Reverting to our Barbarian Roots: the true perils of Game of Thrones

Throughout history, there has never been a social group without collective hatred for another social group, with the result of persecution, abuse, and slaughter. No society escapes it, from Ancient Civilizations to modern ones, and each society divides into an “us vs. them” mentality in a new way. Hatred is intrinsic in our humanness, but...

The Church of the Cybermen

Faith, Humanity, Transformation, and Collective Evil in the Season Finale of Doctor Who

Doctor Who: Change Begins With You

One of my friends told me this episode played to her worst nightmare: the inability to research history with accuracy. Historical research is already inaccurate, because unless you’re dealing with sources with proven facts and not eyewitness accounts, hearsay, historian hypothesis, or personal letters, whatever perspective you receive is slanted by someone’s bias. History is...

Doctor Who: I Was Blind, Now I See

The metaphors of blindness and consent.

Embrace the Emptiness

Virtue is only virtue in extremis. This is what he believes. Good is good in the final hour, in the deepest pit, without hope, without witness, without reward. People really hate the unknown. They try desperately to predict their futures, to map it out. They consult psychics, develop ten year plans, Google how to get...

Doctor Who & the Price of Sacrifice

The Doctor had a bone to pick with capitalism this week, which I can’t disagree with; capitalism has its place, but not when it replaces humanity. In this episode, the Doctor slowly unravels the truth: humans have become “inefficient” in a space station, and their suits are programmed to kill expenses – these humans breathe...

The Moral Complexities of Doctor Who

I had no intention of blogging my way through a season of Doctor Who, but I’m enjoying it so much, I thought “Why not?” This week, the Doctor takes Bill Potts to Regency England, and the show deals with some darker themes (sexism, racism, and slavery), while also presenting moral ambivalence and hypocrisy. The severe...

Choosing the Doctor

I like Doctor Who for many reasons; it’s one of the most creative “ideas” out there (a space and time traveling time lord?), it’s always got a fresh new angle, it replaces its entire cast on a regular basis to keep things interesting, and… as a believer, the parallels between the Doctor and elements of...

The Christian Mythology of Beauty & the Beast

I have much to say about the new Beauty & the Beast, but the thing that most struck me was a conversation between Belle and Mrs. Potts, where Belle implies the curse “isn’t fair,” because the servants in the castle “didn’t do anything” to deserve punishment. Mrs. Potts implies they do deserve punishment, for “we...