Andrew Duffy

2/10/2017
U1 - Writing
On the Origin of Doctor Who

Citizens flooding from Aleppo; blockades keeping them trapped in the ruin of Syrias

once largest city. Are these barriers physical? Are there practical limitations to the worlds

rescue capabilities? Frankly, yes, however these limitations will never be reached. They will not

be reached because the motivation to save millions isnt present in the rest of the world. A world

that idolizes the rescue of individuals if someone else is doing the rescuing, but in this crisis,

there is no one else. In BBCs Doctor Who we see a different story. A man running from his

past and the ruin of a civilization he once called home, accepted with welcome arms by all of

Mankind across its entire timeline. Is this story of immigration different from the one present in

Syria?

In the cities of Gallifrey, the world Doctor left behind, flames brought an ancient

civilization to its knees. One man, a soldier who didnt fight, had the means to stop it all; and he

did. He knew if the war between his race and another species carried on the universe would

surely crumble underneath their feud. So, what did he do? He destroyed both sides of the

conflict. When a violent situation reaches a threshold of destruction so immense that someone is

willing to sacrifice everyone they ever knew to escape it whose conscience does the sacrifice

truly fall on?

His deed made him a refugee for the rest of his life. No longer could he return home to

his family or possessions that once gave him the motivation to get up in the morning. No, now he

was a traveler. Drifting in space and time until he came across a small dot in the universe known

to us as Earth.
 The Doctors fictional tale is paralleled by the refugee crisis currently plaguing the world.

In the beginning, there was a conflict that just kept escalating until the destruction of cities was

justifiable and, unfortunately, acted upon. However, instead of just one survivor, there are

millions of people running for their lives that tell the same heavily worn story; one of pain and

sacrifice, of loss and uncertainty. The TV show portrays the Doctor as someone who will do

anything for the people he holds dear because he needs them as much as they need him; a hero.

So why is it that in the news refugees fleeing Syria are portrayed as possible terrorists and

threats to national security?

This situation happened abruptly, and Syrias culture is so different from the standard

Western culture that when there was a need to relocate people from the Syrian culture a contact

zone as Pratt describes it was created in the media. With terrorist strike stories bringing in the

best ratings and with multiple European terrorist strikes building up public anxiety about

foreigners (particularly from the Middle East) the formula was ripe for hysteria. Of course, the

public dialogue about the situation would be discussed in terms of what threatens US citizens

instead of the other. A great tragedy of the current worldview is the selfishness in protecting

ones assets over providing aid to those who have no assets to begin with. The only impressions

of the people fleeing Syria US citizens are exposed to are the ones displaying them as poor and

in need, injured and not ready to assimilate into society. Well of course they look trashy; their

lives were smashed into the dirt when the powers that be sent predator missiles into their living

rooms. And of course, the average person isnt going to immediately say, Lets welcome them

all into our country! when you display these images in a time slot right after the headline

Terrorist strike at ____. and right before Islamic extremists take over ____ City.
 There is a reason Doctor Who has become an ironic ethnography of immigrants in the

modern age. In Doctor Who the immigrant is treated as a god, someone who can be trusted

because his intentions are clear; he lost everything and now wants to build his life back up. This

is ironic because now the world doesnt accept the stated intentions of foreigners. The Syrians

now turned refugees dont have the luxury of making their intentions known because the

Western world has decided their intentions for them. No lawyer, politician, or doctor is safe from

the assumption that every Muslim has a chance at being a member of ISIS. No one seems to care

that anyone from any religion can commit a terrorist attack, furthermore no one seems to mind

that the assumption that only Muslims commit terrorist attacks is cause for a higher chance that

someone who isnt Muslim can get away with one.

There is a second side to this coin. The exposure of westerners to foreign cultures is

explored countlessly throughout the Doctor Who series and unknown extravagance is idolized.

The characters in the show are aroused by the different; the unknown. Maybe its the lack of

consequence to their travels, maybe its just a clever plot device that keeps the show interesting.

But maybe there is something more. It isnt a crazy assertion that humans like new things, new

ways to do a task they do every day, new devices that change their treaded path. The shows

exploitation of change is symbolic of how humans need diversity in their life to keep things

interesting. Intrigue is something that is overshadowed by fear in the modern media contact zone.

The place where citizens of a certain lifestyle are supposed to be looking for new things to add to

their life is now smudged with pictures of dying children and warning labels to a threat that is

blown out of proportion. The kinds of sensational hogwash that are being given to the masses is

truly extraordinary.
 Doctor Who parallels that. The immigrants contact zone is shown in a very different

light. Every individual is soaking up the cultures from around the galaxy and using them to fulfill

the one life (or 12 if the subject is the Doctor) they were gifted. This is coupled with the ideal

version of the contact zone being portrayed in some areas of the Doctor Who universe. For

example, the Maldovar Market in the show represents a bastion of intergalactic solidarity. The

market is essentially a black-market settlement where countless races intermingle and exchange

goods and ideas. This notion of exchange is very important when talking about Pratts contact

zones, because the swapping of cultural descriptions is a key element in understanding other

cultures, very intuitively.

So, what then, is the fate of Syrians who never hurt their attackers nor incited violence

from them? Unfortunately, unlike the Doctor, an observer of this refugee phenomenon couldnt

possibly come up with an answer to this question. What is known is that unless the western

public changes its opinion about the other coming out of the Middle East there will be no

solidarity. Even in the geopolitical crimes being committed by various actors to incite violence

stop tomorrow, there will be no solidarity. Until the contact zone is cleaned up and taken away

from the filth that is being aired currently, it is impossible for someone who lives in America to

truly understand what it means to be from the Syrian culture.

As for Doctor Who, the notion that immigration can become something of a treat is yet

to be discovered. Of course, there have always been travelers in the world who want to see new

things and meet new people, but as far as unifying and understanding each other in all of the

diversity present, solidarity is unlikely. Moreover, when the contact zone between two cultures

inaccurately displays one or both cultures then issues arise as the impressions the two populaces
have of each other dont match up with reality. As Pratt mentions, the contact zone is an area of

discourse, and it is important that areas of discourse issue truth and not fantasy.