Classic Who Meta: the dynamic between the Doctor and his companions

[kilodalton]

Comments

[gehayi]

I do remember the Fifth Doctor and Tegan, and I never got a "combative dynamic" vibe from them. Tegan and the Fifth Doctor squabbled at times, but I never lost sight of the fact that they were the best of friends. (If you want to talk about "combative," talk about Tegan's fellow companion Turlough, who came on board specifically to kill the Doctor

[donna_c_punk]

This. So much, all of this!

[betawho]

"I'm tired of romance and intensity being the default settings in Doctor Who. I wish that the Doctor could just have friends--ordinary, squabbling, imperfect friends who disagreed with him, called him on his mistakes and made mistakes themselves

Part 2

[betawho]

I did get annoyed at Tegan. I agree that having such a shrewish Companion was annoying. Basically, while I don't like Companions to fawn on the Doctor, I also don't like ones who pick on him, or belittle him. Tegan at least had loyalty, but there was too much picking on the Doctor and treating him without respect, belittling him whenever she could. Amy bothered me the same way, always with the "my boys" schtick, as if they were just her puppies there for her convenience. (I equally hated the way she treated Rory as if he was her lapdog. And it didn't help that the writers wrote him that way, letting her get away with murder when it probably would have been better for her if he'd stood up to her and told her to cut it out. You can be a non-aggressive guy without letting them wipe their feet on you.) Mickey got much the same treatment

[skalja]

One of the reasons -- possibly the reason -- Eight is my favorite Doctor (insofar as I have one) is that he can express his appreciation for his close friends without ranking them against one another. Like when he introduced the Brig and Charley to each other, each as his "best friend," no qualifiers. (I'm pretty sure he did the same thing with Charley and Romana later on, too!)

I have zero problem with the intensity of the Doctor's NuWho friendships -- it's more the presumed exclusivity that bugs me. It's a very immature and oddly static way of looking at relationships. You can be closer to one person or another at different times in your life or theirs -- that doesn't have to mean one of them is more important to you than the other in an absolute sense.