The Doctor has companions for the same reason why Batman had Robin – someone to share adventures and to talk to during them. The latter is especially important for exposition; since the Doctor usually knows what’s going on, without a companion to tell this to, the viewers wouldn’t get an explanation.
As far as an in-show explanation, it’s clear that the Doctor gets lonely traveling alone.
Obligatory nerdy correction: The lead refers to himself as ‘the Doctor’. The show is called ‘Doctor Who’.
You will either love or hate Torchwood, it’s very marmitey!
It’s also implied that they keep him grounded, preventing him from becoming all Time Lord Victorious-y.
I just want to add a clarification to the “The Doctor doesn’t ‘get down’ with his companions” because he sort of has.
At the end of Tennant’s run, his clone that came to be from his severed hand did go off into the parallel universe to live with (and presumably shag every God damn day and night) Rose. The clone both was and wasn’t The Doctor…I mean, he had all his memories, and most og his personality, though a bit too much human got in there because of Donna…he’ll also grow old and die, which is partly why he and the original Doctor were ok with him getting to be romantic with Rose. The 9th and 10th Doctors (Eccelson and Tennant) did fall in love with Rose, but knew it wouldn’t be right/fair for a Time Lord ot be involved with a human, but since the cloned Doctor would basically liuve out his life as a human, it made it ok…I guess.
Dude, get in line. Although I’ll have to say this: I didn’t watch all of Tennant’s run as the Doctor, but I’ve watched all of Matt Smith’s, and Matt Smith is brilliant as the Doctor. Absolutely brilliant. Less yummy, but still brilliant.
Understandable influence of the right hand; mine tends in that direction, too.
Ward is currently married to Richard Dawkins, btw. They were introduced by her long-time friend Douglas Adams.
I thoroughly enjoyed Pertwee’s over-the-top version in old Who, but Baker remains my number-one all-time favorite doctor.
For nu Who, Eccleston is my top choice (bad boys in leather just work for me 
), closely followed by Tennant.
Obvious eye candy aside (Al Bundy with an accent?!?! What’s THAT about?), Eccleston’s and Tennant’s doctors sucked me back into the universe of Who and then never let go. Both actors brought great emotional resonance and poignancy to their characterizations, turning the Doctor from a remote icon into an imperfect, fallible, flesh and blood creature unlike any of the previous versions. The Time Lords are/were the gods of the universe – and yet the last son of Gallifrey liked chips as much as Rose did. I will watch and rewatch their tenures for years to come.
On the other hand, Smith’s portrayal to date leaves me cold. I don’t want to invest much interest in him because I don’t have any feeling for the character. I don’t really care too much about what happens – or doesn’t happen - to him. And most of the stories have been just so-so (to be fair, not all of Nine and Ten’s stories hit it out of the park, either).
For me at least so far, Eleven’s companions have provided more of a touchstone than he has. I wasn’t all that impressed with them, either - until Gillian’s acting in The Girl Who Waited. That was absolutely top-notch stuff. And Darville has come along quite a bit since the beginning of Smith’s tenure. I’ll continue to watch, but I won’t be buying any DVDs this time around. I’m also REALLY looking forward to Smith moving on in another year or so.
As far as Torchwood is concerned, pretty much everyone has said what I would have said. That said, I like the series in general. The shifting sexuality storylines (= sloppy/bad writing) get a little old for me after a while, but I like all of the characters – except Owen – and even he improved over time.
John Barrowman is still the main reason to watch, just for his Captain Jack and I don’t mean the eye candy factor, either. And he got better at it as the series went along. He remains one of the most interesting characters in modern science fiction today.
I’m too lazy to do a search to see if the Dope has any threads about the best eps to watch, but I personally recommend From Out of the Rain, Countrycide, Fragments, and Exit Wounds.
However, season three’s miniseries ‘Children of Earth’ is flat awesome. A must-see, must-have on DVD. ‘Miracle Day’ has its moments but it wasn’t great and was very uneven in its delivery. Barrowman and Pullman and the ad chick (can’t think of the actress’ name) were the best things in it and there were several great unexpected cameo roles as well, including Q’s scenery-chewing turn as the CIA boss toward the end of the series.
FWIW, this yank was not pleased that it was moved to the states for much of the story. Torchwood belongs in the UK, not here, and it lost something important in the transition. Here’s hoping we’ll have future Torchwood stories - but back where it belongs.
The Sarah Jane Adventures is really good if you were ever into classic Doctor Who. It references it more than the new series. It’s consistently pretty well done. Never reaches the greatness it’s parent show could get too, but never reaches the levels of awful it could either. I’m in my mid 20s and I enjoy it more than Torchwood, so I’d recommend it. But then again I’ve never had a problem watching things for younger audiences as long as they were well written and didn’t speak down to the kids. And both crossover episodes are glorious, awesome, and do a terrific job of tying together Doctor Who classic, new Who, and SJA.
I have a soft spot for Peter Davison’s Doctor. Thought he had interesting Companions, too.
That being said, I enjoyed the UNIT characters from Doctors previous to him.
and I love all 3 of the rebooted series Doctors.
Back in college, a friend was trying to remember the actors who’d played the Doctor on TV. “There was William Hartnell, then Patrick Troughton, then Jon Pertwee, then the Doctor, then Peter Davison.” (Italics mine.)
By the way, there were two Doctor Who movies, in which he was played by Peter Cushing. I don’t think they’re canonical.
They’re not. For one thing, they present the Doctor as half-human.
I thought it was obvious.
Hadn’t thought of it, but once pointed out they could be brothers (Eccleston being the much hotter brother).
I assume with Elizabeth Sladen’s passing that the Sarah Jane series will be gone for good? Broke my heart when she died and it just doesn’t make sense to try and continue it.
I didn’t know who Al Bundy was, but looking at that pictures I’m not seeing any resemblance at all.
Yep. They just aired the last six or so episodes that were finished before she died, and that’s it.
Also, as far as aging goes, I think it was in this video where Tenant says something like “I was all old and crotchety, the way you do when you’re young…” which at least acknowledged the trend.
Technically the David Tennant doctor also has a “daughter”.
One of my favorite quotes (other than Captain Jack’s “who looks at a screwdriver and says ‘this could be more sonic’?”) is when Rory tells Amy “not to worry, he’s a Time Lord” and Amy screams back “That’s just what they are called! It doesn’t mean he actually knows what he’s doing!!”
Are you kidding? He totally has the same.. uh.. well, vaguely similar… umm… male pattern baldness?
Is that it?
At about the one minute mark, is he saying what I think he’s saying? If so: holy crow!
