Fannish 5: Five Believers

[selenak]

Name five characters whose religious beliefs are important to them.

If one is a DS9 and BSG fan, this is almost too easy. I'll try to save the obvious for the last.

1) Jed Bartlet from The West Wing. Famously argues with God in Latin, but wouldn't dream of leaving the church. Actually, the Jed & faith scene that most sticks in my mind, other than the big outburst from Two Cathedrals, isn't the one from the pilot where he disses the homophobes or the s1 death penalty episode one of his confession, but the s7 conversation over ice cream he has with the Republican candidate (who, in an irony alas missing in real life but true for WW, is more of a securalist and thinks it would be hypocritical to fake it) on the subject.

2) G'Kar from Babylon 5. All the way back in very early s1, when G'Kar looked like he was destined to be the comic relief villain, JMS was careful to establish already that his faith is central to him and that he takes it very seriously indeed. Thus it continued to be through G'Kar's Heroic Resistance Righter phase, culminating in the irony of the way he becomes a messiah figure making it impossible for him to actually live with his people.

3) Rita from the Doctor Who episode The God Complex. Go, Toby Whitehouse, for including a Muslima among your sympathetic characters, and one who showcases that intelligence, questioning curiosity and courage can go hand in hand with valuing one's faith.

4) Kara "Starbuck" Thrace from Battlestar Galactica. Of course, with BSG you can name much over the cast over four seasons, but to me the end scene from Flesh & Bone in s1 which shows Kara praying to her gods remains one of the most original twists, because it would have been so much more obvious to make the the daredevil hedonist pilot a sceptic. Mind you, there was an obvious precedent for the writing team. To wit:

5) Kira Nerys from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. Much as I myself have issues with the Prophets as presented on DS9, I always appreciated the choice to make Kira, the second lead of the show, a woman of faith, and the way the show treated her religion as central to her characterisation for seven seasons. It was then something very new in Star Trek, traditionally an agnostic collection of shows (and I wouldn't have it otherwise). And Kira would not have been Kira without this.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

The way Kira's faith was written rather reminded me of the way Scully's faith was written on X-Files: a sceptical personality founded on a sincere faith in greater things that didn't make either of them guillible or naive, but hopeful and able to carry on in the face of great odds. (I'm a lifelong atheist who's never had any religious belief myself but that doesn't mean I don't appreciate it in characters sometimes!)

[selenak]

Scully is a great comparison, yes.

[kalypso]

I'd have been rather happy if Rita had made it on to the TARDIS. Though I suppose we've already had [another] doctor. And it wouldn't quite have made sense to pick her up just when he's going through one of his "I ought not to have companions because they suffer too much" phases.

[selenak]

Yes, that's just bad timing. But I was as captivated by her as the Doctor.

[gehayi]

one of his "I ought not to have companions because they suffer too much" phases.

Which is utter nonsense on the part of the screenwriters. Becoming a companion does not mean that you're doomed. Most have gone back to their old lives; some started new lives elsewhere. Almost all have become awe-inspiring people as the result of their time with the Doctor. Only a very few have died, and those were more in the "ultimate sacrifice" vein than anything.

I don't know why something that does not exist--the motif of the Doomed Companion--is becoming a theme.

[skywaterblue]

I blame RTD since in the Ace seasons there's the very real sense that the Doctor is dooming her to something far greater.

Whereas RTD seems to have latched on to the notion that ordinary life is quite awful in its boringness, and that returning the Companions to Earth is sentencing them to the prison of mundane life.

[gehayi]

returning the Companions to Earth is sentencing them to the prison of mundane life.

A prison that they wouldn't even know WAS a prison if not for the Doctor. And that's the good option--the other options seem to be death and being thought insane and treated accordingly (despite the fact that canonically there's a website about the Doctor and there was at least one organization of ordinary people who were looking for him, so the Doctor's existence is somewhat known).

I love that quote! What was Gaiman referring to?

[skywaterblue]

Or Martha's fate, which is to work for UNIT which is apparently SOMETIMES now incredibly corrupt and sometimes very heroic but either way dropping out to become a soldier of fortune is better? D:

This quote is actually from Gaiman's essay on his childhood love of Doctor Who. Which should be easy to find on his website and was a very telling read if you had done so before his episode aired. (It is a lot about his wonder for the TARDIS as modern myth and storytelling device.)

[selenak]

Actually, The Sarah Jane Adventures (produced and occasionally written by RTD, though never the Moff) is not only a show which celebrates post Doctor Companion life on Earth (and treats it as heroic and exciting), but made it in the two parter where Jo Grant and Eleven guest star canon that most of the former Companions are doing splendidly. Since you don't watch the show, here is a YouTube link where the relevant scenes are cut together (the one where we find out about lots of Companions living happy lives is the last one). (I would embed the clip but Dreamwidth doesn't let me in the replies.

[gehayi]

Actually, The Sarah Jane Adventures (produced and occasionally written by RTD, though never the Moff) is not only a show which celebrates post Doctor Companion life on Earth (and treats it as heroic and exciting), but made it in the two parter where Jo Grant and Eleven guest star canon that most of the former Companions are doing splendidly.

I know! And it's the same universe! So why is Doctor Who all gloom and doom about companions when the spin-off is celebrating them?

Also, Sarah Jane is beyond awesome. (In my head, she is still alive, even though Elisabeth Sladen is no longer with us.)

Thank you so much for the YouTube link! (I wish that I COULD watch The Sarah Jane Adventures, but it doesn't air around here.)

[selenak]

May I point out, though, that RTD is also responsible for the Sarah Jane Adventures, which celebrates the excitement of life on earth, AND that his last screen word on the matter of post Doctor Companion lives is the delightful two parter in which we see Jo and Eleven guest star. Where we find out that not only Jo has been doing fine but, as told by Sarah in the tag scene, so has the whole bunch of Old Who Companions, including the ones the books put through misery and whomn RTD gives happy lives instead.

[kalypso]

Well, Rory does die a lot. And there was a lot of emotional trauma the previous week, which I think the Doctor had been brooding over, though he wouldn't have told them that because he doesn't.

[skywaterblue]

This list is no surprise to me, but I'm glad to see Rita pip a spot. Standing out in an episode with quite that emotional range is a credit to the actress and the (unfortunate) uniqueness of the character.

(And yes, she does remind me of Faiza.)