TT4 - The Dominators 4

The battle between not just the Dominators and the Dulkians comes to a head in this episode, but, even more so, the battle between aggression and pacifism. Early in the episode, just when the warlike Dominators are ready to impose their will over the entire Dulkian race, the ongoing feud between Rago and Toba flares up. Their argument is intense, and it takes their focus of the task at hand. I hope I'm not reading too much into it, but it shows what happens when you put two aggressive people on the same side - they will eventually fight each other.

Later on, when Rago storms the capital and demands Dulkian slaves from the ruling council, the council fall back on their default tactic and try and resolve the situation through diplomacy and procedure. Rago destroys one of the councillors to prove his point that in a war between singular aggression and pacifism, singular aggression wins outright.

Doctor Who has often been a battleground between science and superstition, with science often winning. However, the programme has also seen a few debates between pacifism and aggression. One would expect that, in a programme whose hero is dedicated to pacifism, that this would be the prevailing theme behind the entire show, but it is often the case that even the most peace loving of races and species encountered by The Doctor are forced to fight at some point. Often, it is The Doctor himself, or more often, his companions who convince those who wish to live in peace that they need to fight to survive (the most famous example of this, of course, occurs in The Daleks). Looking ahead 40 years to Davros's words in Journey's End, and we see that those words often due ring true. But more about that another day...