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Merlin Has a TARDIS
Doctor Who is a science-fiction television program that first aired on the BBC in 1963. He is an alien that resembles a man, but is immortal and travels through time and space in a blue Police Box. Likewise, Merlin is the great wizard of Arthurian legend. He is often depicted as a man born of devils or fey. And, though aged is also immortal and possessed of the ability to see the past and future. Both are powerful beings that entrust man to great destinies and bear witness to his greatest downfalls. It is in this way that the Doctor and Merlin are the same being, possessed of great knowledge and power and loving of humanity in a way that is completely inhuman.
The Doctor is a Time Lord from the planet Gallifrey. However, in Doctor Who: the Movie it is revealed from the Doctor himself that he is part human on his mother’s side. This mixed blood Time Lord has sympathies for humanity because of these blood ties. Nevertheless, the Doctor is a man of alien origins and despite his human appearances he is still not of this planet. Comparatively, Merlin is a Wizard or Druid from a foreign tribe of Britain. In many stories he is the spawn of the Devil and a human mother. But, being blessed by human sacraments is free of evil’s taint yet retaining his mystical abilities. The similarity between their origins is striking. Both are born of man’s blood and that of an outside or alien force, and both retain their humanity and choose to be with them.
The Doctor flies around in a Blue Police Box, called a TARDIS, that is bigger on the inside and travels through time and space. In this way, he is able to know the whole of human history, past and present. Similarly, Merlin is often attributed to precognitive and post cognitive divinatory magic. And, while there may be a stark difference between time travel and divinations, both show mortals a glimpse of time outside of their temporally locked lives. In addition to the Doctor’s TARDIS, he often carries a small cylindrical device called a Sonic Screwdriver. This is of course analogous to a magic wand or diviner’s rod or druid stave. All of these have been associated with Merlin and in this way a pseudo-science/mystical tie is found between the two characters.
Above all, it is the Doctor and Merlin’s affections for mankind that define them both as similar constructs dreamt up in vast quandaries of time. Throughout the many decades of regenerating Doctors he has always stood by humanity. Often the Doctor takes on human Companions and they essentially become his Arthur. He is a constant meddler and savior of man and is often depicted as instrumental in man’s Fate. Identically, Merlin is an all-powerful wizard that is both awed by and pity’s Arthur Pendragon, his companion. With his divinatory magic he affects the outcome of Arthur’s destiny and thus the destiny of Britain. Moreover, this is what the Doctor does. He affects man’s destiny, especially in Britain. Both are possessed of similar human appreciations whilst still remaining lofty in power and wisdom.
He is born of man and something else. He will never die, but has many faces. He is possessed of uncanny knowledge of past and present. He is the Doctor. He is Merlin. In short, the Doctor is Merlin and Merlin is the Doctor. The British have found a new way to revive their old mystic and keep him alive in their dreams. Instead of a dragon, Merlin flies around in a TARDIS. Instead of divinations he is now a time traveler. Instead of a magic wand, he has a Sonic Screwdriver. And, while both are possessed of an appreciation or love for humanity they are also possessed of a need to muck around in man’s destiny. For greater or for ill, Merlin and the Doctor’s Companions live legendary lives. They are marked of his greatness and reap many of his blessings. In the end it is dangerous to be associated with such power, but it makes heroes of man. To be chosen by Merlin or the Doctor alters the course of one’s fate. But then again, it’s all in a day’s work for a Time Lord.
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