{"id":597,"date":"2007-03-01T09:19:00","date_gmt":"2007-03-01T09:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gatocasa.com\/unimat\/2007\/03\/01\/darn-it-people-dont-fear-the-dark-like-they-used-to\/"},"modified":"2007-03-01T09:19:00","modified_gmt":"2007-03-01T09:19:00","slug":"darn-it-people-dont-fear-the-dark-like-they-used-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gatocasa.com\/unimat\/2007\/03\/01\/darn-it-people-dont-fear-the-dark-like-they-used-to\/","title":{"rendered":"Darn it, people don’t fear the dark like they used to"},"content":{"rendered":"

MSNBC.com has posted a Virgin Galactic video<\/a> showing a CGI simulation of one of their space tourism flights. Click the “Launch” button under “NBC Video”. This is quite cool and inspiring, but it’s not what I’m here to babble about.<\/p>\n

I recently caught up to “The Satan Pit” episode of Doctor Who<\/i>. When I’d seen the title earlier, I was hoping that they were speaking metaphorically, but (spoiler alert!) no, they weren’t kidding. This episode is the Doctor vs. Satan.<\/p>\n

Okay, the critter is portrayed as possibly the inspiration for the Christian Satan figure, but the writing is hopelessly muddled as to details. Satan is held in big ol’ iron chains (sigh) in a prison around a black hole. If he attempts to escape, his prison is designed to fall in. (As someone pointed out, so why didn’t the jailers finish the job? Yes, there are plausible answers to that, so why not give us one?) So he has to trick some humans into letting him go.<\/p>\n

Here’s what actually bugged me, though. Satan claims to have been held there since “before Time”. We know he’s the Prince of Lies, but the Doctor seems impressed and worried about that claim. We’ll set aside for a moment the fact that a black hole, construction of an orbital prison, and the existence of iron to make big ol’ chains out of, all require Time to have been running for a while; and we’ll examine that phrase.<\/p>\n

So, take a piece of paper. Draw a circle on it. Cut away everything outside the circle and burn the scraps or something. Now, take a marker and mark an “X” on that circle of paper, but outside the circle<\/i>. You say, “You’re speaking nonsense. What spot is on the circle, but outside it? There isn’t an ‘outside’.”<\/p>\n

You’re completely correct, and that’s exaclty as sensible as the phrase “before Time”. If “before” means anything, then Time is already running. You can’t have one without the other. If anyone on this TV show knows this, well, it’s gonna be the Doctor.<\/p>\n

While we’re at it, we get a bit of philosophy which rankles me as well: the unsettled Doctor tries to call scientific shenanigans on some of Satan’s religious claims, and gets the smug response: “Those are your<\/i> beliefs.” I know it’s attractively post-modern to think of science as just another religion, and it may even share a few characteristics, but as I’ve pointed out before, the great thing about science is that every “belief” can be potentially be fact-checked. A lot of it can be fact-checked by individuals in their homes, and the same verification received by anyone who makes the attempt. If you can prove that any widely-held scientific “belief” is wrong, and others can try your tests and get the same results, not only will your “new belief” be accepted, but you’ll probably get some fame out of the deal. On the other hand, a faith-based religion is something entirely different, by its nature something different to every individual and rather “un-checkable”, and most any clergyman you’ll meet is going to readily support that concept.<\/p>\n

The Doctor has had the opportunity to personally<\/i> fact-check a great deal of science in his centuries. It’s not just a belief system to him, and the writers did the character a disservice by allowing him to show even a moment’s doubt. <\/p>\n

Oh, and did you know that Satan can possess you if all you do is look at some scrawled, incoherent symbols on ancient pottery shards? Kids, be afraid of any and all sources of knowledge and learning! <\/p>\n

Okay, there’s a lot more nit-picking to be done, but I won’t waste your time. I’ll end with this, though. The one and only thing that made the episode worthwhile for me was the ending. In the climax, Satan lets the Doctor know that if the Doctor takes the necessary steps to destroy Satan, Rose will die. The Doctor agonizes about this horrible, awful dilemma a bit. (Perhaps I’m being unfair to this Doctor. Perhaps he isn’t so much insecure and indecisive, but just likes to overact in front of his enemies, to lull them into a false sense of security.) In the end, with great glee, he boldly does what needs to be done, gleefully informing Satan that Rose Tyler is no victim: this is a companion that can take care of herself. And, she does so, in dramatic fashion.<\/p>\n

Faith in one’s friends and loved ones: there’s a faith that the Doctor’s fact-checked quite a few times. He’s rarely been disappointed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MSNBC.com has posted a Virgin Galactic video showing a CGI simulation of one of their space tourism flights. Click the “Launch” button under “NBC Video”. This is quite cool and inspiring, but it’s not what I’m here to babble about. I recently caught up to “The Satan Pit” episode of Doctor Who. When I’d seen […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1xCb9-9D","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gatocasa.com\/unimat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gatocasa.com\/unimat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gatocasa.com\/unimat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gatocasa.com\/unimat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gatocasa.com\/unimat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=597"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gatocasa.com\/unimat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/597\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gatocasa.com\/unimat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=597"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gatocasa.com\/unimat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=597"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gatocasa.com\/unimat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=597"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}