End of an era: Charley Pollard and the Eighth Doctor (Spoilerific)
Who_Daily Link: < a href="http://persiflage-1.livejournal.com/201560.html">A quick look at Charley Pollard's time with the Eighth Doctor by < lj user=persiflage_1>
I've just finished listening to "The Girl That Never Was", the last of the Eight and Charley audios from Big Finish. And I feel a bit sad - I'd grown fond of young Charley. True, she had her moments when she irritated me or she was bit selfish, but those moments weren't too often, thankfully.
Charley's had an interesting development over the run of audios from "Storm Warning" to "The Girl Who Never Was". Back in her first story she was a posh, slightly rebellious, pretty naive young woman; by the start of her final story with the Eighth Doctor she had developed into a more mature, more experience and less naive young woman who was equally capable of smacking a man over the head to escape or of talking a suicidal man back from a cliff edge.
She falls in love with the "oddest man" she's ever met, and declared those feelings to him, and been loved back (although not in a shagging against the console way unless you're reading between the lines). She's been trapped in a parallel universe without time, after stowing away (again) rather than leave the Doctor to go alone into his exile in the Divergent Universe. She's met Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (for me the only highlight of "Minuet in Hell"!) and Orson Welles, and President Romana amongst others. She became very fond of C'rizz, the chameleonic Eutermesan from the Divergent Universe who joined the Doctor and Charley in "The Creed of Kromon" and remained with them until his death in "Absolution".
It's the Doctor's (rather OOC in my view) reaction to C'rizz's death that prompts Charley to decide that she will stop travelling with the Doctor. His apparent indifference and his remark about things going back to the way they were lead her to feel that he never really liked C'rizz and that he's quite glad that the Eutermesan has gone. "The Girl That Never Was" opens with the Doctor bringing Charley back to Singapore (the end of her intended journey aboard the R101 when she met up with Eight in "Storm Warning"), but not in 1931, as planned. Instead, they find themselves in Singapore in 2008 - the TARDIS having apparently been drawn off course.
There follows a complex timey-wimey (thank you Mr Moffat for that adjective, so very apt for Who!) story with both Charley and the Doctor hopping backwards and forwards through time between 2008, 1942 and 500,002; a disappearing ship, and a hold full of Cybermen.
At the end of the story, Charley is left stranded on a desert island in 500,002, sending out an SOS via a makeshift crystal set that she's cobbled together from material that was on board the ship that has now sunk. Then the TARDIS turns up - but it's not the Eighth Doctor who's occupying the blue box...
* * * *
Having reached the end of Charley's run, it's easy to see that Team Cardiff wanted to do with Rose Tyler and the Doctor, what Big Finish have done with Charley - but Team Cardiff failed spectacularly by making Rose's story *all* about the Doctor and not enough about her personal character development. I think that Rose must be the only DW companion who actually *regresses* instead of developing, and Charley's story just points up the massive fail that RTD managed to achieve with Rose Tyler thanks to the latter's self-centredness.
Anyway, I'm glad to know that Charley's adventures will continue, albeit at the side of a different incarnation of the Doctor. I'm still not sure about the Eight and Lucie stories - mainly because I've somehow managed to avoid learning anything at all about Lucie (which is quite a stunning achievement in this day and age - and it's not as if I was deliberately avoiding finding out anything!), but I'll definitely be listening to Charley's further adventures.
I've just finished listening to "The Girl That Never Was", the last of the Eight and Charley audios from Big Finish. And I feel a bit sad - I'd grown fond of young Charley. True, she had her moments when she irritated me or she was bit selfish, but those moments weren't too often, thankfully.
Charley's had an interesting development over the run of audios from "Storm Warning" to "The Girl Who Never Was". Back in her first story she was a posh, slightly rebellious, pretty naive young woman; by the start of her final story with the Eighth Doctor she had developed into a more mature, more experience and less naive young woman who was equally capable of smacking a man over the head to escape or of talking a suicidal man back from a cliff edge.
She falls in love with the "oddest man" she's ever met, and declared those feelings to him, and been loved back (although not in a shagging against the console way unless you're reading between the lines). She's been trapped in a parallel universe without time, after stowing away (again) rather than leave the Doctor to go alone into his exile in the Divergent Universe. She's met Brigadier Lethbridge-Stewart (for me the only highlight of "Minuet in Hell"!) and Orson Welles, and President Romana amongst others. She became very fond of C'rizz, the chameleonic Eutermesan from the Divergent Universe who joined the Doctor and Charley in "The Creed of Kromon" and remained with them until his death in "Absolution".
It's the Doctor's (rather OOC in my view) reaction to C'rizz's death that prompts Charley to decide that she will stop travelling with the Doctor. His apparent indifference and his remark about things going back to the way they were lead her to feel that he never really liked C'rizz and that he's quite glad that the Eutermesan has gone. "The Girl That Never Was" opens with the Doctor bringing Charley back to Singapore (the end of her intended journey aboard the R101 when she met up with Eight in "Storm Warning"), but not in 1931, as planned. Instead, they find themselves in Singapore in 2008 - the TARDIS having apparently been drawn off course.
There follows a complex timey-wimey (thank you Mr Moffat for that adjective, so very apt for Who!) story with both Charley and the Doctor hopping backwards and forwards through time between 2008, 1942 and 500,002; a disappearing ship, and a hold full of Cybermen.
At the end of the story, Charley is left stranded on a desert island in 500,002, sending out an SOS via a makeshift crystal set that she's cobbled together from material that was on board the ship that has now sunk. Then the TARDIS turns up - but it's not the Eighth Doctor who's occupying the blue box...
* * * *
Having reached the end of Charley's run, it's easy to see that Team Cardiff wanted to do with Rose Tyler and the Doctor, what Big Finish have done with Charley - but Team Cardiff failed spectacularly by making Rose's story *all* about the Doctor and not enough about her personal character development. I think that Rose must be the only DW companion who actually *regresses* instead of developing, and Charley's story just points up the massive fail that RTD managed to achieve with Rose Tyler thanks to the latter's self-centredness.
Anyway, I'm glad to know that Charley's adventures will continue, albeit at the side of a different incarnation of the Doctor. I'm still not sure about the Eight and Lucie stories - mainly because I've somehow managed to avoid learning anything at all about Lucie (which is quite a stunning achievement in this day and age - and it's not as if I was deliberately avoiding finding out anything!), but I'll definitely be listening to Charley's further adventures.