WHO comics and TV companions?

[Whofan]

One thing I've noticed about the various incarnations of DOCTOR WHO comics is that they often seem to introduce original companions without the TV ones, although this kind of changed in the late 80s with Peri & Ace appearing. It was either that, or they had stories only featuring the Doctor (Most of the Tom Baker DWM stuff didn't have any of his companions) Even the IDW series has done this-while the initial series featured Martha, it's sort of gone off on it's own tangent companion wise.

WHO novels, audios and the short story annuals, on the other hand, were free to use the TV companions all the time and often try to fit loosely into TV continuity, but the comics are kind of their own thing it seems....

 

[Rarewolf]

Part of it was due to likenesses, they would have had to licence the 2nd character.

You also had close ties to the production team in the late 80s, and shorter seasons.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

We've come a long ways since the days of trying to figure out when and how Frobisher fits into the Doctor's life. Fitting Majenta (from DWM) or Emily (from the IDW series) into the tenth Doctor's life is comparatively simple; Majenta goes sometime in the nebulous period after "The Next Doctor," and Emily's run ends with the Doctor en route to Bowie Base One.

Personally, I have a great fondness for the comics companions. Sir Justin is awesome. Izzy is nothing short of awesome. (Even RTD was a fan of Izzy.) I quite adored Emily (and her final appearance is heartbreaking). I wish I were more familiar with John and Gillian, the Doctor's other grandchildren, but the one story I've read of them, "The Land of Happy Endings," is one of the best Doctor Who stories ever.

 

[JoeZhang]

I wish I were more familiar with John and Gillian, the Doctor's other grandchildren

I thought they were the grandchildren of Doctor Who rather than The Doctor?

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

I wish I were more familiar with John and Gillian, the Doctor's other grandchildren

I thought they were the grandchildren of Doctor Who rather than The Doctor?

Don't let's go there... He's the same person.

The tv companions have featured a bit in the comic strips. In TV Comic days, Jamie turned up in the second Doctor strips for a while. Liz Shaw and the Brigadier featured in the early third Doctor strips, and later Sarah Jane Smith turned up. She also partnered the fourth Doctor, as did Leela subsequently.

 

[JoeZhang]

Don't let's go there... He's the same person.

Heh... In the only book the characters appear in he's not, he's a construct by the celestial toymaker.. em.. or something else... it's years since I've read it...

 

[23skidoo]

Part of it was due to likenesses, they would have had to licence the 2nd character.

They also had no choice when it came to the Eighth Doctor, since Grace didn't go with him - although they did bring her back for a couple of stories that gave her a fascinating post-TV movie character arc, while at the same time anticipating Torchwood by several years.

The BBC also put some rules in place. DWM was given the OK by RTD to depict the Eighth Doctor's regeneration, but it all fell apart when Destrii, the Eighth Doctor's companion, couldn't be used for the Ninth Doctor because RTD decreed that the only companion to be shown with the Ninth Doctor would be Rose Tyler and so DWM's plan to run a "Ninth Doctor Year One" arc to write Destrii out never happened (the Panini graphic novel The Flood includes panels from the regeneration story and more details about this). Similarly, DWM wasn't allowed to add in new companions for the Tenth Doctor until the post-Journey's End era, and even then they made it clear that the Doctor was Majenta's hired business associate, with no actual companion relationship. (IDW played a bit more fast and loose when it gave Ten a pair of companions in a story arc set right before Waters of Mars).

I can see why the BBC might have been reluctant to let TV companions appear in the strips at first. For those who follow the "inclusive canon" model it can be a bit tricky to explain the Sixth Doctor's recent Big Finish audio adventures with Jamie McCrimmon, after the DWM comic strip had a "younger" Sixth Doctor witnessing Jamie's death...

Didn't the DWM strip kill off Ace at one point, too, throwing a spanner into the Virgin New Adventures continuity?

Alex

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Part of it was due to likenesses, they would have had to licence the 2nd character.

They also had no choice when it came to the Eighth Doctor, since Grace didn't go with him - although they did bring her back for a couple of stories that gave her a fascinating post-TV movie character arc, while at the same time anticipating Torchwood by several years.

In the case of Grace, DWM didn't license the character, and they were told not to do it again, which is why she goes unnamed in "The Flood."

Similarly, DWM wasn't allowed to add in new companions for the Tenth Doctor until the post-Journey's End era, and even then they made it clear that the Doctor was Majenta's hired business associate, with no actual companion relationship. (IDW played a bit more fast and loose when it gave Ten a pair of companions in a story arc set right before Waters of Mars).

What's so "fast and loose" about the Doctor traveling with someone between "Journey's End" and "The End of Time"? Why do you feel the need to say that? Is it because the Doctor says in the year of specials that he travels alone, turning down (as an example) Lady Christina when she wants to board the TARDIS? If you've read the IDW comics, you'd see that the Doctor upholds the spirit of that, and only takes Emily and Matthew when forced. (The reference made to Charlotte Pollard in the second story arc wasn't gratuitous fanwank, it turns out.)

Emily was a great companion. Her story, especially how it ends, is heartbreaking.

I can see why the BBC might have been reluctant to let TV companions appear in the strips at first. For those who follow the "inclusive canon" model it can be a bit tricky to explain the Sixth Doctor's recent Big Finish audio adventures with Jamie McCrimmon, after the DWM comic strip had a "younger" Sixth Doctor witnessing Jamie's death...

You really think that, in the 1960s, when the comic strips began, that the BBC arsed themselves about making continuity line up? Really?

Also, there is a difference between canon and continuity. Canon is a simply body of work. Continuity is which pieces of the canon fit together and how they fit together.

Didn't the DWM strip kill off Ace at one point, too, throwing a spanner into the Virgin New Adventures continuity?

Yes, Ace died in "Ground Zero," which sets the stage for the first two years of the eighth Doctor comic strips. It didn't really affect the New Adventures, because they were winding down at that point, and Mike Tucker wrote a PDA for BBC Books (Prime Time, I think) that mostly reconciled the whole thing. No, the real issue was that it munged up the comic strip's own continuity which, round about '92, tried to correspond somewhat to the New Adventures, only now the comic strip was contradicting itself.

 

[Andrew_Kearley]

Don't let's go there... He's the same person.

Heh... In the only book the characters appear in he's not, he's a construct by the celestial toymaker.. em.. or something else... it's years since I've read it...

Land of Fiction actually. But that's one book against four years' worth of comic strips. I know which I'd give more weight to.