The Ottery
“If an otter can’t have fun doing something, it just simply won’t do it.”

A Tale of Two Tennants

December 7th, 2006

One: David Tennant, of course. I was pleased to see that someone over at Idol Chatter is watching “Doctor Who”! Ellen Leventry’s commentary on the recent two-parter “The Impossible Planet”/”The Satan Pit” is worth a read.

I, too, was intrigued by the spectacle of a Doctor who suddenly doubts all he has ever held for certain. I got a little bit annoyed by all the speeches along the lines of “the Devil is powerful because he’s an idea” speeches, but it fits the Doctor’s character (and Britain’s current spiritual climate). From a dramatic angle, I found “The Impossible Planet” very satisfyingly scary, while “The Satan Pit” was terribly anti-climactic. I think the episode lost its tension for me once we learn that this is supposed to be THE Satan (when, in the prior episode, we’ve been told that he’s the Beast, which is not quite the same thing). And, after all, if humans can beat big bad old Satan simply by trusting in each other, well, then, he’s not very scary, is he? Not really worthy of the title “The Adversary,” which is what “Satan” means. It’s hard to make Satan scary when the writer doesn’t really take him seriously. He should have stuck with the Beast.

Anyway, moving on to Tennant Number Two: Agnieszka Tennant (who is, I assume, no relation to David, especially since his last name isn’t really Tennant, anyway–it’s MacDonald). I just discovered an essay of hers from back in August that, in great prose, captures the main flaws of the books by John and Stasi Eldredge.

I especially like Tennant’s point that, when the Eldredges argue that all women want to be “the Beauty of the story,” they’re really talking about ornamental prettification, not true beauty. “True beauty is precarious, unbound,” Tennant writes. “It cannot be confined to pre-approved tastes or to one gender. It is wild at heart. Like Christ. And like the complicated men and women who follow him.”

Amen to that.

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