Theology: Superman and Dr Who

[Primula Baggins]

Still, I was so glad they kept essentially the same theme, even if they re-recorded it. I completely agree about the sound of the theme music for a new episode. It ran on Saturday afternoons when I first saw it, and Mr. Prim was a grad student and so in the lab; so I'd relax alone on the couch in our apartment and watch Doctor Who. They showed entire episodes at once, four or six segments all the same day, so it was quite satisfying.

It's an extremely British show, no question—but other extremely British things have done well over here, among the discerning.

[Alatar]

What is very interesting to me is that to this day there are still many "lost episodes" that can no longer be found even in the vastness of the Internet. Of course nearly everything from the VHS age is available and anything the BBC had in its archives, but some I beleive were destroyed, and if reports are to be believed, some were even dumped!

Ah yes: good old Wikipedia has it!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dr_who#Missing_episodes

Between about 1967 and 1978, large amounts of older material stored in the BBC's video tape and film libraries were destroyed or wiped. This included many old episodes of Doctor Who, mostly stories featuring the first two Doctors — William Hartnell and Patrick Troughton. Archives are complete from the programme's move to colour television (starting from Jon Pertwee's time as the Doctor), although a few Pertwee episodes have required substantial restoration; a handful have only been recovered in black and white and several survive only as NTSC copies recovered from North America. In all, 108 of 253 episodes produced during the first six years of the programme are not held in the BBC's archives. It has been reported that in 1972 all episodes then made were known to exist at the BBC,[31] whilst by 1978 the practice of wiping tapes had ended.[32]

Some episodes have been returned to the BBC from the archives of other countries who bought copies for broadcast, or by private individuals who got them by various means. Early colour videotape recordings made off-air by fans have also been retrieved, as well as excerpts filmed off the television screen onto 8 mm cine film and clips that were shown on other programmes. Audio versions of all of the lost episodes exist from home viewers who made tape recordings of the show.

In addition to these, there are off-screen photographs made by photographer John Cura, who was hired by various production personnel to document many of their programmes during the 1950s and 1960s, including Doctor Who. These have been used in fan reconstructions of the serials. These amateur reconstructions have been tolerated by the BBC, provided they are not sold for profit and are distributed as low quality VHS copies.

One of the most sought-after lost episodes is Part Four of the last William Hartnell serial, The Tenth Planet (1966), which ends with the First Doctor transforming into the Second. The only portion of this in existence, barring a few poor quality silent 8 mm clips, is the few seconds of the regeneration scene, thanks to it having been shown on the children's magazine show Blue Peter. With the approval of the BBC, efforts are now under way to restore as many of the episodes as possible from the extant material. Starting in the early 1990s, the BBC began to release audio recordings of missing serials on cassette and compact disc, with linking narration provided by former series actors. "Official" reconstructions have also been released by the BBC on VHS, on MP3 CD-ROM and as a special feature on a DVD. The BBC, in conjunction with animation studio Cosgrove Hall has reconstructed the missing Episodes 1 and 4 of The Invasion (1968) in animated form, using remastered audio tracks and the comprehensive stage notes for the original filming, for the serial's DVD release in November 2006. Although no similar reconstructions have been announced as of early 2007, Cosgrove Hall has expressed an interest in animating more lost episodes in the future,[33] despite the announcement in April 2007 that this project is on indefinite hiatus.

In April 2006, Blue Peter launched a challenge to find these missing episodes with the promise of a full scale Dalek model

[JogOn]

JogOn, have you seen all of Season 3, or are you one of us unlucky Americans who are only now getting it?

This is Hobbituk btw Yes, I've seen all of season 3 and it was the best yet... which I sort of didn't believe was possible! The first two seasons were so good.

What is that I find so appealing about the Doctor over an American hero like Superman?

I suppose to me it's the fact that he's just this bloke who likes a laugh and is very clever. He doesn't have much in the way of super powers... he doesn't need them, super powers would just get in the way. He never carries a gun, he always tries to sort things out by talking or making people underestimate him by cracking jokes. All the various incarnations have had these qualities in different ways.

He's also a bit of a Gandalf character. He's the wise mentor and guide... but he gets to chuck the ring into Mount Doom too! He can be a terrifyingly mysterious mythological terror and your best friend at the same time!

I suppose that's the "God" thing.

Anyway I better stop before I get started on the UNIT dating controversy and the Blivonitch Limitation Factor...

[Primula Baggins]

Well, we Americans have less of an opportunity to get into it on that level.

Interesting, though, that my reasons for preferring the Doctor are much the same as yours.

I would add, from my own perspective, that the Doctor is unquestionably more intelligent than Superman, and intelligence is very sexy.

[WampusCat]

Oh, I definitely prefer the Doctor as well. (And yes, intelligence is sexy!)

Thinking theologically again...

Superman is a god in our own image. He is like us, only more so. Stronger. Faster. With better vision (x-ray) and means of transport (flying). And in fact he wouldn't have had these powers on his own planet; they only exist because he is here. American Christianity tends to be very nationalistic: a good fit with a god who relies on this "shining city on a hill" for his might.

The Doctor, on the other hand, is essentially a mystery. His powers are never fully listed, nor do we know where they come from. They seem to be innate to the Time Lords. They pre-exist this world and will be there when this world is gone. He is not tied to this place, although he does keep showing up.

What an interesting contrast! Thank you for raising the question. It's been fun to think about.

[axordil]

And in fact he wouldn't have had these powers on his own planet; they only exist because he is here.

Indeed--and he is the creation of Siegel and Shuster, both sons of Jewish immigrants (Kal-El is a passable transliteration of the Hebrew for "vessel of God", btw).

[ToshoftheWuffingas]

How much is Superman a creation of the time too; the Depression and looming political forces that the ordinary person felt impotent to influence?

[vison]

I guess my problem with Supe is that, jeez, he saves one kid here or there when he could do a lot more. I never heard that he had any Prime Directive to obey, so why isn't he up with saving the World?

I was never a "superhero" fan. Are many girls? I think of them as boy things. (My youngest son was, and is, a Batman fan. He has an enormous comic collection and the prizes of it are early Batmans, along with the original X-men and Teenage Ninja Turtles when they were little black and white pamphlets.) I think of superheroes as being, um, silly. Sorry to say that, but silly is the word.

Dr. Who, on the other hand, is nothing like a Superhero and is thus more acceptable in my Universe. It isn't that he's English, it's that he's real. He's from away, in both space and time, and is kewl and wonderful.

And after refusing to watch it for the first 3 seasons I became an avid Babylon 5 fan and now regret bitterly that I didn't watch it from the beginning. I know I'll never really watch the DVDs of the shows I missed. I imagine I will, but I won't. I never think of putting the TV on when I am alone in the house and could do it, and when someone else puts the TV on they are wanting to watch something else.

One sorta superhero I used to adore was Tarzan. Oooooo......

[Primula Baggins]

Ah, vison, I hope you're wrong about that. The second and third seasons of Babylon 5 were the very best of the series.

And I agree about superness, though I did buy and read comics as a child; I remember even then that Superman's increasingly super powers kind of created a story problem for me.

When he started out in the old comics, he could do things that were amazing on a human scale—jump over a building, lift a car with one hand. When he started being able to, oh, push a planet out of its orbit, I started wondering what you do: if this guy has these supernatural powers, why is he pulling kitties out of trees? Why isn't he averting natural disasters, carrying out major engineering projects in poor countries, using his abilities to help everybody?

Whereas the Doctor isn't omnipotent or omniscient, and digs in and helps with the problems in front of him, when he can—and sometimes he can't do what he wants to do.

[axordil]

Why isn't he averting natural disasters, carrying out major engineering projects in poor countries, using his abilities to help everybody?

Why doesn't God?

It's functionally the same question. And the answers are very similar: free will, problem of evil, not wanting to make humanity dependent, yadayada.

[WampusCat]

OK, this is a bit of a stretch theologically, but that's where the fun is.

The Doctor relies on a piece of technology (the Tardis), whereas Superman is self-contained. It's the difference between a God who works in and through creation, and a God who merely acts on it.

I think that the kitten-rescuing (and what's wrong with that? ) rather than disaster-averting aspect of Superman is an accurate reflection of much of what passes for spirituality in America. God is my own personal rescuer who will help me find a close parking place -- and who will never demand that I do anything about major societal ills.

[vison]

Um.

Yes.

[axordil]

It does raise the general question (as other comics have done more overtly) of why heroes do what they do--and don't do what they don't do. Supes protects us from things we can't handle--but we can handle more than we think, if we wish. But his eye is also on the sparrow, as it were, and if a target of opportunity in terms of upholding the civic order presents itself, he acts.

That's the CURRENT version, anyway. As Tosh alluded to, when he first arose in the Depression he also took on greedy corporate bosses. During the war he went after tire racketeers. There's one issue from the 80s where he dreams there was a nuclear war, and has to decide whether to go disable all the nukes...but there's that free will thing.

[Primula Baggins]

Wampus, my apologies—I should have said, "Why is he just pulling kitties out of trees?" It's not as if he couldn't do two important tasks.

[WampusCat]

That's much more reasonable, Prim.

[vison]

Superman is capricious. Other Superbeings are capricious, and that's what I have 'against' the common notion of God: if you pray right, or if the god feels like it, the laws of the universe can be overturned. It is not the operation of 'free will' at all, but the operation of whimsy.

I remember years ago watching a TV show upon which a teenage beauty queen told the following story: "I entered the beauty pageant but I knew I couldn't win because one of my legs was shorter than the other. So I prayed and my Mom prayed and everyone prayed and God made my legs the same length and I won!!! Praise the Lord!!!" (Much truncated version, I admit.)

Superman does what he does because if he did really do anything, there would be no story. Like, if Eru sent the Eagle to get Frodo and Frodo dropped the Ring in the Cracks of Doom, there'd be no story, right? I can ignore that in a story I love, like LOTR, and even in a story I don't like much, like Superman.

But in real life?

[WampusCat]

Hey, that is real life. All of us make choices about what we will or will not do. And every choice to spend our time and energy on one activity or cause means we're rejecting a chance to give that time and energy to something or someone else.

I think it would be even more difficult if I were more powerful. How to choose?

[Crucifer]

And if you're powerful, there are more choices, so it's harder to choose.

[axordil]

Thus: with great power comes great responsibility. Thank you, Stan Lee.

[WampusCat]

Perhaps with great power comes great guilt for all the kittens unrescued, all the disasters unaverted.