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{"id":7349,"date":"2012-04-17T08:33:40","date_gmt":"2012-04-17T12:33:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=7349"},"modified":"2012-04-17T08:33:40","modified_gmt":"2012-04-17T12:33:40","slug":"doctor-who-the-time-meddler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/04\/doctor-who-the-time-meddler.html","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who: The Time Meddler"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ The Doctor Who episode \u201cThe Time Meddler<\/a> $\"\"$ \u201d concluded the second season in the show\u2019s history, and it represented another major first: in it, the Doctor and his companions encountered another time traveler, who it is eventually discovered has a TARDIS of his own and is from the Doctor\u2019s own world. Apart from the Doctor and his granddaughter Susan, we had never met any others of the Doctor\u2019s people. When the Doctor looks at the TARDIS of the so-called \u201cmeddling monk\u201d (we never learn his name), he recognizes it as a \u201cMark IV\u201d and thus from about 60 years later in history than his own.<\/p>\n

This episode brought to the fore the puzzles and paradoxes of time travel in a way that no other episode had before. While the Doctor had emphasized that he and his companions \u201ccannot\u201d meddle with the course of history, it was not clear whether it was impossible, illegal, or merely risky. In \u201cThe Time Meddler\u201d the the monk\u2019s plan is to use an atomic weapon to destroy the Viking navy in the 11th century, allowing King Harold free then to defeat William the Conqueror (who presumably might not have been called that, had the monk been successful). Vicki and Stephen ponder what would happen if he were successful \u2013 presumably all subsequent history would change, as would the history books, and even their own memories of having learned the history a different way.<\/p>\n

The Doctor mentions not changing the course of history as the \u201cfirst rule\u201d of time travel, and the monk replies by asking \u201cAnd who made that rule?\u201d The question is not answered in the episode. The monk\u2019s aim is to improve history, and in his diary it turns out that he had discussed the possibility of flying machines with Leonardo Da Vinci. The monk himself also claims to have helped with the building of Stonehenge. In the end, the Doctor leaves him marooned, much as later in the show\u2019s history the time lords would leave the Doctor marooned.<\/p>\n

The Doctor\u2019s policy of non-meddling, if he ever truly had one, was short lived. But the Doctor\u2019s own actions always had an impact, even when in the first episode he whisked two human beings away from their time. The fact that he returned them did not mean they were unchanged by their experience. And eventually, the Doctor seems to evolve into a full-fledged overt meddler himself, being punished by the time lords for precisely that. And so the question of what, if anything, makes the Doctor\u2019s meddling fundamentally different from the monk\u2019s is a good discussion question connected with this episode.<\/p>\n

There is some direct religious imagery in the episode, including most obviously other time lord\u2019s disguise as a monk and his inhabiting an abandoned monastery. (The monk at one point lends the Doctor a monk\u2019s cloak and says it suits him). The local Saxons use the saluation \u201cGod be with you.\u201d But the whole notion of the possibility of more advanced beings with time travel capability meddling in human history, dressed in one instance in religious garb, nicely highlights that the story itself can be viewed as having religious overtones. Later episodes would address the subject of the Gallifreyans, including but not limited to the Doctor and his traveling companions, being viewed as gods by others (see for instance \u201cThe Myth Makers\u201d and \u201cThe Face of Evil\u201d).<\/p>\n

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