Money for old trope

By Danny Nicol,

University of Westminster

“Time Heist” (2014) is the first Doctor Who adventure involving an intergalactic bank.   The detailed plot of this spirited romp need not concern us here.  More interesting politically is what the story tells us about the bank.  We learn three things.  First, the bank exists for the benefit of the super-rich.  Secondly, when individuals get in its way, it is totally without mercy - to the point of murder.  Thirdly, this ruthlessness extends to its treatment of its own staff.

The Bank's security chief Ms Delphox - a bit of an
intergalactic dominatrix.
(Gosh Mr Moffat, you've never given us one of
those before!!)

On one level, the writers missed a trick.  There have been plenty of corporations in Doctor Who, but this was the first story to involve a company in the financial sector.  Unlike “Planet of the Ood” (2008), the episode does not place the corporation in its context. (I thank Dr. Joan Mahoney for this observation.)   Perhaps as a result, the criticism is rather rudimentary: the authors miss out on the opportunity for some biting satire on the banking crisis 2008 which severely damaged the British economy and did even greater harm elsewhere. 

Doctor Who's
 original entrepreneur,
Tobias Vaughn,
in league with Cybermen
in "The Invasion".

Stuff the company

On a more positive note, however, “Time Heist” shows Doctor Who’s astonishing consistency over time when it comes to the show’s unfavourable portrayal of the corporation.   The three features listed above were present in “The Invasion” (1968) and in a significant number of Doctor Who stories thereafter.  As regards the post-2005 show, there has also been remarkable consistency between the two show runners – Russell T. Davies (see e.g. “The Long Game” (2005), “Partners in Crime (2008)) and Steven Moffat (see e.g. “The Rebel Flesh”/“The Almost People” (2011), “The Bells of Saint John” (2013)).   Most interestingly, the show’s stance is markedly different from the cross-party consensus which has developed in British politics in favour of corporate domination (see David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (OUP, 2007)).  Doctor Who’s satire thus forms a remarkable contrast with British politicians’ thirty-year love affair with the corporation.