The Companions in “New” Doctor Who Part Two

The Companions in “New” Doctor Who

Part Two

Here, at long last, is the second half of my New Doctor Who Companions retrospective. With this one we enter the era of Moffat. It’s hard to remember today but when Moffat took over from Russell T. Davis the fandom was overwhelmingly positive. Moffat had a good track record behind him, with some of the best episodes of the new series so far being penned by him. Including Blink, which introduced us to the Weeping Angels, and the Girl in the Fireplace, as well as others. Lots of people were expecting good things. 

But before we jump into that just remember two things. The first is that a character is a Companion if I say they are and the other is that I’m addressing the Companion only. We’re not looking at the Actors and anything I say is about them, not the person performing them.

On with the review:-

The Ponds

11/10 (see what I did there, Eleventh Doctor… 11 out of 10…) 

No I’m not separating them. No I don’t care what you say. It’s Amy and Rory. It will always be Amy and Rory. Throughout time, space and however thousands of years either of them will have to wait for each other it is Amy and Rory. The idea of a young couple in the TARDIS has been done before, but not since the very early days of the classic seasons and never with this much passion. The two of them are inseparable and wonderfully individual at the same time.

I could take up this whole article with little moments between the two. From an otherwise pointless aside of playing darts in the TARDIS to the flashback where Amy points out Rory must be gay because all he ever does is hang around her all the time. The big moments though. The sacrifices, the way the pair were with each other, the way they grew and changed. It was a wonder to watch. Alone either one would be fantastic, together they are the best New Who has to offer. Amy’s fire was so welcome. As was Rory’s courage. The humour, the moments you cheered, those where you cried. Amy’s final goodbye and Rory’s constant deaths. It was the best of times. 

And it only gets better

River Song

10/10

This one won’t earn me many friends and you know what I don’t care! River Song was a creation of Steven Moffat and was both a warning of things to come and one of the best things he ever did with the show. A mysterious woman from the Doctor’s future, so not even he knows the full story until it’s too late. Jack Harkness was very much a dry run for some of the character traits here, but this time we got a whole lot more. The out of time relationship these two had really worked and while a lot of people felt there was too much of an emphasis put on her early on it was necessary in the long run. She was quick with a gun, flirtatious, just as quick witted and not even the Doctor knew where he stood with her. Even when you were certain you knew as the audience what was going on River was that wild card that changed the whole game.

Throw that card in with the Doctor and the Ponds you have one of the greatest sagas in the fifty plus years. 

The problem started here though when she started taking over. River was such an interesting, fascinating character that she started to eclipse the Doctor. A good number of fans couldn’t accept that, but we weren’t the only ones to notice. Moffat pulled things back form the brink. Showing time and again no matter how far you thought River was ahead The Doctor still had enough push at the end to regain his throne.

While controversial River was necessary. She was a risk, something new. For years Doctor Who has been too comfortable with the same format and this sort of risk needs to be taken.

The Paternoster Gang

5/10

These three don’t technically class as companions, but you can make the argument and so I will. Madam Vastra, the Silurian. Jenny Flint, the maid and Strax the Sontaran make up the Paternoster Gang. 

The truth of the matter is the Gang is a pastiche, of sorts, of Sherlock Holmes. With Vastra as Homes, Jenny as Watson and Strax as… Well he was added later. The three of them all have their own distinct personality. Vastra is cold as a Lizard should be but has flashes of something more making her a compelling hero. We are also told that she is trying to make up for something she did in her past. Jenny is a fighter and a woman out of her time, her sensibilities are very modern in a Victorian era. It’s obvious that she only feels comfortable outside of her eras conventional circles. While Strax is the heavy hitter, he’s a thug, but he’s a loveable thug.

The three were mostly comic relief, especially with the introduction of Strax, and they did get a bit silly near the end.

Some good ideas, just the writers had no where to go with them. Instead we got…

Clara Oswald 

F**k Off / 10

No. That’s fair.

Clara Oswald can politely go stick her head in a pig and leave it there. What only compounds the issue is that she came in the shadow of the Ponds and River. They were always going to be a hard act to follow, but I never expected a companion to be this unlikeable. Especially not in this day and age. Her crimes are myriad, the only layers her personality has is because flaw after flaw simply piles on top of one another.

Clara is, at the best of times, an arrogant, self-centred sociopath that cares for nothing but her own feelings. She lies to everyone she meets with such reckless abandon that it’s more of a compunction than a trait. The irony was her introduction was quite clever. Being the Impossible Girl, the one who dies twice, we were given a mystery. One that, quite nicely if I’m being honest, tied into the whole anniversary season. Sure she was an empty vessel for this mystery, but what are you going to do about that? Keeping questions surrounding her was integral to the plot, as was making sure that she was so incredibly average that the mystery stood out that much more. Then at the end of the season we found out what it was.

After that there was nothing, so her personality took a change and not for the better. One of the key points that led to my dislike being so intense was her relationship with Danny Pink. By all accounts a moron who took an immediate dislike to the Doctor. Now, yes the Doctor was being insufferable but here’s the thing. One of the big complaints Pink made about the Doctor was that he felt the Doctor was too similar to his old commanders in the army, sending good men to fight and die in their stead. Clara doesn’t defend or correct Pink, she just stands there. 

This is the Doctor. She’s seen this man fight monsters, she’s seen him at the end of the Time War. Pink is standing there looking like a complete moron and all she needs to do is defend her friend. Explain it. What does she do? Stand there like a lemon and let the two of them tear strips off each other. Pointlessly.

She goes on to lie, repeatedly, to both of them. Manipulating them for her own selfish gains. After, inadvertently, causing Pink’s death (cheers luv, great move there) she outright betrays the Doctor and he forgives her. Time after time after time she tries to control him, mould our hero into the sort of person she wants him to be, rather than accept him for who he is. Clara’s relationship with the Doctor and Danny is the perfect example of an abusive, toxic relationship.

Worse still she kept abandoning them, both the Doctor and Danny, forcing them to come back to her time and time again. Clara is a vile, vile character whose actions compounded, one upon another, making her trash. Trash that should rightfully be forgotten.

And they couldn’t even do that right. Seriously, two and a half seasons of this mewing cow was nearly enough to turn me away for good. It was only hope and the constant, almost Machiavellian teasing that she might leave after one last season that kept me from leaving Doctor Who behind.

There were also three other travellers during Clara’s time, the children Angie & Artie as well as Courtney later on. Angie & Artie were a pair of know it all kids that were irritating, ignorant and most of all useless. At best they got in the way. As for Courtney, she was in Kill the Moon. It was her trip that started that adventure. Enough said.

A vile character with no redeeming features that should have been jettisoned after her first handful of episodes.

Nardol

4/10

Nardol, NARDOL! Right, a little housekeeping. After Clara eventually, finally, left we got a one off special that tied up the River Song story and introduced her own assistants. Nardol was one of those assistants and again a piece of stunt casting that went so well it surprised everyone. He was brought back for the next Christmas Special Return of Doctor Myserio, but we won’t hold that against him

After that he stuck around. Nardol was a great assistant. Not quite a Companion he was more the Doctor’s keeper. He knew the responsibilities of the Doctor and that everyone’s favourite errant Time Lord chaffed against the rules. Even those he/she sets for themselves. 

I liked Nardol, he was solid comic relief and in being so he also filled a role Jack Harkness did earlier, as did River. Sometimes the Doctor shouldn’t explain everything, sometimes the companion should just do. Nardol was able to complete tasks and errands for the Doctor without him having to do them personally. It’s a vital role that is ignored a lot of the time. One man, no matter how brilliant, can’t do it all and sometimes they need an extra pair of hands. That was his job and he did it well. Allowing for more complex plots and storylines without too much waffle.

On his own there isn’t much more to say about Nardol, but there is something to say about the next two on this list.

Bill Potts

7/10

I must admit I had my doubts with our first glimpse of Bill. I had lost almost all faith in Moffat by this point and it was only through a Herculean effort of hope that I stuck with the show. Made all the worse after the apparent christmas “special” featuring the pathetic Superman knock off ‘The Ghost’

The less said about that abomination the better.

The first we saw of Bill was a snippet from an episode where she asks rapid fire questions of the Doctor. They were supposed to be a mix of original questions never asked by a Companion before and some tongue in cheek in jokes about the Dalek’s plunger. What we got there didn’t impress me.

But then we actually got Bill. There is, companion wise, nothing special about Bill. She is exactly what you want in a Doctor’s companion. Loyal, curious and steadfast. Oh she makes mistakes, but she makes them for the right reasons. Which is how you make a rounded character. There is an occasional hiccup, but that’s to be expected in a Companion’s first year finding their feet.

As an average, run of the mill, Companion she fulfilled her role perfectly and my early doubts were unfounded.

Of course there is the last and, in my opinion, the most controversial Companion. Missy

Missy/The Master

Uh… yeah lets just leave this out shall we?

I can’t score Missy. Missy and the Master’s overall, questionable, redemption was the arc plot of the last season and it didn’t get enough time to breathe in my opinion. The mystery of what, or who, was in the vault overshadowed the idea that the Doctor’s greatest single enemy could actually be redeemed. We did get the first hints of it years ago, when Ten defeated John Simm’s version he offered to look after him then. We have also seen on multiple times the two of them working together in temporary alliances (usually when the Master’s plot has gone spectacularly wrong) So there was the ground work for it.

Add to that the whole thing actually makes sense from a Character arc perspective, for Missy at least. Back in the eighth series her whole plot was in an effort to get her friend back, to show that her and the Doctor were still so similar. The thing was she tired to drag the Doctor down, while he chose to pull her up. The question was who would win?

Again a wonderful development but it needed more.

More time, more development and more impact. The season was already too busy to include something like this. With an overall arc mystery you can drip feed clues, with character development you need to keep to a rhythm. For a character as complex and nuanced as the Master, the Doctor’s equal in many ways, that rhythm needs a lot of build up. We just didn’t have it so in the end Missy’s turn, while not a surprise and earned through a fantastic speech by Capladi, as well as performances all around, just doesn’t hit right.

I hope to, in the future (or maybe the past…), see more of an ambiguous take on the Master. Are they an untrustworthy ally? Playing the Doctor in a longterm game, or are they really putting aside conquering the universe in favour of turning over a new leaf? I don’t know if that’s something the new creative team will follow up on but they could.

Missy has the potential to be a fantastic companion A match for the Doctor in both wit and intellect. His equal in many ways, something we haven’t seen since Romana and an interesting challenge. Potentially 9 out of 10, in reality 4 or 5.

So that’s it. My complicated, over long, rambling and somewhat confused review of the Companions in Doctor Who since 2005. Where do we go from here? Well we’ve seen some snippets of the new team but not enough to know who they are yet. So next up I’m going to ask what I want to see in a Companion. Breaking down what I think is most important and why before creating a couple of examples.

Catch you next time…