University of Westminster
Doctor Who began
in 1963, less than two decades after the Nazi holocaust had been brought to an
end. Yet the programme’s earlier years
reflect an alarming degree of anti-Jewish stereotyping on the part of postwar
British society.
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| Julius Silverstein, anxious to keep his hands on his collection |
In “The Web of Fear” (1968) we meet Julius Silverstein, a
central European Jew who owns the sole surviving robot Yeti, a menace which the Doctor
had encountered in his earlier adventure “The Abominable Snowmen”
(1967). Julius’ friend Professor
Travers implores him to part with the Yeti, on the grounds that a control unit
sphere has gone missing and is in danger of reactivating the Yeti. But Julius is so obsessed by his material
possessions that he is impervious to reason.
“You vont to rob me…nobody destroys Julius Silverstein’s collection! Nobody!
The Yeti is mine!” Julius’
excessive materialism costs him his life, when his precious Yeti is reanimated
– and kills him.
The stereotyping involved in Julius Silverstein's character wouldn’t be so bad
were it a one-off. Alas, in “The
Creature from the Pit” (1979) we meet a Jew from outer space. This is the
bandit leader Torvin, who is performed as Charles Dickens’ Fagin (he variously
calls his colleagues “my lovely boys!”, “my beautiful boys!” and ultimately “my rich boys!”). Torvin lives on the planet Chloris which is
rich in vegetation but has scant metal, a material which therefore obsesses
him: “metal, metal, metal: I’ll put my trust in this solid metal!” He
sees people (such as the Doctor’s companion Romana) largely in terms of their monetary
worth. He also proves himself entirely
self-serving, having to be repeatedly reminded by his gang that he should be
fighting for their collective wealth not just his own. Once
again his materialism proves fatal, yet even Torvin’s last, comic, words are
materialistic: as he dies he admires the metal of the blade with which he has been stabbed.
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| Torvin admires some metal |
It is a great pity that Doctor
Who’s crude anti-Jewish racism prevented the programme from engaging
properly with the Jewish story. By
contrast, in the Star Trek Deep Space
Nine episode “Duet” (1993) a space station has a visitor who seemingly ran
a forced labour camp in which one alien species persecuted and perpetrated
genocide against another alien species.
The episode raises mature issues of responsibility and of the distinction between
justice and vengeance which were highly relevant in the quest for Nazi war
criminals. It is not too late for contemporary Doctor Who to atone for its past stereotyping by treating these
issues seriously.
