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such_heights) wrote2014-12-05 11:44 am
such_heights) wrote2014-12-05 11:44 am
My Favourite Doctor Who Companions
aria wanted to know about my favourite companions, and juniperphoenix wanted me to talk about Rory Williams. I shall combine the two and talk about my three New Who faves: Martha, Rory, Amy.Martha Jones
Martha Jones is a rockstar. She's someone who holds people together - in one sense as a doctor, and in another sense with the role that she plays in her family. The question she always seems to be asking when presented with a situation is 'what can I do to help?'. And she meets the Doctor, and he sweeps her away a little but she very quickly comes to understand who and what he is, and even though he's a massive dick to her a lot of the time, she decides that travelling with him is good for her, and that she's good for him. She can help him, and she wants to. I feel like she's someone who's always wanted to save the world, and suddenly she can. She's willing to put up with a hell of a lot in order to do that, but she also recognises when she's hit her limit.
I love her because she's funny and geeky and kind and so delighted with the world around her. She's smart and self assured, and is a young black woman who seems to have grown up learning how to decide which shit she's going to take from which people - in the moments when she decides not to, the bones of the hand speech being a great example, she's radiant.
S3 is a great series in a lot of ways, but it does a real disservice to her structurally - because the Doctor doesn't accept her as a 'proper' companion until halfway through in 3x06, we only get one episode that really shows us the Doctor + Martha Team TARDIS dynamic, 3x07, before suddenly the Doctor's a fobwatched human, then it's Blink then it's the finale. Martha shines throughout, but it leaves us with far too much time spent on the Doctor being a dick and less of the real meat of their relationship like we should have seen. Alas. But it seems the writers understood that we couldn't be done with her, and her reappearances in both DW and Torchwood are wonderful. She's an expert in the field, she's ultra competent, she's someone other people gravitate to for advice and support, and she gets all of the respect and validation she never really had from the Doctor.
What she does in the s3 finale is one of the most remarkable things any companion has ever done. She spends a year traversing the apocalyptic wasteland that used to be her home planet in order to reach out to every survivor she can find and bring them hope and purpose, with nothing but a TARDIS key to protect her. It's really, really amazing, and testament to the fundamental grit and goodness in her. It makes me love her so so much.
Rory Williams
Rory is one of my favourite flavours of male character - fundamentally kind and gentle, not really interested in being in the spotlight or being a big hero, but ultimately someone you could rely on to the ends of the earth. I was totally in love with Amy right from the off, but Rory had to work harder to endear himself to me - I'm always a bit suspicious of the male love interests of my favourite female characters to start with.
It didn't take long for him to win me over. I didn't pay much attention to him in The Eleventh Hour the first time around, but by Vampires of Venice and Amy's Choice I was sold, because he was a little clumsy and a little awkward and a little unsure about this whole travelling the universe business, but he does it because he loves Amy.
Then he dies and turns into a Roman. If there's one thing I love best about the characters of these kind, gentle boys, it's when the narrative takes them and shakes them up a bit. Not enough to break them, but enough that you get to see what they're made of. Rory's made out of love, really. Love for Amy, enough love to wait outside a box for 2000 years. I can get behind that.
I love that Rory's the comic relief - Darvill's comic timing and physical comedy is a gift - and also often the voice of reason. His blossoming relationship with the Doctor is a delight, his dynamic with River totally gorgeous if under-used, and the pull in him between being a nurse and being a soldier really works for me. <333
Amy Pond
Amelia Pond stormed her way into my heart four and a half years ago by knocking the Doctor out with a cricket bat, and honestly no other fictional character has come close since. She's so many things I love in a female character - complicated, sarcastic, bad at feelings, a bit damaged - and behind all of that she's got tremendous heart and wonder at the universe.
Her whole life is shaped by the strange wonders of the universe, really - not by the Doctor as a person, but by the life he leads, through the cracks in time, through River, and it makes her a little bit magic. Enough to bring the Doctor back into reality on her wedding day, in what is probably my favourite scene DW has ever done.
Her relationship with the Doctor is so lovely - it doesn't try to elevate her above other companions, but the way they meet wraps them up in each other and makes something really special. They came along just when I needed them and seared themselves onto my heart.
I love Amy for her courage, her insight, her occasional terrifying ruthlessness. It's hard to imagine anyone else could be amazing enough to be River Song's mother. Her time on the show was often characterised by finales that were like small family dramas at the end of the universe, where the love that the Pond family had for each other was always what saved the day.
I love every Doctor Who companion I've had the pleasure to meet, and I'm sure that will continue for as long as the show airs, but Amy was special. I've honestly never been more sad at a story than I was when her last episode aired. I still miss her a lot. But she grew up to be the woman who stopped waiting, which is all I ever wanted for her.
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Everything you just said here. But especially your last paragraph about Martha, and your point that Rory is made of love (and the pull between him being a nurse and being a soldier), and every single damn thing you said about Amy because AMY POND, I cannot even.
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My love for Amy is basically boundless, for all those reasons.
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Anyway, thanks for this. I love seeing people talk about these characters positively!
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I sort of love the Companions in different ways? I measure this in what kind of fic I like to read.
With Rose, it's generally Rose/TenToo fic (or just Rose on her own, being awesome).
With Martha, it's about how she puts her life back together (whilst coming to terms with what happened). Also Martha/Mickey.
With Donna, it's generally Donna whilst she's travelling with the Doctor, although I also like stories where she's brilliant just being herself. (She don't need the Doctor to be amazing, I resent that with every fibre of my being.)
Amy... I don't even know where to start. She's Amy. Rory is a part of that.
Clara grew on my slowly, but is wonderfully fascinating and I love her entirely too much.
/end morning ramble
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(And I <3 this post generally!)