Which leads us into the whole territory of the sexual politics of a ship and its master.
There's probably a case to be made for the captain of a ship being an aplha male figure and the ship being a supposedly subservient and biddable woman. However, this is an idealised relationship which the admiralty (the Time Lords with their - until Doctor Colin - patriarchal society) use to control their microcosm of society as a whole, assuming the dominance of the male. In the case of normal ships they are compicated creatures that live between the men and certain death, so many myths and traditions grow up around them.
The fact is that TARDISes, like any other sentient being, and unlike other spaceships, have their own caprices, desires and goals. Because the captains, who are usually male (pirates, navy captains and Jean-Luc all have their own versions of this) regard the ship as a woman figure, they sometimes shove the otherness of the universe on to the ship, so things that go wrong with their lives on the journey can be blamed on the other (that is, usually, the woman).
I could go on, and I fear I'm not making sense. This is one of those pub conversations, isnt it?
Anyway, one of the reasons I like the new treatment is that RTD has ascribed to the TARDIS a life and personality which were only alluded to before, and which makes the TARDIS a full partner in the relationship. It's different from pretty much any ship in TV SF but Moya from Farscape in that it is a living entity, not just a machine.
What was the question again? |
