Druids... and The Doctor...

Well, Monday saw the Summer Solstice rung in in the traditional way. A load of hippie types dressing up and heading to sites of historical interest around Britain such as Stonehenge and Avebury. There are just a few minor issues with this.

Most importantly, how on earth did hundreds of thousands of revellers make it to Stonehenge without being vaporised by a collective alliance of Autons, Daleks, Cybermen, Sontarans et cetera? I mean, The Doctor is still locked in the Pandorica, watched over by this new terrifying Alliance (or, dare I say, 'coalition'), so how did the Druids manage to avoid extermination? Hippie magic trumps cyber technology now, does it?

Actually, allow me to get sidetracked, the opening part of the Doctor Who series finale was an absolutely tremendous high point in a series that has seen the new key talent of Moffat, Smith and Gillan produce some astounding moments. Admittedly, the big twist of the Pandoric being a prison for The Doctor was a touch predictable (although maybe I just spend too much time writing things myself to enjoy the mystery of such things anymore) but there were still a suitable number of questions left unanswered and a few things to make one's brain hurt. Such as, Rory came back as a Roman, but he wasn't really Rory, he was just an Auton programmed to be and think like Rory, but then if he was erased from time and never existed and Amy forgot about him, then how did the Alliance know and... ow, my head.

As well as every star in the universe going supernova and The Doctor being locked in a large cube (maybe Phillip Schofield will appear at some point), we were also left with a dying Amy. Now, I imagine some serious deus ex machina appearing in the next episode and I don't imagine Amy will remain dead any more than I imagine the Doctor will end up imprisoned forever and the writers will leave every star in the universe destroyed. Theories and symposia on possible resolutions that I've read include both The Doctor and River Song being Prisoner Zero, River's vortex manipulator will save the day, that Amy's house is the TARDIS (bigger on inside, blue etc.), some kind of link between Amy POND and RIVER Song. I don't know though, it's all very much nerdy internet ramblings. The long and the short of it is simply wait until Saturday and then we'll all find out.

Anyway, back to the Druids. Flocking to what we now know are in fact the communications towers that are the mysterious lithics of Stonehenge to celebrate what is in fact a festival celebrated possibly as early as the neolithic period, which happily is also the period in which the monoliths were erected in Avebury. So neo-druids flock their to celebrate something not in fact originally worship by Celtic religions at a site that has equally little to do with actual druids.

Now, I don't really have that much of a problem with new-age-y types with beards and robes, however as a historian it does bother me that their research seems to be a little flawed. In the musuem galleries at Avebury there's a child skeleton found on Windmill Hill, a real wonderful archaeological find, but the Druids insist on it being reburied. Now, not only would this set a worrying precedent and possibly end up with a huge number of societies and museums caving in to the demands of a group with little right to force this issue, but in all likelihood the skeleton is that of a neolithic child, given the period of other finds from the same area and again is nothing to do with Druids.

Gah, it just strikes me as misinformed, lobbying for the sake of making it look like you're doing something instead of arsing around in robes. You know it is, it really is.