Anat, Shura and Boaz

The BBC, Dr Who and the Liberal Left’s turn from the hebraic truth

[Image: Day of the Daleks (1972), Episode 2. Anat and the “Israeli” guerrillas from the 22nd Century return to save the future.]

Breaking Glass Ceilings

I was born in 1983, but my televisual birth happened far earlier. While I recline in horror faced by effects-laden, dialogue-drowning and sex-showcasing modern fare, I smile with happiness when watching the 1970s classics. This was a more innocent age: a time of coherent plots and leisurely narration, where appearances were put aside for better storytelling. This was a classier age: where the irrelevant romantic side plot never derailed the thrust of a narrative. Above all, it was the era when Jon Pertwee starred in the Science Fiction series Doctor Who.

Doctor Who is the longest running sci-fi series in the world. It began in monochrome in 1963 and it continues to this day, albeit with a lengthy hiatus in the 1990s. The show is more than a long running tale about terrifying monsters and distant planets; it is a visual catalogue of evolving British social norms. Many actors have taken on the leading character’s regenerating persona, starting with the less than politically correct William Hartnell. Yet these were the 1960s and times were a-changing. The first producer of the show - including the caster of Mr Hartnell - was a true one-off; a legend in British television history. In a broadcasting world that was white, male and stale, Verity Lambert punched through every BBC glass ceiling. She was the first Jewish producer, the only female producer working in BBC drama and the youngest ever producer - male or female - to take on such a prestigious role. The history-making first episode, An Unearthly Child, was directed by Indian-origin Waris Hussein and together with Lambert they made progressive history in the best possible of senses.

Of course the BBC weren’t to know that the show would last for over 60 years. So unexpected was its triumph, that a mere 13 episodes were piloted to judge its progress. It was fully expected to be a flop. But 5 episodes in, the series struck gold. The all-exterminating Daleks were a master stroke of design, voice and concept and they remain the series’ premier baddies to this day. Dalekmania engulfed the Streets of London and as with their Beatles contemporaries, it was a contagion without cure. Now established as a permanent part of British culture, the series would be entrusted into more waspish hands. But seven years later, a revolution was to take place….

Intelligent Liberal Leftism

The 1970s saw the show burst into colour, with the leading role now occupied by my favorite “Doctor” Jon Pertwee. It was the Golden Age of the show: Featuring iconic images and exciting plots that remain vividly with us to this day. But more indelible than the stories themselves, was the philosophy of an era embodied by its top team of actors and producers. Diversity and liberal leftism were back, but not in a bad way. Pertwee was a Huguenot, Delgado (the Master) was a crypto-Jewish Spaniard and producer Barry Letts was a white Buddhist and, together with the other members of the “family”, they were known for the welcome they gave to their guest stars. Everyone was made to feel at home and the camaraderie within the team was showcased in their acting on screen: in short, they were having a whale of the time.

But more important than the ethno-religious diversity of the cast was the diversity of intellectual ideas. This was not an era of ideology, at least amongst the wise group of people that made up the Doctor Who production team. It is true that they tilted Left, with show after iconic show being committed to the idea of pursuing peace, exposing xenophobia, decrying bureaucratic, nationalist nonsense and seeking a world of greater understanding. But the evident desire to attain these objectives was tempered by a clear recognition of reality. Ideology and ideal never trumped truth.

A clear example of this can be seen in the issue of the day: the environment. Then, as now, the Left were concerned about the degradation of the planet: pollution from the factories and plastic in the seas. But unlike today's ignoramouses, the liberal leftists on Doctor Who's production team were conscious of the dangers of ideology: how extremism and fanaticism could destroy very thing they were trying to preserve. In the fourth season of Pertwee’s tenure in the role, we were treated to the classic adventure “The Green Death”, where the polluting villains of the piece with dumping their waste down a Welsh coal mine. The result - giant maggots produced from multi-use condoms - has lingered long in the memory as has the legacy of fighting against capitalist environmental negligence.

But lest we believe the writer-producer Barry Letts was an avant-garde fanatic from Extinction Rebellion, he showed his talent for nuance soon after. A mere two episodes later - in a serial pinned by declared communist Malcolm Hulke - the environmentalists turned villainous. Attempting to return the Earth to an earlier, purer “golden age”, they devised a plan to transport humanity to the time of the dinosaurs, finally “freeing” us from the tools to devastate the planet. Through trumpeting environmental protections in an age before it was fashionable and then - bravely - cautioning against environmental activist fanaticism, the production team pulled off a trick of which their modern homologues seem incapable: To fight for what is right but to be nuanced; to recognize the bad apples on your own side; to see both sides of the story. Today these liberal leftists would be cancelled.

Doctor Who takes on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (with commendable nuance)

[Image: The Oslo Accords. The Doctor attempts to make peace with the Sea Devils. It ends in failure.]

But Malcolm Hulke “the communist” didn't write only about the environment. In two of the most enduring and classic Doctor Who episodes of all time - the Silurians and the Sea Devils - he turned his pen to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A modern hard leftist would have allegorically justified the rape massacre of Hamas, whitewashed the crimes of the Palestinians and somehow claimed that Islamism was an queer cause. But in these, two of Doctor Who’s greatest achievements, nuance and realism were again the order of the day.

Though never mentioned by name, the analogy with the Middle East is barely in doubt. In both serials, two warring factions - the humans and their reptilian cousins - fight over the ownership of the Earth. The Silurians / Sea Devils claim that they ruled the planet when Man was just an ape and having recovered from their cryogenic slumber, they have returned to reclaim the planet. The reptiles see the humans as inferior beings who have climbed above their station. The humans see the reptiles as prehistoric animals who are engaging in terrorist actions against their shipping and need to be stopped. Both have a claim and both have a case, with the reptiles trumpeting anteriority and the humans noting their now advanced and developed civilization. Importantly, echoing Golda Meir’s famous words, neither have anywhere else to go.

Jon Pertwee’s Doctor does what any decent humanitarian would: he attempts to broker a peace. He tries to make each party aware that they can share the planet with the reptiles taking control of the Seas, underground spaces and deserts - all of which are of no interest to humans - and the latter maintaining control of the temperate and tropical land zones. It makes perfect sense and it neatly fits with the interests of both parties. But, it is at this point, that we see an important divergence between 1970s liberal leftism and that which rears its ugly head today. A modern activist would seek an unjust “just” accord: a surrender agreement where the perceived victim takes all. The destruction of human civilisation would be of no account and reptilian terrorism would be justified. Moreover, any accord reached would lead - so they would claim - to a happily ever after of freedom and justice.

[I am assuming here, for the sake of argument, that the humans are the Israelis and the reptiles are the Palestinians. The inverse interpretation is also plausible, in that the Israelis had a Kingdom in Israel long before the Arab Conquest and “while they were sleeping” other empires had taken their place. In any event, the inability to neatly trace our modern conflict onto the fictional one presented is one of the show’s subtle strengths.]

Barry Letts and his peace seeking team were not so naive. They recognize the bad actors on both sides who would seek the failure of the accord. And so it proved. The militaristic British government bombed the seas and caves, attempting to eliminate the terrorists. The violence minded reptiles were equally ready to abandon peace and planned a new, inevitably devastating, attack on human infrastructure and civilian persons; this, topically, included the release of a COVID-like virus. The simultaneous stubbornness of both parties led to the inevitable result: the military defeat and destruction of the reptiles. The humans are presented as somewhat - but only marginally - more interested in peace than the reptiles, but they are quick to abandon that stance when the reptilian intransigence inevitably comes. Both the Sea Devils and Silurians are determined to seek bloody “ resistance” at all costs, no matter the predictability of their defeat.

Could you imagine this narrative being produced today? Could modern producers even conceive of the subtlety and the realism? And more especially, could you see it being produced by liberal leftists - even Malcolm Hulke communists - at the BBC? At the end of the Sea Devils, the peace-seeking, anti-xenephobic Doctor, who wants peace with all his being, gives up on the enterprise when the stance of the reptiles becomes clear. Frustrated as he is with the humans, he won't junk reality for idealism. The Sea Devils are defeated with his melancholic blessing. Interestingly, and ironically, modern hard leftist Doctor Who fans decry the destruction of the Sea Devil military/terrorist base as genocide. They have done so for at least two decades on internet forums. And here we see the genesis of the modern Gaza genocide libel.

Israelis from the 22nd Century

Another Pertwee classic - Day of the Daleks - underlines further how far the liberal left have fallen; particularly as regards their attitude towards Israel. Once so principled, once so respectful of intellectual diversity and nuanced, they have latterly fallen into authoritarian homogeneity. Day of the Daleks is very much the “Jewish” show of the original 26-year run of Doctor Who. Not a single Jew or Israeli explicitly appears, but to the knowledgeable, it is laden with subtle subtext. And given the writing credit, this is hardly surprising. In the entire period between 1963 and 1989, Louis Marks was the sole writer of Jewish origin hired by the show and he definitely doesn't let the opportunity go to waste.

On the surface, the plot relates to the geopolitics of the Cold War with the Americans facing off against the Chinese (not the Russians!) and the British “punching above their weight” in a mediation role. The Story begins in the present day - 1972 - with the world on the brink of a Third World War. Only a last-ditch diplomat effort by Sir Reginald Styles stands between peace and the bullets flying across the Manchurian border. The officials there assembled in the English Countryside know that the stakes are high, but what they cannot predict is that the destruction wrought by the ensuing conflict would allow the Nazi-esque Daleks to invade the Earth and dominate the subsequent centuries. The Future would judge poorly any failure to achieve peace, with the humans of the 22nd century being used as slave labour to extract minerals for their Dalek Masters.

Knowing the horrors that the future would bring, three “terrorists” - or freedom fighters if you prefer - return back in time to prevent the hell that is set to unfold. Their goal: To assassinate Styles and prevent the peace conference which they believe he helped scupper. [We will forgive The Terminator for being so derivative!] As sci-fi aficionados amongst you may anticipate, this results in some time paradox consequences and a twist which is worthy of The Sixth Sense. Perhaps better. But though the denouement was of great excitement to my younger self, it is not the subject of this essay. Rather it is the names of these fighters, which are as hebraic as they are telling: Not John, Anne and Charlie, nor Ahmed, Mohamed and Leila, but Anat, Shura and Boaz. Trust me that this was no error. Rather it was emblematic of how liberal leftists used to regard Israel; including those at the BBC.

Let us remember the symbolism of the Daleks: they are Nazis. They are fascists who hate all that are different to them genetically. They “exterminate” the unlike with incessant fanaticism. It is the Jews who are their victims and the Jews who oppose them militarily. Anat, Shura and Boaz are not said to be Israelis. In literal terms, they are England-dwelling, English-speaking fighters from 200 years hence (the Dalek slave factory shown being located in the home counties.) But representationally, their identity is obvious.

Every element of their actions represents how the British of that vintage used to see Israelis: Fighters against evil, if rather heavy-handed and with a pechant for operating uninvited on foreign territory. They use violence, but for good ends. They seek the freedom of humanity. Blunt they may be, arrogant, unlistening and over-gun tooting even, but there is no doubt that they are the good guys; the “Western” fighters against the Hitlerites. And brave at that. In true science fiction form, it is their actions that allow the future to unfold that they've so been dreading; no doubt informed by the idea that Israelis can get unwillingly emmershed in a cycle of violence (or perhaps it’s just a good climax!). Yet their motives are never in doubt and the leading character firmly puts to bed the idea that they're “terrorists”: Notwithstanding they’ve just tied him up in the cellar - and notwithstanding their violence - the Hebrews are motivated by saving the future.

Indeed the fearsome three are positively contrasted with the quisling controller, a man who decided to sell his soul to the devil in return for protection for his family. Working closely with the Daleks for personal survival, the Controller - portrayed by the ever fantastic Aubrey Woods (of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory fame) - is the ultimate appeaser. The Neville Chamberlain who chose supposed peace over real freedom. The modern leftist professor who sides with Islamists over civilisation. Ultimately he sacrifices his own person to save the day, but the moral Judgment of the writer is clear. Israelis fight for our freedom. Appeasers and “peace loving” quislings destroy it.

[Video: Appeasing Nazis and Islamists doesn't work.

The Fall of Liberal Left (and the BBC?)

The Day of the Daleks is magnificent, but for our purposes it is informative. The BBC, the liberal left and the British intelligencia were very different in that era. Naturally we had to pander to the Arabs to get their oil, but we did so with no love for the Arabs. Evidently the Israelis were stereotyped as rough around the edges and a little too trigger happy. But everyone knew the truth. Everyone knew who was on the side of good and who was on the side of evil. Whether it was Doctor Who or the classic comedy Yes Prime Minister, the BBC choose correctly. British diplomatic posturing at the UN was never mistaken for truthful, moral analysis.

But today the Israelis have been portrayed as the Daleks against the Freedom Fighters, the devils against the humans, the evil party against “justified resistance”. It is not only television series like modern Doctor Who that have turned woke, but the news, which never fails to support Islamist barbarism against Western freedom; which inexplicably believes the word of murderous terrorists over democratic governments. And not only the Israelis are the victims. Whereas Barry Letts, Jon Pertwee and the other members of the 1970s Doctor Who team were welcoming, intellectually curious, cautious of fanaticism and understanding of nuance, the “progressives” of today are intolerant authoritarians who cancel and close their mind to argument.

If the Sea Devils invaded today, it is unclear who would win. If the Daleks conquered the Earth, the progressives would likely welcome them. Once more we are on the brink of a Third World War - a clash of civilisations - but it isn’t between them and us, it’s between the decent 70s idealists who dreamt, albeit cautiously, of a better, more peaceful world, and the modern progressive autocrats who are quislings to evil. The liberal left has fallen and with them genuine hopes of genuine peace.

Western Civilisation is under threat and we must not be found wanting. Else the Daleks from Arabia will exterminate us; and no time travel or TV Doctor will be there to save us a second time.