Companion Diversity

[darkestboy]

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[eaweek]

Under couples, you might also add that Martha was engaged to Tom Milligan (from "Last of the Time Lords"), and Donna with the guy she married in "End of Time 2" (Shawn? Sean? I think was his name). And it's worth pointing out that we've seen three interracial couples: Rose and Mickey, Tom and Martha, Donna and Shawn.

This is a great post, thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Outside of the main cast and recurring characters, there has been a very nice diversity in the guest cast. As a middle-aged woman, I appreciate the number of multifaceted, competent female characters who are not all svelte young things with perfect figures and hair like something out of a Pantene commercial. I especially like it when these actresses are cast as characters who are in a position of authority--it makes sense that by the time someone has worked her way up the ranks to such positions, she'd be in her forties or fifties. I'm especially partial to Harriet Jones, Mrs. Moore, Adelaide Brook, Captain Magambo, and Nasreen Chaudhry--women who are tough, intelligent, and kick-ass, women who are valued for their brains and their guts, not their looks.

I still remember watching "Rose" and having two things strike me right away. One, Rose was in a relationship with a black guy, and this was presented very matter-of-factly, without any kind of afterschool special fuss ever being made about it. Two, Rose herself was not a size two, but had an ordinary, realistic figure. I remember saying to friends that if Billie Piper had been an actress in the US, she'd have been put under all kinds of pressure to lose weight. I find it so refreshing that they cast actresses on Who that are bigger than stick figures.

[lyricwrites]

Nasreen Chaudry is especially interesting in that she gets, essentially, a classical companion arc in two episodes. You know, going from "Who is this lunatic?" to "OMG bigger on inside how?" to "must save the day with the Doctor" to "I'm leaving for something/someone I believe in."

In regards to the original post, I also note that Rory was not advertised as a companion (perhaps so that his reappearance would be a surprise), and that Moffat likes to work with two companions. So it's entirely possible that Jenna's character's girlfriend (or boyfriend) will be a person of color. (I'm kind of rooting for girlfriend, but I'd be cool either way.)