Who Saved Who?
Forget Doctor Who. How about Doctor Who-The-Hell-Does-He-Think-He-Is?
DOCTOR Who is meant to be an intergalactic time-travelling fighter of evil but he’s come in for big criticism for appearing to save Adolf Hitler’s life in a coming episode.
Reaction to the good doctor appearing to turn bad has bounced around the webo-sphere since the Dr Who trailer aired at Comic-Con 2011 in San Diego this week.
The episode is called Let’s Kill Hitler but instead of Doctor Who – played by Matt Smith – being an assassin, he appears to be the dictator’s saviour well before World War II broke out.
At one point in the clip the Doctor, whose assistant Karen Gillan, who plays Amy Pond was found naked in a hotel lobby this year, meets Hitler, who tells him: “Thank you, I think you have just saved my life.”
One fan worried that “Doctor Who helping Hitler in any positive way is terrible and unthinkable”, while the episode’s synopsis suggests that he may have done so inadvertently.
“In the desperate search for Melody Pond, the Tardis crash-lands in 1930s Berlin, bringing the Doctor face-to-face with the greatest war criminal in the universe – and Hitler,” it reads.
“The Doctor must teach his adversaries that time travel has responsibilities – and in so doing, learns a harsh lesson.”
But the BBC has cautioned that judgments should be held off until the episode airs later in the year. It will also be shown on the ABC.
The above report supposedly contains the offending trailer, but the reporter seems to have included the wrong one. Here’s the one they likely meant:
Update: I guess now Hitler may have changed his mind since this conversation?
About the Author
An Australian immigrant to Israel, Aussie Dave has been blogging since early 2003.Filed Under: General
Doesn't seem to be a particularly big deal.
on the rebooted twilight zone, there is a very similar epi, where a girl goes back in time to pose as hitler's nurse and kill him when he is still an infant…she doesnt do it
its a common theme in scifi…
not sure why people are upset
btw…i love river song…and amy pond
[...] Brian of London here again providing the serious foil to Dave’s post about Dr Who. Clearly it’s a P.R. shill invented story to drum up some extra publicity for a forthcoming [...]
Total knee-jerk reaction. You can't condemn a single episode through just seeing literally seconds of its content – and from a teaser trailer no less! Teasers are meant to be provocative to draw more viewers in to watch when the full article is released. Disappointed in the lack of composure displayed by the journalist.
The "journalist" referred to the character of The Doctor as "Doctor Who." Anything else he said may safely be ignored.
Well, in the early days he was credited that way, IIRC.
Even the great Mel Brooks has had his critics on his treatment of Nazis and Adolf Hitler in his comedies. Basically, Brooks stopped trying to defend himself by saying you either get his humor or you don't, take it or leave it.
Do you mean "To be or Not to Be"? Because that was just a remake of a movie with Jack Benny. Jack Benny supposedly got in trouble with his father over it, who came in the middle and saw him in a Nazi uniform. Took a bit to explain it. Of course, there is hte argument, touched on by Herman Wouk, that all of the ridicule of Hitler helped people disbelieve the Holocaust when people tried to break the silence. (The pink triangle bit in hte Brooks movie was ahistorical, of course.)
BTW, the beginning was in Polish, featuring a badly-pronounced, overly literal translation of a semi-vulgar American phrase. My (ex)brother-in-law, who knows Polish from childhood, was in the theater with us, and it totally cracked him up.
Not just "To Be Or Not To Be," Mel Brooks managed to squeeze Nazis into just about every movie he made, no matter the setting, timeframe or even the central plot of the movie. Remember the Nazis waiting in the line of "thugs, pugs and mugs, etc." to work for Hedley Lamar in "Blazing Saddles?" "Springtime for Hitler" in "The Producers?" pre-Nazi German policeman "Inspector Kemp" in "Young Frankenstein?" Even a fake trailer for a fake sequel to "History of the World, Part 1" featuring "Hitler on Ice?"
"Journalist" seems to have a bit of difficulty separating fiction from truth: " the Doctor, whose assistant Karen Gillan, who plays Amy Pond was found naked in a hotel lobby this year, " – what?? The Doctor [not a real person] has an assistant Amy Pond [not a real person] played by an actress Karen Gillan who got drunk earlier this year and embarrassed herself – what that incident has to do with this I really couldn't say, but it speaks somewhat to the level of writing being employed.
Yes, a horribly constructed sentence. I thought the British were better than that.
From the promo, looks like they are going back to the sort of horror-style Jon Pertwee stuff that led to questions in Parliament. Of course, the reboot isn't exactly a children's series.
This "controversy" seems to be largely based on what are likely a couple of anonymous commentators on some blogs griping that they accidentally save Hitler.
As he says: "Reaction to the good doctor appearing to turn bad has bounced around the webo-sphere…" (Where exactly?)
And: "One fan worried that "Doctor Who helping Hitler in any positive way is terrible and unthinkable." (Who is this fan?)
Also, who calls it "webo-sphere"? And the name of the show is not abbreviated to "Dr. Who".
In any event, the show will first air Aug. 27th so we can see for ourselves.
'Also, who calls it "webo-sphere'?'
All of us flower children, now in our 50's and 60's, wearing our paisley shirts, still hoping 8-track will somehow make a comeback.
Oh, for goodness sakes.
The Doctor runs into situations like this all the time, and they're fabulously written and thought through.
Unless someone has seen the whole episode, and there's actually a real problem, forget about it.