Unitarian atheists and members of non-theist religions such as Jainism, who value religious liberty.
I do love the Doctor but I have to say when it comes to religious themes I find it a bit rubbish. Heinlein, who was very far from being a man of piety, did a much better job in Stranger In a Strange Land. Cordwainer Smith, one of the most imaginative SF authors, who was also an authority on psychological warfare, was a Christian, and was planning a bizarre story involving a Copt at the time of his death. And you can’t beat Frank Herbert, with the OC Bible, the Zensunni Fremen, and the fantastic cult of St. Alia of the Knife. A lot of Cyberpunk, including the Matrix films, does a very good job with Gnosticism.