Meh, I dunno. She’s real pretty and all, but for once a brunette isn’t doing anything for me. I can only hope these are the usual life-mostly-sucked-out publicity stills and in action she has an engaging personality. I’d hope for an actual interesting characterization and/or backstory too, but the way Amy’s been going (she okay, no, really she’s great, well, she’s just… there) I’m not holding out any hopes. So far my verdict on Moffat’s time at Who is this. So far he’s less openly sucky about destroying the Doctor’s character for the emo than RTD was, and in fact Matt Smith is the best characterization of the Doctor (imho) since Tom Baker. However, despite the way RTD treated the companions (Rose the spunky Gal Friday being made over into ROES the clinging drain Girl He Can’t Have or something; Martha excellent and intelligent and brave then shoehorned awkwardly into the Rejected Love Interest second-best role and I’m not even going to touch on the racefail because then we’d have to talk about Mickey and how for some reason it was the black guy instead of the white blonde girl who couldn’t handle traveling with the Doctor, Donna all but fridged so the Doctor could cry) he actually gave them fully realized personalities and backstories. Moffat on the other hand… I like Amy and Rory, I really do, but when your occasional walk-on companions like Liz 10, Madame Vastra and Jenny, Rita (the Muslim woman in The God Complex) leave more of an impression than the Doctor’s two “best friends”… something wrong has happened. I mean, I can’t get a handle on why Rory and Amy even exist. (In fact, the child Amelia and Older Amy from The Girl Who Waited — and Alternate Collapsing Timeline Amy with her office on the train and excuse me I need to <33333 that Amy because she is my favorite ever ever please bring her back make her the real Amy she can still marry Captain Williams who of course also has more personality than “our” Rory… Anyway, all the non-regular Amys and the child Amelia have more presence than the grown-up character we’ve been following through her puzzlingly acted-upon-more-than-acting sojourn on the show. I don’t get Amy. After the first episode, The Eleventh Hour, where she still had some presence of her own, she just seemed to disappear even though she was right there. And Rory — who is he? Why does he love Amy? Why does she love him? Moffat seems to think that people have these person-shaped holes in their selves that have to be filled with another person. (I’m saying “person” because he, like a lot of Western entertainment people, gives lip service to the idea of LGBT stuff being okay while doing the usual little fuckall to prove it (sorry, pecks on the cheek or lips that could be you getting kissed by your old auntie don’t count), generally making sure that opposite sex pairings and attractions get all the top attention. But anyway, the idea that people “need” to be paired with someone else is quite common and the Amy/Rory marriage seems to be based more on servicing this idea instead of making a pair of characters who seem to actually be attracted to each other when they’re in the same room and don’t have a baby or the Doctor or Guilt Feelings or some other audience making sure they are attracted. Also the characterization of Rory as the Protective Male really irritates me, because it makes him look not like a husband but like someone in charge of a wayward child he’s more fondly anxious about than pair-bonded too. This rant has become unfocused. Anyway, Moffat has written women characters with personality who stood out before (Sally Sparrow comes to mind) so I can’t understand what’s going on here. Amy is gorgeous, Amy argues with the Doctor (not enough though but never mind Jake it’s New Who), Amy is… there. Just there. Having stuff done to her mostly. She only breaks free when she isn’t “our” Amy: when she’s Old, Bitter Amy, or Alternate Collapsing Timeline Amy (<3333 4ever), or child Amelia. I don’t understand it. So I don’t hold out much hope for this new companion. She’s got the prettiness and youth the production team seem to think are needful, because they’re oh so progressive and not sexist or ageist at all. I’ve also heard (here and there) that her character will be “from contemporary Britain” because Moffatt (who is Scottish, by the by) et al seem to think that the world-wide audience that Who has will implode into confusion and anxiety if the Doctor, a 1,000+-year-old alien from another galaxy, isn’t shown traveling through all time and space with someone from 21st century Britain. It would be really cool if she were Indian or Muslim (or Indian and Muslim), or something other than “Jane from down the pub” because that’s pretty British but I’m not holding out my hopes. (I think it would actually be even greater if she was Susan come back to travel with her Grandpa, so we could dispense with humans in the Tardis for a while and also SUSAN, but I won’t even bother keeping my hopes up for that.)

Meh, I dunno. She’s real pretty and all, but for once a brunette isn’t doing anything for me. I can only hope these are the usual life-mostly-sucked-out publicity stills and in action she has an engaging personality. I’d hope for an actual interesting characterization and/or backstory too, but the way Amy’s been going (she okay, no, really she’s great, well, she’s just… there) I’m not holding out any hopes.

So far my verdict on Moffat’s time at Who is this. So far he’s less openly sucky about destroying the Doctor’s character for the emo than RTD was, and in fact Matt Smith is the best characterization of the Doctor (imho) since Tom Baker. However, despite the way RTD treated the companions (Rose the spunky Gal Friday being made over into ROES the clinging drain Girl He Can’t Have or something; Martha excellent and intelligent and brave then shoehorned awkwardly into the Rejected Love Interest second-best role and I’m not even going to touch on the racefail because then we’d have to talk about Mickey and how for some reason it was the black guy instead of the white blonde girl who couldn’t handle traveling with the Doctor, Donna all but fridged so the Doctor could cry) he actually gave them fully realized personalities and backstories. Moffat on the other hand…

I like Amy and Rory, I really do, but when your occasional walk-on companions like Liz 10, Madame Vastra and Jenny, Rita (the Muslim woman in The God Complex) leave more of an impression than the Doctor’s two “best friends”… something wrong has happened. I mean, I can’t get a handle on why Rory and Amy even exist. (In fact, the child Amelia and Older Amy from The Girl Who Waited — and Alternate Collapsing Timeline Amy with her office on the train and excuse me I need to <33333 that Amy because she is my favorite ever ever please bring her back make her the real Amy she can still marry Captain Williams who of course also has more personality than “our” Rory… Anyway, all the non-regular Amys and the child Amelia have more presence than the grown-up character we’ve been following through her puzzlingly acted-upon-more-than-acting sojourn on the show.

I don’t get Amy. After the first episode, The Eleventh Hour, where she still had some presence of her own, she just seemed to disappear even though she was right there. And Rory — who is he? Why does he love Amy? Why does she love him? Moffat seems to think that people have these person-shaped holes in their selves that have to be filled with another person. (I’m saying “person” because he, like a lot of Western entertainment people, gives lip service to the idea of LGBT stuff being okay while doing the usual little fuckall to prove it (sorry, pecks on the cheek or lips that could be you getting kissed by your old auntie don’t count), generally making sure that opposite sex pairings and attractions get all the top attention. But anyway, the idea that people “need” to be paired with someone else is quite common and the Amy/Rory marriage seems to be based more on servicing this idea instead of making a pair of characters who seem to actually be attracted to each other when they’re in the same room and don’t have a baby or the Doctor or Guilt Feelings or some other audience making sure they are attracted. Also the characterization of Rory as the Protective Male really irritates me, because it makes him look not like a husband but like someone in charge of a wayward child he’s more fondly anxious about than pair-bonded too.

This rant has become unfocused. Anyway, Moffat has written women characters with personality who stood out before (Sally Sparrow comes to mind) so I can’t understand what’s going on here. Amy is gorgeous, Amy argues with the Doctor (not enough though but never mind Jake it’s New Who), Amy is… there. Just there. Having stuff done to her mostly. She only breaks free when she isn’t “our” Amy: when she’s Old, Bitter Amy, or Alternate Collapsing Timeline Amy (<3333 4ever), or child Amelia. I don’t understand it.

So I don’t hold out much hope for this new companion. She’s got the prettiness and youth the production team seem to think are needful, because they’re oh so progressive and not sexist or ageist at all. I’ve also heard (here and there) that her character will be “from contemporary Britain” because Moffatt (who is Scottish, by the by) et al seem to think that the world-wide audience that Who has will implode into confusion and anxiety if the Doctor, a 1,000+-year-old alien from another galaxy, isn’t shown traveling through all time and space with someone from 21st century Britain. It would be really cool if she were Indian or Muslim (or Indian and Muslim), or something other than “Jane from down the pub” because that’s pretty British but I’m not holding out my hopes. (I think it would actually be even greater if she was Susan come back to travel with her Grandpa, so we could dispense with humans in the Tardis for a while and also SUSAN, but I won’t even bother keeping my hopes up for that.)

(via doctorbloodywhoetc)

Tags: mad ranty rantings about Doctor Who Whatserface the new Who companion