Doctor Who: The Awakening<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\""The Awakening" is another relatively short episode (by the classic series' standards, not by today's, when most episodes are roughly an hour long). In\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/01\/doctor-who-the-awakening.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Doctor Who: The Awakening\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\""The Awakening" is another relatively short episode (by the classic series' standards, not by today's, when most episodes are roughly an hour long). 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{"id":5800,"date":"2012-01-19T08:03:25","date_gmt":"2012-01-19T13:03:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=5800"},"modified":"2012-01-19T08:03:25","modified_gmt":"2012-01-19T13:03:25","slug":"doctor-who-the-awakening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/01\/doctor-who-the-awakening.html","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who: The Awakening"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ \u201cThe Awakening<\/a> $\"\"$ \u201d is another relatively short episode (by the classic series\u2019 standards, not by today\u2019s, when most episodes are roughly an hour long). In it, the Doctor, Tegan and Turlough go to visit Tegan\u2019s grandfather, and in the village discover that elaborate war games reenacting the time of the English Civil War are underway.<\/p>\n

The episode is entirely focused on the discovery, so typical in Doctor Who, that something which is thought to be superstition is entirely factual, but with an explanation in terms of aliens and \u201cscience\u201d (a category into which the episode\u2019s frequent references to \u201cpsychic energy\u201d are in fact difficult to place).<\/p>\n

The TARDIS materializes inside a church, and on the pulpit there is a unique depiction of man being pursued by the Devil. That image, it turns out, is of the Malus (sounds like \u201cmalice\u201d), a creature from local legend. It feeds off of people\u2019s fear and hatred, much as the entity in Star Trek\u2019s \u201c Day Of The Dove<\/a> $\"\"$ .\u201d This being, which was created to be sent in advance of an alien invasion force to create turmoil and destruction, is in fact there behind the church wall.<\/p>\n

By the end of the episode, one can say quite literally that \u201cMalice (pun intended) destroys a church.\u201d \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

As in \u201c The Daemons<\/a>\u201d and so many other episodes, the Doctor\u2019s dismissive attitude to local superstition seems to be entirely wrong. The legends, far from being silly nonsense, reflect actual experiences precisely recounted. This is the paradox of the treatment of religion, superstition and the supernatural in Doctor Who. It seems to be at the same time saying that such things are nonsense and that they are literally true but with a particular sort of explanation.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"