Philosopher Who (Midterm post 1)

The Timelord's Glasses (H01)

I don't know how many of you have heard of Doctor Who or if any of you watch it ( I really hope you do though). Doctor Who isn't just a show that lets you travel through time and help the Doctor save the planet, oh no, it' way more. It's thought-provoking and ground breaking. Every episode makes you question something you've never thought to question before. One of it's most common and repetitive themes is the way we see things. Almost every time the Doctor gets a new companion they always tell him he looks human to which he replies: "No, you look Time Lord." It's a subtle message but it is there, always. That's the whole point of the show, to get the audience to see everything in a different light.

"It was a better life. And I don't mean all the travelling and seeing aliens and spaceships and things. That don't matter. The Doctor showed me a better way of living your life."

In almost every episode you are introduce to a new race or a new world. Each very different in their own way. The Doctor encounters prejudice towards many of these races and, every now and then, is the source of that prejudice. In those cases his companions are the accepting ones. One great example is the Dalek race. The Daleks exterminated the Time Lords in the Time War, leaving the Doctor as the sole survivor. Whenever he encounters a Dalek he is overcome by hatred for them often forgetting that his people killed many Daleks too. Not to side track into the history of Doctor who, here. My point is that the show tries to teach, at the very least, acceptance. At it's best it teaches understanding.

In Philosophy that is something that most of us try to do. We all search for an understanding and derive our own beliefs from those understandings. We realize that no two people believe the same exact thing. We realize that one belief makes us no better or worse than the other. That's what shows like Doctor Who try to teach. Underneath the entertainment and adventure each episode has a lesson. Strange how a show about aliens and time travel can be so relevant to our lives. 

T.A.R.D.I.S Out.