Doctor Who and the Breath of Life

Continuing the look at creation myths and stories, here's one from last Saturday's episode of Doctor Who entitled The Doctor's Daughter.

"In the Beginning, the Great One breathed life into the universe. And then She looked at what She'd done and She sighed...That Sigh [was called]... the Beginning of Time and was kept as the Source...Whoever holds the Source controls the destiny of this planet."

The Source was mystically known as the Breath of Life. But the Doctor (in a scientific rant) labelled it a Bubble of Gases.

The episode was set on a planet where the inhabitants had "mythologised their entire history" and where a war, which they said had been waging for generations, had only been waging for seven days.

"Your whole history is just Chinese whispers getting more and more distorted as it is passed on," said the Doctor - before releasing the Breath of Life and creating a Whole New World, in his usual breezy manner.

Related Posts

Legends of the Fall - Part Two

The Multiverse in Comics

Pandora's Box

The Creation of Man

The Last Enemy

I only just saw the conclusion of the TV drama The Last Enemy yesterday evening.

In a case of art imitating life, The Last Enemy presented a disturbing vision of Britain which is looming close around the corner.

In the drama, ID cards were issued to the general public following a terrorist incident at Victoria station which killed over 200 people.

The ID cards were said to be issued as a means of increasing security and fighting terror but they were really being used to control and suppress the general public.

The ID cards were linked to a database called TIA which had detailed information about an individual's health, finances, biometric data, genes, education, job, underwear, what they had for breakfast etc.

Along with the Big-Brother-gone-mad scenario, there was also assassinated microbiologists, suicide and genetic tagging. It was more like a fly-on-the-wall documentary than a television drama, and so all the more chilling.

Perhaps because the UK media appears to be somewhat gagged by the Government of late, the BBC are resorting to sneaking the real news into their television dramas.

Or maybe the Powers That Be (whoever they might be) are preparing us for our bleak future through the medium of television drama.

In any case, The Last Enemy appears to be us.

As stated in the documentary, Ludicrous Diversion (2006), “they are using our fear for our safety to restrict our liberty. And they are using their false promises of security to erode our privacy...The terrorists cannot take away our freedom or change our way of life. Only our own elected leaders can do that. And they are.”

Related Link

http://www.bbc.co.uk/drama/lastenemy/

Just the Three of Us: Charles, Camilla and Di

A furtive glance at Prince Charles' bizarre triangle of lurve:

The TV movie, Whatever Love Means, implied that it was Camilla (the “crocodile wife” as Mohamed Al Fayed affectionately calls her) who selected Diana as the ideal wife for Prince Charles believing that the young girl would be dutiful, silent and turn a blind eye to their clandestine relationship. (“We’ve got to find you a wife, Charles!”)

It’s also been said that during their marriage, Camilla would give Diana advice about how to handle Prince Charles.

I’ve no idea whether Camilla did choose Diana for Prince Charles in reality or whether this twist was invented solely for dramatic purposes for the film.

But it does give an extra significance to Diana’s famous: “There were three of us in that marriage."

In his equally famous speech at Princess Diana’s funeral, her brother, (the other Charles) said, "It is a point to remember that of all the ironies about Diana, perhaps the greatest was this - a girl given the name of the ancient goddess of hunting was, in the end, the most hunted person of the modern age."

Here's another irony. In Roman mythology, Camilla, the Virgin Queen of the Volscians in ancient Italy, was a favourite of the Goddess Diana.

The goddess Diana says of Camilla, “There is not a girl in Italy that I love more, and have loved ever since she was a child.” (The Aeneid for Boys and Girls)

During her life, Camilla (the Virgin Warrior, not the “crocodile wife”) rejected the idea of marriage in favour of remaining faithful to the goddess Diana.

Don't They Know It's the End of the World

Last night, there was a documentary on TV about a ten day End of the World Bus Tour.

A group of tourists convinced that the End is Nigh embarked on a tour of Israel, got baptised near the River Jordan and - the highlight for many - paid a visit to the Valley of Armageddon.

Based on a very literal interpretation of the Book of Revelation, they are convinced within the next five to ten years, Jesus/God is going to appear in the sky in Israel.

Apparently Man and Satan will rise up against God in a Phillip Pullman-esque fashion and embark in a futile war which God will inevitably win.

Before the apocalpyse takes place, all the good Christians will vanish in the Rapture while the rest of the world is subjected to the wrath of God.

One tourist likened the Rapture to the scene at the end of The Matrix where Neo rises up into the sky. "I could be wrong," he said. "I could be right."

They also had a disturbing attitude towards those they considered to be God's enemies - those they believe want to annihilate Israel.

When they weren't prophesising the End of the World with a disturbing relish, the tourists seemed to be very pleasant, amicable, lucid and of sound mind which makes it even weirder.

The film-maker, David Clews, was a sceptic and told them that their vision of God seemed divisive and egotistical.

"I guess it does seem egotistical," said one lady. "But he's God so I guess he can be."

These End of the World visions remind me a bit of that scene in the film The Birds where the townspeople are all putting forward theories to explain why the birds are attacking them.

Among them there is the scientific sceptic bird expert who doesn't believe that birds would attack anybody despite evidence to the contrary. Then there is the drunk in the corner joyfully declaring that it's the end of the world and quoting Bible passages.

There is also the hysterical mother who blames the blonde stranger who she thinks started it all. ("Where are you from? Who sent you? You're evil!" etc. etc.)

It's not just a portion of Christians that the believe the end of the world is nigh for humanity. Many believe that the forces of Nature will prove to be our undoing. Others believe that the end will be caused by an elite race of aliens/reptiles/secret societies who will enslave and destroy humanity.

Many seem to think we deserve the End either because they believe that we are evil or they think we are too dumb/sheeplike/easily manipulated to see what is really going on.

Although diverse groups of people are interpreting their vision of the End of the World from very different perspectives, they are all basically singing from the same hymn sheet united in a Chorus of Doooooooooommmmm.

Tonight there is a Cutting Edge documentary on Channel 4 called Baby Bible Bashers about pint-sized 8 year old preachers. You couldn't dream it up.

Related Post

Portraits of the Beast