“Doctor WHO”

I have been a Hoovian (a.k.a a Doctor WHO fan) for many years now. The Doctor’s way of seeing the world has shaped my mind and inspired me for years, but it hasn’t been until recently that I have started to see the doctor as some sort of inter-galactic Global Health professional… let me try to explain myself: 

For those of you (poor lost souls) who haven’t met the Doctor yet, I will summarise his background: The Doctor, whose name no one knows (that’s where the famous phrase “Doctor WHO?” comes from), is an alien, or more technically a Time Lord, from the planet Gallifrey, which was destroyed in a terrible war centuries ago. Since this war The Doctor is the last of his kind…more or less…(Spoilers!). 

The Doctor travels through time and space in his Time Machine, the T.A.R.D.I.S. In his adventures he faces all sorts of problems, which require a large set of skills in areas such as science, policy-making, advocacy, sociology, engineering…plus he speaks about a million languages (he even speaks baby!). I think The Doctor represents the multidisciplinar soul of global health, also, he calls himself The Doctor because (just as any Global Health professional) he “makes people better” yet, of course, he is not referring to the medical aspect.

The Doctor hates guns, he hates soldiers and, over all things, he hates war – he has stopped countless conflicts and wars just with the power of his words (ok, and with a Time Machine and a sonic screwdriver). The point is that The Doctor has this amazing ability of changing people’s minds on the very edge of disaster. 

If we could only invite The Doctor to speak at the Climate Change Conference in Paris, or to participate in the UN Security Council…

Just a few episodes ago, The Doctor was caught in a war between Humans and the alien race, the Zygons. At one point, both races were just about to destroy one another, and The Doctor was not only very angry, but also extremely disappointed at both of them – he thought we were better than this. He knew we were better than this. At that point, absolutely furious from seeing so many races, and so many planets making this same mistake over and over again, The Doctor, with his (super-cool) Scottish accent, gave one of the greatest speeches of the show (in my humble, hoovian opinion).

Here goes a piece of it:

“When you fire that first shot, no matter how right you feel, you have no idea who’s going to die.

You don’t know whose children are going to scream and burn. How many hearts will be broken. How many lives shattered. How much blood will spill until everybody does what they were always going to have to do from the very beginning: sit down and talk.

Listen to me. Listen. I just want you to think. Do you know what thinking is? It’s just a fancy word for changing your mind”. (Read the rest of this amazing speech here)

I don’t know about you, but I feel The Doctor is talking to every world Leader of today, I think the Doctor is angry at all of us because he knows we can be better than this.

And this is how he inspires me; The Doctor is telling us that when all hope seems lost, when the only answer appears to be war, there is always the chance to be better, the chance to sit down and talk.  #StopSyriaAttacks.

PS: you can watch online this (very geeky) 2-episode adventure: Doctor WHO Season 9, The Zygon’s Inversion… it’s awesome!