Down to the Deeps to Die
The recent Christmas special (which I haven’t watched) apparently referenced ‘The Caves of Androzani’.
Let’s just ponder ‘The Caves of Androzani’ for a moment.
What’s it about? It’s about a commodity that, though it promises eternal life, kills everyone it touches. It’s about a commodity that, though it promises beauty, transforms the world into an ugly hellhole of war, competition, disfigurement, hatred, betrayal and murder. It’s about a commodity that, though it promises eternal youth, brings on the decline and fall of an entire society. The commodity’s hollow promises are echoed in the vanity and narcissism of the people who compete for it – especially in the tragic story of a man who, though not essentially evil, is driven to do vile things by his own wounded vanity. It’s about capitalism as a catastrophic moral, intellectual and social failure… one which we will be lucky to escape from alive.
So… let me ask those who have watched the recent special… did those ‘Androzani’ references seem thematically appropriate?
I won’t insult you by pretending that this isn’t a rhetorical question. You may say the assumptions underlying it are based on prejudice. I’d prefer to call it precedent.…