The Doctor is my Co-Pilot

"Another Doctor Who post," you may ask?  Apologies to anyone who doesn't watch the show, but thinking about that itinerant time traveler has been taking me to some strange places lately.  It's also gearing me up for an accelerated pace of blogging, coming up in a few weeks, but more on that in a bit.

The idea that I seem to be encountering at every turn is: Doctor Who as a Religion.  More specifically, the concept of the Doctor as Savior.

Artist: Mandie Manzano

Okay, yes... blasphemy on the one hand, nerdy obsession on the other.  I see the silliness.  In my defense, I can point to many others who are talking about it... in videos... in books... academic conferences... and even stage plays.  It's no crazier, I'd contend, than other sci-fi inspired bouts of religious creativity.  Brits have cornered the market on Jediism.  Here in the States we have, um, another religion founded by a sci-fi author... which I shouldn't really mention by name, since I don't want Jerry McGuire, Vinnie Barbarino, and their lawyers rappelling down from the rooftops.

But with the Doctor we have a singular, chimerical, personal savior.  His character was summed up wonderfully by long-time Who screenwriter Terrence Dicks:

"He is still impulsive, idealistic, ready to risk his life for a worthy cause. He still hates tyranny and oppression and anything that is anti-life. He never gives in and he never gives up, however overwhelming the odds against him. The Doctor believes in good and fights evil. Though often caught up in violent situations, he is a man of peace. He is never cruel or cowardly. In fact, to put it simply, the Doctor is a hero. These days there aren't so many of them around."

I tell you, with some trepidation, that what brought this home to me is Christmas. I know I've said before that I walk a somewhat solitary spiritual path, but I still love Christmas.  The good cheer need not have any sectarian limits, I like to think.  I also adore all the phantastical myth-making around the persona of Santa (see past Rankin-Bass musings here and here).  However, the one aspect that always seemed kind of closed off to me, due to my lack of some specific literal beliefs, is the wonder of the nativity.

A week or so ago, "O Holy Night" was playing on the radio (Nat King Cole's classic rendition) and for some reason my mind went to the Doctor.  Coming back again and again to save us petty humans, because he thinks we're just so cool.  Sometimes being brought back from the brink of inhumanity by his all-too-fallible human companions. And, once, being summoned back into life by humanity's collective yearning for salvation (in "Last of the Time Lords"). 

It only lasted a moment, but the nativity never meant more to me.

So where do I go with these thoughts of a fictional alien traveler in persona Christi?  I'm not yet sure.  In the short term, I've set myself a mini-challenge to post on the Twelve Days of Christmas.  There are 12 incarnations (more or less) of the Doctor, after all.  My weird disposition for the occult also urges me to somehow fold in the 12 signs of the zodiac, too.  I'm planning to start short daily posts on Christmas Eve, and go through the season up to Epiphany.  Being that it passes through the new year, I'll also try to mix in some resolutions, too.  Is it relevant at all to GAMES (the nominal pursuit of this blog)?  I have no idea, but I'll at least try to keep that in mind.

Allons-y!