Hope by George Frederic Watts
Every time I see another news article about Artificial Intelligence my stomach drops and my throat catches. There’s something about this bold new world of tech innovation that not only disturbs me, but upsets me, on some visceral, instinctual level.
Andy Warhol once said he created the way he did, all those replicas of soup cans and commercial images, because he ‘wanted to become like a machine.’ Of course he betrayed himself — he created in different colors, in contrasts and contradictions. He was a human being in the end.
But point well taken. I’m no Warhol fan but when I read that I understood a bit more about the comment he was making on society - a society of mass production and unlimited automation. What does it mean to be a human being under such circumstances? Is there any room left for us - in our slowness and in our mistakes and in our humor and our love - on the factory floor? After all, the machine is faster, the machine is smarter.
I’m going to save the rest of my AI and technology thoughts for a future essay I’m in the midst of writing for paid subscribers, but suffice it to say, all of this got me thinking about the human being and what it means to be human. I had a whole podcast episode on this topic a while back, and in this week’s episode I honed in on Imagination, the unique and irreplaceable human capacity for it.
I started the episode with an excerpt from a Doctor Who episode (Age of Steel). In that episode a man is trying to avoid death. He’s terribly ill and terrified of grief and loss and mortality. He turns himself into a machine - a Cyberman - and he wants the rest of humanity to join him. No more death, no more loss or heartbreak.
DOCTOR: And imagination? What about that? The one thing that lead you here, imagination, you're killing it dead!
LUMIC: What is your name?
DOCTOR: I'm the Doctor.
LUMIC: A redundant title. Doctors need not exist. Cybermen never sicken.
DOCTOR: Yeah, but that's it. That's exactly the point! Oh, Lumic, you're a clever man. I'd call you a genius, except I'm in the room. But everything you've invented, you did to fight your sickness. And that's brilliant. That is so human. But once you get rid of sickness and mortality, then what's there to strive for, eh? The Cybermen won't advance. You'll just stop. You'll stay like this forever. A metal Earth with metal men and metal thoughts, lacking the one thing that makes this planet so alive. People. Ordinary, stupid, brilliant people.
LUMIC: You are proud of your emotions.
DOCTOR: Oh, yes.
LUMIC: Then tell me, Doctor. Have you known grief, and rage, and pain?
DOCTOR: Yes. Yes I have.
LUMIC: And they hurt?
DOCTOR: Oh, yes.
LUMIC: I could set you free. Would you not want that? A life without pain?
DOCTOR: You might as well kill me.
LUMIC: Then I take that option.
DOCTOR: It's not yours to take.
The Doctor’s response is brilliant and I think the Doctor is brilliant all round. If you think Doctor Who is just a strange, nerdy British show - you’re right - but you should watch it. David Tenant is far and away my favorite Doctor but you could start with the modern reboot (the 9th Doctor is pretty good, too) and go from there.
A few years ago I wrote about what Doctor Who taught me about the Saints. It’s sometimes a shockingly religious show. And most of all, it is a hopeful show. And it’s a show that teaches you to love the human heart, in all its imperfections.
I’m sharing that essay here in full — I hope you enjoy it!
What Doctor Who Taught Me About the Saints
In this essay, my commentary is based solely on the 10th Doctor’s Era. If you are new to the show, be aware that (to quote River Song) there are SPOILERS ahead!
Brief Backstory: Doctor Who is a British science-fiction drama produced by the BBC, initially airing in 1963. The current revival launched in 2005. The Doctor is a Time Lord, able to travel Time and Dimensions and Space. He also has the ability to regenerate, giving us a number of ‘different’ Doctors over the course of the show’s history.
The Doctor is a confounding figure. A man without a name (Doctor Who?), the last Time Lord, in love with life, in all its forms, with a particular fondness for the irrational, imaginative, brilliantly flawed human race. He’s saved the Earth more times than we can count, bending time and thwarting paradoxes and traveling between parallel worlds. He burned up a sun “just to say goodbye.” He wears 3D glasses and converse sneakers and blue suits. He’s funny and absurd and has a bit of a temper.
“The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life…You don’t just give up. You don’t just let things happen. You make a stand. You say ‘no.’ You have the guts to do what’s right, when everyone else just runs away.”
— Rose in “The Parting of Ways”
Perhaps strangest of all, he always has someone by his side, a perfectly mortal, perfectly normal human being. This human companion saves him from extremes, from setting worlds ablaze. They help him to laugh, and they save him from loneliness. And it is these human companions, these lucky chosen few, given the opportunity to travel galaxies and universes and Time Itself, who suffer the most. Their families are tortured and nearly killed. They watch friends die. They fall in love alone. They lose their memory. They watch as worlds and species get destroyed. What kind of a gig is this? Surely even Time and Space and all the charm of the Doctor couldn’t make up for all this suffering?
And yet each one of them hopes, prays, and dreams of traveling Time forever.
They can’t leave him - He’s Worth It.
The Doctor isn’t a perfect Christ-figure - he’s incredibly flawed. In many ways, he’s closer to a mad prophet, a lonely traveler preaching Goodness and Patience and Love in a Universe obsessed with Greed and Violence.
But in his ability to attract followers, to show them beauty beyond the Walls of this World, to literally Resurrect himself, to inspire self-sacrificial action, to spread messages of Love, and perhaps most importantly, to affirm the goodness and uniqueness of every single human soul, he is very much a Christ-like hero.
The Doctor is unapologetic in his defense of the Human Race. He is astounded by their innovation, their imagination, their capacity for love and sacrifice. He affirms the goodness of human life over and over again, consistently fighting against the persistent temptation of immortality and power.
“Some people live more in 20 years than others do in 80. It’s not the time that matters, it’s the person.”
— The Doctor, The Lazarus Experiment
I was sometimes shocked at the overtly religious overtones. In “The Last of the Time Lords,” the finale of season three, the world is, quite literally, saved by the power of prayer. The Doctor’s companion, Martha, travels the world, a wandering Apostle, spreading the story of The Doctor and his ability to save the world. She asks people to think - to pray - at a specific moment - connecting all that mental energy to a satellite network (aptly named “the Archangel Network”) in order to defeat the demonic Master. At this moment, the Doctor quite literally ascends into the air. He looks down on the Master - who has tortured and imprisoned him - and comes down to the ground, gathering him into his arms.
“I forgive you,” the Doctor tells him.
The Master: [rolls his eyes] Go on then, tell me.
Martha: I told a story. That's it. No guns, no bombs, just words. I told them about the Doctor. I told them my story, and I told them to pass it on, to tell everyone they could so that the whole world knew.
The Master: [mockingly] So faith and hope...That's your plan?
Martha: No. I gave them an instruction; I told them that if everyone thinks of one word at one specific time-
The Master: Nothing will happen! Prayer, is that your weapon?
Martha: -Right across the world! One word, just one thought, at one moment...But with fifteen satellites!
The Master: [freezes] What?
Jack: The Archangel Network.
Martha: A telepathic field, binding the whole human race together
- “Last of the Time Lords”
The Doctor is also insistent on Free Will. Even the most evil, war-like alien races (not to mention selfish, prideful human beings) deserve a choice - life or death, good or evil. He insists on the chance to choose. When people meet the Doctor, they become better people. They surprise themselves with the Choices they make. Who knew they were capable of so much self-sacrifice?
The Doctor (‘divine physician’) heals the people he touches. He brings them back to Light, Truth, and Love. Sometimes, he brings them to their deaths. But he always brings them, first, to a Choice. Very often, they choose Eternal Goodness over Temporal Time on Earth. In the Christmas special, “Voyage of the Damned,” Astrid sacrifices herself for the Doctor and is rewarded with an ‘eternity to explore the stars,’ just as she always hoped.
“He's like fire and ice and rage. He's like the night, and the storm in the heart of the sun. He's ancient and forever. He burns at the center of time and he can see the turn of the universe. And... he's wonderful.”
- Timothy Latimer, “The Family of Blood”
Donna: You are completely impossible.
The Doctor: Not impossible. Just… a bit unlikely.
— "The Doctor's Daughter"
His companions - his flawed, wonderful, all-too-human apostles - grow as people throughout their time with the Doctor. When we first meet Rose Tyler, she’s the daughter of a single Mom, working in a shop. Martha Jones is a medical student dealing with typical family dramas. Donna Noble is an office temp from Chiswick. (When we first meet Peter, he’s just a fisherman. When we first meet Matthew, he’s just a tax collector.)
As they travel the stars with the Doctor, all these women, these very, very ordinary women, come to display extraordinary acts of love, self-sacrifice, and bravery.
But it comes at a price.
Traveling with the Doctor isn’t easy. It’s mentally grueling, sometimes tragic. The damage to friends, relationships, and family is sometimes irreperable. There is violence and loss and unbelievable, deep-down sadness.
I remember when I used to read about the saints, I would cringe. It seems the moment these people gave up themselves up to God, they started to suffer. Disease, persecution, destroyed relationships with family, hated by their friends, living in poverty, and many times, the whole saga ends in martydrom - violent death. So why did they do it?
Doctor Who teaches us the power of Sacrifice. Doctor Who says that if you want to be a Hero, if you want to Save the World, you’re going to have to risk an awful lot. You’re going to lose a lot. You’re going to feel isolated and alone.
But you will also see Beauty like nothing you’ve ever seen before - whole other worlds, stars, distant, extraordinary, pockets of Time. You’ll experience the Drama of a Life well-lived, fully-lived. You will quite literally save the world. “You’re the most important woman in the whole universe,” The Doctor tells an unbelieving Donna. “But I’m just a temp,” she insists. He shakes his head no. “You’re the most important woman in the whole universe.”
The Doctor sees what other people can’t.
He sees the beauty, the potential, of ordinary, flawed human beings.
.The Doctor - in his own flawed nature - also displays saint-like attributes of sacrifice. In the episodes “Human Nature” and “The Family of Blood” the Doctor ‘hides’ himself in a human form, briefly forgetting his life as a Time Lord. As this ordinary man, John Smith, he is able to experience ordinary, human joys. He walks the hills, he teaches his students, he even falls in love. He’s given a glimpse of a perfectly normal future - marriage, children, a quiet death with his wife by his side. There is absolutely nothing wrong with this life. The Doctor sees the Beauty of it. He hopes for it, longs for it, and begins to weep when he realizes he has to give it all up to Save the World.
Sacrifice.
Being a Hero isn’t easy. Being a Saint isn’t easy.
The Doctor teaches us we are all, no matter how ordinary, ‘the most important person in the universe,’ capable of saving the world, capable of great heroic sacrifice.
And perhaps, most importantly, he teaches us never to travel Alone. That in all of Time and Space, the most important thing of all, ‘is a hand to hold.’
And I am with you, even to the End of the Age.
“There’s a lot of things you need to get across this universe. Warp drive… wormhole refractors… You know the thing you need most of all? You need a hand to hold.”
— The Doctor, "Fear Her"