Why Are You Sad That There’s No Female Doctor?

Much of the internet has feels (this blog included) about the lack of female Doctor. I personally do not have such an opinion simply because Moffat has proven time and again that he is incapable of writing a decent female character, specifically his female companions.

Too frequently Moffat treats his female companions like an audience for the Doctor: that they should just smile, nod, and take everything that is given without question. It’s getting to a point where the Doctor is hero-worshipped by his companions as opposed to the companions balancing him out. I’ve discussed before how the companion’s job is to, in a sense, keep the Doctor from losing control of himself. Eleven, in my opinion, has had too much freedom and not enough checks. And it is the writers who didn’t give us strong female companions.

I also think that Clara and Amy are too similar when you get right down to it, and that I can most definitely attribute to poor writing. Our first female companion is Amy, a plucky Scottish girl with a supposedly impossible problem, a crack in her bedroom wall that keeps following her around. And then we have Clara, a plucky English girl with a supposedly impossible problem: multiple lives/existences. For me, they’re just way too similar in initial concept. I honestly don’t think that Amy had much of a personality while she was a companion and so far Clara hasn’t exhibited much of a personality either. Amy’s personality came out in her relationship with Rory. And when you need a male character to give your female character personality, that’s wrong. And I blame Moffat.

Now I know a lot of you are saying “What about River? She’s got a personality!” right about now, but Moffat hasn’t exactly done her justice either. First, he made her entire world revolve around the Doctor, just like the other companions. Then, Moffat couldn’t even figure out a way to work in her sexuality to the series for goodness’ sake. If that doesn’t demonstrate an inability to write, well then I don’t know what does. Not to mention if you’ve ever seen something else with Alex Kingston (the actress who plays River Song), such as her guest starring roles in NCIS and Upstairs Downstairs, you know she plays practically the same character every single time. So any personality River has I attribute more to Kingston as an actress than to Moffat’s writing ability.

So we have three female protagonists and three failures for decent character writing. One could say that Moffat is bad with characters in general, but Moffat can write a good male character. Take Rory for example. So many people liked Rory more than Amy simply because he had a stronger character that was much better written. So it’s only the ladies who are suffering from bad writing, not the gents.

Now imagine if Amy was the Doctor. Or Clara. How boring would Doctor Who be? It would be a snoozefest! I’d go so far to say a female Doctor under Moffat’s leadership would kill the show. For more information, check out this link to Saika’s Tumblr and a plethora of discussions on the topic.

What do you think? Am I spot on or losing my mind? Let me know in the comments!

Eleventh Doctor: The Rewatch

So I babysit a seventh grade girl, whose best seventh grade friend happens to be a Whovian. This friend has been trying to sit my (umm…) child down and get her to watch Doctor Who for some time. The friend was failing. So I took it upon myself to right this wrong and get this girl to watch some Doctor Who. And I’ve gotten her hooked. We started with the first episode of Eleven, “The Eleventh Hour”, because it was available for free on demand. We just watched “Vincent and the Doctor” and are at a standstill because the TV doesn’t have the next two episodes (the one with Craig and the first part of the season finale). Here are my feels upon rewatching. 

Doctor Who’s Disappearing Companions

Keep track of the recurring companions the Doctor has in the paragraphs below.

So Nine didn’t have anyone coming to visit him from previous seasons because the show had just been rebooted and the entire show needed to be established. In addition, Captain Jack, Mickey, and Rose’s mom Jackie were introduced. Nine had four people in his crew.

Then came Ten, who started with this same crew. Throughout Ten’s tenure (see what I did there?), companions cycled in, cycled out, and cycled back in again. Sarah Jane came for a visit, Rose came back for a visit, Mickey and Martha too. Ten had Rose, Donna, Martha, Jackie, Mickey, Captain Jack, and Donna’s grandfather as major recurring members of his crew. That’s seven people.

None of these no old companions have come back to visit Eleven, and that is my biggest beef.

Sexualized Saturdays: The Doctor and His Many Companions

I think I need to take a break from Doctor Who, at least in terms of article writing. As it stands right now, there is only one thing I have not done yet, and that’s to look which of the Doctor’s companions are in love with him and which aren’t.

The interesting thing about the companions is that they spread along the scope of sexual preference. Yes, most of the Doctor’s main companions are females that usually have deep seated crushes on the Doctor. But that’s not the entire makeup of the alumni.

Are Doctor Who’s Companions Too Sexy?

A few days ago Hypable raised the question, “Is Doctor Who too sexy?” It was in response to The Telegraph‘s piece interviewing Carole Ann Ford (aka Susan, the very first companion) about how working on Doctor Who affected her career. And Hypable isn’t just another site desperate for clicks; this question is a common fan criticism of “New Who,” especially Moffat’s era. Some believe the show’s writing and companions have crossed some sort of risqué line, and it’s damaging the show. So is it?

Doctor Who as a show has a complicated relationship with sex. The show began as a mostly educational children’s TV program, featuring Susan as the granddaughter of “Doctor Who.” Ford reveals that Susan was also originally envisioned to be pretty badass:

“They told me Susan was going to be an Avengers-type girl – with all the kapow of that – plus she would have telepathetic powers. She was going to be able to fly the Tardis as well as her grandfather and have the most extraordinary wardrobe.”