Loading ...I really enjoyed Doctor Who tonight. I am so very glad that Catherine Tate is the new companion. They couldn’t have chosen better.
To be honest, the choice of Catherine Tate could have gone either way. The last time Doctor Who tried to have a “famous” person be the companion, it didn’t go over too well. Bonnie Langford may have been beloved by many, but her playing Melanie Bush computer programmer (!) was painful to behold. Someone forgot to tell Bonnie that she wasn’t on stage. She didn’t have to be so loud and enunciate things so clearly. And after progressively stronger female characters, Melanie was a throwback to the age of screamers. And god could she scream. Apparently Bonnie Langford is a lovely person (she even appeared on the Catherine Tate show), and she did have the misfortune to be hired in one of the worst moments in Dr. Who history, but even so, Melanie is difficult to watch. Thank heaven she was replaced by Ace — now, Ace, I loved! (I aimed for the eyepiece, Professor!) Although Ace was the last of the original companions, at least she was a fighter!
But unlike Bonnie, Catherine doesn’t project for the backrow. And she’s been hired at one of the best moments in the program’s history. And the character of Donna Noble is fantastic to watch. Catherine’s comic timing is impeccable. It isn’t over the top. And she is proving that her dramatic acting skills are just as fantastic as her comedic ones. I was moved by her pleas for the people of Pompeii. And I was surprised how moved I was. Lately, I feel my own heart has been turned to stone (not unlike the Sibylline Sisters). Work is too boring and too time intensive. Nothing seems to excite or please me, but I was moved by the Noble one from London. Maybe that in itself is sad — watching someone else have adventures instead of having one myself, but there you go.
Casting Tate as the companion also adds a bit of much needed maturity to Doctor Who. By far, the best of the audio adventures of Doctor Who are the ones starring Colin Baker as the sixth Doctor and Maggie Stables as companion Dr. Evelyn Smythe. Evelyn is “of a certain age.” She was 55 when she started her travels with the Doctor and the interplay between the two actors is phenomenal. Even with nothing to go on but their voices, your attention is held firmly when they are “on stage”. Colin is now 64 himself, and they bring both depth and humor to the characters that isn’t possible in younger actors. I was glad that the audio adventures exist because I knew they would never cast a 55 year old woman as a companion for the Doctor on TV. (I was glad to be proven wrong when an older Sarah Jane showed up!)
Donna reminds me a bit of Maggie — not that their characters are the same, but they are both strong women who aren’t afraid to stand up to the Doctor (I don’t know what kind of children you been flying around with, but you aren’t telling me to shut up!) And Catherine is 40. No offense to Billie Piper or Freema Agyeman, but it is nice to see a companion with some living behind her. And one who doesn’t want to have sex with the Doctor. Shaggable though he may be!
We’ll see if the quality continues. I hope so. Doctor Who needs to change and grow. It is the lifesblood of the program. And as long as the changes are of this calibre, I’ll continue to watch. They’ve done it right with Donna Noble.
Buy me a beer!
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I agree. I like Donna Noble as a companion. She’s mature, independent, and isn’t all googly-eyed over the doctor (shaggable though he is, as you pointed out). And a good episode too.
But someone needs to teach the dr to drive that tardis.
“We’re in Pompeii… on volcano day!”
“What! I told you to take a right at the Crimean war! A right!”
Don’t ask me what brought up the Crimean War. It was the first thing that popped into my head. But I’ve probably triggered a reading-spate in Richard. Next thing you know, he’ll be reading books on the Crimean war and posting blogs about what the pilgrims were doing… oh wait. No pilgrims in the Crimean War.
What? No Fly-Fornication Menshikov?
Wow, I’m having some kind of stream of consciousness this morning. Methinks I need more coffee.
And I’m enjoying Baltar’s messiah-hood. But I could’ve done without Tyrol’s whining. Waa waa waa… I don’t want to be a cylon. He seems to have taken Callie’s place as prime-whiner aboard the ship.
Buck up!
And Richard, I’m feelin’ you about the work. You’d think me being able to make my own hours would relieve me of the kind of mind-numbness that assails most workers. But when “my own hours” translates into “my every waking hour” that kind of sucks the joy out of free-lancing.
Urgh.
Must find a book on the Crimean War. Must find a book on the Crimean War.
Right now I’m reading a book about the history of joy. It is, as expected, a joyless book. Very academic about how and why people first started dancing and what it does as a community builder. She is a dry, joyless academic who complains about how dry and joyless academics are.
So, in my experience, a typical academic.
Can’t remember the name. Also reading a book about the Hapsburgs. (or, Habsburgs). Famous royal family that eventually went completely insane. So unlike every other one. Can’t wait to read about the Queen who carted the corpse of her husband around with her everywhere she went.
When I was with that company that sent me down to Mississippi repeatedly, they said, “ANd you can work at home any time you want to!” what I didn’t know was that meant “While you are at home, you’ll be constantly working!” It was too much.
I don’t want to work at all. Assuming I can’t ever travel with the Doctor, I would prefer to be a Hapsburg. I want to be given carte blanche to be nutty as a Stuckey’s pecan log, even to the point of introducing my dead spouse’s corpse at parties. In fact, I would DEMAND that servants move his hands and face around, marionette style, as if he were truly alive. It’s more fun that way.
Now, that’s good old fashioned fun. No one out-crazies a Hapsburg!
I was actually thinking of the same thing last night! I’d haul around the corpse, and DEMAND that people have conversations with it at parties. In fact, I would ask them what he said to them, and then whatever they said he said, I’d respond “You didn’t talk to him! He would NEVER say that! Off with your head!”
I’d dig up the whole family and sit them at a dinner table, invite over live nobles and sit them in this manner — corpse, live person, corpse, live person, corpse, live person. And like Mojo, I’d have servants in the rafters moving around the corpses marionette style. I’d make one of them get in fight with one of the live guests and then bring both the corpse and the live person to trial for treason for daring to fight during my dinner parties!
No one outmads Joanna the Mad!