 Many commentators attribute the series ' popularity to the altruism of its doctors and the emphasis on seeking to build peaceful relations between different species . John Clute wrote that " in the depiction of goodness may lie the real genius of James White . " White 's hatred of war and xenophobia is a constant theme of the series , notably in : Star Surgeon , where the Monitor Corps fights a savage battle in defence of the hospital space station , to prevent the conflict from escalating into a full interstellar war that can only end in genocide ; and in The Genocidal Healer , where an alien race 's sexual urges are almost eliminated by a plague and can only be stimulated by hand @-@ to @-@ hand combat . 
