Doctors and companions
Nov. 8th, 2007 12:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
neadodsRandom thoughts on aired Who and Big Finish, which have given us diametrically opposed views of the Doctor/Companion relationship... and I'm fairly unhappy with both for going too far in their respective ways.
At first, I was happier with Big Finish's way of handling the meeting of two companions. Eight calls Romana and Charley both "my best friend" when he introduces them in Neverland; Charley (who has a Rose-sized crush on him) isn't amused, but she isn't dissed either, and she and Romana go on to have a strained but civilized discussion. As opposed to Ten's onscreen version of "nitro, meet glycerin" in School Reunion, and then running away from the resulting boom.
I was even more thrilled in Scherzo, because in Neverland and Zagreus Charley had actually said "I love you" to the Doctor and gotten an "I love you" back - but his notion of love and what a companion ought to do for love is fittingly alien to her human attachment. Again there was a strong Rose/Charley parallel - the Doctor had sent her out of danger so he could face it alone, knowing she was safe; Charley, like Rose in Parting of the Ways and Doomsday, promptly came back so she could look after him.
And Eight ripped her several new orifices. It was fabulous (easily the best part of a very wierd story) how he lit into her, calling her return a "betrayal" of how he'd tried to protect her and how he felt for her - if she really loved him in return, wouldn't she accept his sacrifice, and allow him the peace of knowing she was safe? If she really loved him, would she force the burden of continuing to worry about her upon him?
Nine was too busy dying to deliver that speech, but I would have liked to have seen Ten do a variant of it in Doomsday, personally. I think that both the Doctor and Rose would have been much stronger as characters if she had *chosen* to go into the alternate universe and continue "doing what we always did" as the Doctor told Sarah Jane. He could still have popped in to give her closure and see how she was doing, but we wouldn't be left with a young girl, with all the promise of youth and the wisdom of travelling with the Doctor, referring to herself as "dead," broken and sobbing on a beach.
Might have short-circuited some of the resulting unfun in fandom too.
I was only partially happy with how new Who handled the Doctor's resulting actions - it was a good thing that he remembered and mentioned Rose, because I was never fond of the "Adric's dead... what's for tea?" old school attitude. I think they unfortunately went overboard and thus poisoned Martha's foundation on the TARDIS, but it *was* good that the Doctor went back to check up on Rose and it was good that he remembered her name.
And frankly... I prefer the drippy emotionalism to the end of Big Finish's "Absolution." Because - sorry for the spoiler, but it's a big part of my essay - Eight watches C'rizz die right in front of him and slam-dunks right into "What's for tea?" without even a stopoff at "Gee, he's dead." It's up to Charley - who never really even liked C'rizz - to point out that it would be nice if he took a second to acknowledge, if not mourn, the loss.
The Doctor gets all "Oh, right, you're human, you worry about these things" and I could have smacked him into his next regeneration right there.
This is not the Doctor we've met. Not the one who shoved Susan out for her own good (and then went a little nutty over grief), not the one who went all wibbly over seeing Sarah Jane again, not the one who hijacked a supernova to leave a message. Not even the one who had, several audios ago, essentially told Charley and C'rizz to play nice or he'd turn this whole rescue-from-an-alternate-universe around and go back right now!
The money line comes a little later, when the Doctor essentially says "You all leave. I deal with that, you all leave sooner or later." It is a lesson he's learned repeatedly (and it would be nice to see a little of that acknowledged in new viewed Who) - but I just can't accept it coupled with a very unDoctorish complete lack of empathy for the death of a friend.
At first, I was happier with Big Finish's way of handling the meeting of two companions. Eight calls Romana and Charley both "my best friend" when he introduces them in Neverland; Charley (who has a Rose-sized crush on him) isn't amused, but she isn't dissed either, and she and Romana go on to have a strained but civilized discussion. As opposed to Ten's onscreen version of "nitro, meet glycerin" in School Reunion, and then running away from the resulting boom.
I was even more thrilled in Scherzo, because in Neverland and Zagreus Charley had actually said "I love you" to the Doctor and gotten an "I love you" back - but his notion of love and what a companion ought to do for love is fittingly alien to her human attachment. Again there was a strong Rose/Charley parallel - the Doctor had sent her out of danger so he could face it alone, knowing she was safe; Charley, like Rose in Parting of the Ways and Doomsday, promptly came back so she could look after him.
And Eight ripped her several new orifices. It was fabulous (easily the best part of a very wierd story) how he lit into her, calling her return a "betrayal" of how he'd tried to protect her and how he felt for her - if she really loved him in return, wouldn't she accept his sacrifice, and allow him the peace of knowing she was safe? If she really loved him, would she force the burden of continuing to worry about her upon him?
Nine was too busy dying to deliver that speech, but I would have liked to have seen Ten do a variant of it in Doomsday, personally. I think that both the Doctor and Rose would have been much stronger as characters if she had *chosen* to go into the alternate universe and continue "doing what we always did" as the Doctor told Sarah Jane. He could still have popped in to give her closure and see how she was doing, but we wouldn't be left with a young girl, with all the promise of youth and the wisdom of travelling with the Doctor, referring to herself as "dead," broken and sobbing on a beach.
Might have short-circuited some of the resulting unfun in fandom too.
I was only partially happy with how new Who handled the Doctor's resulting actions - it was a good thing that he remembered and mentioned Rose, because I was never fond of the "Adric's dead... what's for tea?" old school attitude. I think they unfortunately went overboard and thus poisoned Martha's foundation on the TARDIS, but it *was* good that the Doctor went back to check up on Rose and it was good that he remembered her name.
And frankly... I prefer the drippy emotionalism to the end of Big Finish's "Absolution." Because - sorry for the spoiler, but it's a big part of my essay - Eight watches C'rizz die right in front of him and slam-dunks right into "What's for tea?" without even a stopoff at "Gee, he's dead." It's up to Charley - who never really even liked C'rizz - to point out that it would be nice if he took a second to acknowledge, if not mourn, the loss.
The Doctor gets all "Oh, right, you're human, you worry about these things" and I could have smacked him into his next regeneration right there.
This is not the Doctor we've met. Not the one who shoved Susan out for her own good (and then went a little nutty over grief), not the one who went all wibbly over seeing Sarah Jane again, not the one who hijacked a supernova to leave a message. Not even the one who had, several audios ago, essentially told Charley and C'rizz to play nice or he'd turn this whole rescue-from-an-alternate-universe around and go back right now!
The money line comes a little later, when the Doctor essentially says "You all leave. I deal with that, you all leave sooner or later." It is a lesson he's learned repeatedly (and it would be nice to see a little of that acknowledged in new viewed Who) - but I just can't accept it coupled with a very unDoctorish complete lack of empathy for the death of a friend.
