“The Resurrection Days Are Over”: Resurrection from Doctor Who to Torchwood

: In the Doctor Who mythos, resurrection takes two opposing forms, one quasi-messianic and utopian, and one profoundly nihilistic and atheistic. Doctor Who presents opportunities of rebirth which provide a return to previous life or a continuation of existence, usually by way of the temporal or dime...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Clarke, Jim (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: University of Saskatchewan [2015]
In: Journal of religion and popular culture
Year: 2015, Volume: 27, Issue: 1, Pages: 31-44
Further subjects:B Resurrection
B Television
B Torchwood
B Doctor Who
B Death
B Dystopia
B Science Fiction
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Description
Summary:: In the Doctor Who mythos, resurrection takes two opposing forms, one quasi-messianic and utopian, and one profoundly nihilistic and atheistic. Doctor Who presents opportunities of rebirth which provide a return to previous life or a continuation of existence, usually by way of the temporal or dimensional “erasing” of the fact of death. For the Doctor himself, resurrection by way of regeneration provides a discontinuous life, a resurrection which is neither continuation nor apotheosis. Resurrection in the spin-off series Torchwood, however, is seen to consistently fail, resulting in afterlives that are monstrous, fragile, and unnatural, involving fear and suffering on the part of those who experience not a return from or evasion of the finality of death, but instead experience a living death. For Captain Jack Harkness, resurrection is a strategy of eternal suffering, resulting not in apotheosis but in yearning for perpetually deferred death. In this article, I will suggest that the positivist narratives of Doctor Who propose a utopian existence in which wrongs, including death, can be reversed, thanks to the salvation capacities of the Doctor-Messiah. By contrast, Torchwood suggests a dystopian and nihilist existence in which not only is death inevitable, but salvation through a viable afterlife is impossible, indeed meaningless.
ISSN:1703-289X
Contains:Enthalten in: Journal of religion and popular culture
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3138/jrpc.27.1.2620