The Joy of Who, By Hayden Cohen
“I love Dr Who” said Harry, 7 years old. “Which one?” replied John, Harry’s dad. Harry look puzzled. “Which Dr Who do you prefer?” said John again. “Well there’s only one.” Harry looked confused. It was moments like this that can shape both father and son. John had a choice: to let Harry be a child for a little bit longer or ruin his son’s fantasy for evermore. So he turned to Harry
Geek Syndicate
and said “It’s all a lie. There isn’t ‘the doctor’ or his assistants. The Daleks, The Cybermen, The Ood. None of them are real. They’re actors playing a part. Each version of the doctor is a different actor.” Harry looked at his dad - “I know that. I don’t care. It’s just a bit of fun.” And with that John smiled and he felt free to enjoy Dr Who all over again.
GEEK CRIMINOLOGY: Gotham’s Dark Leviathan
In this writer’s opinion, Christopher Nolan’s Batman trilogy has been everything and more that a Bat fan could wish for, but there is a depth to his stories that add so much extra intrigue. In the final film of the trilogy, The Dark Knight Rises, Nolan explores the themes of Thomas Hobbes’ book The Leviathan. Is Batman anything but the illegitimate force of good that stops the criminals in Gotham city or did the Gothamites elect Batman as their protector? Thomas Hobbes argued that in order to have a full life, people needed a leviathan to get out of the state of nature. The state of nature is where every society begins. Everyone has complete freedom but it is unruly, harsh and everyone is out for themselves. There are no laws to protect the individual from harm and they make the most of what they can. Hobbes describes life in the state state of nature as: ‘solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.’ In order to move forward the people choose a Leviathan who can lead them to greater things. In the Leviathan the people give up some of their liberties to accept the Leviathan as the leader of the state. From this position, the Leviathan can establish law and policy in order to make sure that people can have things such as property and if they are taken away from them unjustly, then punishments will be given. The theme of the leviathan goes through each one of Nolan’s films but is felt the most in The Dark Knight Rises. In Batman Begins we are shown that the police are corrupt and although the law is on their side the people know that they have no real help from this police force. The city itself, Gotham, is portrayed as a city in which everyone is out for themselves. The only person any individual can rely on is themselves and the police are willing to betray the city’s civilians in order to help the mob bosses such as Flacone. This is clear in a scene in which Rachel Dawes is about to get mugged. The only person who is willing to step up against these people is Batman. By the end of the film, we feel that Batman and Gordon (as his sidekick) have started to make a difference: that order has begun to be restored to Gotham. Gordon himself makes the point that Batman is the reason that this change has occurred. The people of Gotham seemed to have taken Batman in as their Leviathan, their leader. This theory gains resonance in The Dark Knight when Harvey Dent, Bruce Wayne, Rachel Dawes and a Russian Ballet dancer are having dinner. Dent, Gotham’s District Attorney argues for the Batman and defends him in front of his dinner companions, stat9