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{"id":8765,"date":"2012-08-06T08:37:15","date_gmt":"2012-08-06T12:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=8765"},"modified":"2012-08-06T08:37:15","modified_gmt":"2012-08-06T12:37:15","slug":"doctor-who-the-mind-of-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/08\/doctor-who-the-mind-of-evil.html","title":{"rendered":"Doctor Who: The Mind of Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

$\"\"$ This Doctor Who episode from the Jon Pertwee era, \u201cThe Mind of Evil<\/a> $\"\"$ ,\u201d offers interesting explorations of religious themes, as well as some intriguing connections with (or perhaps disconnects from) more recent episodes.<\/p>\n

The Doctor and Jo Grant go to see a demonstration at a prison of a device called the Keller Machine, which supposedly removes \u201cevil impulses\u201d from a human being. The reference to \u201cevil impulses\u201d is reminiscent of the Rabbinic term yetzer ha-ra, and the episode raises the same question some rabbis did, namely whether the so-called \u201cevil impulse\u201d is not something necessary to human existence, and thus to be tamed rather than eliminated.<\/p>\n

As a result of a mishap, a test subject, Barnham, has all<\/em> his evil removed. When asked about Barnham\u2019s condition after undergoing the process in this extreme fashion, the reply is that he is now \u201can idiot or a saint\u201d \u2013 and that the distinction depends on one\u2019s perspective. The idea that a saint is an idiot \u2013 or that a seemingly idiotic person may be a saint \u2013 could be taken as an insult aimed at saints, or one aimed at society\u2019s perception of those who lack the selfishness, pride, anger, and other characteristics that may bring success or criminality \u2013 depending on one\u2019s perspective.<\/p>\n

Before discussing the ending of the episode, which returns us to these considerations, let me mention a few very interesting but passing details.<\/p>\n

First, the Doctor begins to say at one point when flustered that he has \u201cbeen a scientist for many thousands of\u2026\u201d Presumable the lowest unit of time that could be inserted is \u201cyears\u201d and this would make the Doctor much older than his current typically-offered figure of 900. Has the Doctor been lying about his age, or is this just a continuity error?<\/p>\n

The Keller Machine turns out to be the work of the Master, and to have within it an alien intelligence that feeds off of evil. It may thus try to overpower a potential victim by projecting a hallucination of their greatest fear. While later on he sees his various classic enemies, the first time the machine tries this on him, we find out what the Doctor\u2019s greatest fear is: he says that he once witnessed an entire world consumed by fire, and thus fire was what the machine projected. Presumably fire is not what the Doctor saw in the hotel room in \u201cThe God Complex\u201d but it is still interesting to compare how the idea of what the Doctor fears most may have evolved and changed over the course of the show\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

In this episode, we also find the Doctor to be proficient in a dialect of Chinese \u2013 and to have previously practiced it in conversation with Mao Tse Tung!<\/p>\n

When the Chinese diplomat to whom he is speaking offers a goodbye in his dialect, the Doctor replies with its equivalent in English, which is very interesting for those interested in religion on Doctor Who. The Doctor replies. \u201cMay God go with you also.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Doctor says at one point that \u201cIt pays to have a pure mind after all.\u201d This fits nicely the discovery that the machine \u2013 or better, the entity within it \u2013 is kept dormant by the presence of that innocent soul Barnham from whom all evil had been removed. But when the Doctor uses the machine to defeat the master, Barnham goes to his aid, allowing the Master to escape.<\/p>\n

This raises the classic question about pacifism: can pure unadulterated kindness ultimately prevail? Or does it take evil, in whatever small a measure, to effectively combat evil? The message seems to be that it is the Doctor\u2019s cunning which could have in theory beaten the Master, while sainthood simply leads to martyrdom.<\/p>\n

It is a profound question, I think, and so let me ask those reading this: Does it take evil to overcome evil?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"