Dr Who, saviour of chavs

A lot of Dr. Who can be viewed in a very religious sense - in what the doctor says, that he is the final & highest authority, that he can see everything, in his actions - a benevolant saviour, who acts on humanity's behalf, there's even the feeling of the Doctor's redemption in the first series, from this angry warrior to acting for the good again. He's actually the sort of god you'd really want - he acts for humanity, without ever really asking them to be anything, without desiring praise or worship, fully satisfied with saving and actually prefering not to be noticed. There's also the idea of the otherness of him, that because of who he is, humans cannot relate to him or truely connect to him, the he is unknowable.

But there's another interesting parallel. Christians, at least in the UK, when they convert people tend to convert them into middle class people. Make them have superficial opinions about how life works, draws them away from reality TV to things like meditiation and prayer, encourages them to be politically active and careful with money. And Dr. Who does the same sort of thing. In 2 cases he's taken chavs and turned them into middle class folk, with interest and concern in the greater universe, and looking far outside themselves and considering "reality", forcing them to become more than what they were, concerning them with forfilling their potential in their service of him.

And that's quite an odd parallel, really, that I hadn't noticed until he turned Donna back into a chav at the end of the latest season.