Synthesizing super soldiers: Military medicine in fiction and reality

Walker, S. H. (2019) Synthesizing super soldiers: Military medicine in fiction and reality. Pulse: The Journal of Science and Culture, 6,

Abstract

In the year 2013, during the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who, the title character finally faced the demons of his past that the series had been teasing for almost a decade. In a retrospective reveal the Doctor was depicted as rejecting his eight incarnation in favour of a crueller militaristic version to allow him to battle in the Time War. Previously the heroic benevolent explorer, the character’s tenure as the combative ‘War Doctor’ demanded an identity change that had psychological ramifications for nearly 1300 years across the Doctor’s ‘final’ three regenerations. While fictional, the Doctor’s transformation and subsequent trauma are a recurrent aspect of early 20th century military indoctrination and readjustment. As a result of the First World War, civilian combatants were forced to sacrifice their agency and personal morality to become soldiers. The medicalisation of the body for military purposes was a hallmark of the twentieth century. This article investigates this similarity between fiction and reality in relation to military medicine, and the physical and psychological impacts of such, by comparing popular science fictions such as Doctor Who, Marvel’s Captain America, and Joss Whedon’s Firefly to the reality of military service, training, and experimentation in the twentieth century.

• Item Type: Articles
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Walker, Dr Simon
• Authors: Walker, S. H.
• College/School: College of Medical Veterinary and Life Sciences > School of Health & Wellbeing > Public Health
• Journal Name: Pulse: The Journal of Science and Culture
• Publisher: Pulse
• ISSN: 2416-111X
• Copyright Holders: Copyright: © 2019 The Author(s)
• First Published: First published in Pulse: The Journal of Science and Culture 6
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced under a Creative Commons licence