In this post, I’m going to talk about each of the official
companions of New Who. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m really interested in what
makes us love and/or hate them, and whether it has anything to do with gender
or sexism. In this post, I will be moving out of the realm of semi-empirical “science”
and into the ether of opinion. Which is why I really want to hear what you guys
think! So feel free to sound off in the comments.
I was originally just going to write a short blurb about
each, but I got a little carried away. In light of how long the post would be
if I left it all as one, I’m simply going to link to a separate discussion of
each companion below.
Each post will probably be in the same format. I’m going to
mention why people love/hate each companion according to the internet; this
comes from a general sense I got from talking to people and from scanning
google. Feel free to do the same, as I don’t want to have to go through and link
each reason. Then I’ll talk about what I think about all this. I’ll try to look
critically and not just defend, although I make no promises. There might be
some ranting.
So, without further ado, here are the links:
On this page I also have some general thoughts about things
all the companions have in common.
The Companions are less intelligent than the Doctor
This is something that I think sort of makes sense. It’s not
surprising that the Doctor knows more about physics and aliens than a London
shop girl or an English teacher because he travels through space and time in a
relative dimension machine that he owns and maintains himself. Also he was born
on a more advanced planet and is hundreds of years older than everyone else. So
when he travels around with earthlings it makes sense that they tend to come
off as really thick next to him. Then add this to how the writers use this
dynamic: sometimes the companion’s relative stupidity makes them the butt of
the joke. The writers also tend to use the companion as a sort of
audience-surrogate—to ask all the questions so that the audience can have all
the answers. They also use the companions to move the plot or cause, which
often includes making mistakes and not knowing what to do. So I’d say it wasn’t
sexism that caused the writers to write female characters that seem a little stupid
to the audience. The sexist feel that comes from the girl always being less
intelligent than the boy, following him around and doing as he tells her is
just a byproduct of the Doctor/companion dynamic.
But that doesn’t make it not sexist. Just because they didn’t
mean it to be sexist doesn’t mean it’s not adding to hurtful stereotypes about
all the things men are better at then women. That being said, I think the show
has done a bit to mitigate or alleviate this effect. The companions are almost
always more emotionally in-tune than the Doctor, (though this is still playing
into stereotypes) which means that every now and then they get to teach him
something about humanity. The exception to this is Amy, who isn’t really very
good at connecting with people; however she still gets to show the Doctor
humany things as she is still a human being. And there is one female character
that doesn’t often come off as stupid. River is in the rare position of
sometimes knowing more than the Doctor, which is really cool to see (not just
because she’s a woman, but just in general too!) Another thing that should help
take the pressure off the women is Mickey and Rory, who both end up being the
butts of the jokes more often than not when they’re around. However, I think
that that has kind of had an opposite effect in that then the female characters
that interact with them get nailed for treating them like they’re stupid;
instead of seeming less stupid, they just seem more mean. And, somehow people
still tend to rail on female companions they don’t like by calling them stupid
even though I think they’re all quite clever and equally great people.
The Companions are obsessed with the Doctor
This is another thing that kind of makes sense. I mean, the
viewers are all obsessed with the Doctor too. It fits right in with my
companions-are-audience-surrogates theory. I see a few problems with this trend
in the show though. First, it feeds into the obsessive girlfriend trope. And
this is just annoying. Not because obsessive people are annoying (I try to
avoid judgments like that), but because it rarely gets the in-depth treatment
we need to see as audience members. Again, I think that the writers have tried
to explore this. But not enough. It’s been there in every companion’s story and
tends to make them seem silly. The biggest example of obsession is in Amy’s
storyline. I’d say actually, it’s a bit tragic and wasn’t really fair to Amy.
If you think about it, you can see that it really turned Amy’s life upside down
and that damage was never addressed satisfactorily. The Doctor never apologized
and then he just moved on instead of taking responsibility. He went on to do a
similar thing with Clara, and so that unhealthy obsession thing never gets
dealt with. That’s not really a healthy thing for girls to aspire to in their
relationships, or boys for that matter, either. It’s also not necessary. If you’re
going to introduce something like that, you should deal with it a little more
delicately.
Anyway, just some ideas. Comment below if you
agree/disagree.
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