I only know Emma Pierson from Hotel Babylon and based on that I can’t see her as a companion to any modern Doctor.  But obviously there’s more to her so I’ll bow down to Luca and say sure, why not?

Re Noah: yes I’d love to see Sally Sparrow back.  But I read the other day about a film at the Sundance Festival, saying “Carey Mulligan is going to be a star”. So it seems her career may be going to realms beyond the TARDIS these days.

About companions with romantic undertones or other emotional attachments - I welcome it. Imo these relationships have had a huge bearing on the success of the new series. I don’t just mean with female teenage viewers (or soppy old ones like myself!) I believe that today’s faithful viewer not only welcomes, but demands more insight into the characters they see.  We want to understand why they do what they do/say what they say, and frankly it’s the emotional attachments and results thereof that allow said audience ‘in’. 

Female companions don’t have to mean romance.  Look at Donna - none there, but the relationship they developed was integral to both characters and the furthering of the series.

As wonderful as many of the classic series stories were and as much as the mysterious, asexual Doctor was right for them, it wouldn’t work in today’s series as we know it.  The Doctor’s resolutions in the classic stories to the monster or the threat of the week were based on bad-guy/good-guy logic or past experience with similar monsters/threats.  Those stories could only go so far (and rightly so) because the audience had quite a narrow understanding of him as a person (‘person’ referring to all humanoids including Time Lords).  Not saying that some of classic-Doctor’s decisions weren’t emotionally driven, but it was emotion relating to the current situation with the monster/threat rather than anything to do with his own emotional history or the people/companions around him.  Going further wouldn’t have made any sense to the viewer.
Of course some of the 5th Doctor’s stories did have more feeling in there, although it was still completely chaste, we did get a continuing insight into how much he cared about his companions and how they related as people.  I chalk a lot of that up to the actor. Peter Davison was able to make more out of what was written than (imo) his predecessors would have been able to, and in turn some of the writers realised that and expanded it.

Today, without the Doctor’s more emotionally-driven self that’s been opened up to us by relationships with others, we never could have some of the glorious scenes we’ve been treated to in the new series.  Not even just the companion-related ones. Eg: those bits where The Doctor remembers what Gallifrey was like and what he’s lost, could never have worked in the classic series (and most certainly not had us..or The Doctor crying, either).  Yet they’re a huge part of DW as we know and love it now, and give us more insight and allow us to be more open-minded about different types of stories in the future.
(And don’t anyone try and be clever and say of course that wouldn’t have worked in the classic series because Gallifrey still existed.  I’m not that thick.  Just using an example!)

Our 21st century Doctor is exactly what we need him to be - a complete person with feelings and doubts and loves and losses and highs and lows just like anyone else, but made all the more intense - and impossible and enjoyable - by the fact that he’s not like anyone else. A huge part of the credit for this obviously goes to David Tennant.  Without an actor able to portray all these facets so brilliantly and believably, it would have been a sappy mess.  But it’s worked and it’s good, and over the past few years it’s brought us some of the best and most well-rounded Who ever.

All that being said, I too hope that #11 doesn’t end up in some silly love story with he and his companion coming out of a TARDIS back room looking slightly ruffled…that would be wrong. In fact it would be horrifying (save it for a Journeys End-clone Doctor story! ). 
But based on what Steven Moffat’s said before, I think we’re safe there anyway.  He’s all for constant teasing and pushing it right to the limit, but ultimately leaving those stories as the ‘love that could never be’ for one reason or another, which fits in with what RTD already established, and is both sad and wonderful.  Sad because it leaves The Doctor anguished and alone, but wonderful too, as it opens up even more doors for the audience understanding of his motives and feelings - and in turn more wide-reaching stories, as long as they’re well written and well acted.  I’m not too worried about the writing end, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see if Matt Smith can pull off the rest anywhere close to what we’ve come to expect.

Okay so I got off topic here.  Sorry.  Umm…companions.  Yeah, #11 will need one.

Posted by Julie  on  01/18  at  05:11 PM

Excellent post, Julie!  I’d only add that, as great as Tennant has been (& will be for a few more hours), Eccleston’s portrayal was key to re-imagining the modern Doctor’s identity, motivations, characterization, etc.  Without Eccleston, we’d still be nitpicking over old reruns & novelizations.

As for companions, I like the idea of an alien or someone from Earth’s past.  Also, a pair of companions could flirt w/ each other, ruffle each other’s clothes, etc. while the Doctor could have a chance to be eccentric & quirky.  Just a thought.

Posted by jimmy  on  01/19  at  02:42 PM

that’s so weird—i just started watching the troughton episodes!  it must’ve seeped into my unconscious…

Posted by jimmy  on  01/26  at  02:21 PM

Thanks for your very interesting article

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Posted by sepatu safety  on  11/05  at  05:54 AM