Dr Who and Jesus

I heard today that the Scottish actor who has been playing the BBC TV character Dr. Who will not be doing any more series after the 2009 specials. It's a shame for us because he played the role really well.

But one of the exciting aspects of the programme is that new actors can take over the part and bring their own interpretation of the character. This is accomplished by the process of 'Regeneration'.

In Regeneration the character morphs (or changes) from the appearance of the previous actor to the appearance of the new actor. Although he remains the same person he now has a new body that looks completely different. And to some extent his personality characteristics change as well.

It occurred to me that this process of Regeneration is remarkably similar to the Resurrection that Jesus experienced after he had been crucified and buried.

Although he remained the same person, knowing his friends, journeying with them, eating with them, living with them, bearing on his new body the scars of his resurrection wounds, he was different in some respects too.

Jesus' friends didn't always recognise him at first, and he was able to appear within locked rooms, etc.

An average of 8.1 million people tuned in to watch each 45-minute-long episode of the most recent series of the Dr. Who programme (according to the BBC). And that's a fictional programme with no basis in reality.

It's difficult to find an accurate figure for the number of people who attend a church each week in the UK, but my quick estimate is around 2 million people, about 3% of the population.

So why is it that four times as many people watch Dr Who as go to church?