9 Adult Themes in the New Doctor Who – Is It Still a Kid’s Show?
3. Death
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Wow, beings die a lot in Doctor Who. I remember the first time I watched the new series in its entirety (not that long ago straight through on Netflix) and thinking that it was a lot darker than I initially expected it would be, especially for a family show. But when I took some time to really contemplate it, I realized that actually made sense. Human beings die a lot in real life. Its only recently death has been hidden from us. For thousands of years your family and friends died right in front of you, usually at a fairly young age, and you were forced to deal with it immediately and move on. You had no other choice. Its unnatural and kind of ridiculous for us to pretend death doesnt exist and to lie to children about it. I have several friends whove told me stories about how they were kept from the funerals of parents or grandparents when they were young and they feel scarred by the experience. They needed to be a part of those rituals so they could deal with those feelings and learn to accept what was happening. We do children a disservice by hiding this very important part of life from them. The Doctor has a terrible time dealing with death, as it is hard for him to understand, being almost immortal himself. When Rory finds his room at Winter Quay in Angels Take Manhattan, the Doctor is the only one of the group who turns away from elder Rory dying in bed. We go through these struggles ourselves the denial and the anger and the grief but we all eventually have to accept it and continue our own existence. I suspect that kids whove experienced the death of someone close to them find the Doctors fears and insecurities rather comforting as hes going through the same kinds of emotions they are, and thus validating what they are feeling.