h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Adric!! Now there was a lousy companion!! I cheered when he died!! And he robbed us of the theme tune that week!! The TARDIS from hell - Adric, Nyssa and Tegan!!
Well said BB by the way!!
SBE

Personally - and this might get a few people wincing - I have no respect for anyone daft enough to set up an online petition for something like this. Like it will a) make any difference or b) be read by anyone who could matter.



I might be alone in thinking bringing in Sally Sparrow would have been a dreadful idea. Sally was wonderful in Blink, which is my favourite new-series episode ever, but she had a clearly-defined story. A year after the events with the Angels, she's working with her friend's brother, Larry, who's clearly pining for her, but she can't think of another man until she's resolved the paradox and met the Doctor. The second she hands her folder to the Doctor, she holds larry's hand and it's clear she's now happy and able to leave it all behind her.

To bring her back without Larry would be a mistake as it undermines the idea of happy endings and closure. If the Doctor makes people's lives better by meeting them, then great. If he doesn't, then we can come back to that in a sequel. But there's no good reason to bring back Sally on her own beyond 'we liked her'. Her story's done.

At least with Donna, there was a chance that she could travel with the Doctor, but she was terified of him. Her story is abut being stronger, not needing a man to make her life complete and gaining a sense of adventure. Like her or not, this is a good thing for the series in that it shows that there are some second chances. That's what I like about this Doctor - he despatched the Sycorax Leader and destroyed Harriet Jones's career with his 'no second chances' line, then went home and made friends with Mickey and Jackie because they *deserved* a second chance. So does Donna, from the Doctor and from the audience.

I'm gutted that Martha's left, but it's clear that, having spent a year of her life wandering the Earth, she's become stronger. She doesn't *need* the Doctor, so when she comes back it'll be because she wants adventure, not romance, which is how it should be.



Zagreb wrote:

>> This is rapidly becoming Favourite Wrong Idea On The Internet. "Doctor Who" *used* to be for kids, now it's for a much wider audience and would *have* to be even if it didn't want to <<


You keep coming back to this, but to be fair, it was *always* for a family audience. It was only in the mid-late 1980s when it stopped being for kids, stopped being for the family and became a niche show stuck on opposite Coronation Street (for which we can pretty much completely blame season 22). Modern Who *has* to appeal to the kids, because they're the ones who bring their parents into it, but also because the BBC, like every other broadcaster, needs to ensure that it has an audience in the future. Adults who watch / listen to the BBC probably will continue to do so, but children who have never got into the habit possibly never will. As peak viewing audiences across the board drop drastically, the concern is that children won't develop the habit of watching shows with their parents because of computers or other TV sets in their rooms. Doctor Who is one show the whole family watches.

So while the adult audience is what bulks up the viewing figures, they're the same adults who sat through the Sylvester McCoy years who would have watched it anyway (including the same adults who watch it every week and then religiously log onto Outpost Gallifrey to say how much they hated it - and then tune in the next week, and the next...). The most important part of that audience is 'the kids' - those people who were either not born or too young when Doctor Who was last a regular fixture on our screens for 14 nights a year. Whether those 'kids' are seven, 16 or 22, they're the generation who missed out on those adventures in the 1990s, and they're the ones who appear to be flocking to watch BBC One on a Saturday night.

That alone is a bit of a miracle - the all-important 16-24-year-old demographic - the one that doesn't watch much TV - having an appointment to view.

The same audience who think that Catherine Tate's Lauren is funny. I know. I hear them quoting her on the bus all the time.

"To bring her back without Larry would be a mistake as it undermines the idea of happy endings and closure."

I think that's right, but there's no reason why they can't bring both characters back-the Mickey/Rose thing worked quite well. I think that would also be an opportunity to see another side to Larry's character-he seemed pretty terrified of the Doctor. I think maybe he was portrayed as a bit of a stereotypical DVD geek, but if you got him to travel with Sally and the Doctor in the Tardis you might see another side to him.

Personnaly, I like the role CT have done in the Runaway Bride. I do not know much about CT because I do not live in UK, but my entourage in Canada like this idea of Donna comming back.
Personnaly, I do not like Rose too and this make me feel really alone certain time in my opinion... like now... I was really happy when she left the Tardis.
I think, however, that the authors can write really good stories with Donna, we'll see that!

4me-2me, you are lucky that you do not know Catherine Tate already - this means you do not have an existing opinion of her and so your view of the Donna character will be fresh. I think that because I DO know her from tv here in the UK and I don't like her characters - that is why I am unhappy about her being the new companion. I really hope she proves me wrong.

I on the Net trying to see what Catherine Tate do for getting everyone sad or angry at her for the return on DW... and I do not find anything quite interesting. What kind of show is she doing for embarassing all of you? Is it that she puts to much to same catchphrase and she's kind of vulgar?
For my point of view and what I've seen of the role of Donna is a good experience of acting, the interpretation of Donna was a bit silly and over caricatured but I really enjoy the Christmas Special because it was refreshing, and more like the classic who, not a real story who needs to other 26 episodes to understand, the companion is someone who has a personnality but is past is unclear and we do not have to put familly problem into it... The classic who where very much enjoyable for that, the new who have better scenarios but they need each other to survive. I know, I have missed the first Christmas special and there is a lot I do not understand further (Killing trees, Sycorax), I've also missed New Earth for a time (but CBC replayed it a bit later without the first ten minutes) and it really handicap the later episodes.
But the second Christmas special was perfect to reunite the old Who fan and the newer, they do not talk so much of Rose (which later can be a problem, because to understand the relation between Martha and the Doctor, you must need the understand the relation between Rose and the Doctor...), they figure Rose more like for preventing Donna to trust the Doctor than a real person. And it was fantastic!
I tape the Christmas special and the other following episode (I'm up to Sheakespeare Code now) for my math teacher who was really enjoying the Baker's area and that want to see DW again because there's an episode called 42 and he's a real fan of it (really really fan, final exam: there was a really painful question where the answer was 42...). I pass it the Christmas special just like that, but for Smith and Jones, I need to explain him the relation Rose/Doctor, for the Sheakespeare code, for Gridlock, I will need to explain him who is Boe, later, I'll need the explain who is Dalek Sec, what are becoming the Dalek, maybe next season, what happen to the Cyberman (because he does not know that they now come from an other univers).
What I'm trying to say now is that Donna Noble can be a really great companion because Tate is really doing a great job of acting, distracting us from the problem of Rose and maybe eventually the problem of Martha, that it will maybe be a real great show like the Baker's area, or the Sylvester's one who I really enjoy because they have a great scenario, some great actors (The Doctor, Ace, a lot of secondary personnage too were absolutly fantastic) and now, there is the money to make some really incredible special effect.
And we have now a really great and beautiful young actor (Tennant) who perform the Doctor like no one before, some really great scenarist, budget, and now a companion who can offer us the opportunity to enjoy the episode like it is, not like the other were.

>the Mickey/Rose thing worked quite well<

You wouldn't want to repeat that, or people will just say "your just repeating that".

You need to bring in NEW characters with NEW situations...

Also, instead of bringing in casts that are already famous, they should give new actors a chance for the roles as well.

I did say they should give new actors a chance...

Having watched the xmas special with CT in it when it was repeated recently I can kind of understand why they've opted to get her back, but I don't know if it will work in the long term-and if they are actually going to cast CT as a completely new character or bring back Donna

Anyone who doesn't think John Simm was fantastic as The Master just can't think.

He wasnt a new actor (unless you mean new to Doctor Who) by any stretch of the imagination. I have an obvious problem with this thread and its that the fans know best. We clearly dont. Id seen Billie Piper in epdated version of the Millers Wife thought, she wasnt a bad actress, but would get on my nerves after a bit in a series. While before the return of Dr Who most Dr Who fans thought much worse. Now you cant find many who don't miss her.

What a lot of you dont sem to catch onto is the fact that by subverting the fans wants RTD has come up with a show that people are literally fanatical about to the point that we are having a conversation about not spoiling it. Cast your minds back and people were scaree of what he'd do with the show.

Its like taking LSD get together with some good friends relax and just enjoy what comes that way the whole thing is a lot more pleasurable.

I don't particularly miss Billie...

OK so we found one fairly easily

Don't get me wrogn she was good, I just don't think she was the best.

Particularly with lines like
"what 'bout down 'ere"

I'm not posh or anything, it just broke the whole illusion for me a bit

What illusion was that then?

Adric's demise and the lack of theme tune that week is one of my most remembered DW episodes!!

(Yes I fancied him )

Preferred Martha over Rose as a companion and will reserve judgement on Donna.

In the minority, I know, on all of the above

Jules

JulesK, I'm with you on the first two but rather perplexed by the third.

What by me not knowing if I like Donna as a character?

Ignore me, I can't count. No badges for mathematical excellence 'round these parts.

The series always needs a human companion, but I'd quite like to see an alien one too... like k'ris or whatever his name was...