Doctor Who [6]

This is a nice oddity- 6th Doctor Colin Baker giving the 11th Doctor speech from Rings at Akhenten- nicely demonstrates they are all the Doctor and any of them could have given that speech- although weird to hear the 6th talk about the Last Great Time War when it was after his time- and the 6th would never have used the word 'baby' in that context- that's very 11.  



The original for comparison-

 

cool the music to that scene is amazing though.

Rings is one of my favourite series 7 episodes- its so different and I love that Who can go these places with story concepts and themes. I think love it or hate it, and it certainly split fans, its indicative of a confident show.

News-

Matt Smith has confirmed that he begins shooting for this year's Christmas Special from this coming Sunday.
Matt responded to a question about his current hair style and on how this would impact filming:
"I did it for a film, but it means I have to wear a wig in Doctor Who which is a nightmare. I'm excited, I start shooting the Christmas Special Sunday. It'll be sad - the end of a wonderful era!"

I have been watching random episodes from series 1-7 of NuWho, and thinking about female companions and why I like some a lot more than others.
Pour yourself a buckie. Warning will almost certainly contain lots of spoilers. Don't read if your name is David and you own a farm.

I think the main reason I dislike Rose more than most is that she is the least complex of the NuWho companions. Her character is laid out in montage in the opening five minutes of the first episode and that is the basic template for her run.
Of course there is story development, her eyes are opened to the wonders of the universe, and to acting and not standing by, she falls in love with the Doctor. But whilst stuff happens Rose never really changes from day one, you always know what you are getting.
Conversely this makes her easier to like than some other companions, she doesn’t really have any sort of dark side to her beyond being a bit narrow in her thinking sometimes and she is as self centred as a gyroscope when it comes to the Doctor.
In many ways Rose is a modern Sarah Jane Smith, hard not to enjoy when she is on screen, but when you actually come to nail her character down there is not really that much to say.

Martha had a little more complexity, she was smarter than Rose from the start and was a qualified Doctor but the series she is in is dogged by a withdrawn Doctor still musing on his loss of Rose and the unrequited love story line of Martha, which grew tired quite quickly and there was not enough in her character to fall back on so it was over played too.
Unfortunately whilst likeable enough Martha never got out of the shadow of Rose, and the Doctor never got out of brooding over Rose for Martha's entire time on the TARDIS.
When she left it was not so much for story reasons as with the nagging feeling they had simply run out of ways to make her interesting or keep the character going any longer.

Easily my favourite companion of the RTD era is Donna Noble. Mouthy, shouty Donna.
And here we come back to complexity again, Donna was more complex than either Rose or Martha.
She was not very likeable to begin with for a start, she was ignorant, her world consisted of gossiping about her friends behind their backs and talking about soap operas and X-factor. She was over confident without the ability to back it up.
Of all the RTD era companions Donna has by far the most growth as a character. And she is a fast learner when given the opportunity. She is also the most human of the first three companions, its her huge reserves of compassion than define her- whether that is saving just one family from death in the ash of Pompeii or realising she has to sacrifice herself to save everyone else in Turn Left.
And its because her character has these warring factors, compassion and ignorance, over confidence masking a lack of confidence, humour masking pain, that her character is so believable, and losing all of that growth at the end so painful to watch.
Its not just she reverts to the ignorant Donna with no concept of the wider universe, its that she reverts to the Donna who lacked understanding of herself, and why she behaved and acted as she did.
The tragedy of Donna is reliant on her character being more complex than the other two, and in having so much space to grow and gain and so to lose.

Which brings me onto an observation about female Companions in general and how they are viewed by fans.
The characters that are more complex are always more divisive.
There are plenty don’t like Rose and plenty love her, but few on the don't like side would refuse to watch any episode she was in- like myself most will have much loved episodes from the Rose era, Empty Child/Doctor Dances/ Girl in the Fireplace to name but three of my own favourites.
Whereas those who dislike Donna find her episodes hard to watch and those who love her rate her very highly indeed. The divide has seemingly more contrast.

And that of course brings me onto NuWho's most complex character, and most divisive, Amelia Pond.

In some ways Amy is the opposite of Donna. Where Donna was like a pile of possibilities waiting to be shaped, and grow in complexity, Amy starts complex and there is a deconstruction of the reasons for her complexity as time goes on.
Amelia even when we first meet her is already screwed up- her parents have been wiped from existence and memory, then the Doctor turns up, disappears, she goes through years of psychotherapy dealing with her belief in her imaginary childhood friend, finally seems to be getting over it to a degree, or at least burying it all in her mind somewhere, and then he turns back up.
Amy's life is a mess, and a lot of her outward character is protective shielding to mask herself from that mess and not confront it.
And in a very real way that's the nub of Amy- most of the events which shape her life are out with her control- the Crack in Time, being a pawn in the trap to capture the Doctor, even the birth of her child is taken out of her hands.
Amy is a victim if circumstances caused by the Doctor and her story is essentially one of taking control of what she can and shaping her own destiny out of it. A story of taking control.
To begin with she is hopeless at making decisions, even if she is going to go through with her marriage to Rory is undecided at the beginning. (And its hard to talk about Amy without Rory, as theirs is a shared story and journey, but I will concentrate on Amy)
But piece by piece as she comes to understand more, and see more, she takes control of each aspect of her life, first who she wants to be with, then how she wants to travel with the Doctor, and finally who she wants to spend the rest of her life with.
Amy is an unravelling of what makes her who she is when we meet her, and a journey to the woman who decides her own fate at the end.
All of this however does make her a much less sympathetic character, she hides a lot of her own uncertainty behind avoiding the subject and a seemingly hard exterior which is why comparison with Rose are so difficult.
Where Rose was clear cut and friendly, Amy is complex and difficult as a person.
It means Rose is to the viewer more accessible and so easier to relate to, where Amy can seem more distant and cold.

So in summing up I've come to the conclusion I like the complexity in a character, even if it comes at the expense of instant likeability to the character, and that without a doubt Donna and Amy top my list in that regard of NuWho female companions (there is in my view only 1 real contender for best male, and that's Rory, but then the only opposition is Mickey, and the least said about that character the better- he didn't get a mention in the Rose bit as he impacts so little on her character development, if at all).

So care to share your thoughts on NuWho's female Companions?
Who are your favourites and why?

1.Donna..easily the most courageous, funny and real. heartbreaking end.

2.Rose..love her energy and her loyalty to him.

3.Martha..wasnt really meant to be the Doctors companion, too intelligent and indipendant, she doesnt need him.

4.Amy..I grew to pity her, she was tortured beyond all human decency for the sake of plotlines.

I loathe and detest River, the less said the better

Martha..wasnt really meant to be the Doctors companion, too intelligent and indipendant, she doesnt need him.- Mrs Figg

This is one of the reasons her puppy love and unrequited love for the Doctor never seemed true to me.

A wig... Not sure how i feel about that... He was the doctor with no hair at the proms so why couldn't he just ... Do that i found it funny the whole what happened to ur hair thing

No different than Karen wearing a wig for a few episodes of series 7 after she had to cut it for a film.  
So long as its a good wig should be fine.

when was that? pictures?

its the wiggy bit, I thought it was very obviously a wig, I noticed it when they were in the garden.

I noticed it when they were in the garden.- Mrs Figg

Not sure when you mean Figgs.

It was the stuff she was shooting around Pond Life- she has a wig on for all of Pond Life as it was all shot after she had cut it for a film.

she was sitting in a garden with Rory I think it was in their house. maybe it was Pond Life

well, it's not a bad wig. what had she cut it to? was it short/bold?

Dunno, but it was for that romantic comedy she was in.

she was sitting in a garden with Rory I think it was in their house.- Figg

Sounds more like Power of Three.

I think they were sitting in their garden drinking wine and they heard the Tardis in the distance, they had just been saying they liked being normal and then when they heard the tardis they said normal, just not yet kinda thing. and I noticed she had a wig on, I thought it was weird at the time.

Yeah thats Power of Three- dont think its a wig, but Im probably not a good judge.

thats a wig alright, its weird on the crown. the colour is pretty perfect though, they did a good job. the top photo looks like her hair, the bottom photo looks like a wig.

I'm wondering if they did the garden and house stuff as pickups when they shot Pond Life (makes sense to only hire the house for one block of shooting and not have to hire it twice)- but I think from your description the exact scene they are talking in bed not the garden-

Rory- Did real life just get started.

Amy- I think so...I like it.

Rory- So do I.

what are they talking about in the garden  probably something similar

Yeah basically same conversation about normal life v Doctor life.

I wonder if she and Rory will be in the 50th anniversary.

btw you know what we did before?? we both completely forgot Clara as a companion, she wasnt on either our lists, well I forgot her anyway, but maybe thats because she hasnt really made much of an impression? she is nice but bland.

I didnt forget her, but she has only had half a series so far so didnt think it fair to judge yet- on the other hand, whilst she is likeable she has yet to make any sort of real impression on me- so far she is a bit of a Martha.
But her first full season will be with 12 and so I think its that relationship will either make or break her character as a Companion.

I want one!