Info about the new companion *POTENTIAL SPOILERS*

[the_willows]

At the moment, this is potentially speculative, and the info comes from an as yet un-aired interview with Steven Moffat for BBC Radio 5. But, according to DoctorWhoTV, Mr Moffat has said the following about the new companion:

Comments

[the_willows]

Moffat you are talking out of you backside again. Could you not at least make her from a different time period for a bit of variety?

Whilst I also appreciate companions from different time periods and planets, I've been watching Who since Pertwee was all up in my childhood. There are a lot of new viewers of all ages who just aren't familiar with the show and it's conceit. Not everyone has the means and money to go out and catch up with all of classic Who, and may not even want to, and that's their choice.

The show is as strong as it's viewing figures, and the brand is gaining new viewers all the time, but at the end of the day, the BBC doesn't make this show for fun, it's a business, and has to grab a share of the audience. I can see where they may think that a contemporary human companion might ease new viewers into the show by having a character to identify with, and the whole male/female dynamic is appealing too.

So, yes, whilst I agree with you that a different time period, or species, would have been a really fun ride for a change, you can't cater to everyone's tastes, and have to give it the broadest appeal possible in a competative medium; the variety and intrigue will come with the storylines, it shouldn't really matter a jot from whence the companion originates, but who she is as a person on the inside, her inner character is what will drive the dynamic.

Anyway, this still isn't carved in stone, but if it is, it's a done deal, and we'll have to wait and see where the writing takes her. :)

[ccorday]

"There are a lot of new viewers of all ages who just aren't familiar with the show and it's conceit."

*knocks over tables and chairs*

Well they need their minds expanded, not coddled like all white Western youths are coddled these days. "Oh, we don't want to introduced too many new ideas to you at once, it might make you scared and hurt your feels." I'm seriously trying not to swear here and be bitchy, but the science fiction genre is supposed to drag people out of their little mundane worlds, not make them feel all safe and comfy.

In short, I really don't care about these imaginary "new fans" who will be turned off if a character in a science fiction television show doesn't remind them of their classmates or whatever this is supposed to mean. I will also add that since I'm American, I've learned lots of things about England and history that have nothing to do with my safe little upbringing in middle class USA. Stephen Moffat is not even English, he should know that people can cope with ideas and people that aren't from down the street.

[roseandheather]

I hate to put it this bluntly but - please stop being an ass. (Also, if you have to say "I'm not trying to be bitchy" you are already there.) You are not the sole audience of Doctor Who. For me the best intrigue of Who as a fandom is seeing what happens when an ordinary person encounters a time-travelling, all-but-omnisicent alien who can change history on a whim and holds the fate of entire galaxies in his hands. The fact that the companion is human and from the present day doesn't change how fantastical the stories are, and it certainly doesn't coddle the viewers. In fact, I'd argue it makes them coddled less, because in Who all these fantastical, crazy, heartbreaking, incredible things are happening to people just like us, not aliens from another world.

Does the fact that Donna is a temp from Chiswick make "The Fires of Pompeii" any less gutwrenching, or "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead" any less terrifying (and, yes, uncomfortable)? Does the fact that Rose is a shopgirl from an estate make "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances" any less tearjerking, or the ending any less joyous?

Think about that for a minute.

ETA: I'm also side-eyeing really hard the fact that you're so dismissive of new viewers. My first episode was "Vincent and the Doctor". I started watching this show in 2010. Sorry if that makes me less of a "true fan" than you. Are you really advocating a jump back to the '80s, where the continuity references came so fast and furious if you hadn't been watching since the beginning you were totally lost? Are you really? That's... kind of assholish, to be honest. Not everyone grew up with the show, and the idea that you don't care about all the people who aren't watching the show but maybe could with Jenna's introduction just because you want another Romana strikes me as very selfish.

[myfirstkitchen]

Your version of the show would only be given a budget of tuppence ha'penny if it was greenlit at all, would be written and produced by complete unknowns with no effects or music and be shunted around the late night BBC3 schedule before being ditched after one series.

[eclecticmuse]

Doctor Who, believe it or not, is made for the not-wes--that is to say, it is not made for hardcore fans like you and I. Nor should it be. You might want to sit down and think about your sense of entitlement a little.

[the_willows]

Whoah there, no-one is being coddled. Like I said, not everyone has the money and means to start with Doctor Who from way back in the Hartnell origins, and they really don't have have to. Every viewer gained is a tick on the sheet of 'reasons why we need to renew this show for another series'.

I cannot abide fandom elitism in any form. No-one has ownership over the show except for the people who write and finance it, and as viewers, we have the choice whether we sit down and watch it, or decide that we no longer find the production values and ethos to our personal taste, and stop.

New fans are not 'imaginary', they are very real, and absolutely essential to the show continuing past the 50 year mark.