{"id":7193,"date":"2012-04-03T12:11:24","date_gmt":"2012-04-03T16:11:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=7193"},"modified":"2012-04-03T12:11:24","modified_gmt":"2012-04-03T16:11:24","slug":"doctor-who-dragonfire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/04\/doctor-who-dragonfire.html","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who: Dragonfire"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"The Doctor Who episode<\/a> \u201cDragonfire\u201d is probably the first Sylvester McCoy episode I saw \u2013 at least, it is one of the few that I remembered distinctly (if not entirely accurately). The episode introduces Ace and says farewell to Mel as the Doctor\u2019s companion. The amusing premise is that a criminal names Kane has been banished to a frozen world, known as \u201cIce World,\u201d which has since also become the location of a shopping mall, focusing presumably on frozen food, shakes, and other appropriately cold items.<\/p>\n

Kane has been there for 3,000 years, and his jailer is a mechanical dragon which resembles the alien from the Alien<\/em> movies, but which is in fact kind \u2013 if menacing and potentially deadly to those who seek to do it harm or to help Kane obtain the power source hidden in its head.<\/p>\n

While at least one person found the scene unamusing<\/a>, one of my favorite moments<\/a> in the episode is when the Doctor tries to distract a guard with a philosophical question, and it turns out the guard is relieved to finally have someone to talk to about such matters! Here\u2019s the relevant section<\/a>:<\/p>\n

GLITZ: There\u2019s only one guard. Do you think you can occupy him while I slip on board?<\/p>\n

DOCTOR: I\u2019ll do my best.<\/p>\n

GLITZ: Go on, then. Away you go.<\/p>\n

(The Doctor walks up to the guard.)<\/p>\n

DOCTOR: Excuse me. What\u2019s your attitude towards the nature of existence? For example, do you hold any strong theological opinions?<\/p>\n

GUARD: I think you\u2019ll find most educated people regard mythical convictions as fundamentally animistic.<\/p>\n

DOCTOR: I see. That\u2019s a very interesting concept.<\/p>\n

GUARD: Personally, I find most experiences border on the existential.<\/p>\n

DOCTOR: Well, how do you reconcile that with the empirical critical belief that experience is at the root of all phenomena?<\/p>\n

GUARD: I think you\u2019ll find that a concept can be philosophically valid even if theologically meaningless.<\/p>\n

DOCTOR: So, what you\u2019re saying is that before Plato existed, someone had to have the idea of Plato.<\/p>\n

(Glitz slips into the docking bay.)<\/p>\n

GUARD: Oh, you\u2019ve no idea what a relief it is for me to have such a stimulating philosophical discussion. There are so few intellectuals about these days. Tell me, what do you think of the assertion that the semiotic thickness of a performed text varies according to the redundancy of auxiliary performance codes?<\/p>\n

DOCTOR: Yes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The discussion<\/a> veers into what might be viewed as pseudoscholarly gobbledygook, offered merely as a parody of intellectualism and philosophy (think the Sokal affair). The last phrase, however, is apparently lifted straight out of a pretentiously-worded academic work about Doctor Who<\/a>, a book that many of us academic fans may own or have read<\/a>, namely Doctor Who: The Unfolding Text<\/a>\"\"<\/em>. Without its context its meaning becomes more obscure, but the episode<\/a> intentionally parodies academic analysis of Doctor Who, even as it does some academically interesting things.<\/p>\n

Given my interests, I find myself wondering whether whether this is or is not the first time the Doctor uses the term \u201ctheological,\u201d and thus addresses theology explicitly<\/em>. Any thoughts or additional information on that?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Doctor Who episode \u201cDragonfire\u201d is probably the first Sylvester McCoy episode I saw \u2013 at least, it is one of the few that I remembered distinctly (if not entirely accurately). The episode introduces Ace and says farewell to Mel as the Doctor\u2019s companion. The amusing premise is that a criminal names Kane has been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133,74,80,101],"tags":[317,2765,2844,7318,9084,11056,12508],"class_list":["post-7193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doctor-who-science-fiction","category-philosophy","category-religion","category-theology","tag-academic","tag-doctor-who","tag-dragon","tag-metaphysics","tag-philosophy","tag-semiotics","tag-theology"],"yoast_head":"\nDoctor Who: Dragonfire<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Doctor Who episode "Dragonfire" is probably the first Sylvester McCoy episode I saw - at least, it is one of the few that I remembered distinctly (if\" \/>\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\/04\/doctor-who-dragonfire.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Doctor Who: Dragonfire\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Doctor Who episode "Dragonfire" is probably the first Sylvester McCoy episode I saw - at least, it is one of the few that I remembered distinctly (if\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/04\/doctor-who-dragonfire.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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