"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."
So much exactly this.
I don't prefer a combatative relationship. They already have enough enemies to fight without fighting each other. They're just the two of them, alone, against the universe, so I much prefer a Companion and a relationship between the Doctor and Companion where they can both rely on each other, enjoy each other, and provide the sounding board for each other.
I intensely dislike this format of the Doctor or Companion fawning over each other. It got really annoying with the Doctor fawning over Amy as if she was something amazingly special or Martha fawning over the Doctor. Or, indeed, the show in general, fawning over it's own characters.
I'd much prefer a simple, believeable, but heartfelt friendship. The kind where people can occasionally get on each others nerves, or tell each other off when they need it, but mostly enjoy each other, enjoy each other's company, and can work well together. I prefer the Doctor and Companion to be a team, best friends, brothers in arms, the kind of people who have been through everything together, and know they can rely on each other.
But, yeah, the romance angle had been done to death. Leave the romance to River from now on. She can kiss him or kick his ass as needed. His Companions, to me, should be the friends he makes as he goes out exploring the universe.
I don't like the over-reliance New Who has put on the Companions either. Making it so that the Doctor is "dependent" on them. As if a thousand year old man needs a teenage nanny to keep him from going bad. Or how they try to make each one more uber special and important to him than the last, which just seems to try to undercut his relationship with other companions because they weren't "the special one," as if the Doctor ranks his Companions as to which is "better" than the other. Which I don't really think the Doctor would do. They've all been special to him in their own ways. They don't need to "compete" for his affection.
I also don't like the recent trend of Companions bringing along companions. Rose and Mickey, Amy and Rory. We end up with people in the Tardis, the Doctor's home, who have no direct relationship with him. They're only there because their girlfriend brought them along, which, to me, makes the Doctor the third wheel in his own life.
Or, conversely, ends up again "ranking" the Companions in terms of the "important" Companion and the "unimportant" one, or the "main" Companion, and the "secondary" one.
I much prefer if they are going to have multiple Companions, that they each have their own direct personal connection to the Doctor. And are not just there as "hangers on."
I think that's one of the few reasons the Tegan, Adric, and Nyssa relationships worked as well as they did. Each of them had a direct and personal relationship with the Doctor, and with each other. There was no one who was "more important" than the others. They all looked to the Doctor, and he treated them all equally as individuals with their own particular strengths and weaknesses. They were, essentially, a family. Including squabbling, and loyalty.
Unlike the "family" of New Who, where the Doctor is placed as the outsider in his own home. Or as the "visitor" to everyone else. When the Companion is dragging along a bunch of hangers on, as if the Doctor is merely the chauffeur they have a crush on, it really bugs me. Or if they act as if he's the god of all things, and drag along their own family and friends to try to "convert" them to him. It just ends up giving the Doctor a swelled head, and more strife and fakeness in the Tardis.
So, generally, yeah, I prefer a best friends vibe. A situation where the Companion and Doctor are important to each other, but not in an overblown, unbelievable, fawning way.
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.
Basically, why have anyone in the Tardis who doesn't want to be there? It's not like they really have time to develop any subplots based on that kind of relationship any more. It just comes off as the Companion pushing the Doctor around. Which seems really weird considering they're basically children who know nothing and he's the ancient alien who's destroyed worlds.
I prefer friends out to explore the universe, working together to solve problems, loving each other, but not fawning over each other, seeing each other with clear eyes, but having the tolerance,and even the enjoyment of personal foibles of friends.
I very much enjoyed the way Classic Companions would always be rolling their eyes about something the Doctor did, while at the same time explaining it away to strangers.
The "intolerance" in Classic Who (with a few exceptions like Tegan) seemed much more friendly and natural. Too much of New Who's relationships come off as fake. Everyone (especially the writers) are stressing too much how "special" everyone is, so they don't have time to just let them naturally be themselves and allow their own natural special qualities shine through.
One of the most special things about Donna was not that she was some special nexus point of the timelines, or that she had something on her back, or that she was the Doctor/Donna, the most "special" person in the universe.
It was simply that she was Donna. The goofy woman who would pack hats in case they went to the planet of the hats. Who would tweak the Doctor by calling him "spaceman" but mean it in an affectionate, but not blindly sycophantic way.
And, frankly, Sarah Jane was the most "non-special" normal person the show ever had. She simply treated the Doctor like a friend. She tweaked him when he needed it, supported him when he needed it, translated his weirdness for others who didn't understand, but also valued that weirdness in him, because it was part of him. Yet she also always knew he was there for her, unreservedly. They didn't "worship" each other, but they valued each other highly.
Yet, along with this deep affection, there was plenty of "I don't know why I like you humans so much," and the first thing Sarah ever did to the Doctor was kidnap him, and the last thing she did was have an argument with him.
Yet, she was not combative. She was simply dealing with his weird world, in the way a normal person would.
(Also, I think it's a very bad idea for the show to cast it's main characters in a bad light. The Sixth Doctor never really got past the "strangle Peri" scene. Amy's character was, I think, damaged by that "jump the Doctor" scene, and the Tenth Doctor would probably be remembered much more fondly if his tenure hadn't ended on him throwing a childish tantrum and then snivelling "I don't want to go!" Which sort of retroactively put his whole character in a bad light.)
If the writers can't think of interesting ways to develop a character other than just giving them "bad traits" in the name of "character development" then there is something wrong. People aren't made more real, simply by making them look bad.
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.
So much exactly this.
I don't prefer a combatative relationship. They already have enough enemies to fight without fighting each other. They're just the two of them, alone, against the universe, so I much prefer a Companion and a relationship between the Doctor and Companion where they can both rely on each other, enjoy each other, and provide the sounding board for each other.
I intensely dislike this format of the Doctor or Companion fawning over each other. It got really annoying with the Doctor fawning over Amy as if she was something amazingly special or Martha fawning over the Doctor. Or, indeed, the show in general, fawning over it's own characters.
I'd much prefer a simple, believeable, but heartfelt friendship. The kind where people can occasionally get on each others nerves, or tell each other off when they need it, but mostly enjoy each other, enjoy each other's company, and can work well together. I prefer the Doctor and Companion to be a team, best friends, brothers in arms, the kind of people who have been through everything together, and know they can rely on each other.
But, yeah, the romance angle had been done to death. Leave the romance to River from now on. She can kiss him or kick his ass as needed. His Companions, to me, should be the friends he makes as he goes out exploring the universe.
I don't like the over-reliance New Who has put on the Companions either. Making it so that the Doctor is "dependent" on them. As if a thousand year old man needs a teenage nanny to keep him from going bad. Or how they try to make each one more uber special and important to him than the last, which just seems to try to undercut his relationship with other companions because they weren't "the special one," as if the Doctor ranks his Companions as to which is "better" than the other. Which I don't really think the Doctor would do. They've all been special to him in their own ways. They don't need to "compete" for his affection.
I also don't like the recent trend of Companions bringing along companions. Rose and Mickey, Amy and Rory. We end up with people in the Tardis, the Doctor's home, who have no direct relationship with him. They're only there because their girlfriend brought them along, which, to me, makes the Doctor the third wheel in his own life.
Or, conversely, ends up again "ranking" the Companions in terms of the "important" Companion and the "unimportant" one, or the "main" Companion, and the "secondary" one.
I much prefer if they are going to have multiple Companions, that they each have their own direct personal connection to the Doctor. And are not just there as "hangers on."
I think that's one of the few reasons the Tegan, Adric, and Nyssa relationships worked as well as they did. Each of them had a direct and personal relationship with the Doctor, and with each other. There was no one who was "more important" than the others. They all looked to the Doctor, and he treated them all equally as individuals with their own particular strengths and weaknesses. They were, essentially, a family. Including squabbling, and loyalty.
Unlike the "family" of New Who, where the Doctor is placed as the outsider in his own home. Or as the "visitor" to everyone else. When the Companion is dragging along a bunch of hangers on, as if the Doctor is merely the chauffeur they have a crush on, it really bugs me. Or if they act as if he's the god of all things, and drag along their own family and friends to try to "convert" them to him. It just ends up giving the Doctor a swelled head, and more strife and fakeness in the Tardis.
So, generally, yeah, I prefer a best friends vibe. A situation where the Companion and Doctor are important to each other, but not in an overblown, unbelievable, fawning way.
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Basically, why have anyone in the Tardis who doesn't want to be there? It's not like they really have time to develop any subplots based on that kind of relationship any more. It just comes off as the Companion pushing the Doctor around. Which seems really weird considering they're basically children who know nothing and he's the ancient alien who's destroyed worlds.
I prefer friends out to explore the universe, working together to solve problems, loving each other, but not fawning over each other, seeing each other with clear eyes, but having the tolerance,and even the enjoyment of personal foibles of friends.
I very much enjoyed the way Classic Companions would always be rolling their eyes about something the Doctor did, while at the same time explaining it away to strangers.
The "intolerance" in Classic Who (with a few exceptions like Tegan) seemed much more friendly and natural. Too much of New Who's relationships come off as fake. Everyone (especially the writers) are stressing too much how "special" everyone is, so they don't have time to just let them naturally be themselves and allow their own natural special qualities shine through.
One of the most special things about Donna was not that she was some special nexus point of the timelines, or that she had something on her back, or that she was the Doctor/Donna, the most "special" person in the universe.
It was simply that she was Donna. The goofy woman who would pack hats in case they went to the planet of the hats. Who would tweak the Doctor by calling him "spaceman" but mean it in an affectionate, but not blindly sycophantic way.
And, frankly, Sarah Jane was the most "non-special" normal person the show ever had. She simply treated the Doctor like a friend. She tweaked him when he needed it, supported him when he needed it, translated his weirdness for others who didn't understand, but also valued that weirdness in him, because it was part of him. Yet she also always knew he was there for her, unreservedly. They didn't "worship" each other, but they valued each other highly.
Yet, along with this deep affection, there was plenty of "I don't know why I like you humans so much," and the first thing Sarah ever did to the Doctor was kidnap him, and the last thing she did was have an argument with him.
Yet, she was not combative. She was simply dealing with his weird world, in the way a normal person would.
(Also, I think it's a very bad idea for the show to cast it's main characters in a bad light. The Sixth Doctor never really got past the "strangle Peri" scene. Amy's character was, I think, damaged by that "jump the Doctor" scene, and the Tenth Doctor would probably be remembered much more fondly if his tenure hadn't ended on him throwing a childish tantrum and then snivelling "I don't want to go!" Which sort of retroactively put his whole character in a bad light.)
If the writers can't think of interesting ways to develop a character other than just giving them "bad traits" in the name of "character development" then there is something wrong. People aren't made more real, simply by making them look bad.
Reply
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.
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