Doctor Who Series 11: 10 Huge Questions After 'The Battle Of Ranskoor Av Kolos'
7. Did The Episode Rip Off Star Wars?
Doctor Who has always felt very different from the George Lucas franchise, and not just because of the vast difference in budget. Religion, of the dualistic kind, features heavy in Lucas’s work with the concept of the force. Doctor Who tends to be quite dismissive of religion and even spirituality and finds the extraordinary in the ordinary. So it was quite a surprise to be introduced to a new faith, with its adherents having Jedi like powers. Like the Sith, the Jedi’s dark side counterparts, the Ux come in two – a master and an apprentice.
The Star Wars references didn’t stop there. Tim Shaw’s temple functions similarly to the Death Star, and few could have missed the similarities between Darth Vader and the Stenza, particularly when he struggles to breath without his mask and when he pulls out his plugs and roars before hunting for Graham and Ryan.
It’s not the only non-Who franchise referenced, there are shades of Alien with the ruined spaceships and Tim Shaw’s appearance on screen has a touch of Batman’s scarecrow about it, but it does seem to have been particularly influential. The Doctor might not harness the power of the force, but she’s certainly the most spiritually open of all the Doctors to date, representing a significant departure for the ethos of the series.