6. "I Remember The Original Between You And Me What Really Happened..."
In the Easter special Planet Of The Dead, the Tenth Doctor complains that the movable Christian feast isn't his favourite festive time of the year before implying that the first Easter (in the Christian sense) didn't happen the way tradition records it. Queue furious complaints from some quarters that this was an unnecessary attack on the Christian belief in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Some cited Russell T Davies' open atheism and even claimed there was a hidden agenda in play. The old wounds reopened when in last year's Christmas special, Father Christmas was allowed to be real for fear of dashing childhood dreams. Does the show treat religious beliefs disrespectfully by comparison? Of course there isn't a singular historical record of the first Easter, only multiple religious interpretations and the Doctor doesn't actually say what "really" happened, leaving it completely open-ended. At least Christians can take heart that in the Doctor Who universe there is a historical Jesus, since the Doctor was apparently there at his birth too (Voyage Of The Damned).
Paul Driscoll is a freelance writer and author across a range of subjects from Cult TV to religion and social policy. He is a passionate Doctor Who fan and January 2017 will see the publication of his first extended study of the series (based on Toby Whithouse's series six episode, The God Complex) in the critically acclaimed Black Archive range by Obverse Books. He is a regular writer for the fan site Doctor Who Worldwide and has contributed several essays to Watching Books' You and Who range. Recently he has branched out into fiction writing, with two short stories in the charity Doctor Who anthology Seasons of War (Chinbeard Books). Paul's work will also feature in the forthcoming Iris Wildthyme collection (A Clockwork Iris, Obverse Books) and Chinbeard Books' collection of drabbles, A Time Lord for Change.
