I have been a huge fan of Dr Who since I was a child marvelling at Patrick Troughton and his tartan Victorian disguise. Lots of dark heavy furniture too…
I can dimly recognise another Dr Who behind Mr Troughton but think that is largely my invention.
Mainly I remember an incident with an angry dalek and a set of stairs. As a child I loved the perfect simplicity of his escape. An universal, welcome truth. Daleks cannot climb stairs. Of course nowadays daleks can do most things and they are always on the brink of destroying the world. They can even climb stairs. And I am no longer a child.
The latest Dr Who contains a recurring image of a crack in the wall where ‘time’ slips through. A sort of metaphysical postbox with an eye into other worlds. Whilst terrifying myself this morning reading Elizabeth Bowen’s very dark story ‘The Demon Lover’ I had a sudden flash of Dr Who’s crack in the wall/plaster and then read about Bowen’s letter posted in the past but arriving in the present( years later) to sabotage any hope of a future. And this got me thinking.
Do we sometimes believe that ‘things’ are lying in wait, ready to arrive unnannounced and to get us back? And if we do believe this- then what can we do to dilute the power of such visitations?
We can indulge in a different form of time travel.
Instead of zooming backwards and forwards into fear and panic, we must stay present. We must recognise our presence in the presence.
Time travel requires lots of free time after all! Have you ever really seen Dr Who cook up a meal?
Supervise home work?
Or shop for milk on a Sunday evening.
Enough said.
All that from Elizabeth Bowen’s terrifying tale.
Read it. It’s marvellously creepy.
Puts you off taxis forever.