Larison on Tolkien & Doctor Who

Daniel Larison watched the Doctor Who Christmas Special that a conservative Daily Telegraph writer found tritely left-wing, and judges it not so bad at all. More:

 Perhaps it was because I watched the special with Archer’s review in the back of the mind, but my first reactions to the story were generally favorable, and it occurred to me that the story reminded of nothing so much as that of the conflict between Saruman and the Ents in The Two Towers. By the standards of some writers at the Telegraph, there is a fair amount in Tolkien that could be criticized in similar terms. Tolkien was working in the Christian tradition that held that creation had been entrusted to the stewardship of man. The exploitative, resource-stripping characters encountered in the special are not noticeably different from Saruman and his destruction of the forests around Isengard, except that the devastation the former intend is more comprehensive and widespread than anything that Saruman attempts.

Conservatives, especially Christian conservatives, who valorize Tolkien sooner or later have to come to terms with the fact that his conservatism views with suspicion, even hostility, the cult of industrial progress and unfettered consumerism that is uncritically embraced by contemporary conservatism (see, for example, Will, George F.).