January Talking Meme: Mothers in Doctor Who

[honorh]

Talking meme here, please do contribute suggestions.

For this prompt, thanks to wendymr, I really wish I knew more Old Skool Who. I'd like to do some compare/contrast. Since I can't, though, I'll stick with the two major eras of New Skool Who

Comments

[sue_denimme]

There's really nothing to compare and contrast with, between old and new Who, when it comes to companions' mothers, because Jackie was the first one we ever met on screen. Companions' family members were rarely mentioned at all, let alone shown, unless it was to help set them up to travel with the Doctor (as in, Jo's uncle who got her into UNIT, Sarah Jane's aunt who she impersonated, Tegan's aunt who was killed by the Master).

I think in that time period we weren't expected to even care or wonder about who the companions were leaving behind. I also think that that's where we're back to, with Moffat.

But damn, I miss the Davies era, when companions were people with lives, and it helped made the Doctor a person as well.

[lindenharp]

Ace (Companion to the Seventh Doctor) had a tumultuous relationship with her mother, but we never got to meet the woman (except as a baby in one visit to Earth's past)..

[wendymr]

Thank you for this! And, as it happens, I did mean New Who, and as previous commenters have pointed out, we really did not encounter companions' families in Classic Who anyway. Nor do we, other than by exception, in Moffat's Who, which I suspect is one of several reasons I don't care for his era so much; his companions do not have the same kind of rounded lives. I enjoyed Rory's dad, but the interlude with Clara's family in the last episode felt forced

[honorh]

To me, there's something kind of fascinating about the fact that RTD's era was threaded through with fairytale motifs, yet in fairy tales, it's the mothers who are missing, not the fathers.

Thanks for the interesting prompt! It was a good intellectual exercise to go back over those particular three women and analyze what made them similar and different.

And Jackie's totally my favorite, too. I think she was the best developed of all of them, partially because we saw more of her, and partially because Camille Coduri played her with such flair.

[fannishliss]

I loved the way that Davies grounded his era in the companions' family members. I think that Donna's relationship with Wilf, Rose's with Mickey, Pete, and alt!Pete, and Martha's with not only her mom but also dad and sister were all important. The mothers were so vivid as strong well-rounded characters stand out, but the other Folks at Home were also portrayed as real people

[doctorxdonna]

The family's were part of what made the series 1-4 NuWho companions so accessible. They felt more real, and I do miss that aspect of the show. However, if I may play devil's advocate...

We know Moffatt loves to throw out hints and tricks without ever explaining them or making their meanings explicit. 10 lost every companion he traveled with-all of them, lost or left him in one way or another. When Lady Christina asks to go with him, he says no. 11 also makes a point of indicating that he needs to lie low. If that is in fact what he were doing, it makes sense that he would choose companions with fewer familial ties or who weren't as close with their family's, having seen the danger it could cause before. Maybe. Who knows? Who nose?

I do miss me some Jackie Tyler, though. *sigh*