10 Things Doctor Who Should Never Have Got Away With
5. Let's Punch Hitler
When Doctor Who began in 1963, Adolf Hitler had only been dead for 18 years. To put that into perspective, its now 18 years since Princess Diana died. World War II was very much in the present for this generation, so its unsurprising that it took until 1989 before the TARDIS landed there (and even then, a long way from any Nazis). When the show returned, it wasted no time in revisiting the era, but The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances and Victory of the Daleks are similarly short of Germans. If youre going to break a taboo, break it in style. 2011 brought an episode startlingly entitled Lets Kill Hitler which featured a headstrong TARDIS hijacker who decided on a whim to seek out the dictator and shoot him. It doesnt quite work out that way (he shoots her), but thats not what makes the episode shocking. Writer Steven Moffat chooses to make Adolf the subject of ridicule. Rather than scaring the children by barking orders and sending our heroes to their deaths, this version of Hitler is punched in the face by Rory ("Shut up, Hitler!") before being shoved into a cupboard and promptly disappearing from the story. In another classic piece of Moffat misdirection, the episode isnt about Hitler at all. Too soon? Some thought so, but the episode proved very popular nonetheless. After all, what better way to deal with one of the most evil men in history than by laughing at him? Reducing him to a comic also-ran is smart and fitting.
I teach literature of all types but when I write, it tends to involve "Doctor Who". My fiction can be found in unofficial anthology "Seasons of War"; my non-fiction in the "You and Who" books as well as the forthcoming "Hating to Love" and "Blake's Heaven".
