One Of My Hobbies: companions and life outside the Doctor

[such_heights]

So there's an interesting post on tumblr from taiey pointing out just how many of Clara's episodes feature her home/work life as well as her adventures with the Doctor - she tallies it as 75% up to last week's episode. That seems pretty high! And then I was curious what it looked like for other companions, as well as the time periods spent travelling full time in the TARDIS versus coming along for visits etc.

Note - I don't think that this is a way of working out how feminist or well-rounded a companion's arc is, but given that I have genuinely seen people say that Clara's life revolves around the Doctor (she is the only regular New Who companion to travel in the TARDIS part time throughout her run! why would you say that?! jeez, fandom) it seemed interesting to bear in mind.



A note - I haven't counted cameo appearances such as at the end of Ten's run, and I've erred on the side of not counting borderline episodes (Does Journey's End include Rose's life without the Doctor? mayyyybe?) so these are definitely lower limit numbers.

Rose

She's in 27 episodes in seasons 1 & 2. Her mother and her boyfriend are foregrounded as important characters from episode 1. She travels in the TARDIS full time but comes home to visit and her family get swept up in events. Her life outside the Doctor is primarily represented through Jackie, as Mickey becomes a companion in his own right. In season 4 she returns as part of the season arc, giving her 30 episodes overall.

Episodes that feature Rose's life without the Doctor: 17/30.
56%

Martha

Martha is in 13 episodes in season 3 and 5 in season 4. Her home life is represented as dealing with her large, loving and occasionally difficult family, and her studies to become a doctor. She travels with the Doctor full time in season 3 but it's compressed into a week, Earth time. In season 4, she primarily helps the Doctor from Earth with UNIT, but goes on one adventure with him.

Episodes that feature Martha's life without the Doctor: 8/18.
44%

Donna

Donna is in one Christmas special follow by 13 episodes in season 4. Her home life is characterised by her difficult mother and devoted grandfather and her dissatisfaction with daily life after having met the Doctor.

Episodes that feature Donna's life without the Doctor: 7/14
50%

Amy

Amy is in 33 episodes. Her home life starts out as being characterised by a distant aunt, no other family and few other friends except for Rory. Her developing relationship with Rory and later River is a major arc, and we only see her parents once after they are unerased from time, though we do meet her father-in-law as well. We see her working various jobs. She travels full time in the TARDIS for two seasons and part time for her last few episodes.

Episodes that feature Amy's life without the Doctor: 14/33
42%

Clara

Clara has been in 15 episodes so far. Her home life is characterised by her role first as a childminder and later as a teacher, as well as her grief after losing her mother as a teenager. She is the only regular new Who companion solely to travel with the Doctor part time.

Episodes that feature Clara's life without the Doctor: 11/15
73%

So that's:

Clara: 73%
Rose: 59%
Donna: 50%
Martha: 44%
Amy: 42%

I don't have any firm conclusions that I want to draw from that, but I do think it's interesting! And I think it's a good counterpoint to the idea that any of the companions' lives focus solely on the Doctor, because no, they don't.

I feel like a lot of the lazier Doctor Who reviews out there like to ignore the actual information we have on screen in favour of comments like 'all Martha ever did was pine after the Doctor' or 'Clara has no personality and we don't know anything about her life'. I'm really bored of that crap. You can take issue with their storylines without ragging on the women themselves, it's not hard.

Comments

[raven]

This is very interesting, thank you for posting it!

[lovelythings]

You can take issue with their storylines without ragging on the women themselves, it's not hard.

I agree with this SO INTENSELY. Also, you can take issue with Moffat without ragging on the women themselves (at least in theory - all the crit I see skews heavily toward "Amy is just ginger eyecandy"/"River is just Moff's fantasy" etc.).

[(Anonymous)]

I can't work out how to log in, but it's Fiwen1010 from LJ

And just yes, I agree so much. I saw someone complaining that "RTD's companions had lives outside the Doctor, whilst Moffat's are only the Doctor and they're running away from their lives" and I just wondered if they'd been watching a different show to me. RTD's characters usually had to choose between the Doctor and a 'normal' life, whereas Moffat's actually have some semblance of a Doctor/life balance. River's is my favourite, actually, because she chooses everything, even prison, and everyone knows it. Amy's score is low, but it's very much of her choosing and she imposes her home life on the Doctor rather than switch between them, and then there's the weird thing with all of her life outside the Doctor being erased, so there's actually quite a lot of significance placed on how little life she has outside it.

The one complaint I would make is that they're all control freaks (in the Doctor's words), but that makes sense because of course he likes his companions like that - it absolves him of responsibility for their actions.

(I'm sorry, I'm drunk posting, but I hope that makes some sense)

[galadriel1010]

Oh hey, that's how I log in.

[recessional]

There is a deeply weird collective memory-erasure re: RTD in general in Whodom. My first exposure to it was towards the end of Ten's run, when I didn't watch the show (Ten and I don't get along), but continually watched the fandom explode with nasty vitriol towards RTD's writing: how he made it like everything subordinate to/not as good as Rose but Rose was nothing more than a vapid nice-girl paper-doll for the Doctor to be in love with (and how he'd Ruined the Doctor by making him in love with anybody), how his portrayal of Mickey and later Martha were horrifically racist especially whatever story-arc there was with Martha in a maid's outfit/role? (like I said, I didn't watch, but I actually remember that as one of the first NASTY racism-in-storyline fights I saw on the internet) and how having Martha pine after the Doctor was incredibly offensive to women, and then not to mention what I actually did really hate, which is what he did with Donna in the end.

And it's like fandom has wiped this entire. period. from its collective mind and decided RTD is a canonized saint so Moffat can be the devil.

I am told by a friend who's been into Who since forever that this basically always happens, and when the next runner's well into his/her run, we should expect St Moffat to appear.

(Moffat is hardly flawless: I hate what he does with Sherlock very intensely, and dislike many decisions he made with Who, but he never hit my FUCK OFF AND DIE button the way RTD did with Donna and he gave me roughly two seasons of the Eleven and Amy show which was very important to me, and had Amy, in the end, make her own choice for herself, so. But I'd be just as irked with the collective fandom amnesia about how loud people screamed at the Sins of RTD even if I hated everything Moffat ever did.)

[elisi]

And it's like fandom has wiped this entire. period. from its collective mind and decided RTD is a canonized saint so Moffat can be the devil.
THIS. Oh my god, this. (I was there. I remember.)

[selenay]

OMG, yes, this. I continue to be amazed by the St. RTD feelings when I can remember the level of utter hate he was getting by the end.

I'm still bitter about the way he wrote out Donna. Not to the point of hating everything he did and stands for, but his run wasn't perfect. Moffat has done some things I didn't like, but I don't think his direction has been the devil incarnate that everyone portrays him as, either.

[littlered2]

Yes - I remember how towards the end of RTD's run people were talking about how he was Ruining Everything, but soon Moffat would be showrunner and everything would magically be good again. Oh, fandom.

[galadriel1010]

I agree, I hate that so much. I sit there thinking "wait, have I dropped through from a parallel universe where you weren't up in arms about how horrible RTD was, yes you specifically?" Likewise I have former friends who mock the Save Ianto fangirls, and never mention how deeply involved in every way they were when it started.

Who fandom is just a running battle, and Torchwood was a prolonged siege.

[(Anonymous)]

Are some of them the same people? I always assume that most of them watched RTD era straight through without analysing every problem then watched the present live surrounded by people who fell in love s1-4 and for whom Moffat-era just doesn't work, so they see all the problems and a number that don't exist.

[recessional]

You can take issue with their storylines without ragging on the women themselves, it's not hard.

YOU WOULD THINK.

Signed, a fan who loves Donna passionately and hated roughly half of what the storyline did with her.

[txvoodoo]

Agreed. (here via the LJ who newsletter)

It's funny, isn't it? I hate what he did with Donna...but at the same time, he gave us Donna and the good bits.

[havocthecat]

I do sometimes wonder why some people think that the companions are always written as nothing without the Doctor. It's nice to see even a non-scientific analysis of the companions' lives on the show.

[selenay]

People tend to pick the narrative that suits their particular thesis best. A lot of people seem to want to criticise the writing of companions and this is an easy target. At least, that's my theory :-)

[elisi]

I feel like a lot of the lazier Doctor Who reviews out there like to ignore the actual information we have on screen in favour of comments like 'all Martha ever did was pine after the Doctor' or 'Clara has no personality and we don't know anything about her life'. I'm really bored of that crap. You can take issue with their storylines without ragging on the women themselves, it's not hard.
Thank you! And thank you for breaking it all down into numbers.

[odessie]

Ooh, very interesting to see the numbers, thanks.

I do think it's one of the most interesting things that Moffat's introduced to Who, the idea of the companion who has their own life and travels with the Doctor part-time. It's a very different dynamic, and I personally think a good one - though I do worry about how much harder it's going to make writing out Clara when the time eventually comes. If the Doctor just comes and goes out of a companion's life, why would he ever stop? I don't think the audience will buy another time-locked New York... :p

I'm really bored of that crap. You can take issue with their storylines without ragging on the women themselves, it's not hard.

*applauds*

[copracat]

I quite like the implication that the Doctor never has to stop.

[copracat]

This is a cool thing. I've liked how much of Clara's non-Tardis life we've seen.

[coffeesuperhero]

Thank you for this post! This is so useful! Data!! :D :D :D

Siiiiigh I am so tired of that conflation of storyline and character, too. >:(

[flowsoffire]

Interesting point! It was nice seeing an actual comparison. I hadn't realized Clara had so much "home time" on screen compared to the others…

taiey

[(Anonymous)]

*ludicrous flailing*
This is amazing. I'm so glad someone made a proper comparison of it. :) It's so right for runaway Amy to have the least and sensible, responsible the greatest proportion and there are numbers to prove it.