Doctor Who, The Ood, and the Exodus.

Back to the blogosphere after a week at Spring Harvest, of which more later this week.

Intrigued by the fact that the last 2 episodes of Doctor Who have ended with him being installed as a minor deity by first a family from Pompeii, then a race of squid-faced slaves whom he helped to free. Having watched a cartoon Moses in 'The Prince of Egypt' in the afternoon with my kids, it was rather weird to then see the Exodus story retold on iPlayer 2000 years in the future on another planet. Russell T. Davies has clearly been reading his Bible. Again.

I didn't realise that Saturday was the Jewish Passover festival until Cranmer reminded me. Doctor Who broadcast at just about the time - sunset on Saturday 19th April - that the Passover festival began, and retelling the story for a sci fi audience. Very clever. As far as I can see nobody else in the blogosphere has picked this up, but it's an incredibly subtle bit of scripting.

Add to that the 'rapture' at the end of episode 1 (and there probably are 1m Londoners who want their surplus body fat to just lift off into space), and the strong religious current in Doctor Who is picking up where it left off at the end of the last series. Add to that the Satan Pit - the previous Ood outing where the Doctor comes face to face with the Devil - and it's almost worth scrapping your weekly bible studies and sitting down to watch Dr. Who instead.

To quote the Times reviewer at the weekend: It's curious, in this supposedly godless age, how much religious imagery and supernatural longing finds its way into mainstream entertainment.