It's funny to think of it, but it is a reasonable assumption that the Doctor was fairly new to this regeneration, given the way he checked himself out in the mirror in Rose's apartment. So most of the 9th Doctor's solo adventures in the past must have happened between the first time he invited Rose to come with him and the second time. So Clive's pictures of him were of things the Doctor had yet to do, in his own timeline. Though a case might be made that the picture of him in period costume with the family that did not go down with the Titanic might have been while he was new enough to this regeneration that he hadn't settled into his own dress-sense and was still going about in Eight's clothes.

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Doesn't have to be a chick. It's the person (or persons) that travel with them.

Traditionally, female companions are expected to be fairly nubile (Romana being the most mature of the lot I'm aware of) and also scream. A lot. They may or may not be more useful than any given male companion. Rose is the first human female companion that I have seen who did not scream more than I would.

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So why does he need Companions if all they do is scream and look appealling?

Is "expected to be nubile" in the job description?

I shouldn't be asking these questions, should I?

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The purpose of the companions is to say, "Doctor, what is it?" over and over again. The companions tend to have shorter runs than the Doctor (with a couple of exceptions) because the actors tend to get sick of saying their line.

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The companions are, to some degree, our PoV characters. Because otherwise the Doctor'd never have to explain his myriad mysteries.

Is "expected to be nubile" in the job description?

Have a look at the Companion companion.

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The first time we meet the Doctor he's living on Earth with is granddaughter, one of her teachers (or maybe two) end up traveling with them. They end up with him different ways, going into the call box for help and seeing it's different and then things happening, or are from another planet and get caught up with the Doctor's adventures and stay.

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So why does he need Companions if all they do is scream and look appealling?

That's going to be answered in the current run, in "show, don't tell" fashion. Rose was invited, Mickey wasn't. You'll see why she was.

The purpose of the companions is to say, "Doctor, what is it?" over and over again.

Not under Russell T. Davies. Rose can handle herself. She has already. And Billie Piper is wonderful in "Father's Day," a couple months down the line.

Some of us have been speculating about the current run. It's been ages since Doctor Who has been on TV on a weekly basis. We think RTD wanted to jump straight in with the current Doctor without complicating matters with a regeneration story--there's a couple generations haven't seen Doctor Who and only know the pop culture references. Same reason why past Doctors weren't mentioned by the conspiracy theorist. There will be regeneration, and more--even a Dalek or many--just not initially. I'm okay with it.

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Not all companions were screamers or queriers. Rose isn't the first one to be useful.

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All very interesting. I will make a point of watching the first two in reruns tonight.

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So I watched Who for the first time evah. What fun. I have to watch again because I was working on my laptop at the time so I heard it more than saw it, which isn't right.

Will I be looking for previous Who's soon? If so, do I start at the beginning and watch em all? Start with the first Doctor? Are there some Doctors I should skip?

For now I am just delighted to have it nice and easy on Friday night.

Also, it was odd for me that Rose [link] kept reminding me of a character from General Hospital (don't know if she still is on the show) named Felicia [link] She's much younger than Kristina Wagner would be now, but she looked and behaved like a young Felicia. (I should watch soaps again. So goofy and they relax my brain.)

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