The Doctor Is In (The Tardis)

Remember Doctor Who? Remember the Tardis? Remember Saturday afternoons of watching old BBC shows on PBS? Remember adoring the very cheap and corny special effects? Remember the celery?

Well, the Doctor is back. The Sci-Fi Channel is now running last year’s season of BBC’s latest incarnation of the longest running science fiction show ever. Much to my chagrin but not really to my surprise I’ve discovered the Brits are already seeing a different actor in the role of the Doctor. Just when I was starting to really like this one…

That’s Doctor Who.

Everything you want to know about life, the universe, and time-space continuums you can learn from the Doctor. He is a Time Lord. He is in fact the last of the Time Lords. His kind were all killed in last great time war against the Daleks. The Doctor knows everything. He’s traveled in his phone booth through the whole universe. He’s traveled as far back and as far forward in time as anyone can imagine. He is the wisdom of the ages.

But wisdom is never enough, is it? That’s what Rose is for. Rose is the Doctor’s traveling companion. She is really just a kid who tags along, but she always has lessons of her own to teach. The Doctor might know everything, but Rose is all about responding from the heart, and together the Doctor’s mind and Rose’s heart manage to conquer any adventure they encounter.

In the episode called “The Dalek,” that aired last night, the Doctor learns the importance of compassion and forgiveness when confronted with Rose’s reaction to his most serious enemy: the last remaining Dalek. The Daleks had obliterated the Time Lords in the great war that no one won. One Dalek survived. He is on Earth. He is capable of destroying all of civilization. He is genetically predisposed to mass destruction. And only the Doctor possesses any knowledge at all of how to stop him.

At first it looks as though Rose is going to aid in the destruction of her own planet by showing compassion to the Doctor’s most dreaded and deadly enemy. The Dalek tricks her into touching him, then uses her DNA to regenerate himself and grow stronger. Poor little fool, you might think. Her soft heart will get millions of her own people killed.

Ah, but there’s a glitch. Like Voldemort, who because he has no real soul, cannot tolerate being in contact with the things like love and compassion that make up Harry Potter’s soul, the Dalek ends up unable to tolerate his own existence when Rose’s DNA gives him an awareness of human emotions.

The Doctor rushes forth ready to destroy the enemy only to end up learning to pity the one creature left in the universe responsible for the worst thing that ever happened to him. Ultimately, it is Rose’s goodness that defeats the soulless violence of the Dalek. We’re reminded that compassion—the kind of real, tough compassion that means you have to have love in your heart for those who have truly damaged you and yours—is the most powerful force in the universe.

And with that, my fellow time-travelers, we are ready to climb back in the Tardis in search of another adventure.