Sleep No More was a very strange story. There’s some interesting stuff lurking in there: nice worldbuilding, the Doctor’s intuition that they’re in a story, and of course the point it makes of how necessary sleep is. But it wastes everything by taking the last idea in the most bizarre direction possible. Sleep deprivation can have scary effects, but instead of exploring this, what we get is… snot monsters. Which isn’t what I would call the natural direction to take the story. We won’t even get into how unbelievable the science is. What I do find interesting is how often Twelve is dropped into incredible situations that really don’t make sense - and how he sometimes dimly realises that this is the case. I’d like to think this is going somewhere, but it could be no more than a joke on the production team’s part.
Someone said in a review of Face The Raven that since NuWho likes its companions to love travelling with the Doctor to the point that they never want to leave, it has no choice but to force them to leave him. Which makes me wonder why it’s so impossible to have a companion who doesn’t only pick up the Doctor’s love of adventure, but the desire to do good. There’s a ready-made reason right there to have a companion leave the Doctor without being forced. In the classic series, we had Nyssa, who left to help heal people from a leprosy-like disease; Romana, who stayed in a different universe to help free members of an enslaved alien race; and Steven, who on the Doctor’s suggestion became the leader of a planet. My guess is that the production team thinks that a parting that doesn’t involve angst will fail emotionally, but I think this is showing a lack of imagination; both Romana and Nyssa’s leaving scenes where angsty in their own ways.
Twelve’s clothes in this story weren’t Master-style clothing; they were much more close to what the Third Doctor used to wear. So was what he wore last season, for that matter. The first two Doctors did wear black jackets a lot; that only changed with Three, who liked more colourful clothing.
"Sleep No More" was just ghastly--and not in any good way. All I can say is that, perhaps, the idea of Twelve's being dropped into incredible, nonsensical scenarios is meant to reflect a dream state.....Maybe.
I can see the idea that a companion would never want to stop traveling with the Doctor (especially Eleven!), but I think that would make a noble choice to serve some higher purpose even more touching.
On the other hand....He's a time traveler. Even a companion who gets tired of traveling and goes home can still have visits--I actually liked that concept that was shown in Eleven's reign.
Someone said in a review of Face The Raven that since NuWho likes its companions to love travelling with the Doctor to the point that they never want to leave, it has no choice but to force them to leave him. Which makes me wonder why it’s so impossible to have a companion who doesn’t only pick up the Doctor’s love of adventure, but the desire to do good. There’s a ready-made reason right there to have a companion leave the Doctor without being forced. In the classic series, we had Nyssa, who left to help heal people from a leprosy-like disease; Romana, who stayed in a different universe to help free members of an enslaved alien race; and Steven, who on the Doctor’s suggestion became the leader of a planet. My guess is that the production team thinks that a parting that doesn’t involve angst will fail emotionally, but I think this is showing a lack of imagination; both Romana and Nyssa’s leaving scenes where angsty in their own ways.
Twelve’s clothes in this story weren’t Master-style clothing; they were much more close to what the Third Doctor used to wear. So was what he wore last season, for that matter. The first two Doctors did wear black jackets a lot; that only changed with Three, who liked more colourful clothing.
Diona the Lurker
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I can see the idea that a companion would never want to stop traveling with the Doctor (especially Eleven!), but I think that would make a noble choice to serve some higher purpose even more touching.
On the other hand....He's a time traveler. Even a companion who gets tired of traveling and goes home can still have visits--I actually liked that concept that was shown in Eleven's reign.
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