Women and Their Stories in Doctor Who

[fauxkaren]

So, I ended up getting into a really great discussion with therealycats about RTD's Women in Doctor Who vs Moffat's Women in Doctor Who over in this post and while replying to her comments, I realized that I was basically writing the meta that I'd been toying around with writing, so I edited my comments together to create this post. If you want to see my

Comments

[_thirty2flavors]

Well he was the main character, so he did have lots of development and was the constant whereas the companions changed. But the companions were hugely important, to the end that the specials were about how bad things get when there isn't a companion.

But both "Rose" and "Smith and Jones" follow the companion as her life is interrupted by the Doctor. (Donna's circumstances are a bit weird.) The alien languages only get translated for us, the viewer, once the companion can understand them. The major scene in any finale is usually the companion's moment of triumph and then the companion's departure.

I mean, of course the Doctor was still a main character with development and his own arc (and he absolutely should be, or it's boring) but I would argue that the companion was equally as central and her story was equally as important to the narrative, if not even more pronounced because usually it was happening on a 1-season scale versus over three or four years. That's why certain segments of fandom get so butthurt and go around saying things like IT'S CALLED DOCTOR WHO NOT THE ROSE TYLER/AMY POND/RIVER SONG SHOW!!! lol.

[alexandral]

Well, for me not one of companions ever felt close in "importance" to Doctor, this is just how I felt/feel.