Bigger on the Inside: Christianity and Doctor Who ed. by Gregory Thornbury and Ned Bustard (review)

Over the course of its fifty-plus-year run, Doctor Who has yielded a legion of loyal fans and entranced many with extended ruminations on time travel, companionship, heroism, acceptance, and sacrifice. The show’s themes lend themselves well to critical studies in the sciences, religion, philosophy, sociology, and anthropology. Bigger on the Inside: Christianity and Doctor Who is the latest set of reflections on the television series. Musing from an episode or two of Doctor Who, each chapter explores the connections between the Doctor, his companions, series themes, and Christian theology.

The book explores many of the major facets of Christian theology, such as salvation, transformation, the sacraments, the problem of evil, prayer, temptation, the nature of time, suffering, and the nature of God. Authors reflect on their personal experience of watching the show and relating their experience to the Christian faith. In the chapter on baptism, the author reflects on the moment when a companion enters the Doctor’s ship, the TARDIS (an acronym for “Time and Relative Dimension in Space”). The TARDIS disguises itself as an old police call box commonly seen in the United Kingdom in the 1960s. Due to advanced technology, the TARDIS is “bigger on the inside.” As a companion enters the TARDIS, she or he almost always takes a moment to examine this peculiar vessel. Following this, the new companion traditionally exclaims: “It’s bigger on the inside!” The author describes this experience as almost baptismal in nature. When one converts to Christianity, they are initiated into the Christian community through the rite of baptism. Their life’s priorities and identity are now changed forever, much in the way entry into the TARDIS transforms a companion’s understanding of the natural universe.

Another chapter explores the topic of theodicy from an older episode entitled “Genesis of the Daleks.” In this episode, the Doctor ventures back in time to the creation of the Daleks, the arch-enemies of the Doctor’s race, the Time Lords. The Doctor has the opportunity to destroy the Daleks at the moment they are being created yet refuses to do so on the basis of morality; if he were to destroy the entire race, he would no longer possess the moral high ground in their continual rivalry. The author likens this to the way God brings good out of evil circumstances throughout the Bible. In this case, the creation of the Daleks and their subsequent acts of terror would unite races of the universe that would otherwise be enemies.

No volume exploring Doctor Who from a Christian perspective would be complete without an essay on the Doctor as Christ figure. Throughout his adventures, the Doctor continuously protects his companions, defends earth from its enemies, and even sacrifices himself for the greater good. While the Doctor recognizes the flaws of humanity, he nonetheless believes they are a race with the potential to do good in the universe. Christian theology asserts that while destructive forces of sin have tainted all humankind, we are nonetheless created in the image of God, who provided Jesus Christ as the ultimate sacrifice for our sins (Rom 3:23). The Doctor embodies this salvific impulse.

Many of the chapters are well written and make some interesting connections between Christian theology and Doctor Who, in addition to the examples mentioned above. Chapters that integrate science into the conversation are especially noteworthy, as the authors grapple with the challenges that Doctor Who presents traditional Christian theology. The volume also does not shy away from engaging the atheistic vision of showrunner Russell T. Davies. The book is written from an evangelical viewpoint, which deters the volume from exploring some edgier theological interpretations of the show. For instance, the Doctor and his companions often encounter racism and oppression, mirroring our world today. However, the volume does not significantly engage in these conversations, preferring to focus on...