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| "It was a better life. And I don't mean all the travelling and seeing aliens and spaceships and things — that don't matter. The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life. That you don't give up. You don't just let things happen. You make a stand. You say no. You have the guts to do what's right when everyone else just runs away." -Rose Tyler, "Parting of the Ways" |
And I realized why people love this show so much.
Doctor Who touches at something deep within me. I don't watch Who for the effects (really, who could?), the sci-fi, the time travel, or even the humor.
I watch Who because something in The Doctor strikes a chord in me.
A desire for heroism. A love for truth and justice. A struggle against both evil in the world and evil inside your own soul.
The Doctor may be an alien. He may be 900+ years old. He may have two hearts and be a Time Lord who describes time as 'wibbly wobbly timey wimey stuff."
But he's also incredibly real, despite his quirks. He loves. He hurts. He acts in meaningful ways. He tries. He fails. He gets up and keeps fighting. He strikes a beat in me, a deep desire for courage, a belief in beauty, a desire for right to triumph. A spirit of mercy.
I think I've realized one reason people love The Doctor. Of course, there are many reasons. Maybe I'll explore them around here sometime. But right now, this particular one is what's hitting me.
We are attracted to The Doctor because we're all looking for someone like him. Someone to save the world, but more importantly, to save us. Someone to sweep into our mundane lives. Someone to jump into our suffering and defeat the fears and tragedies that haunt us. Someone to give us a reason for living.
We're all looking for a Doctor. He's a hero. He's a savior. He appears in times of need and fixes everything. He loves his people and sacrifices all he is for them. He fights even at enormous costs to himself. He is someone that his companions can trust with their very lives.
In our world that so often denies the very existence of right and wrong, a world that says there is no meaning in life...is it any surprise that when we see someone like the Doctor something in their heart starts beating wildly?
I love The Doctor. But I'm starting to realize more and more that the reason I love him is because so many of his traits point back to the Great Physician, the greatest, truest Doctor of all. Jesus, the real Savior of the World, who conquered through love and sacrifice, who always fights for His people, who is merciful and just, who lives eternally.
Because, though The Doctor is just a story...
Jesus isn't.
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Read this extremely delightful blog post, written by a fellow novelist, Nairam, for the reasons she loves The Doctor. I completely and wholeheartedly agree with her. And her entire blog is full of awesome posts, so I send you thither!
