I recommend checking their (honestly amazing) work by yourself and in no way trying to interfere with their philosophical interpretations
This topic is perhaps even more ‘niche’ than theirs… All in all, I want to commit to writing at least 1 post a week here in which I will try to look at our favourite show from the anarchist position. I’m not saying that every Doctor is anarchist, but many of them are. I will try to give examples when Doctor Who feels very anarchist (spoiler - the first one disscused will be The War Games) and… not so much I love Jodie, 13th is my Doctor, as I already said in other threads, but Kerblam! is got to be properly analysed
So… Thank you! My next post is hopefully coming next week! Feel free to join me in this extremely anarchist interpretation of Doctor Who.
Personally I love the fact that I’m able to merge two of my passions: anarchism (I even had a school project that explored anarchist themes in works by Franz Kafka, Albert Camus and Leo Tolstoy, now I’m reading works by one of the founders of anarcho-feminism Emma Goldman) and Doctor Who (I don’t think I need to explain that too lol)
i would love to hear more about this… kerblam! is so politically terrible to me (i lean underinformed communist) that it makes the episode irredeemable, i would be interested to hear an anarchist analysis.
I find it to be a very politically confused story that fails to take any sort of stance in the end. It doesn’t seem to definitively say the Kerblam corporation is bad, but doesn’t really say it’s good either. They set up most of it as the boss man is the bad guy only to turn away from that, having him trying to solve all this and help. Charlie is shown as both right in that it will end up with fewer and fewer people able to find work the way it’s going and wrong in that he’s going to kill thousands of innocent people at the same time. “The system” seems to mainly refer to the computer system of Kerblam, which the Doctor says isn’t the problem, yet we see it decide to kill an innocent person to teach Charlie a lesson. They show that they will change things in a way that will allow more people to work, but show nothing to say that their conditions there will improve. There’s so much conflicting messaging throughout where it seems to be trying to have its cake and eat it too.
I love this thread. What a great idea, @VoRus1! I’ll certainly look forward to your analysis, to seeing the evolving conversation and to making my own contributions.
I agree that anarchism is a trait of the Doctors. As with philosophical leanings towards various schools that I explore in my other thread, some incarnations lean more heavily that way than others… but it’s always there to some degree. The second Doctor is an excellent starting point as he is, in my humble opinion, one of the most anarchistic and anarchic Doctors we have seen so far.
I shall also be interested to read your thoughts on Kerblam!. I wouldn’t claim that the story is perfect. Like @TARDIS32, I agree it comes across as confused in its messaging. That said, I also think it’s misunderstood and underrated. Specifically, the main story seems to me to be about the Doctor recognising the emergence of a new sentient AI and defending this emergent intelligence. This is a laudable aim in itself. The AI system, however, is far from perfect and does cause death. There’s plenty of mileage to be had here (end justifying the means etc. - which it absolutely doesn’t where Kira Arlo’s death is concerned). It is a shame that the story can also be read as a defence of huge corporations and the commodification of life is frustrating however. I focus more on the AI storyline which, to me, seems very Doctorish.
I want to say that I don’t hate Kerblam! It’s a good episode with solid directing and writing… But… There is something we can talk about in that episode
I don’t hate it at all. I enjoy it and there is some really good stuff in there, but some of it is skated over, some of it is oddly presented and the overriding apparent message (I don’t believe it’s what was intended, but it’s what comes across) is contrary to what we’d expect from the Doctor or the show. It’s ripe for analysis.
It seems logical to begin an anarchist analysis of Doctor Who with The War Games, as this episode is as anti-authoritarian as it is anti-war. Our heroes find themselves at the centre of a vast conspiracy by an unnamed alien race who are abducting human soldiers from Earth to participate in said war games. All of this is overseen by the enigmatic War Chief, who is only the third renegade Time Lord (after the Doctor himself and the Monk) to appear in the show. The authority figures immediately emerge as the main antagonists. To combat them, the Doctor and companions team up with a resistance force that is fairly inclusive and includes strong-willed individuals from across time (in my opinion, this side of the story was sadly severely cut in the new colourisation).
In this episode the Time Lords are equally antagonistic authority figures to the Doctor and companions. They use their powers to erase the memories of Jamie and Zoe in what is quite possibly the most tragic companion departure in the classic show. The Time Lords’ decision to forcibly change the Doctor’s appearance is an obvious example of state abuse. Although they helped to right the wrongs of the War Lord, they still showed a complete lack of empathy.
The War Games is a truly terrifying episode, as the Doctor encounters resistance from almost all sides of the conflict.
