change! more change!

[rivendellrose]

BBC releases information on the new upcoming companion.



But I could have sworn people had been saying she'd be older. I realize now, of course, that this must have been only rumor-mongering, but... I guess we're back to 19 yr olds? With a Doctor who's only 26. Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear. But she's Scottish, and I'm looking forward to that! And... she really is awfully pretty!

I was doing pretty well, honestly, apart from surprise, until I hit this line:

"A generation of little girls will want to be her. And a generation of little boys will want them to be her too," [Moffat] added.

All right, Mr Moffat. I've defended you against every imprecation of sexism until now. I've always said that I don't see it in your work, and that I definitely think you've done better with female characters in Doctor Who than our dear buddy Mr Davies. But... you had to go and say that, didn't you? Just go on, then. Remind me that this show, at its root, is still the show where the boys can want to grow up to be the Doctor, but all us girls can hope for is to be a companion.

Edited to add: I should say - on an individual level, I'm not complaining about any of the companions. As individuals, hell, even as a group, I love them. Romana and Martha and Sarah Jane and Liz Shaw and Jo Grant and Ace and Donna... I mean, come on! They're totally worth loving and looking up to. What I'm complaining about here is the built-in power dynamic - the feeling that, no matter that we don't use the word anymore, even the best of the girls is still just an assistant to the man, who is obviously the one running the show. Literally.

So here's my challenge to Moffat - I want him to change my mind about that.

Comments

[cyranocyrano.livejournal.com]

Oops, yeah, I need to learn to be more clear on the subject too. Adric... I have friends who are fond of him, so I won't mock him too much. And Mickey at least had a character arc, which is more than most companions get--they leave the TARDIS pretty much the same as when they entered.

[beam-oflight.livejournal.com]

Yeah I think they've got better at that, We see what Martha's been getting up to, we see a lot of what Rose has been doing, and Jack of course. Pity about Donna. Then again, I think the whole show has become more character based an dealling more with personal issues, than prehaps complex plots. Which has it's pros and cons, I think they've just fallen into a bit of a routine, so i'll be interested to see what Moffat does with it.