Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site duke.UUCP
Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!mcnc!duke!nlt
From: nlt@duke.UUCP (N. L. Tinkham)
Newsgroups: net.tv.drwho
Subject: "useless" companions
Message-ID: <4948@duke.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 19-Oct-84 18:29:31 EDT
Article-I.D.: duke.4948
Posted: Fri Oct 19 18:29:31 1984
Date-Received: Sun, 21-Oct-84 15:04:54 EDT
Organization: Duke University
Lines: 36

Rob DeMillo writes:
> Why are the majority of women with the Doctor completely wimpy
> useless humanoids? The only exceptions that come to mind
> are Leela (she was great), Romana (although she seemed to do
> her fair share of screeching), and (barely) Tegan.
> Any thoughts about this?
**************************

   Good question.  I hate to suggest the obvious, that many of the writers
see the women in the show as functioning primarily 1) to decorate the set,
and 2) to give the Doctor someone to rescue when things get dull.  This
is the 20th century, after all.  Perhaps a kinder explanation would be
that it takes work and imagination (on the part of both writer and actor)
to create a complex character, and, although the characterization in
Doctor Who is generally well above the average for television programming,
not all the characters have been as fully and imaginatively developed
as they might have been.  (It's unfortunate, though, that more care
couldn't have been taken with the female companions who lasted for
several seasons -- Jo, Sarah, Tegan, and Nyssa were not minor walk-on
roles.)
   Another factor, I think, is that the Doctor Tom Baker created was so
forceful that a strong and forceful companion was needed to "balance"
his character; anyone with less charisma would look "wimpy and useless"
by comparison.  I have found it interesting to watch those companions
who travelled with more than one Doctor.  Sarah next to Pertwee's Doctor
was a headstrong feminist; next to Baker, she faded into the background.
And Adric (in my opinion) seemed much stronger alongside Davison than
with Baker.
   That doesn't explain Nyssa, of course, as she was with the fifth
Doctor.  I suppose she suffered mostly from having to share the stage
with Tegan and (Turlough or Adric).  There might have been time to
develop her character more fully if she had travelled with the Doctor
alone for awhile between "Time-Flight" and "Arc of Infinity".

                                       N. L. Tinkham
                                       duke!nlt