You’re not wrong and I even thought Donna’s protestations were always a bit of the “lady doth protest too much” sort.
On the other hand, classic Who is from a different television era and it’s hard to think that certain companions wouldn’t have been romantically interested in the Doctor if they were written today. I’m just getting tired of it being every single companion.
I thought it was pretty widely believed by fans that the Doctor and Romana II had a thing, although it was never addressed on screen.
The 2009-2010 specials were devoid of romantic tension for the Doctor, with the relatively minor exception of Lady Christina de Souza. (I know, some of the Doctor/Master dialogue was downright slashy, but it was not officially a romance.)
This is quite a stretch, as (1) Amy would be of marriageable age in any country on earth and (2) the Doctor has rejected her advances.
That’s really not a fair thing to say at all, in fact I’d say it’s rather offensive and disgusting for you to say that. There is **nothing **remotely pedophile-like about The Doctor. This is a family show with children as the main audience. And since Karen Gillan is 23, romantic situations involving her can hardly be considered pedophilia. :rolleyes:
Wow, some people take the Doctor a bit seriously! Sorry to offend!
I’m happy to find a better descriptor for the squicky nature of the relationship(s). There’s just something off about a 900+ year old man hooking up with a 20-something. A 20-something from a relatively primitive species (or, at a time when that species’ culture hadn’t expanded beyond the solar system). A 20-something that’s barely seen anything of her own planet, let alone the rest fo the universe. There’s just a gross perception/power imbalance.
Maybe consider some absurdly rich retiree Who (heh) bought himself a yacht and private jet and found a barely legal girl from some remote impoverished village (they only got electricity two years ago). They go gallivanting around the world, him treating her well (and honorably), yet despite pretenses at independence she’s still absolutely dependent on him for everything. A couple years later he does it again. Just seems off to me. And the Doctor, well… you’re right that pedophile has a particular meaning (and let’s not start the Board down that road again), but given the enormous span in ages it seemed to fit.
Don’t get me wrong. I still love the Doctor and hang on every moment of the show. And I know they’ve mostly written around things and haven’t really crossed a line—the closest they came was with Rose. But three of the four companions have had elements of romantic tension written in. I don’t need romance in every series, particularly not when the romance is between someone who is a mental infant and someone who is a galacticlly known badass (he’s in the library… look him up :)).
Oh, and FTR, I thought the whole 900+ year old Angle having the hots for a teen Buffy was pretty gross too. This isn’t really a big issue for me outside of a couple shows (not a crusader or anything, not writing my congressman about today’s immorality), it’s just that I find things like that a bit distasteful and distracting.
I guess I miss the avuncular Doctor. Maybe this is fodder for another thread—sorry for the sidetrack.
Well, there’s the problem where we’re analyzing the heck out of it when in reality, someone, somewhere said “You know, we can pull in the following additional demographics if the Doctor and companion LOOK like they’d make a cute couple”.
It’s a clash between marketing and Sci-Fi.
Totally agree. But as long as they’re going to keep doing that (or others jamming product placement, etc.), I’m going to keep bitching about demographic pandering. In this instance it’s just a wee bit off-putting.
While he really is that old, I think he sorta resets each regeneration. He may have the knowledge of an older person, but he tends to act close to the apparent age of his regeneration. The oldest I’ve seen him act was around 50 or so, and that really isn’t that skeevy.
It’s the same conceit of–shudder–Twilight, but i works a lot better here, IMHO.
Chronologically he’s over 900 years old, but physically he’s whatever age his regeneration puts him at.
Well, that was fun. Pure filler, but fun. I like that Rory has joined them. I hope that will get rid of the whole companion/love interest crap.
Besides, how can you beat The Doctor popping out of the cake?
That’s a fantastic scene, and the fact that he’s apparently done it before and popped out the wrong cake…
Yeah, I was pretty pleased by this one too. It looked like at the beginning they were going to emasculate* Rory like they did with Mickey - once again, the Doctor steals a guy’s girlfriend away and he doesn’t measure up - but after fending off a swordsman with a broom he seems like he might be able to hold his own, and Amy’s not casting him aside. The Doctor seems to like him all right too. “We are NOT ‘her boys.’” “Yes we are.” “…yes we are.”
How often does the Doctor pick up a male companion who’s as competent as any of the women he takes along? Captain Jack was in so few episodes that he barely counts. Rory’s bright - witness “it’s another dimension, I did some research” vs “it’s bigger on the inside” - and seems to have a bit of initiative and excitement about exploring, and didn’t do anything stupid and have to be rescued. Is he going to last a little while?
*even literally; “This says I’m your eunuch?”
Ian Chesterton was a schoolteacher and the ‘action hero’ with the first Doctor. Steven Taylor continued the ‘action hero’ later. Ben Jackson was a younger version and Jamie McCrimmon was a fiesty Scot! All were quite good as the action hero and held up well with the female companions. Adric and Turlough I’d rather not think about.
Probably because Tom Baker and Lalla Ward were, in real life, lovers. What sexual tension existed between the Doctor and Romana - and it was pretty muted, in my recollection - was between the Doctor and Romana I (Mary Tamm). Even then, it was more that Romana, being a Time Lord, was not especially intimidated by the Doctor.
In fact, if I am remembering this correctly, Mary Tamm left the show when she saw that the writers wanted to turn Romana into more of the traditional “pretty young thing out of her element” Companion.
Don’t forget Harry Sullivan! I bring this up because it is germane to the discussion about romantic tension between the Doctor and the Companion. Harry’s character allowed the writers to have a bantering, slightly flirty relationship exist between the two Companions (in his case, Sarah Jane Smith), leaving the Doctor to fill the role of mentor/intellectual. Sarah Jane and Harry were the heart, so the Doctor could be the brain.
And I always wanted someone to cut Adric’s hair and turn down Turlough’s collar…
Did you catch how The Doctor pointed out that no one, in his current incarnation, has yet said that magic phrase “It’s bigger on the inside” when Rory first came inside of the TARDIS?
Sorry for the late post (they only just put the thing on online up here). Did anyone else think the editing was kind of off in this episode? During the climax, everything was so frenetic that I really couldn’t track what was going on, and all the drama that they were trying for just didn’t come through. In general, the storytelling could have been much better; the father who lost his daughter ( I don’t remember their names either) wasn’t treated at all seriously, I thought.
I knew he was wearing a red shirt as soon as I saw him. I was not expecting the daughter to buy the farm, though.
I’m bumping the US pace thread. I haven’t had a chance to watch this week’s yet. We had a very busy weekend.
So were the psychic whatevers a leftover from the old days of Who, or something completely new for this episode?
I just watched “Amy’s Choice”. I wouldn’t have made the connection, but reviewing other comments, the episode does feel like the old Hartnell/Troughton episodes. Especially the one with the Celestial ToyMaker. The episode let us dip a toe into the darker side of the Doctor. With each regeneration, the Doctor is more like a person functioning with multiple personalities (which is not schizophrenia). This episode shows us that there is a dark part of the Doctor that hates some of his choices and actions. Which is good, in a way, since a healthy dose of guilt and loathing combats a runaway ego and detachment.
“Is there a Cold Star? I don’t know! Why does everybody think I know everything?” That’s very nice. There is so much, and we do think the Doctor knows everything, but maybe he doesn’t (however a Cold Star I think he would know about). In hindsight, this is the Doctor worried about taking care of people and figuring it all out when necessary. Another personality aspect is the Doctor’s guilt and contempt for some of his choices and actions as manifested by the Dream Lord. I think the Doctor didn’t know everything was an hallucination until near the end. I think that each time he might have seen a clue in the dreams that would give it all away, that he made up an explanation for himself. Perhaps, in the end, this itself might have been a clue that let him uncover the hallucination.
As to the experiences. Rory’s desire for a simple life was incorporated. Amy’s grownup desire for the simple life and child’s desire for traveling with the Doctor were incorporated. The Doctor’s guilt and wanting to save people and desire for puzzles and everything else was incorporated. So what does this say about each? Amy wants it all. The simple life and adventure. She’s conflicted. Rory feels guilty about not pursing his dreams and he wants to build a perfect life. The Doctor wants everything to work out for everyone and feels guilty if he can’t make that happen.
Amy said, “I never told him I loved him”. Being in the dream, I think it is more a statement of “I didn’t really show him enough that I loved him. I told him ‘I love you’, but I never really even figured out what loving someone meant. I was too busy living with my life on hold, as a child, waiting for my Doctor to return and take me on adventures.” Maybe she’s realizing some of this, and as this desire gets satisfied she can move on to whatever is next. Loving Rory? Feeling like she settled and dumping him? She’s figuring that out.
The Doctor, at the end, is just a bit worried that the darker side of him may leak out more (like the sixth Doctor). What is interesting to note is that, with time travel, all of the incarnations of the Doctor are present in time. So if a “future” evil Doctor exists then why wouldn’t he interfere with his “past” good selves. I think that would be because you are the sum of your past. So perhaps an evil “future” Doctor would just be bent upon causing events in his “past” selves to make him manifest in the “future”. What if the pollen was placed there by his “future” self? What if the Crack is a way for the “future” self to erase the volatile past but preserve himself?