Doctor Who: Some Miscellanious Analysis

[hermitknut]

So, I was looking over lists of Doctor Who episodes since 2005 (because I do awesome, special things in my spare time) and I saw some patterns. I'm not claiming that any of this is new or revolutionary, but I found it interesting to think about...

Comments

[cjtremlett]

It's so much easier to do this with just the new Who, but it would be interesting to compare things like amount of present, past and future set stories of new Who vs. old Who as well

[hermitknut]

I guess ultimately I like a lot of variety in my Doctor Who and I think the modern era hasn't been exploiting the potential for variety as much as they could be.

I think I'd have to agree with you on that. At some point I'd love to do this for Classic Who too, and see how it pans out, but I'm really not as familiar with it as I'd like to be.

Here's hoping the next companion is NOT in any way from the present day!

HK

[snowflakie06]

Very interesting. Not sure what to conclude with all this info either but I'd like to say that what I liked with RTD's era visiting 'current Earth' so much was that we got to know the companions' families a lot better. In Moffat's, all we've had with Amy is some mentioning of her aunt and having no parents and then her aunt and parents appearing only briefly in the S5 finale while not being mentioned at all in S6 or S7 so far. With Rory, we only got a mention of his mother mid-way through S6 (the line about her being a big fan of whomever's song was playing when they landed outside the factory in 6.05, can't remember the song/singer and I'm too lazy to look it up right now, sorry!) and nothing at all about his dad until episode 7.02 when he was attempting to fix their light but then we had the Doctor say 'hello, Brian' like he knew him all along whereas we didn't. Of course we were introduced to Mels and saw a bit more of Amy's and Rory's childhoods that way, but it seemed like it was more just to say 'oh, hey, lookit how timey-wimey

[hermitknut]

Haha, yes your comment made sense XD

[jaggedshards]

I agree about how background information about Amy and Rory seems to come in large dumps instead of more spread out in RTD's seasons. I think that's why I've always connected with Rose, Martha and Donna's stories than the newer companions, among some other reasons

[snowflakie06]

I agree about how background information about Amy and Rory seems to come in large dumps instead of more spread out in RTD's seasons. I think that's why I've always connected with Rose, Martha and Donna's stories than the newer companions, among some other reasons. It's the same for me, I've always found some way to relate with Rose, Martha and Donna because of the background information we've been given. With Amy, the only "background information" I've been able to relate to is how much waiting she's done and it's just not enough, especially since the Doctor caused it and we don't really get to see how it affected her outside of her relationships with the Doctor and Rory. The only other thing we really saw about her background was growing up with her "childhood fantasy" of her Raggedy Doctor but again, only in two episodes in relation to people other than Rory and the second time was really only for a few seconds at her wedding (their 'oh, not this again!' comments) and then he showed up and we didn't see any of their reactions! It

[armchairdm]

Okay; I'm going to come at this from a Classic Fan viewpoint; so bear with me.

Firstly - Amy and Rory haven't; when looking at a classic companion; been there for a huge amount. Especially not if viewed per episode as opposed to per year. Jamie McCrimmon was there for three full years; at something like 20 episodes a year. So yeah; I've liked the longevity of Amy. Rose was okay; but Martha and Donna were far too short.

As for off-earth episodes being the norm? That -was- the classic series. I doubt we'll ever go back entirely to that; at least partially because I don't think fans are quite as willing to overlook the fact that alien planets really do look a lot like earth...

I don't actually like the continual return to Earth 21st century. But with the way they set up their companions now; we have to do it. Old series companions had very few links to their past or families; so you rarely returned to present-day earth - the Third Doctor the notable exception.

[hermitknut]

Damnit, I had a whole reply to you and then livejournal ate it. Booo.

Thanks for the classic who viewpoint, it's good to have it. I think it's mostly pre-2005 viewers who are getting bored with Amy and Rory - us newbies aren't as used to it ;) - but I could be wrong.

And you have a good point about the familial connection. I feel like RTD did it with Rose because it was a fairly novel idea, but Moffat's doing it... because that's how RTD did so that's how Doctor Who is. Which means he's not really doing it for the right reasons and therefore not doing it brilliantly well. Hm. I'll have to think about that one.

HK

[armchairdm]

I don't mind the familial connection; I'm not fond of so much time being spent on present-day Earth

[hermitknut]

Biases are okay :)

I myself am pretty open on the familial connection and present day earth stuff - it just feels like we need a change.

I absolutely agree about Amy chosing the boy thing. I'm slightly obsessed with Rory :P I think that maybe it depends on the character and the adventure. Some characters work well with that constant connection - I loved Martha's phone conversations with her mum in 42 - perhaps because they have a life away from the Doctor. Is it a little harsh to say that Amy... kind of doesn't? She and her husband travel with him. Their daughter is kind-of-sort-of married to him, and their lives are constantly disrupted by him. It's been good, but it has made me miss the "I can't and won't just drop everything for you" attitude that sometimes turned up elsewhere.

HK