A topic for the discussion of Farscape, Smallville, and Due South. Beware possible invasions of Stargate, Highlander, or pretty much any other "genre" show that captures our fancy. Expect Adult Content and discussion of the Big Gay Sex.
Whitefont all unaired in the U.S. ep discussion, identifying it as such, and including the show and ep title in blackfont.
Blackfont is allowed after the show has aired on the east coast.
This is NOT a general TV discussion thread.
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.
Not all companions were screamers or queriers. Rose isn't the first one to be useful.
All very interesting. I will make a point of watching the first two in reruns tonight.
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.)
The main purposes for the companions are to be an audience proxy, and to have someone for the Doctor to deliver his expository lines to. Given those parameters, a companion can be quite useful or useless, depending on the quality of the writing and the acting. The fact that Rose fulfills this role while being a such a good character is a testament to RTD.
Not all companions were screamers or queriers. Rose isn't the first one to be useful.
I seem to recall Ace being pretty useful, but that could be my Ace crush talking.
ita - quite right.
Laura - I spent a week timeshifting and watching the first week of Passions being re-run on Scifi. Had to make myself stop while I still could!
Companion = device. Agreed. Leela. Mmmmm.
Actually, Rose reminds me most of her. It's so nice to see a person-sized woman on tv, who isn't a joke.
Rose [link] kept reminding me of a character from General Hospital (don't know if she still is on the show) named Felicia
I can see that. GH actually recast the role of Felicia not that long ago. the person playing her bears a pretty good resemblance to Kristina Wagner, but i'm still bitter that they're continuing the trend of getting rid of the old guard. i just realized i'm not in Minearverse where soaps talk is appropriate. so i'll leave it at that. *g*
I have a bronzer friend that could be Billie Piper's sister or doppleganger. i'm reminded of her every time i watch.
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?
Unless PBS goes back to viewing Classic Who, I doubt that those eps will be widely available outside of DVD/video. If you do decide to do some renting, the videos haven't been released in order--only select eps are available for each Doctor.
As for starting with the first one, those are very limited, due to the BBC's old policy of getting rid of entire episodes to make room in the storage facility back in the 1960s/70s. Even though I consider myself a big Who fan, I've never seen any William Hartnell (#1) or Patrick Troughton (#2), outside of the reunion eps.
Jon Pertwee (#3) is fun, but his story thread is unusual in that the majority of his eps he's tied to Earth and working with UNIT (a paramilitary group based in England), instead of gallivanting around the universe. Tom Baker (#4) is considered the uber-Doctor, because of his length of tenure (7 years is the longest in the role so far) and because he was the Doctor most Americans knew first since his eps were the first to be picked up by PBS. Peter Davison (#5) is probably the one best known for his non-Doctor roles, especially in All Creatures Great and Small. Colin Baker (#6) is the one I found the most annoying, but others I'm sure disagree with me. Sylvester McCoy (#7) was the last in the Classic Who line, and his eps did more experimenting with the Doctor's backstory and made him more of a manipulator in the universe. Whether or not the new series is going to continue this plotline, I don't know.
As for which ones to watch, Doctor Who is more like CSI or L&O in that it doesn't really matter if you watch eps in order or not. Watch them in order, and you'll get a bit more character development, and in the rare season-long arcs (namely, the Key to Time season and the Trial of a TIme Lord), those are available in boxed sets for rental.
![[link]](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:Rosetyler.jpg){kind=link}
![[link]](http://www.wchstv.com/abc/genhosp/i/kristinawagner.jpg){kind=link}
