The Doctor and hope
Nov. 13th, 2011 11:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethThe Doctor travels with humans to get the sense of wonder, to see the spectacular in the universe, see it all through new eyes that see the shiny in it. I watch Doctor Who in hopes of seeing humans as the Doctor sees us. As something special, interesting, worth having hope for, worth having faith in. It's easy to write about how we suck, god knows, there's so much evidence. But sometimes I need stories about finding the strength in us and binding it together into something greater. The Doctor finds random people and decides to travel with them, and they all turn out to be heroes, given half a chance. He lands in some situation beyond everyone's understanding, surrounded by the darkest forces, and he takes whoever he finds there, however humble their abilities, and makes of them a solution. He's brilliant. It's a brilliant way to see people. That there's hope and wild chances and ridiculous miracles and you just go out there and meet people and do brilliant things with them.
And it's harder to write that way, to show all the dark places the show goes, the horrors petty and gross, the way humans can treat each other as meat, spare parts, human resources, or just plain things, and to counter that with hope and dreams and the telling of stories. And, yes, blowing things up real good, but those aren't the best bits. The best is finding another way, finding the person in the monsters shape, just plain talking the other guys out of it. Showing how someone raised or built to be a monster can just choose another way. It's harder, because it's not just problem problem problem all the time, it's showing a solution. I will never understand how that gets called childish. It's not adult to be dark. Every child knows the monsters are real. We just hope we'll grow up and know how to do something about it.
So, yeah, I read that stuff for class and I end up bouncing straight back to Doctor Who. Because I'd rather live in the hopeful places, thanks. Even if the other stuff is 'reality'.
And it's harder to write that way, to show all the dark places the show goes, the horrors petty and gross, the way humans can treat each other as meat, spare parts, human resources, or just plain things, and to counter that with hope and dreams and the telling of stories. And, yes, blowing things up real good, but those aren't the best bits. The best is finding another way, finding the person in the monsters shape, just plain talking the other guys out of it. Showing how someone raised or built to be a monster can just choose another way. It's harder, because it's not just problem problem problem all the time, it's showing a solution. I will never understand how that gets called childish. It's not adult to be dark. Every child knows the monsters are real. We just hope we'll grow up and know how to do something about it.
So, yeah, I read that stuff for class and I end up bouncing straight back to Doctor Who. Because I'd rather live in the hopeful places, thanks. Even if the other stuff is 'reality'.