I’ve just started watching Doctor Who with the newest season, and when it went on hiatus I decided to go back and get caught up starting with the first of the new series, with Eccleston as the doctor. The latest I’ve watched is the Christmas special with Tennant. I really like it so far, but I am curious about the way the Doctor picks his companions.
In “Bad Wolf” and “The Parting of the Ways” the Doctor meets Lynda on the set of the Big Brother game show. When she asks about going with him in the TARDIS he welcomes her and then, if I remember right, there’s some eye rolling from Rose and stuff like that. It seemed odd to me.
Does the Doctor readily and quickly accept new companions like that, or was he just thinking of taking Lynda along for a bit? Since all I’ve seen of companions so far is Rose and some of Amy and Rory I sorta got the sense being a companion was a commitment. It kind of surprised me when he quickly agreed. But then, Jack hung out with them casually for awhile too. Or does it depend on which Doctor it is/the script/the situation, etc?
Spoilers are okay mostly, if you could stick anything between the end of the 1st season and the beginning of the 6th in a spoiler box, that would be great. I don’t mind being spoiled for older Who I haven’t seen yet.
I think it really depends on the Doctor and the situation. Eccleston-Doctor got all weirded out by Mickey (Rose’s bf) being there, apparently because of some weird deep-seated jealousy, but I don’t recall any other Doctor being like that.
In some of the older Who episodes, the Doctor carted all sorts of companions – and not all of them were attractive young ladies, as they seem to prefer on the new series (of course, some of 'em were smoking hot). Davison-Doctor has to schlepp around Tegan (ugh), who totally annoyed him, but every time he tried to return her to Earth, something happened to make her stick around. I think it’s a matter of whim and fate for those who are chosen to stick around. Maybe the TARDIS makes the decision for him…
Stephen Moffat’s script for “Blink” refers to the Doctor seeing Sally Sparrow and says “The Doctor turns to dash, hesitates, looks back. Cos he recognizes companion material when he sees it.”
That’s not necessarily canon. There are many reasons why he chooses companions, and often there is no choice. Originally, Barbara and Ian came aboard the TARDIS and, since its controls didn’t allow it to be controlled, and it couldn’t go back to a place it visited (both rules long ago forgotten), they stayed with him until he was able to get them back to Earth of their own time. Steven Taylor was rescued from a crashed spaceship; Jo Grant was assigned to him by UNIT (over his objections); Sarah Jane Smith was a reporter who got to nosy, Leela ran onto the TARDIS and hit one of the controls (though that was supposedly impossible previously); K-9 was given to him by his creator, and Romana I was added as his assistant by the White Guardian; and Romana II merely regenerated from Roman I.
So he takes companions for a variety of reasons and often has no choice in the matter.
Well, the Doctor wasn’t really the guy we know today at the beginning, anyways. He probably wouldn’t have taken on the companions if he’d had a way to take them all back. And he wasn’t exactly ethical, as, if I remember correctly, he knew he couldn’t take them back, but didn’t tell them that, instead just using the TARDIS to prove he could time travel.
It was only later that he realized he needed a human touch, and started looking for companions.
Also, I believe Rose thought she was special, but really the Doctor (at least by New Who) was pretty good about letting anyone who wasn’t horrible travel with him if they asked or helped him out saving the day. It was Rose
I believe you’ve already seen one companion that he accepted, and then later got rid of because he tried to use the TARDIS for immoral gain. But note that he did take him on without reservation until that point.
Awesome, thank you guys. Seems like it really depends on the situation, and the Doctor had no idea Rose would’ve gotten jealous having Lynda hanging around
There was going to be an episode revealing that the Doctor had secretly manipulated Rose’s entire life to turn her into an ideal companion, but the idea was scrapped.
I haven’t finished the first season yet (Bad Wolf is actually the next episode on my list), but given the companions I’ve seen so far (Rose, Mickey sort of, Adam, and Jack), it appears to me that, at least for the Ninth Doctor, someone who’d make a good companion is someone who’s interested in adventure and has a good head on their shoulders. Rose is ideal, as is Jack (and my god is it fun to watch those two and the Doctor banter). Adam was okay at first, since he was interested and intelligent, but he flubbed things hard on the ethical scale.
Mickey, on the other hand, is extremely reluctant and grounded in London. The only reason he has anything to do with the Doctor is because Rose likes him, so he has to interact with the Doctor in order to spend time with Rose. Mickey would rather be down at the pub watching TV than exploring the galaxy, and is exactly the kind of human Eccleston-Doctor is thinking of when he sneers about ‘apes’. If he’d jumped in with Rose to help the Doctor in episode 1 rather than cringing and cowering, the Doctor would have been more than happy to have him along, I’m certain.
Oh, it’s totally canon. He looks at her just like he would look at a companion, and he says “Sally Sparrow” that same way he says “Rose Tyler” or “Martha Jones.” She’s totally companion material.
Now that I think about it, Amy and Rory won’t be around forever, and that was a Moffat episode…
Excuse me, I have a letter writing campaign to start.
Yeah, Carey Mulligan was one of the best actresses to ever appear on Doctor Who. But getting nominated for an Oscar and winning a bunch of others probably put her out of the Companion business.
There WAS an Eccleston episode, damned if I can remember which one, where the Doctor and Rose went back and worked with Mickey on something, and at the end when Rose wanted Mickey to join them, Mickey privately said to the Doctor something to the effect of “I can’t do what you two are doing” and the Doctor let him save face with Rose by loudly forbidding him to come along.
I somehow forgot about that scene until watching through that season a second time, and it surprised me, because it did seem that despite his undeniable scorn of Mickey, the Doctor would have let him come if he’d wanted at that point.
Of course, the Tenth Doctor was a little more tolerant towards Mickey, though he still made fun of him.
Good point, I do remember that scene. All I can think is that, yes, the Doctor would have let him come had he wanted to come, but if he came along without wanting to he’d just be a hindrance. And, too, I imagine the Doctor’s trying to get along with Mickey for Rose’s sake, though I have to admit so far it doesn’t seem like the Doctor normally cares that much about working through ‘domestics’.
Here’s the info on the proposed episode. If you’ve never been to that particular site, it’s a lot of fun. I really like being able to take a look at all of the roads that weren’t taken by the show, especially the scripts that reached the doorstep of actually being filmed.
