Political comment on Doctor Who

The venerable BBC science fiction series Doctor Who is back in a new series, and the writers are taking the opportunity to throw in a few comments about comtemporary politics. A couple of weeks ago a the British Government (which had been taken over by evil aliens) is attempting to get permission from the UN to use nuclear weapons. They claim to be threatned by "Massive Weapons of Destruction which can be deployed in 45 seconds."

"That's all lies," says one character. "Are people going to believe them?"

"Why not, they did last time"

In this week's episode, set in the year 200,000, a different evil alien is controlling the entire earth empire by taking over the news media. We are given a description of how the right word here and there in a news broadcast, repeated over and over, can destroy an economy, stop immigration (a big issue in the UK politics) or start a war.

Hmmmm...

Thanks to the writers of Doctor Who for giving a new generation of UK kids a little healthy scepticism about politicians and the media.