Friday, November 30, 2007

Three’s a Crowd?

With the return of Rose, certainly being the focus of the story line, the question becomes if there is enough room in the Tardis for all three companions of Rose, Martha, and Donna. OK, the Tardis is infinitely large on the inside, so clearly there is enough room in there; but is there enough room in the length of an episode (even a two-parter) to have all these characters play an important part?

Rose clearly has fans, and Martha has her fair share of fans as well. Donna’s character is not as well liked so far, but Catherine Tate who plays her is very well liked and we will get a better taste of what she is like as the Doctor’s companion after series 4 begins. Donna’s popularity as a companion could very well grow before Rose returns. But with all three characters on the show at the same time it is very likely that at least one of these character are not going to have enough to do.

The question is who will fade to the background during these episodes and what companion out of the three will ultimately outlast the others? If Billie Piper wants to stay on past this season it will likely be her, but if Rose does not remain as a main character at least for the three specials following series 4 will Martha’s or Donna’s characters continue to be expanded?

Or… Since Kylie Minogue is rumored to want to return to Doctor Who in the future too, maybe there would be room for FOUR women traveling with the Doctor. Speaking of Kylie the band Fast Ood Rockers has released a very “Doctorin’ the Tardis” like song called “Song 4 Kylie: ...I'm In Love (With A Girl In A Time Machine)”. You can listen to it by clicking the play button to the right!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fantom_luv here again. So, this is my opinion on the whole deal. Think back to the old series. There were many times when there were three companions together, and they managed to pull it off. I mean, sure, those episodes were always at least four parts long, but even just watching one part at a time, you got a pretty good idea of each character. I really don't think it will be that hard. But then again, I may be wrong.

TigerYogiji said...

Only time will tell!

James Diggs said...

You make a good point Fantom_luv, you may be right. I do think the character dynamics will have to change on the New Who to make this work like the old who did; less focused on the single companion's story and more focus on the story of the adventure itself.

I actually liked the show better when there were two companions like when Mickey or Captain Jack joined the crew, so perhaps one more might work well too.

Other shows seem to manage to juggle a large cast and grow the characters extreamly well at the same time; firefly comes to mind.

I guess tigeryogiji is right that we will have to wait and see, but at the same time it is fun to try and guess.

What I don't want is to have Rose and Martha fighting over the Doctor, that is far too predictable. Thankfully Donna was never into him that way (I am looking forward to her episodes for just that reason), and when we saw Martha last she seemed to have grown up a lot and moved toward getting over her crush.

It might be interesting for Martha (Donna too perhaps) to be somewhat protective of the Doctor like a loving sister would; she has seen the Doctor grieving over the loss of Rose for a whole season now and if the Doctor gets Rose back she may not want to see him loose her again. (many fans don't want to see this either)

Not being as familiar with the old show as some other fans I wonder if the aspect of the companions "looking after" the Doctor was always part of the dynamics of the show? I can imagine that perhaps Susan wanted to look after her grandfather in the Doctor's first incarnation but it seems to me that the Doctor used to more often then not monopolize being the hero in the classic series. In the new series both Rose and Martha have been the hero many times.

I like the strong characters this creates and I just hope that they can write stories that explores the strengths of Rose, Martha and Donna if all three characters are going to appear at once.

? said...

This would work only if each companion went in a different direction. The classic series always made them go off and wander around, one usually ending up caught etc.

I mean, this could be a problem; just look at Series 3 and Jack. Sure, he was useful... for 5 minutes. Plus he's coming back next series too, probably with Rose, therefore meeting Donna and Martha too.

I think Rose is a mistake at this moment in time; it throws all Doomsday emotion right out the window of a 50-story block of flats. But we shall see.

I just hope we don't have lots of bickering and simply, "follow the leader".

Martha walked the Earth in 265 days, Rose saved the (9th) Doctor's life and Donna... well, she'll obviously do something. Three massive personalities; could be great, could be a disaster.

In the words of Ace and the 7th Doctor; "We did good, didn't we?" - "Time will tell. It always does".

? said...

Obviously, I did in fact mean 365 days! Sorry.

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Old Cheeser said...

Well I've posted my thoughts on the return of Rose already...although I am in complete agreement - how can there be room for sufficient character development with so many characters vying for the limelight?!

The more I'm thinking about it though and the more I read other blogger's comments, it really robs the programme of the "Rose dies" concept with her coming back. Jeez!

And can I just say I LOVE the Ood Rockers song - very clever - the original "da da da" bits from the Who theme actually synchronise with "Strict Machine" very effectively...!

TimeWarden said...

It won't be the first time a companion's departure from "Doctor Who" has been rewritten! Peri died in episode eight of "The Trial of a Time Lord" only for the audience to discover, several weeks later, she had in reality married King Yrcanos!! There has never been a more unlikely partnership!!!

Ann Marie said...

I'm all for having more than one companion but the return of Rose is going to be such a big deal to people that the other companions will only be overshadowed, like I said in my post on her return.

I hope Kylie doesn't return purely for the fact I don't want the show to get into a routine of the Christmas companion one year will be the actual companion in the future.