Doctor Who?
I like Dr. Who.
As you know I’m a bit of a Sci-Fi fan. When I saw the first commercials for the new Dr. Who series, I waited with great anticipation for the premier .
Instantly recognizable to anyone who saw the original series was the trademark music and sound effects. It was like being thrown back in time twenty years and gave me an instant nostalgic flashback. Thankfully, the “resurrectors” of this cult icon were smart and left well enough alone here.
What I really like about science fiction is it’s ability to deal with current real life situations and social problems and clothe them in the otherworldly. (The current super villains on Stargate just happen to be Muslim Jihadists, but that’s for another blog.)
The most recent episode of Dr. Who has The Doctor and his current companion (he always takes someone along for the ride) 5 billion years in the future on a planet called New Earth. In this future humans have reached out and colonized other planets but they are still susceptible to a multitude of diseases. Visiting a hospital he finds that all these medical problems now have - miraculously and mysteriously - fast healing treatments.
After some investigating The Doctor finds that the “intensive care unit” in this particular hospital has thousands and thousands of people being kept in little eerily green lit closets. All these “patients” are suffering from every single known disease and are somehow providing cures for the rich through their suffering. We come to find out that the staff has “grown” these people from tissue, doesn’t believe them to be “real” people, refers to them as “the flesh” and is callously willing to incinerate any of them that starts to show some inkling of consciousness.
When they all get loose their contagious touch means instant death. And, being grown in a closet all their lives, all they want to do is hug everybody! So the excitement is generated by running away from the mass of “zombies”.
Of course The Doctor is able to make everything right. The evil staff are either killed or arrested and all the infected people are cured.
Now comes the uncomfortable part, the real world comparison.
I’m sure the writers of this episode of Dr. Who were drawing on the use and destruction of embryonic cells in research today. The “flesh” that provides the cure for the “real” people is an obvious comparison. How the “flesh” is treated and viewed by the researchers dismisses totally the fact that they too are human, just like in the real world today.
The biggest difference is that in science fiction they got actual cures from these “patients” but in the real world we have yet to even have a hint that embryonic stem cells (aka baby humans) have anything to contribute to medical treatments. Adult stem cells, umbilical cord cells have both already shown that they are useful but some researchers just keep wanting to kill the “flesh” to try and get their cures!
Doctor Who rigorously condemned the use and mistreatment of innocent life just to improve the conditions of the “real” people. I loved that.
The creepiest thing about the episode though was the staff.
They were all cats!
As you know I’m a bit of a Sci-Fi fan. When I saw the first commercials for the new Dr. Who series, I waited with great anticipation for the premier .
Instantly recognizable to anyone who saw the original series was the trademark music and sound effects. It was like being thrown back in time twenty years and gave me an instant nostalgic flashback. Thankfully, the “resurrectors” of this cult icon were smart and left well enough alone here.
What I really like about science fiction is it’s ability to deal with current real life situations and social problems and clothe them in the otherworldly. (The current super villains on Stargate just happen to be Muslim Jihadists, but that’s for another blog.)
The most recent episode of Dr. Who has The Doctor and his current companion (he always takes someone along for the ride) 5 billion years in the future on a planet called New Earth. In this future humans have reached out and colonized other planets but they are still susceptible to a multitude of diseases. Visiting a hospital he finds that all these medical problems now have - miraculously and mysteriously - fast healing treatments.
After some investigating The Doctor finds that the “intensive care unit” in this particular hospital has thousands and thousands of people being kept in little eerily green lit closets. All these “patients” are suffering from every single known disease and are somehow providing cures for the rich through their suffering. We come to find out that the staff has “grown” these people from tissue, doesn’t believe them to be “real” people, refers to them as “the flesh” and is callously willing to incinerate any of them that starts to show some inkling of consciousness.
When they all get loose their contagious touch means instant death. And, being grown in a closet all their lives, all they want to do is hug everybody! So the excitement is generated by running away from the mass of “zombies”.
Of course The Doctor is able to make everything right. The evil staff are either killed or arrested and all the infected people are cured.
Now comes the uncomfortable part, the real world comparison.
I’m sure the writers of this episode of Dr. Who were drawing on the use and destruction of embryonic cells in research today. The “flesh” that provides the cure for the “real” people is an obvious comparison. How the “flesh” is treated and viewed by the researchers dismisses totally the fact that they too are human, just like in the real world today.
The biggest difference is that in science fiction they got actual cures from these “patients” but in the real world we have yet to even have a hint that embryonic stem cells (aka baby humans) have anything to contribute to medical treatments. Adult stem cells, umbilical cord cells have both already shown that they are useful but some researchers just keep wanting to kill the “flesh” to try and get their cures!
Doctor Who rigorously condemned the use and mistreatment of innocent life just to improve the conditions of the “real” people. I loved that.
The creepiest thing about the episode though was the staff.
They were all cats!
posted by Richard Ammons at 4:30 PM
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