I had a thought that hasn't yet come up in the companion war.
Now, it's a given that part of the current shipwar in Who is based on a number of new fans who aren't used to the rotating cast. It's a given that the canon in New Who has regrettably had *both* companions having jealous fits over the concept of their precursor companion - Rose laid into Sarah Jane for several scenes, while Martha has had to deal with "Rose would know what to do" to her face and then gone on several sotto-voce (sp?) rants about this in several episodes. The only TARDIS traveler in New Who who didn't give a rat's ass about who'd been there and what the Doctor thought/felt about them was Donna (who didn't give much of a rat's ass about anything outside herself).
In old Who, they always handled the turnover with an attitude that I've dubbed "Adric's dead... what's for tea?" Past companions get a bit of a mention in the very next episode... sometimes... and then that's that. The companion is gone, long travel the companion. I didn't think much of that back then, although in retrospect, I rather miss it. I think that Freema and Martha both have been given more of an uphill climb than necessary by this protracted referencing of Rose.
But I also think... one of the ways old Who soothed the way between companions was making sure that the next one down the pike was completely different than the previous one. Ian and Barbara, hip 60s teachers, were replaced with futuristic, brainy Zoe Sparkle!catsuit. Suave and smart Dr. Liz was replaced with bouncy, plucky (but not bright) Jo was replaced with militant, curious Sarah Jane was replaced with strong, silent, lethal Leela was replaced with... all the way up to "plucky" whiny Peri was replaced with "if it moves, blow it into orbit" Ace. Companions finding out about previous companions, on the rare occasions it happened, were treated very casually (swapping "how you deal with him" tips in 5 Doctors, Sarah Jane making jokes when the Doctor called her by the wrong name. Can you IMAGINE what would happen if the Doctor called a companion by the wrong name now? Or if Martha, as Sarah Jane did, wandered around wearing a previous companion's clothing? It wouldn't be a two-beat joke.)
Now we've got some echoes of that here. Plucky, uneducated but street-smart Rose was replaced with book-smart, scientific, analytical Martha. If the next companion is a homicidal maniac fighter type, then I'm going to join the "there are three ur-companions and they just get renamed" camp.
BUT! The one thing that *didn't* change is the one thing that New Who added to the dynamic (and, I think not coincidentally, the one thing that the fandom is fighting over) - the romantic/sexual relationship between Doctor and companion.
Both Rose and Martha are in love with the Doctor. It's a major failure of difference between the characters. And canon is going out of its way to draw that parallel too, with the "plus one" comment being echoed and the Doctor starting by revisiting all the places they had CGI for he'd gone with Rose, etc.
When the two companions were completely different and not being directly compared to each other, you could like them both without feeling that you were being unfaithful to former favorites. By having this failure of difference - even though the character's backgrounds, ethnicity, and families be different - Rusty has broken the old pattern... and fueled the fanwar, IMO. At first I thought he was going to make a two or three episode mini-arc out of "Have Martha win the audience over by winning a reluctant Doctor over." Then I was wondering if the theory that "Rose" was this season's "Bad Wolf" was true, although I have no idea how that would pay off on Saturday.
Now all I wonder is if Rusty plans on having every companion as gushy about the Doctor as he is himself - and how that failure of difference is going to haunt every companion changeover.
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