a Doctor Who observation

[mizkit]

Okay, so I came to Doctor Who through New Who and haven’t watched any of the Old Who. I came to it with the following knowledge: The Doctor is a Time Lord who regenerates (thus allowing more than one actor to play the part) and who travels through time and space with (usually) human companions who have been caught up in his wake.

This being the sum

Comments

[irishkate]

I never thought Amy was special but then I had problems with her too.

But yes, that's what I thought the companion should be although historically the every day kind of people included people from the past and the future so also not exactly us. But certainly normal people (for where/when ever they were from)...mostly.

[mizkit]

Amy's clearly Special from the outset. She's the Girl With A Time Tear In Her Wall. She comes into the story already affected by, if not the Doctor himself, then the Doctor's *world*, at least, if you see what I mean?

[anghara]

My problem with the Matt Smith Who tenure is that his companions TAKE OVER THE SHOW. With Amy and Rory it became the Amy And ROry Extravaganza and it mattered more what happend to THEM, what THEY did, than it ever mattered about the Doctor who spent his time with them running around playing catchup. And maybe that's doable but Matt Smith can't DO IT. There are choices that worked for Tennant because he was - I don't know - a better actor? was blessed with better companions? - but all of his stories were stories about HIM and, uh, a sidekick and not about the sidekick and, uh, him. And I'm very much afraid that they're going the same way with Clara who is taking over in much the same way. Maybe it's that "special" thing that you're talking about but I'd like more of the DOCTOR and less of the ragtag hangers on who happen to share his journey for a little while - I mean it's fine for them to have their own stories too but they should integrate with the Doctor's and not the other way around...

[irishkate]

I see what you mean. I didn't think of her that way. I took it that that was just something that happened to her to bring the Doctor into her space rather than anything that made her or her story special..

[ceosanna]

I can't actually comment on the substance of this post as I haven't followed the show as much as I should. I can say, however, that my husband has determined that I must be a time lord since I currently have two heartbeats. :P

[mizkit]

TIMELORD!

[blythe025]

I haven't been keeping up, or really wanting to, since there latest doctor took over and I'm getting the sense from online chatter that the writing is kind of going downhill, especially this season. But the ordinariness, the idea that any one of us could be poked up is definitely part of the appeal.

[mizkit]

I don't actually think the lack of appeal is Matt Smith's fault. I think he's fine as the Doctor. But the stories aren't leaving me delighted, no.

[blythe025]

True. I don't mean to imply that it's his fault, as he can only work with what he's given. Though it seems the tone of the episodes changes with each new doctor as the writers adapt to the new actor.

[pers1stence]

I think the mileage varies about how special the companions are. His first "companion" (in Old Who) was his granddaughter, and she was special but trying to be a normal girl. the companions who joined her and the Doctor were of the non-special sort, but got drug into things when they were trying to make sure Granddaughter was okay at home.....

[pers1stence]

I think I *prefer* the non-special companions, by and large. And I am not wildly in love with the Moffat/Smith era. Journey to the Centre of the Tardis was one of the first episodes (along with the Rings of Akhaten) I've really liked in quite some time. I loathed the first half of the season 7. I thought the best part of season 7 was the sketch-animation epilogue to Amy and Rory's departure -- that should have been filmed and included in the episode and I would have felt much better about the conclusion to their story arc.

[marlowe1]

One word refutation - Adric

[mizkit]

I didn't like Journey to the Centre of the Tardis at all, but a lot of people clearly did. :)

[st_rev]

Depends what you mean by special. Arguably Romana was special, K9 was special, Adric was special, Kamelion was special, Leela was special, Zoe was special, Susan was special.

[mizkit]

Well, I can't define their specialness in any useful way, having not seen them. :) I know Romana, K9 and Susan as character concepts, at least, and yeah, they do seem to have something Special attached to them, particularly Susan (since the other two are another Time Lord and a robot, which makes them special in a different way). And, y'know, it's okay for a few of them to be special. It's just that all the New Who seems to be Destiny Driven, which...well, it just doesn't leave me feeling like the Doctor might happen to show up outside *my* house. :)

[st_rev]

There's a danger on the flip side of that, though. Companions exist so the Doctor has someone to infodump at. "Doctor, what does that mean?" If they don't have other strong roles to fill, that gets grating pretty quickly; I vaguely remember it being a problem during the Pertwee era in particular.