As the new series of Doctor Who aired its first episode last night, it might be instructive to look at why it is so successful. And the simple fact is, whether consciously or unconsciously, the writers, including Russell T Davies, have rebirthed one of the earliest known psychic forms.
This all revolves around the character of Doctor Who himself. For instance, several things are peculiar about him. The first is his apparent amorality. Whilst he is always saving the world, his morals seem to be distant in terms of normal relationships.
This is particularly noticeable in his love life.
Or should I say, lack of it. Even when he got ‘close’ to Rose Tyler in a previous series, the only emotion was expressed between parallel universes, where any form of physical contact was impossible.
In this sense, the character is almost a ‘fetish’. And when we combine his amorality and distance with the actual things he does, his entire being fits into a simple storytelling device.
Doctor Who is, quite literally, a god.
Appearing human, but clearly not, he flits in and out of reality, and exists in time and space, armed with ‘magical’ weapons such as his sonic screwdriver, and traveling in his ‘magical’ chariot, or TARDIS.
However, we can even identify him more closely than this. For in myths throughout the ancient world, there is a specific god-character that is at the heart of the supernatural story.
This is the Hero.
From Hercules to Gilgamesh, from Osiris to King Arthur, from Quetzalcoatl to Beowulf, the Hero appears, completes a miraculous task, often involving vanquishing a monster, and saves, or changes, society for the better. The Dalek, it seems, is Grendel in tin foil.
Sometimes the Hero is also the Stranger, and in this form he has multiple adventures, forever remaining aloof from the society itself, thus always being the amoral, fetish-like outsider.
This symbolic form is even in the East.
Hindu Avatars such as Chrishna and Rama share similar characteristics. And this story-form is vital for understanding much of human psychology itself.
Through the work of mythologists such as Joseph Campbell, we know its absolute universality, and with Carl Jung devising his idea of a ‘collective unconscious’ populated by ‘archetypes’, the secret of the form is disclosed.
It is, in effect, a story of human aspiration.
Perhaps, even, the first story, with adaptations even stretching into the spiritual, particularly with the story of Christ, the stranger who came from God, and changed society through his heroic sacrifice.
Indeed, the story is so fundamental to our psyche that when placed in a fictional character-form, it seems to transcend its images or words, and connects deep within the inner mind, thus confirming it popularity.
But more than this, the story is timeless, as the Doctor is himself. And in this sense, it is psychic influence upon culture. And when we think of the heroes and monsters from psychical, Gothic, and other story forms, and the spin-off paranormal experiences that are then witnessed, the connection between culture and experience is confirmed.
© Anthony North, April 2008
