Last night's Doctor
Jan. 27th, 2020 03:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pensnestI enjoyed last night's Doctor Who a whole lot more than usual.
Captain Jack! Never a bad thing, though it seemed like an awful lot of pointless and repetitive scenes just to give the Doctor a short message. He could have shown up, kissed the wrong guy, been shot at, blurted out his warning, and gone. Instead of being shot at, and trying to decide who to kiss, and Being Captain Jack, and being shot at some more, and so on and so forth. Oh, and eventually handing on a message. Which only one person needed to be able to convey, so why were the other two even there?
*LOVE* the other Doctor! Tough as nails, excellent outfit, really on the ball—I like Jodie Whittaker a lot, but can we keep them both? Two sides of an awesome coin.
I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that what is wrong with this season is the three companions.*
In the past of New Who, we have had multiple companions at various times, but with a difference: the primary companion was introduced first, and the secondary (Mickey, with Rose, and Rory with Amy) was introduced gradually. The primary gets to leap right in to life with The Doctor, and the secondary takes his time to come around to the idea. And there is a relationship between the primary and secondary which is important to both, as well as the relationship(s) with the Doctor. When Captain Jack came along, he was incorporated into the relationship with Doctor and Rose in the same way—it grew.
With these three, they were all acquired at once, and the result seems to be that each one is no more than a third as awesome as the Companion needs to be. This is a real shame. We could have had Yas first, the responsible and capable police-officer-in-training, and she might have introduced Ryan as a friend who was having problems in his home life but blossomed with the Doctor, and then found that Graham was worried about him and showed up, did something useful, and stuck around. Or we might have had Ryan first, eager to escape from the life he had which was frustrating in so many ways, followed by Graham who wanted to maintain the relationship, and then have Yas turn up because she'd noticed Ryan was missing and wanted to know why. And I mean they should have turned up over time, rather than all bundling in at once.
As a result… none of them convinces me. I couldn't even remember Graham's name—had to look it up. (I have wasted several minutes trying to figure out whether it's Yas or Yaz, and still am not entirely sure I have the right answer. Grr.) They just seem like some random characters who sit about on the TARDIS—and I know they have been given Things To Do, but I can't remember who they are from one week to the next. It's such a shame. There have been companions I liked a lot (Martha, Donna) and companions I liked a lot less (Clara), but generally speaking I've been able to remember who they are.
Also, do we really need Graham? Really? He seems to be there as the older-and-wiser person, but he's with THE DOCTOR, who is way older and wiser than anyone else around. So... really?
* Well, and the writing has been rather sub-par. Even this week, in an episode which actually had some nice twisty bits and a couple of nice surprises, there were definite weaknesses in the way the story was told.
Captain Jack! Never a bad thing, though it seemed like an awful lot of pointless and repetitive scenes just to give the Doctor a short message. He could have shown up, kissed the wrong guy, been shot at, blurted out his warning, and gone. Instead of being shot at, and trying to decide who to kiss, and Being Captain Jack, and being shot at some more, and so on and so forth. Oh, and eventually handing on a message. Which only one person needed to be able to convey, so why were the other two even there?
*LOVE* the other Doctor! Tough as nails, excellent outfit, really on the ball—I like Jodie Whittaker a lot, but can we keep them both? Two sides of an awesome coin.
I am rapidly coming to the conclusion that what is wrong with this season is the three companions.*
In the past of New Who, we have had multiple companions at various times, but with a difference: the primary companion was introduced first, and the secondary (Mickey, with Rose, and Rory with Amy) was introduced gradually. The primary gets to leap right in to life with The Doctor, and the secondary takes his time to come around to the idea. And there is a relationship between the primary and secondary which is important to both, as well as the relationship(s) with the Doctor. When Captain Jack came along, he was incorporated into the relationship with Doctor and Rose in the same way—it grew.
With these three, they were all acquired at once, and the result seems to be that each one is no more than a third as awesome as the Companion needs to be. This is a real shame. We could have had Yas first, the responsible and capable police-officer-in-training, and she might have introduced Ryan as a friend who was having problems in his home life but blossomed with the Doctor, and then found that Graham was worried about him and showed up, did something useful, and stuck around. Or we might have had Ryan first, eager to escape from the life he had which was frustrating in so many ways, followed by Graham who wanted to maintain the relationship, and then have Yas turn up because she'd noticed Ryan was missing and wanted to know why. And I mean they should have turned up over time, rather than all bundling in at once.
As a result… none of them convinces me. I couldn't even remember Graham's name—had to look it up. (I have wasted several minutes trying to figure out whether it's Yas or Yaz, and still am not entirely sure I have the right answer. Grr.) They just seem like some random characters who sit about on the TARDIS—and I know they have been given Things To Do, but I can't remember who they are from one week to the next. It's such a shame. There have been companions I liked a lot (Martha, Donna) and companions I liked a lot less (Clara), but generally speaking I've been able to remember who they are.
Also, do we really need Graham? Really? He seems to be there as the older-and-wiser person, but he's with THE DOCTOR, who is way older and wiser than anyone else around. So... really?
* Well, and the writing has been rather sub-par. Even this week, in an episode which actually had some nice twisty bits and a couple of nice surprises, there were definite weaknesses in the way the story was told.