Top 5 favourite companions

[iank]

1 Romana 2
2 The Brig
3 Ace
4 Leela
5 Zoe

[Monster X]

1) Romana II
2) Leela
3) Romana I
4) Sarah Jane
5) Vicki

[billpatjontom]

Jo,

Romana (both of 'em),

Sarah,

Leela,

Peri (both of 'em) 

[rushy]

1. Ian and Barbara
2. Wilf
3. Romana I
4. Jamie and Zoe
5. Leela

[Deleted]

I'm about to get crucified but here I go:

1. Donna
2. Wilf
3. Sarah Jane
4. Jamie
5. Rose

My explanation for this treachery: NuWho is more competent in terms of characterisation in general, and the only two classic companions who never really had—as far as I can recall—"standing around and awkwardly saying lines" moments are Sarah and Jamie. They are supreme amongst classic companions but the dramatic power of Tate and Cribbins must come out on top. Anyhow, I don't give much credit to the characters of the companions particularly, and certainly there are villains and side-characters who triumph over all of them in terms of characterisation and the assumption of distinct personality (no stilted, Doctor-obeying assistant could wield a drama approaching the likes of Li H'sen Chang, for example). Even with Sarah, I find that she is at once rebellious and obedient; rather a moral oxymoron, who is sadly suppressed the more for her disobedience during her later seasons. No matter the spunk, there is always a constraint on the Doctor's companions, one that is necessarily reclamped following what brief exorcism of personality and inner revolution against the patriarchal Doctor might come during any given scene that follows—or presupposes—action. Donna does rather a better job than Sarah at escaping her fetters, though does not succeed. Indeed, her only route to individuation is involuntary eschewal, a fate seeming sicklier by the year as I get older. There are very few Doctor Who characters that manage to set themselves free from the writer's despotic pen, but those who do are not companions, and certainly not the Doctor.

[Spark Doll King]

1) Leela
2) Ian & Barbara
3) Jamie
4) Ace
5) Joe

[burrunjor]

Apr 7, 2023 0:45:57 GMT @theyakemperor said:

I'm about to get crucified but here I go:

1. Donna
2. Wilf
3. Sarah Jane
4. Jamie
5. Rose

My explanation for this treachery: NuWho is more competent in terms of characterisation in general, and the only two classic companions who never really had—as far as I can recall—"standing around and awkwardly saying lines" moments are Sarah and Jamie. They are supreme amongst classic companions but the dramatic power of Tate and Cribbins must come out on top. Anyhow, I don't give much credit to the characters of the companions particularly, and certainly there are villains and side-characters who triumph over all of them in terms of characterisation and the assumption of distinct personality (no stilted, Doctor-obeying assistant could wield a drama approaching the likes of Li H'sen Chang, for example). Even with Sarah, I find that she is at once rebellious and obedient; rather a moral oxymoron, who is sadly suppressed the more for her disobedience during her later seasons. No matter the spunk, there is always a constraint on the Doctor's companions, one that is necessarily reclamped following what brief exorcism of personality and inner revolution against the patriarchal Doctor might come during any given scene that follows—or presupposes—action. Donna does rather a better job than Sarah at escaping her fetters, though does not succeed. Indeed, her only route to individuation is involuntary eschewal, a fate seeming sicklier by the year as I get older. There are very few Doctor Who characters that manage to set themselves free from the writer's despotic pen, but those who do are not companions, and certainly not the Doctor.

Donna is the only character I come close to hating as much as Missy.

She is shockingly bad. To start with she is annoying. She's another Cathy from Two Doors Down, IE one of these people that always has to be centre of attention, thinks being rude and insulting to her friends about things like their looks is funny, thinks being a bully is feisty, and is utterly inappropriate around people like forcing herself on Jack etc. She is such a Cathy, which makes sense as Cathy is soooo the type of person that RTD would think was amazing as he is equally shallow. She also like Cathy has a husband who is pathetically henpecked. Again I'm the last guy on earth who'd ever have a stupid macho "keep your woman in line" attitude LOL, but Jesus Christ there's a world of difference between marrying a strong woman, or even being the less dominant one in your relationship, and what we see with Donna's husband which is just letting someone bully you, ruin your life etc. Donna without letting her husband have a say at all, gave away 150 million pounds overnight. Thanks to her he, who could have had anything he wanted, no has to get up at 7, slave away for 10 hour shifts, hardly see his family, work weekends in some cases as a cabbie in London, a city overrun with crime, where he'll have to deal with drunks, racists spitting on him, etc, and he still goes "I'm the luckiest man in the world." FFS she's worse than Cathy! Oh and she is also a misandrist going on about how men know nothing too. 

Added to that Catherine Tate is not a good dramatic actress, as she slips into her comedy characters too often, and on top of all that Donna is a flat out insult to the Doctor. As I've said before this is a character who gets all of the Doctors powers and uses them better than he does. People normally do that kind of story in reverse, like Faith being another Slayer who isn't as good as Buffy. On top of that she also undermines all of the other companions in new who, one of the old and the Daleks and Davros too, who all look like morons at best to big her up. Sarah Jane is reduced to a blubbing, useless coward going "I'm sorry eeeeiiiiiiiiiii" around the Daleks, Captain Jack does bugger all, Martha goes from being a woman who spent a year walking a desolate earth to save it, to a genocidal psycho who wants to blow it up, Rose becomes a clingy ex (well more so) who again does bugger all, and the Daleks and Davros are so f*cking inept, they keep a machine that can control every single one of them in the prison of their ship, AND they make it so it's only operable by human hands when they have only sink plungers. Also for some reason, Davros now connects himself to this machine! 

Again all of this is just so Donna can be made out to be the absolute bestest person in the entire history of the multiverse. And to think tv tropes called f*cking Lana Lang a Mary Sue. Honestly Donna praise makes me go all Frank Grimes I'm sorry. She should be at the bottom of almost every list, certainly of new who companions. I'll concede (sorry Maxil) that Mel was probably worse, only because she was just JNT's hang ups against feminists, but even then she's certainly not as offensively annoying as Donna. 

Meanwhile it's rubbish that the classic who companions only stand at the back and nod. Barbara alone, the very first female companion from earth never did anything like that. This is a woman who freed an entire alien civilisation by herself, caught a murderer through her own deductions, helped bring down the Daleks on Skaro, survived a post apocalyptic Dalek infested earth with her wits, discovered their weaknesses, came up with the plan that destroyed their invasion of earth and saved humanity, rescued a caveman's life in her first story, helped save the day in Edge of Destruction, took it upon herself to try and change history for the better in the Aztecs, and stood up to Hartnell at his most dickish and had him grovelling for an apology afterwards. She did it all without magic pixie fairy dust and wasn't just a fan girl of the Doctor who thought her life was worthless without him like Rose and Donna. On the contrary she wanted to go back home as she had a life outside of him unlike Rose and Donna. 

Zoe similarly, a genius who explores not to shag the Doctor, but to see the universe, beats up superheroes, destroys Cyber fleets, Liz, another genius scientist (don't tell me alternate Liz isn't an absolute badass, like when she shoots the Brigade Leader.) Leela is a savage warrior woman who frequently slices up bad guys and was so cool they named and based another badass character after her from Futurama, whilst Romana was an interesting strong character who also had a good arc. 

Much better than Rose's. Romana starts out as a golden girl with a sense of adventure, but who is also naive and at first looks down on the Doctor, but then comes to idolise him somewhat. Again not in a "he's so dreamy I want to get in his pants" new who kind of a way, she admires him because he lives life on his own terms unlike the Time Lords and she tries to be like him for a while, before eventually leaving and carving out her own destiny in her own universe. 

Ace meanwhile, well okay this is very hard for me to say. As Sophie is now my leading lady (I'll never stop boasting about that.) Then I am a bit biased, but to be fair I wouldn't have hired Sophie if I didn't like her already. Ace is a great companion in a number of ways. She's strong, vulnerable, relatable, has a complex relationship with the Doctor that can swing between moving and quite dark. She also was kind of ahead of the curve in a lot of ways. 

As I said in another thread she is in some ways a proto Faith/Buffy type of character. Like Buffy she is just a young, ordinary girl whose life is turned upside down by a supernatural force (that is linked to vampires) that throws her into a world of monsters. Like Buffy she also is badass, but vulnerable, and has a stuffy old mentor figure who is a more cerebral hero compared to her. At first he seems like a stable influence on her, but as time goes on we see he begins manipulating and even lying to her for his own ends, which along with his ruthless actions drive a wedge between them. Meanwhile like Faith she's also kind of the tomboy, that serves as an alternative to the girly girl type characters and similarly has a criminal past, and later falls under the influence of a similarly stuffy old character (for Faith this was Giles in the comics.) 

Hell Ace's story was recycled for Rose, Donna and Clara in New Who. Hmm let's see there is something odd about Ace that the Doctor becomes interested in and hints of it are sown throughout the series in the background, with it eventually being revealed that she is pivotal in a final battle with an old enemy of the Doctor. That's broadly speaking what Rose, Donna and Clara's stories are, the difference is. Ace doesn't want to shag the Doctor, she actually beats up and kills badguys with her bare hands, rather than getting magic pixie fairy dust, and she's not sexualized like Rose and Clara. No comments on Ace's tits being huge like there was with Rose, no Ace forcing a kiss on the Doctor, no jokes where we look inside Ace's head and see she has thoughts about gay men having orgies like with Clara, no Ace being slapped on the arse by the Doctor like Clara etc. 

Yeah I'm going to say even without one being my leading lady, Ace is a much better take on that type of story. 

[Cherry Pepsi Maxil]

I find the RTD companions throughly unlikeable. Martha is the obvious exception. 2007 Who is so bloody weird. It's almost like everyone involved stopped being a twat for a bit and decided to make something that resembled good television.

[rushy]

Feb 28, 2024 23:10:15 GMT Cherry Pepsi Maxil said:

I find the RTD companions throughly unlikeable. 

Imagine if we had a whole season of the Doctor and Wilf though. 

[burrunjor]

Feb 28, 2024 23:10:15 GMT Cherry Pepsi Maxil said:

I find the RTD companions throughly unlikeable. Martha is the obvious exception. 2007 Who is so bloody weird. It's almost like everyone involved stopped being a twat for a bit and decided to make something that resembled good television.

Yes Martha is the most down to earth one of the RTD era companions. TBH she is one of the few likable main companions in all of new who. I mean I like Amy and Rory, but a large part of that is Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill. For the most part their characters are okay, but there are some moments where honestly if it wasn't an actress of Karen Gillan's level you might not like Amy LOL. 

I'd say Martha and Bill are the only two you could imagine being friends with, and I'm not saying that because I fancy them LOL. All of the companions are attractive, but still even if you don't like Martha and Bill for other reasons at least they don't have them be deliberately nasty to their spouses like Rose was to Mickey, have them be needlessly rude and obnoxious like Donna telling a random stranger he shouldn't wear that as he is too old, have them cheat on their spouses like Amy (and it's implied in one episode she hit him,) or try and murder suicide the Doctor like Clara did and physically smack him or make misandristic comments like Clara and Donna did  LOL. 

Martha and Bill and I suppose Rory are just normal, nice, likable people, though I tend to think of him as a supporting companion, which is kind of stupid I suppose as there are only a few episodes of Amy's run without him. 

Of course a companion doesn't always have to be someone that you would want to be friends with. Leela is kind of a psycho, the Brig is a pompous military idiot, Zoe is from the future and might look down on you as would Romana etc. However they have to have other aspects to their personalities to justify that and keep them interesting, where as these companions are all just from modern earth and meant to be relatable. Only Martha and Bill succeeded and to be honest in Martha's case I think it was the actress more than anything else as Freema is just soooooo lovely and sweet it kind of radiated through. 

[burrunjor]

Feb 28, 2024 23:21:58 GMT rushy said:

Feb 28, 2024 23:10:15 GMT Cherry Pepsi Maxil said:

I find the RTD companions throughly unlikeable. 

Imagine if we had a whole season of the Doctor and Wilf though. 

Sorry but I don't get the Wilf love? Bernard Cribbins is an excellent actor and his best performance is in Fawlty Towers. However whilst he isn't bad as Wilf I think the character was a bit too OTT. 

I remember this exchange from a Rob and Rani video. 

Rani: The cafe scene in End of Time reminded me of the cafe scene in Remembrance.

Rob: Funny I don't remember the two of them in that balling like big f*cking babies. 

Sums up my feeling sto be honest about a lot of Wilf's moments in End of Time. 

[Ludders II]

Unsure whether to count the Brigadier like Ian has done, but in order to give somebody else a chance, I won't. 

Sarah
Leela
Ian and Barbara (I can't separate them)
Stephen
Vicki

If I was including the Big Finish canon, it would be:

Sarah
Leela
Ian and Barbara
Evelyn Smythe
Ace

[rushy]

Feb 28, 2024 23:24:00 GMT burrunjor said:

Sorry but I don't get the Wilf love?

It's not that complicated. Wilf is just an adorable teddy bear of a human, and Cribbins is a good enough actor to make him feel very real. The WWII background adds a lot too.

I don't think he's over-the-top at all. He's just emotionally expressive. 

[Ludders II]

Yeah it's not about Wilf. There's too much crying in NuWho, full stop.  It's just f*cking emo city. 

[Cherry Pepsi Maxil]

TruWho:

1. Ace
2. Steven
3. Vicki
4. Leela
5. Romana II

NuWho:

1. Martha
2. Yaz

Na, I can't do five.