How "Doctor Who" Changed My Life

When I first started watching the long-running BBC series "Doctor Who," it was—how do I put this?—a tumultuous time in my life. I had just lost my 4-day-old daughter, I was recovering from a C-section and couldn't drive. So once my husband had gone back to work, I had a lot of free time on my hands. Now, normally this would be a blessing. But when you're grieving, free time is the enemy. I now had plenty of time to think about how sad I was, how much pain I was in, how my future was completely blank. I wish I could say God pulled me through (and I guess, ultimately, He did and will), but at the time, I was still super angry at Him and we weren't quite on speaking terms.

I had seen a lot of buzz about Doctor Who on Pinterest and figured it might be something I was interested in, so I gave it a shot. The first few episodes were a little (okay, a lot) cheesy, but once it hit a stride, I was hooked. And I think it was more than the plot or the characters...it spoke to me where I was and taught me some things.

Life is so much more than day-to-day problems.

It's so easy to get caught up in the minutiae of daily life: commuting, errands, relationship drama, etc. The Doctor's adventures are all so big and so (literally) life-changing that you remember that a) you're not the only person with problems and b) other people have survived loss and grown from it.

Other people may prefer fluff shows without substance to distract them from a trauma, but frankly, the Kardashians would have just pissed me off. I was in a deep place: figuring out my new future, untangling my beliefs from my emotions, and making Ava's life matter. While I did enjoy the superficial pleasures of Target shopping, the majority of my thinking revolved around the profundity of the human experience. And The Doctor fit perfectly into that mindset. He's not just sitting around cracking jokes on some cheesy sitcom, he's saving the lives of entire planets.

Everyone's life matters.

"Doctor Who" is not a Christian show by any means, but I was pleasantly surprised by the rather "pro-life" stance the show takes. I'm not sure what the show's creators think about euthanasia or abortion or capital punishment, but it doesn't take the most hardcore fan to see that The Doctor has built a reputation on fighting for the side of life.

This show has some of the greatest pro-life quotes I have ever heard. Like when the Eleventh Doctor and his companions discover a warehouse staff that have been cloning themselves and using the clones to do the dangerous (and usually fatal) work around the camp. The clones have rebelled and the "originals" are trying to kill them, reasoning that the clones were a mistake and aren't really people after all. (Sound familiar?) The Doctor works as the voice of reason, giving one of the best lines I've ever heard from any series ever:

"We're not talking about accidents that need to be mopped up; we're talking about sacred human life."

Or when the Tenth doctor (my personal favorite) has discovered that aliens have been using human bodies to harvest their babies, his companion asks if he's going to blow the babies up (hmm...sounds like a "pregnancy after rape" corollary?). His response?

"They're just babies. They can't help where they came from."

I have always considered myself to be pro-life, but after carrying and meeting my daughter, I am more adamant than I ever was. I feel like these quotes (as well as the rest of the series) speak toward valuing life however and wherever you see it. The Doctor comes across many forms of life in his interplanetary travels, and he is always fascinated by them, no matter how scary they look. I love that. My own precious daughter had many special needs: she was missing organs and bones, she was deaf, and she probably had impaired brain function, but I would hate for anyone to feel anything but love for her.

Life after pain is possible.

"Doctor Who" is a very old show (it first debuted in 1963) and The Doctor has a rich back story. But one of the things that most endears him to me is that he lost children, too. He lost all his family and friends in a war that took his entire planet. And their deaths are all his fault.

I didn't start watching the show until after this has already happened, so I'm unfamiliar with the events leading up to The Doctor becoming the last of his kind, but I have seen The Doctor's pain as he tries to relieve his guilt, saving more and more people, doing more and more good. I've seen the pain of living with the loss of his children, losing more companions, losing friends he has only just met. And it helps to see that (despite being constantly surrounded by death) The Doctor doesn't give up trying to save people. He doesn't give up living or let himself drown in sorrow. Even though he knows he will hurt, outlive, or abandon anyone who loves him, he loves them anyway. He refuses to be alone. He takes that pain and does something with it. This is such a hopeful outlook for a bereaved mother like myself.

I've gotten many different reactions when I tell people that I'm a Whovian, ranging from joy to concern. But to me, the show is about so much more than the adventures of a time-traveling alien detective. The show is about life itself. And sometimes, life brings you lessons in the most unexpected places.