The Council of Nicaea
In AD 325 in the city of Nicaea, theology, philosophy and politics are brought together for the first time in a council with delegates from the civilzed world attending. The TARDIS brings the Doctor, Peri, and Erimem as visitors and observers only, until Erimem finds herself swept up in the struggle of one man to be heard - a man history says will die, but a man Erimem swears to help live. The Doctor has always said that history cannot be rewritten, but he has also said that the future can be shaped - whose perspective will win out?
This is something I have always wondered about. In fact, it's something a lot of other people have been wondering about as well. The Doctor is always very keen to preserve the web of time where Earth and its history are concerned, but on other planets where he is an outsider, he topples regimes left and right without any mention of that planet's history or future or if what he is doing is the right thing. Here we have the same dilemma at last; Erimem knows nothing of the future of Earth, only that it has one and the fine details are something the Doctor gets to worry about, so without historical perspective it seems theoretically possible that she can indeed change things. Unlike Barbara's intentions in The Aztecs, Erimem is not acting to preserve an entire culture but to ensure that in her eyes justice is done for one man, and she comes perilously close to stepping into history and becoming a part of it.
The Doctor has never been at such direct odds with a companion before, even during the worst of his arguments with Tegan, and as such he doesn't use any of his Time Lord guile to have Erimem dealt with, but instead continuously attempts to reason with her and convince her he is right and she is wrong. And poor Peri, stuck in the middle, feels the heat from both sides although she does ultimately believe that the the Doctor is right and risks alienating Erimem from them once more. And you know... three adventures in a row Erimem is put through the wringer, you've got to wonder how much more of this she can take, royalty or not...
NEXT EPISODE : THE KINGMAKER
This is something I have always wondered about. In fact, it's something a lot of other people have been wondering about as well. The Doctor is always very keen to preserve the web of time where Earth and its history are concerned, but on other planets where he is an outsider, he topples regimes left and right without any mention of that planet's history or future or if what he is doing is the right thing. Here we have the same dilemma at last; Erimem knows nothing of the future of Earth, only that it has one and the fine details are something the Doctor gets to worry about, so without historical perspective it seems theoretically possible that she can indeed change things. Unlike Barbara's intentions in The Aztecs, Erimem is not acting to preserve an entire culture but to ensure that in her eyes justice is done for one man, and she comes perilously close to stepping into history and becoming a part of it.
The Doctor has never been at such direct odds with a companion before, even during the worst of his arguments with Tegan, and as such he doesn't use any of his Time Lord guile to have Erimem dealt with, but instead continuously attempts to reason with her and convince her he is right and she is wrong. And poor Peri, stuck in the middle, feels the heat from both sides although she does ultimately believe that the the Doctor is right and risks alienating Erimem from them once more. And you know... three adventures in a row Erimem is put through the wringer, you've got to wonder how much more of this she can take, royalty or not...
NEXT EPISODE : THE KINGMAKER
Labels: Erimem, Peri Brown, The 5th Doctor
posted by Sean Hoover @ 3:59 AM
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