Would You Be My New Best Friends? (Doctor Who redux)

[jwhouk]

Since the only other thread I saw was way over the necro limit, I figured I'd start a new one.

Any thoughts about the commentary out of SDCC, or the teaser/trailer stuff?

[Eldan]

I'll probably look into it, just because Moffat's out, but honestly, that trailer tells us exactly nothing.

[Anymage]

The trailer tells us, or at least strongly implies, that we'll have multiple companions. Companions who play off of each other instead of one person being super fixated on The Doctor have historically been good.

The bits with 13 in a tinkerers outfit with the plastic wrap up also imply that she has a base that's not just the inside of the tardis, and that she'll be tinkering with both her gear and the tardis itself. Possibly having to repair the tardis after her regeneration scene. That's more of a character quirk and a justification for allowing Chibnall to change things than it is anything to base predictions off of.

[Delicious Taffy]

Companions who play off of each other instead of one person being super fixated on The Doctor have historically been good.

This is part of why Nardole and Bill are my current favorite companions. Amy and Rory were quite good, as well, and Rose worked best with Jack around for banter.

[Sagitta]

What we have seen so far looks good to me. I can imagine this will be a good season, other than the episodes written by Chibnall.

The Doctor's accent seems to wander around a bit, but at the end of the trailer I thought she looked and sounded rather like Victoria Wood. Which can only bode well.

[Androgeus]

The Doctor's accent seems to wander around a bit, but at the end of the trailer I thought she looked and sounded rather like Victoria Wood. Which can only bode well.

I don’t think a Yorkshirewoman would like to be called Lancastrian

[Darth Ultron]

Well, classic who is the smart guy with the 'average Earth knowledge' woman, for the simple trick of having the Doctor explain things to the Companion....and the viewers.

Guy Companions are a bit rare, and often fall into the part of being the 'Action Guy', so the Doctor can sprout 'peace and happiness' endlessly.

New who gives us lots of faux action girls, an action guy or two, and the wimpy guy.

Though the now woman Doctor does shake things up a bit, so we could get:

1.Smart Doctor with a dumb male beefcake companion and a pretty young 'student' woman companion. So typically the guy will be their for sexist comic relief targeting males, and the Doctor will explain the mysteries of the universe to the woman and empower her with knowledge.

2.Bookish Doctor with a dashing young heroic male companion and a pretty young 'student' woman companion. So the guy does all the action, while the Doctor and other woman do the 'science' as the Doctor will explain the mysteries of the universe to the woman and empower her with knowledge.

3.Smart Doctor with a smart for Earth male companion and a pretty young 'student' woman companion. So the Doctor can male(or 'Earth') bash everything the guy(or 'Earth') knows as wrong while the Doctor will explain the mysteries of the universe to the woman and empower her with knowledge.

4.Smart Doctor with a wimpy male companion and a 'amazon fighting woman'. So the guy will scream and run and hide while the Doctor and the amazon save the universe....and the Doctor will explain the mysteries of the universe to the woman and empower her with knowledge.

5.Weird Doctor, and a weird man and woman companion.

Bonus fun:

6.Smart Doctor, cool guy companion, professor woman companion...and the guy likes them both, so the show is endless shenanigans as the Doctor and woman act all catty and jealous and try and ''get the guy".

7.The Doctor falls in love with the guy companion....and gets pregnant! Best Story Ever, Right Here.

8.The Doctor goes full 'Mary Poppins" and has a boy and girl companion.

[jayem]

Well, classic who is the smart guy with the 'average Earth knowledge' woman, for the simple trick of having the Doctor explain things to the Companion....and the viewers.

Guy Companions are a bit rare, and often fall into the part of being the 'Action Guy', so the Doctor can sprout 'peace and happiness' endlessly.

Minority perhaps. Certainly things are more or less balanced with the Dr (and hence unbalanced the other way without).
1&2 constantly have male companions, so tardis is 2M-2F for the first half of Hartnell, 2M-1F (from about Mythmakers, I'd guess till Wargames). Pertwee starts with Unit+1M-1F, then goes 1M1F and 2M1F and back to 1M1F.

The 1st half of Baker, 2nd half Davidson, Baker&Mcoy are mostly 1M1F matching the description and are the memorable classic who.
The 2nd half of Tom Baker has Romana which sometimes subverts the trick (but is basically the same as an earth woman)
The 1st half of Davidson has a 2-2 tardis, and for a brief period a 1-2 tardis..

[ETA hopefully some more interesting options can be explored, and you can perhaps have some individual male companions (though short term though you need to keep the drness of the dr so the 'friends' seems a good idea]

[Aotrs Commander]

The trailer tells us, or at least strongly implies, that we'll have multiple companions.

We are; three, I think, from what I read in the Radio Times. (How concurrent they will be is up for debate, but I'd assume we're looking more towards an Amy/Rory/River sort of back-up than them coming in and out, but we'll see, I guess. (Note: *has not watched the trailer*))

[Ebon_Drake]

We are indeed getting three companions. Two of whom are unknowns, and the other is Bradley Walsh because sure why not.

I genuinely hope that Bradley Walsh isn't actually playing a character and is literally just comedian/TV presenter Bradley Walsh mucking about in the TARDIS. I want his whole character arc to entirely be trying to wrap up his adventures with the Doctor in time to get back to presenting ITV1 teatime quiz show The Chase.

[Eldan]

Well, Season 10 just came up on netflix, and I'm watchign that after having mixed feelings the last few seasons. The Return of Dr. Mysterio is super cheesy and I kinda love it.

[Androgeus]

We are indeed getting three companions. Two of whom are unknowns, and the other is Bradley Walsh because sure why not.

I genuinely hope that Bradley Walsh isn't actually playing a character and is literally just comedian/TV presenter Bradley Walsh mucking about in the TARDIS. I want his whole character arc to entirely be trying to wrap up his adventures with the Doctor in time to get back to presenting ITV1 teatime quiz show The Chase.

It’ll be good when they accidentally cross his time line from when he presented Wheel of Fortune. Let’s just say he had a very different presenting style back then.

(Massively off topic now, but I tried watch The Chase USA the other day. I can understand why they had to go down to 3 contestants with how over dramatic everything is.)

[Darth Ultron]

Well, assuming it's not just three Male Companions, I wonder what the woman companion will look like?

Dr. Who is the Older Matronly Bookish look, so will the Other Woman fill the Hot Sexy spot? Will there be worry that a hot, sexy woman will ''take away" from the Doctor? Will they want the Doctor to have no woman competition? Will they make the Hot Sexy companion ''not so smart", so the Doctor can have that has ''her thing"?

So the Doctor can have her 'outfit', but the Hot Sexy companion will have a mini skirt, tight clothing and show skin. Wonder if they go to The Grand Ball Room.....In Space, will the Hot Sexy companion will wear a nice low cut dress...but the Doctor would never wear a dress, and would be in something like a pants suit, right?

Wonder if they will do the old, old, old trick of making the Doctors Hot Sexy companion any skin color except white? Seems like we should be beyond that...but it will likely happen anyway.

Wonder if they will make the woman companion a bit more 'average', like Ingrid Oliver?

[dps]

The 2nd half of Tom Baker has Romana which sometimes subverts the trick (but is basically the same as an earth woman)

For a good chunk of the time that Romana was the companion, K-9 was also aboard the Tardis; while the masculine pronoun was always used for K-9, I think it would be fair to say that the mechanical dog wasn't actually either male or female. And Adric came aboard before Romana left, and before Four regenerated into Five, he'd added Nyssa and Tegan.

[Darth Ultron]

We are indeed getting three companions. Two of whom are unknowns, and the other is Bradley Walsh because sure why not.

Great Gallefray! I Goggled it, and found the other two ''unknown" companions.....and much to my shock I was right yet again. The other two companions have dark skin. Wow...

[jayem]

For a good chunk of the time that Romana was the companion, K-9 was also aboard the Tardis; while the masculine pronoun was always used for K-9, I think it would be fair to say that the mechanical dog wasn't actually either male or female. And Adric came aboard before Romana left, and before Four regenerated into Five, he'd added Nyssa and Tegan.

Only just for Nyssa and Tegan, I thought it wasn't worth mentioning (as they were covered in 5th).
I'd forgotten the E-space trilogy and changeover trilogy were distinct so Adric has a better overlap, technically it's a 2-0 tardis on Traken.

[Fyraltari]

According to TvTropes Character page (not sure where they get their info) the new companions' name and actors are

Spoiler: In case someone cares

Show

Yasmin Khan played by Mandip Gill, Ryan Sinclair played by Tosin Cole and Graham O'Brien played by Bradley Walsh.

[LeSwordfish]

I'm looking forward to it! I stuck through Moffat, and I'm not sure why, and so it can only improve.

Great Gallefray! I Goggled it, and found the other two ''unknown" companions.....and much to my shock I was right yet again. The other two companions have dark skin. Wow...

I mean, do you have a problem with that?

[Androgeus]

I mean, do you have a problem with that?

Darth_Ultron has a problem with what he sees as diversity for the sake of diversity. (I don’t know the reasoning behind the casting so I’m not make a judgement whether it is)

[LeSwordfish]

Darth_Ultron has a problem with what he sees as diversity for the sake of diversity. (I don’t know the reasoning behind the casting so I’m not make a judgement whether it is)

Ah, I see. If you have dark skin on TV, you'd better have a damn good reason for it.

[Telonius]

I don't think they've had that many regular companions (at once) since the 5th Doctor, have they? (Not counting the bunches-at-once in the End of Time).

[LeSwordfish]

My suspicion is that they're planning something like the third(?) doctor's tenure, when he stayed almost entirely on earth, with less of a strict "companion" and more of an ensemble including the Brigadier and UNIT.

[jayem]

I don't think they've had that many regular companions (at once) since the 5th Doctor, have they? (Not counting the bunches-at-once in the End of Time).

I don't recall anything (TV wise at least). Season 6 Amy/Rory&River probably comes really close. With all three in 5/13 episodes all as an active characters.

And then you have a couple of one and a thirds (Wilf & Mickey, Riversong-(S<>6), possibly missy) where they appear in a number of episodes but not joined up and not quite as active

And you have the 3 detectives which have even more numbers but are even more not regular companions.

[Darth Ultron]

I mean, do you have a problem with that?

Well, sure, everyone should....

Darth_Ultron has a problem with what he sees as diversity for the sake of diversity. (I don’t know the reasoning behind the casting so I’m not make a judgement whether it is)

Yes, this does make a good cover and most people will believe this as it 'sounds good and right".

But the truth is so much darker. See, for women, you can't have ''secondary character" that is more attractive then the "main character". You MUST make sure they are at least ''equals(in some ways)'', or at least each represents a ''type of unique beauty". Or you have the option of making the ''main woman character" the good/noble/caring type...and making the other woman a ''monster".

Though the above can take a lot of work to get the right mix that ''feels right" to everyone. But there is an easy way: Other Races.

See, when you have a white female main character, you can add on another other female character of any other color race...and it won't be seen a ''competition". The people that care about such things will always see the white female main character as the ''most attractive", and the female character of any other color race will always been seen as second place.

It's saying ''sure the other woman is pretty....for her race, but she is not as pretty as the white woman."

It's modern hidden ''ism"s, as always. Really, it's shocking they did it. But made they don't even know they did it?

My suspicion is that they're planning something like the third(?) doctor's tenure, when he stayed almost entirely on earth, with less of a strict "companion" and more of an ensemble including the Brigadier and UNIT.

Lets hope not. Maybe a short stay on Earth for like an episode to fix the TARDIS, but not too long.

[LeSwordfish]

Yes, this does make a good cover and most people will believe this as it 'sounds good and right".

But the truth is so much darker. See, for women, you can't have ''secondary character" that is more attractive then the "main character". You MUST make sure they are at least ''equals(in some ways)'', or at least each represents a ''type of unique beauty". Or you have the option of making the ''main woman character" the good/noble/caring type...and making the other woman a ''monster".

Though the above can take a lot of work to get the right mix that ''feels right" to everyone. But there is an easy way: Other Races.

See, when you have a white female main character, you can add on another other female character of any other color race...and it won't be seen a ''competition". The people that care about such things will always see the white female main character as the ''most attractive", and the female character of any other color race will always been seen as second place.

It's saying ''sure the other woman is pretty....for her race, but she is not as pretty as the white woman."

It's modern hidden ''ism"s, as always. Really, it's shocking they did it. But made they don't even know they did it?

i regret asking

[Androgeus]

But the truth is so much darker...

What.

This is one of the strangest things I’ve read, I honestly have no idea how to respond.

[Rynjin]

What.

This is one of the strangest things I’ve read, I honestly have no idea how to respond.

The answer is: don't. Why anyone on this board responds to Darth Ultron is beyond me.

[jwhouk]

My only response.

[Delicious Taffy]

My only concern with three companions is, they might end up lacking in characterisation, if the writers haven't been careful. So long as they're all really interesting, the Doctor could have six of 'em buzzing around behind her.

[Eldan]

I think a four-man ensemble is manageable. I mean, a lot of shows have that many main characters or more. I mean, Firefly had nine people on ship, and two or three episodes in they were all well-established.