The 9-Day What I Love About _______ Meme, Day 6
Think of the following: 1. your significant other; 2. your best friend or a family member; 3. your pet(s); 4. your favorite TV show; 5. your favorite character; 6. your favorite character relationship; 7. your favorite actor/actress; 8. your favorite book; 9. anything else that comes to mind. Then write about what it is you love about them, doing one per day for 9 days. If you have more than one favorite whatever, do as many as you want within that category for that day. That's all. Be as brief or as eloquent as you like. No tagging required, this is for fun!
The Doctors and companions in classic Doctor Who were generally a lot of fun together. I particularly loved One with Susan, Two with Jamie, Three with Jo, Four with Sarah Jane and with Leela, and Seven with Ace. (Unfortunately, none of Five's or Six's companions really did it for me.)
As for the new series, I loved Nine with Rose (and Jack), and Ten with Rose. I'm marginally less enthused about Ten and Martha, but they too had their moments. (Not gonna talk about Eleven and Amy.)
But Ten and Donna... the greatest TARDIS team ever, IMO.
Here you had a 900-plus-year-old ultragenius/savior-of-the-universe-multiple-times-over/Last-of-the-Time-Lords/Lonely-God guy, and over here you had a 30-something supertemp from Chiswick. And she was totally his equal in every way. Not only that, but she made sure he knew it.
Watching them, we saw none of the subtle or not-so-subtle power imbalance that we were so used to with other Doctor/companion combos. The fact that in this case the Doctor and the companion happened to physically *look* around the same age helped, I think. But mostly it was because Donna was no starry-eyed young thing, but a grown-up woman who had been around long enough to have felt some of the disappointment that sets in when you realize that, no, in fact you're *not* going to be a movie star or cure cancer or set the business world on fire. Yet here she was, not accepting her lot but finally taking the opportunity she had refused at first, to "just be magnificent".
They were friends and partners. They laughed and argued, and supported and understood each other. She reined him in, and in return he enabled her to fly.
And there was absolutely *no* trace of romantic subtext between them. None at all.
Mind you, I'm not a shipper, as there isn't any particular pairing of the Doctor with anybody that I have more enthusiasm for than any other. But neither am I one of those people who bemoan the fact that the Doctor in the new series (well, the RTD era at least) has suddenly gained the ability to be looked at in "that way" by companions and passing guest characters, or that he even sometimes shows signs of looking back at them in "that way" as well. In fact, I welcome it as a hallmark of the show's potential for emotional realism which Davies was the first producer bold enough to actually explore.
That said, however, I was very glad when Donna made it clear from the moment she and the Doctor hooked back up in Partners in Crime that "You're not mating with me, sunshine!" It was a nice breather from all the requited and unrequited love that went on in the TARDIS for the first three seasons. And it was definitely a relief to the Doctor. You could see it in his eyes the moment she called him a "long streak of nothing". It had to be exhausting staying up on that pedestal that Rose and Martha had him on. Here finally was someone who could look him in the eye and see him clearly, yet still wanted to come with him. Someone who didn't want anything more than he could give. Someone he couldn't hurt, at least not in that fashion.
Not to mention the fact that it is extremely, *extremely* rare to find two opposite-sex adult lead characters in fiction who really are nothing but *friends*. So many people are so eager for there to be "more", for "sparks", for yet another will-they-won't-they-yay-they-are! that they forget that it's even possible for a friendship to stay just that and yet be deep and interesting and worth watching for its own sake.
So that's why I treasure the "DoctorDonna" as the unique thing that it was, despite the short time that we had it, and despite its ending.
Oh yes, and David Tennant and Catherine Tate are beyond brilliant together, both so equally matched in talent and timing and chemistry that they were never anything but a joy to watch. (Please please please let them do a DVD of Much Ado About Nothing... please please please...!)
The Doctors and companions in classic Doctor Who were generally a lot of fun together. I particularly loved One with Susan, Two with Jamie, Three with Jo, Four with Sarah Jane and with Leela, and Seven with Ace. (Unfortunately, none of Five's or Six's companions really did it for me.)
As for the new series, I loved Nine with Rose (and Jack), and Ten with Rose. I'm marginally less enthused about Ten and Martha, but they too had their moments. (Not gonna talk about Eleven and Amy.)
But Ten and Donna... the greatest TARDIS team ever, IMO.
Here you had a 900-plus-year-old ultragenius/savior-of-the-universe-multiple-times-over/Last-of-the-Time-Lords/Lonely-God guy, and over here you had a 30-something supertemp from Chiswick. And she was totally his equal in every way. Not only that, but she made sure he knew it.
Watching them, we saw none of the subtle or not-so-subtle power imbalance that we were so used to with other Doctor/companion combos. The fact that in this case the Doctor and the companion happened to physically *look* around the same age helped, I think. But mostly it was because Donna was no starry-eyed young thing, but a grown-up woman who had been around long enough to have felt some of the disappointment that sets in when you realize that, no, in fact you're *not* going to be a movie star or cure cancer or set the business world on fire. Yet here she was, not accepting her lot but finally taking the opportunity she had refused at first, to "just be magnificent".
They were friends and partners. They laughed and argued, and supported and understood each other. She reined him in, and in return he enabled her to fly.
And there was absolutely *no* trace of romantic subtext between them. None at all.
Mind you, I'm not a shipper, as there isn't any particular pairing of the Doctor with anybody that I have more enthusiasm for than any other. But neither am I one of those people who bemoan the fact that the Doctor in the new series (well, the RTD era at least) has suddenly gained the ability to be looked at in "that way" by companions and passing guest characters, or that he even sometimes shows signs of looking back at them in "that way" as well. In fact, I welcome it as a hallmark of the show's potential for emotional realism which Davies was the first producer bold enough to actually explore.
That said, however, I was very glad when Donna made it clear from the moment she and the Doctor hooked back up in Partners in Crime that "You're not mating with me, sunshine!" It was a nice breather from all the requited and unrequited love that went on in the TARDIS for the first three seasons. And it was definitely a relief to the Doctor. You could see it in his eyes the moment she called him a "long streak of nothing". It had to be exhausting staying up on that pedestal that Rose and Martha had him on. Here finally was someone who could look him in the eye and see him clearly, yet still wanted to come with him. Someone who didn't want anything more than he could give. Someone he couldn't hurt, at least not in that fashion.
Not to mention the fact that it is extremely, *extremely* rare to find two opposite-sex adult lead characters in fiction who really are nothing but *friends*. So many people are so eager for there to be "more", for "sparks", for yet another will-they-won't-they-yay-they-are! that they forget that it's even possible for a friendship to stay just that and yet be deep and interesting and worth watching for its own sake.
So that's why I treasure the "DoctorDonna" as the unique thing that it was, despite the short time that we had it, and despite its ending.
Oh yes, and David Tennant and Catherine Tate are beyond brilliant together, both so equally matched in talent and timing and chemistry that they were never anything but a joy to watch. (Please please please let them do a DVD of Much Ado About Nothing... please please please...!)