Science Fiction Fandom as a Bridge to Community and Conversation

by Caleb Woodbridge

In 2013, I made my way to that great domed cathedral to music, London’s Royal Albert Hall. But this was for no ordinary concert: Doctor Who, the long-running British science fiction TV show, was celebrating its 50^th anniversary, and classical pieces such as ‘Carmen’ and Bach’s ‘Toccatta and Fugue in D Minor’ were mingled with music from Murray Gold’s sweeping orchestral soundtrack for the show.

The night was presented by Matt Smith and Jenna Louise Coleman, the current stars of the show. Cybermen stomped down the steps, prowling among the audience. Daleks rose up from the stage, and the Doctor’s most heroic moments projected up on the screen against the soaring music of the show.

As a fan, I thrilled to the occasion, the joy of the moment shared with thousands of other devotees of the show. But as I looked round at the rapt faces, I couldn’t help but think: this is worship, or something like it.

Fandom and community

It might be tempting as Christians to look over at fandom and see a problem: competition for people’s attention, an idol to be tamed, something frivolous to grow out of. But I see the community that fandom can create as its best as a gift and as a bridge.

A gift, because it is part of human beings’ common image-bearing as makers and lovers of story to gather round the fire – or round the TV screen, or in the hallowed space of the concert hall or convention venue – and connect over the stories we love.

A bridge, because connecting over stories that resonate with us opens up space to talk about our values, our beliefs, hopes and vision for what’s good and true and beautiful. Science fiction is particularly apt for raising big questions: what does it mean to be human? What, if anything, sets us apart from aliens or AI? What’s our future as a species – are we heading for utopia or dystopia? Is the course of history predetermined or open, as many time-travel stories explore? Where can we find meaning?

This is the kind of space where often opportunities can arise, and a love of Star Trek or Marvel or Harry Potter or Doctor Who can become an opportunity to share our love as Christians of the true myth, the Gospel story of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and victory.

My adventures in fandom

I’ve a lot of fan interests: over the years, I’ve spent time with The Lord of the Rings and Tolkien fandom, as well as dipping into Star Wars and Marvel as a dedicated watcher but more occasional participant in fan activities. Doctor Who is my deepest and longest-lasting devotion, even if recent years of the show have done their best to shake off my interest with declining quality of scripts and storylines.

Who is my native fandom, which I’ve been part of for over 25 years – I’d date my membership to the church of the TARDIS to my birthday in 1999, where my chosen birthday treat of a trip to the Doctor Who Exhibition in Llangollen coincided with a Doctor Who night on BBC2 and the start of a repeat season. I started buying Doctor Who Magazine and posting on an online Doctor Who forum, Outpost Gallifrey.

I was an awkward, nerdy kid, always with my nose in a book and cripplingly shy. It might be hard to imagine it now that geek culture has become so mainstream, but in my childhood in the 90s, before Lord of the Rings in the cinemas, before Doctor Who was cool with David Tennant, before Marvel took over the box office, it really did come with a stigma to be into science fiction.

Growing up in my small north Wales town of Dolgellau, I felt very isolated, and doubly weird for being not just a nerd but a Christian too. It would have been easy to hide in a Christian bubble out of a desperate sense that it was the only place that would have me, even though that bubble was tiny and lonely in my context.

In the end, though, science fiction gave me a bridge to connect with other people. I found friendship with a small band of other kids across the different years in the school who enjoyed the fantastical. I found community and connection online with friends across the world through the Doctor Who forums. It gave me motivation and confidence to make friends beyond the church, and to begin engaging with culture more widely.

Faith and fandom

How did I relate my faith to my fandom? I have to admit that as a hot-headed teenager, I went in with quite a combative attitude as a Christian. On the online forums, there were different sections not just for the TV show, the comics and audios, and other Doctor Who media, but also an off-topic section where you could talk about religion and politics and other controversial things.

I became a keyboard warrior, attempting to convert the unbelievers with the force of my arguments. Armed with a Thompson Chain Reference Bible, Wayne Grudem’s Systematic Theology, and Josh McDowell’s Evidence That Demands a Verdict, I set about typing furiously. This was the age of dial-up, so I’d connect, see the latest response, save it, go offline, write up my response, then reconnect to post it.

Some good came out of this: it helped me test and refine my beliefs in some ways. And what softened my rough edges was that it happened in the context of a community I was otherwise engaged with — these were people I was also asking, “Who’s your favourite Doctor? Daleks versus Cybermen? Who’s the best Master?” That wider relational context meant that, over time, it became less of just me spouting stuff at them and more of a genuine conversation.

I came to have a respect for the points of view of people who didn’t share my beliefs. What began as just charging in began to look like an actual real-life conversation. I found particularly that when it was connected to Doctor Who, and I was able to explore the themes in and around the show about good and evil, sacrifice and redemption, that got past people’s defences. I could share about how I saw resonances between Doctor Who and my faith, and the similarities I saw between the Doctor as a hero, and Jesus as the true Time Lord. People were a lot more open to hearing me out on this than in the more combative “Atheist vs. Christian deathmatch” type threads.

For example, at the end of David Tennant’s second series as the Doctor, he came up against his old friend-turned-nemesis the Master, who imprisoned him as he enslaved Earth. The Doctor’s companion Martha went around the world telling people the story of the Doctor, telling everyone to speak his name at a particular time. “That’s your weapon, prayer?” scoffed the Master, as she confronted him. But the telepathic network he’d used to quell dissent was turned against him, as humanity’s belief in the Doctor restored and freed him in a glowing ascension. “I forgive you,” said the Doctor to the Master. Plenty of Christian imagery at play to discuss – even if atheist showrunner Russell T. Davies was putting a humanist spin on it, since it was ultimately the power of humanity’s belief that was at play.

As I went to university in Cardiff, the very city where Doctor Who was being filmed, I also became involved in a fan group that met regularly in real life. By getting to know people and sharing life, it gave opportunities to share about my faith, to invite friends along to church. Again, the key was being there not with an agenda, but with attentiveness to where people were open to faith.

Salt and light in fandom

Of course, fandoms are human communities, and so are fractious, prone to arguments and frequently tribal. Sometimes that reflects wider trends and divisions in our culture – as a central stream within today’s pop culture, science fiction is often a hotly contested front-line in culture wars, with films such as The Last Jedi becoming a lightning rod for controversy.

As with all areas of life, as Christians we can seek to be salt and light, to preserve what’s best in the particular fan cultures we might feel drawn to, to build relationships across divisions, and sometimes to offer an alternative and shine some Gospel light into our relationships there.

Adding to the tapestry

I also had the opportunity to have a couple of Doctor Who short stories officially published. The first, The Shopping Trolleys of Doom, was about artificially intelligent shopping trolleys rising up against their human masters — or are they? It was my twist on the whole evil-robots trope.

The second, Blessed Are the Peacemakers, engaged more directly with questions of faith. I had Tom Baker’s Doctor land in Egypt during the Fifth Crusade, where he met Francis of Assisi, who, as a matter of historical fact, went to the Crusades to try to stop them peacefully. St Francis marched into the middle of the battlefield to try to preach to the Muslims and end the conflict peacefully, which struck me as a very Doctor-ish thing to do. In my version of events, the Doctor and Francis teamed up to fight off mind-controlling alien mission scarab beetles, so that I could approach some of the questions of religious tolerance slightly more metaphorically.

Make the most of your fandom

So whether it’s joining in discussions online or in-person, going to conventions or writing fan fiction, fandom can be a wonderful example of human creativity and community.

If you love science fiction, discuss it, write it, make friends with others who enjoy it. Let’s be in community with others who love it, have conversations around it, create excellent stories for the blessing of our neighbors and for the glory of God.

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Caleb Woodbridge is a writer, editor and cultural apologist based in Pontypridd, Wales. He writes about imagination and meaning-making on his Substack Bigger on the Inside.