Dr Who finale (for now...)

I had not realised that this series of Dr Who is going to have a break in the middle so it was a bit of a shock when after a rip-roaring finale, complete with exploding Cybermen fleets, headless monks and a comic Sontaran nurse, they announced that it was on hiatus until September. I'm not sure I approve. Sure it allowed them to set up an excellent cliffhanger but I was just getting into this series and now it's off again. Reversing the usual pattern I've enjoyed the main plotline far more than the one off 'fun' episodes in the series so far, partly because they've hardly done any historical or 'famous person' ones which I generally enjoy.

Anyway, my favourite bit in this episode was when the Cleric's commander announced that he had permission from the Papal Mainframe, herself, to remove the monk's hoods. Naughty Dr Who producers - not only signalling a Catholic reversal on the contemporary debate on women priests (or even pontiffs) but also alluding to a surprising outcome in an imagined discourse, common in near future sci-fi. Namely whether machine intelligence should be accorded the same rights and respect as human intelligence. It is standard for sceptical authors to present religion characters blindly asserting that machines have no souls and thus rejecting functionalist views on machine rights. Obviously in the future of the Cleric armies this debate has been resolved in a manner very favourable to AI by a strongly religious political regime.

Another interesting detail was the presence of the gay, Anglican couple in what I'd previously imagined was meant to be a futuristic Roman Catholic organisation (Mostly due to names such as Octavian and Angelo in their previous appearance). Like the reference to the female pope, the presence of gay soldiers obviously ties directly into present day debates in the Catholic church and beyond. However, I'm more interested in the presence of other denominations in the Cleric armies and what this means about their entry requirements. Does one have to be Christian? Are the headless monks themselves a Christian sect or did the directors just want to up the creepiness factor by giving the Clerics some unsavoury allies from another religion? If other denominations are allowed to join the Clerics is there a hierarchy that puts Catholics in command (as suggested by the presence of a papal mainframe as ultimate commander) or is promotion by merit (as suggested by the fact that the Clerics actually seem fairly competent soldiers)? Needless to say I'm loving the way they are drip feeding us with information about this future time period in the Whoniverse rather than just answering all the awkward questions outright.