Both Star Wars and Doctor Who trade on an excess of imagination. Creators can't realise far-off alien worlds and races without having imaginations. However, the way in which these environments, creatures, and societies are presented and used in stories clearly differs between the two franchises. Doctor Who regularly explores existential threats, whether it be the Cybermen trying to convert the human race or the Daleks trying to rid the universe of anything that isn't just like them. Doctor Who's back-catalogue is replete with stories where the very nature of humanity is being subverted: the ideas in these stories have teeth and they're out to get us. Whereas, in Star Wars, the bad guys are out to get us because we simply won't work hard and obey orders. The Empire wants to make slaves of us, which isn't pleasant to be sure, but it isn't the absolute end of us. The Empire is trying to hammer individuality out of existence whereas the Cybermen and Daleks are trying to hammer humanity out of existence; any attempt at conforming with these creatures would only lead to annihilation. With the Empire, it might be possible to wave a piece of paper and say that an accommodation had been found to guarantee peace in our time. Both franchises have approaches steeped in real-world history, and it's mostly the same historical ground. When Terry Nation thought of the Daleks, he was immersed in memories of the Nazis. When George Lucas thought of the Empire, he was recalling adventure serials where heroes fought Nazis or communists. In the case of Doctor Who, the second world war is being mined for inspiration on an up-close-and-personal basis. In the case of Star Wars, the same war and post-war period is being mined from a slightly more distant perspective. And it's the difference in perspective that counts. That's why Star Wars uses the faintly clinical trope of brave individualistic heroes striving against a monolithic foe, and that's why Doctor Who uses the more imaginative and more disturbing idea of people struggling personally against forces that want to change us into something "other" or forces that don't even want us to exist. In addition, Doctor Who is coming at these ideas using the traditions of the stage, where things have to be fleshed out carefully in dialogue and characterisation because most highly visual things can't be shown. Star Wars is coming at these ideas using the newer traditions of the film studio, sketching things out loosely with dialogue because the focus is showing the visuals: the fun is in the ride. A harsher critic might say Star Wars is nothing more than SFX spectacle thinly masking an inner emptiness. Even if a defender of Star Wars pointed out that the spectacle can be a perfectly valid reason for making and enjoying a film, it might be hard to argue against the claim that Doctor Who employs more imagination to tell its stories because it has no choice. In the final analysis, Doctor Who stories frequently dwell on what it means to be human, whilst Star Wars films tend to dwell on shooting things with blasters.
Mike has lived in the UK, Japan and the USA. Currently, he is based in Iowa with his wife and 2 young children. After working for many years as a writer and editor for a large corporation, he is now a freelancer. He has been fortunate enough to contribute to many books on Doctor Who over the last 20 years and is now concentrating on original sci-fi & fantasy short stories, with recent sales including Flame Tree, Uffda, and The Martian Wave. Also, look for his contribution on Blake's 7 to "You and Who Else", a charity anthology to be released later this year.
You can find him on Tumblr at https://www.tumblr.com/blog/culttvmike
