"DEEP BREATH", DOCTOR WHO
Take a deep breath and jump.......into a world of disorder and disorientation. This is a viewpoint that turns things upside down in freefall; the narrative is jumbled, the tardis is “an egg”, the “government is a dinosaur” (!) or the dinosaur is a "sexy lady",”men are monkeys”(!),the cab driver is a pet of its horse, Clara is a boy, the usual meaningful questions are aimless ramblings, the young heroic doctor is an old senile fool.
“Its all gone wrong”, says the Doctor, but “we mustn’t
prejudge, this is not a day for jumping to conclusions”, says Madame Vastra,
guiding us through. It is a day for opening up though. The doctor admits to his
loneliness, Jenny opens up to her
lesbian love, Clara opens to her weakness, the android opens to its “dreams”,
and we as audience open up to accept the new Doctor Who.
This is a different viewpoint of Good and Evil, not
adversarial, but mixed up and connected. We are presented with the “devilry” or
“devilment” of androids who are striving to become human instead of machines,
so their cause seems just. They are motivated by the very human image of a “promised
land”, whether you call it heaven, paradise or nirvana, or even Mount Olympus.They want the best, though their methods might be their worst.
In contrast, the Doctor appears evil in abandoning Clara and
destroying the android. In fact, that abandonment enables her to find her own
strengths without him. She is growing up, released from her dependency on him
as omnipotent hero. As a character, he is moving off centre. Now the rescuing heroes are what you least expect; a female
lizard (Vastra), a female serving maid (Jenny) and an oddly formed alien
(Strax); a strange threesome.
In the struggle between machine and human in the android, it’s
the human who wins. Defying his programming to be a machine that survives at
all costs, it takes the ultimate step in suicidal self sacrifice that leads to the
imaged landscape of an afterlife in the “promised land”, an image peculiar to
human consciousness. So it is transported by altruism to its goal in the
aspiration to be human.
Struggling with her image of “heroism”, Clara fails to
recognise the Doctor in his current form. “I dont know who the Doctor is
anymore”. So the Doctor remains unknown and the link between them is broken.
Unconscious, the doctor (hero/god) is “alone” but desperate to be known and
recognised by Clara. Its a very old story embedded in most myths and religions
about the nature of consciousness. Clara cannot see beyond the veil of appearances
until Madam Vastra shows her how to lift the veil and see with the eyes of the
heart, inwardly. To love another is to know another, deeply. Thats what
recognition is.
Love is a human emotion.”You look at me but you cant see me.
I am alone, cant see me.....look without looking”, says the Doctor. Hearing the
voice of the doctor she loved enables Clara to see beyond his current
manifestation and its frowning visage. Its an act of love that brings this
insight, from him to her and her to him. At last she recognises him as he
voices his concern for her, and she is conscious of his identity that goes
beyond appearances. He becomes known as Clara lovingly reflects. So the veil lifts and order is restored.
The images of ideals about heroes and paradise and love are
deep in the human psyche and the way round them is both perilous and
transforming. The same images drive us to Good and Evil, depending on
viewpoints that are always shifting. There is a new maturity here, not simple
heroes and villains but a nuanced mixture that needs new skills of navigation. Characters
are re-collecting to recollect in relationships that are old but different. They
struggle to know each other and the worlds they inhabit using the eyes of the
heart; insight. Love is the way in.
Next week its the Daleks turn with a Dalek who is “sick”
because it wants to be kind. That’s a real dilemma for a doctor who is
programmed to cure the sick!
Take a deep breath ....and BE; be very alive, be
conscious............and be creative.
..............................................................................
KATE BUSH (who paints her art in movement and sound.)
This week, Tuesday 28th August, Kate Bush returned to the stage after 35years absence, a conscious decision she made to be a full time mother for her son, despite a successful career.Its an inspiration for those of us who made similar decisions in our late 30's/early 40's, confirmation of the "road less often travelled by".She unfurled her body of work and the son of her body together on stage at Apollo,Hammersmith. Beauty.
http://www.theguardian.com/music/gallery/2014/aug/27/kate-bush-back-on-stage-after-35-years-in-pictures
