@purofilion   Wait, what?  You mean we’re NOT all mad?  And, yes, along those lines — we could have an episode or more of people desperately trying to figure out why the Doctor has retreated into a Silent order of Gramdillion monks, spends all his days there in prayer or weeding the rocksour beds and pinchfoot vines, and won’t come out . . . th…[Read more]

@bluesqueakpip — I suppose we should be grateful that ACD was talked out of his original name for Holmes — Sherrinford Hope. God knows, what he would have called Mycroft.

@XtremeZ — forgot to say, best of luck on the Masters. I’m sure you’ll find it immensely rewarding and a lot of fun to boot….

@XtremeZ

Congratulations on trying for a Master’s degree. You’ll feel right at home here – several of our prominent contributors have postgraduate degrees and some are university lecturers. Personally, I’m an actor by trade, but I do have a Masters in Comparative Religion.

Religion can be studied from either an insider or an outsider…[Read more]

@XTremeZ—

Alright, let’s do this…

1- Is the doctor considered an atheist ?

Atheist to what exactly? To Rassilon? I’m presuming you’re meaning to Christian belief? But if he were truly religious it would surely be to the beliefs of his own people. Why would he be remotely invested in the set of creation myths of one daft wee subset (among…[Read more]

@XtremeZ

Because your spell checker is coming up with different words than the ones you mean.

In the 1997 novel ‘The Murder Game’, the Second Doctor offers up a quick prayer (probably on the ‘no atheists in foxholes’ principle) to ‘the gods of his own people’. We do know that Gallifreyans have gods; however we also know that Time Lords encourage…[Read more]

@XtremeZ – are you using a smartphone?

1. A belief in the devil (small d) doesn’t necessarily imply a belief in God, capital G. The Smith Doctor could simply mean that he now believes that the Beast was the being that is identified as Satan/The Devil in Christian belief. However, it doesn’t mean that he accepts any or all of the rest of…[Read more]

@XtremeZ

1. Earlier incarnations of the Doctor were definitely an atheist. The Smith Doctor also appeared thoroughly pissed off at God for not existing. The Capaldi Doctor? Not sure; there was such a religious undercurrent in Series 8 that I was beginning to wonder if Steven Moffat had been on an Alpha Course 😈 However, I’d still say…[Read more]

@Xtremez — Yes, I think that line is definitely open to interpretation. Just not sure it’s enough to sustain a ‘does that mean the Doc has found religion’ angle.

@phaseshift, @purofilion and @XTremeZ

That’s interesting and funny about Trek — and I suppose it’s a show that’s probably killed more ‘Gods’ than other. It also struck me that one of the interesting things about Firefly was that it was a SF show that directly engaged with religion and is set in a universe where Faith and superstition is still…[Read more]

@jimthefish @purofilion @XtremeZ

Jim, there was also the “we don’t need the Americans, they’ll only start praying” dig at Dubbya in Death in Heaven.

I do agree that it is slighly peculiar this desire to make Doctor Who a religious parable. Funny that we’ve been touching on the Norse elements that cropped up in Series 5 & 6 which we all saw as…[Read more]

@XtremeZ

I’ve taken the rogue html out of your post. It usually creeps in when you cut and paste from another website or occasionally application.

@purofilion—

I actually think the likes of MIT are probably a lot more relaxed and easy-going than the Academy on Gallifrey. I think Time Lords have been shown to be obsessed with pomp and ritual,…[Read more]

@Purofilion and @XtremeZ

The impression I’ve got over the years is that the Doctor was brought up very firmly within a class system. And the ‘academic’ class that he aspired to (the most prestigious role for one of his class) largely made Professor Richard Dawkins look like a devout Anglican. 😈

‘Religion’ is something for the lower…[Read more]