I blogged previously about the episode “The Bells of St. John,” but did not dive in detail into its metaphorical treatment of how technology has taken hold of our lives. The idea of souls being uploaded and trapped in a world wide web, and crying out for help, sounds less like Twitter specifically, as per Clara’s joke, and more like the entire internet. We are increasingly entangled and inseparable from our devices – and that isn’t an entirely negative thing. In most cases, we are not merely playing individual games, but are interacting with others, whether viewing their content on YouTube, or playing interactive games, or arguing with people on Facebook.
But we are also letting those people into our lives, and the control that Miss Kizlet exercised over people in the cafe illustrates the power of the internet to move people – for better or worse. People in a cafe may indeed be moved to a revolution and take to the streets as a result of something circulated on Twitter. And if the reason is a good one, we may rejoice. If it is misinformation, however, we feel manipulated.
All technology offers benefits and risks. What did you make of the exploration of those, largely at a symbolic level, in the Doctor Who episode “The Bells of St. John”?
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