Doctor Who and faith: How two key stories explore it

The Curse of Fenric, along with The God Complex, is a key story in exploring the nature of faith.

(Photo credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who Website.)

Whether its faith in a deity, faith in an idea, or faith in a person, these two Doctor Who stories have explored the importance of faith in all its forms.

Over decades worth of stories, Doctor Who has unsurprisingly explored some interesting and weighty themes over the years. Themes that are almost an essential part of the human condition. These include love, hope, courage and so many more. Two stories in particular have always stood out to me for exploring a considerably huge theme: faith.

On the surface, Seventh Doctor story The Curse of Fenric and Eleventh Doctor story The God Complex appear to be very different. The former is an adventure set during World War 2, as the Doctor investigates an ancient evil connected to Vikings and vampires.

The God Complex meanwhile is a strange and at times almost surreal story set at a seemingly infinite hotel, with a group of radically different characters stuck together and being targeted one by one by some kind of beast.

But despite the outward differences in terms of plot between these two stories, they both feature a heavy exploration of the nature of faith. In all of its many forms.

Religious faith

This is perhaps the first thing we think of when we think of “faith”, and both The Curse of Fenric and The God Complex do explore this. It’s definitely featured more heavily in the earlier story, however. Particularly with the character of Reverend Wainwright.

Wainwright has a truly fantastic story. Despite his position in the church, he truly struggles with his beliefs in a time of war. It’s not even because of innocent people being killed by the Germans that’s causing him to have doubts. Rather, its innocent Germans being killed by the British that he has trouble reconciling with his beliefs, both in God and in humanity.

A crisis of faith is always interesting to explore, particularly in stories that feature battles between good and evil. Wainwright is one of the more memorable guest characters because of how well his story is explored, as well as a great performance by Nicholas Parsons.

The God Complex also explores this to some extent, particularly with the character of Rita. While her faith isn’t a central part of the story, it is focused on and is clearly an important part of her. However, like The Curse of Fenric, this episode was also keen to explore faith in various other forms, too.

Whether it’s overcoming fear or personal issues, faith is shown to give people strength in The God Complex and The Curse of Fenric.

(Image credit: Doctor Who/BBC.

Image obtained from: official Doctor Who website.)

The power of faith

In The God Complex, all the characters had some form of belief in something. And it wasn’t just religious belief, either. One of them, Joe, strongly believed in luck, to the point where he ended up having his own lucky charms. Another, Howie, had a strong belief in conspiracy theories.

Even The Curse of Fenric was keen to explore faith in various forms. Captain Sorin believed in the Soviet Union, while the Doctor is shown to have faith in all of his companions.

What makes this level of exploration so important is that, in many cases, the characters’ faith is shown to be a strength. No matter what they believe in, what matters is that they do have faith in something.

This is especially true in The Curse of Fenric, where the Doctor’s and Sorin’s faith is powerful enough to hold back a deadly force of evil. It also highlights the tragedy of Wainwright, who only wants to have faith, but no longer has it. Having faith and wanting it are two very different things.

The God Complex also explores faith as a strength. With Rita, it helps to make her braver and accept the strange situation she’s in more easily. With Howie, we find out he once had a terrible stutter that he worked hard to get over. In this case, faith in himself was the important element.

For all the characters, what faith is most important to use against is fear. Every character sees the manifestation of their worst fear inside one of many rooms inside the hotel. Every character is compelled to find out what their worst fear is. And every character uses their faith against it. In this case, it makes all of them targets as a result. But it does highlight just how important faith can be, in all its forms.

Faith in the Doctor

Arguably the biggest similarity between The Curse of Fenric and The God Complex is the idea of having faith in the Doctor. There are two key reasons why this element is incredibly similar in both stories.

The first is that in both cases, the Doctor has a companion that has a deep belief in him. It’s hardly surprising – after all, the Doctor, despite all of his or her flaws, can often be easily seen as a miracle worker. They’re always saving the day, fighting back evil and showing their companions the most wonderful things. The most terrible things too, but that’s why they’re always there to protect them. It’s no wonder that companions often put the Doctor on a pedestal.

However, there’s also another key moment that these two stories share: the Doctor breaking his companion’s faith in him. In each story, it’s an incredibly important part of the ending.

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Having said that, it’s definitely interesting how the two stories take different approaches with it. In The Curse of Fenric, the Doctor breaks Ace’s faith in him by at least partially lying to her. He pretends he was just using her all along, that he didn’t care about her one bit, and that he was even happy for her to die. It’s a cruel moment but, while he may have told the truth to her about some things – like knowing a secret about her past ever since he met her – for the most part, we know that he’s lying.

The Doctor’s flaws

In The God Complex, however, the element of truth feels far stronger. The Doctor is essentially telling Amy that he can’t save her all the time, and that she will die eventually if she doesn’t leave him. More importantly, Amy had seen the Doctor as some kind of hero ever since she was a little girl, and she had carried that belief for years. In some ways, it was long overdue for the Doctor to destroy the pedestal that she had placed him on.

This exploration of faith highlights something important about the Doctor. While the audience often takes comfort in how often the Doctor saves the day, it’s also important to remember that the Doctor is flawed, too. And it’s easier to have faith in a religion or an idea than in a person. The Doctor is many things, but they’re certainly not a god, and it’s fantastic how two brilliant but very different stories can explore that.

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Do you think Doctor Who has explored the idea of faith well? Do you think it’s something that could be explored more often? Out of The Curse of Fenric or The God Complex, which do you prefer? Let us know in the comments below.

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