Assuming you're not just being tongue in cheek, Torchwood premeiered before SJA. Therefore Jack was the first companion to have a spin-off.
Children in Need 2012: Christmas Special prequel + trailer
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Assuming you're not just being tongue in cheek, Torchwood premeiered before SJA. Therefore Jack was the first companion to have a spin-off.
Despite the fact that they only needed to catch a bus to anywhere outside New York and he could visit / pick them up easily...
Assuming you're not just being tongue in cheek, Torchwood premeiered before SJA. Therefore Jack was the first companion to have a spin-off.
Psion is probably talking about the FIRST Sara Jane spinoff, that short one from about the 80s.
I never knew Sara Jane was from the future!
Or a him.
Assuming you're not just being tongue in cheek, Torchwood premeiered before SJA. Therefore Jack was the first companion to have a spin-off.
Psion is probably talking about the FIRST Sara Jane spinoff, that short one from about the 80s.
Which, if I recall correctly was actually about K-9, so that means the first companion to get their own spin-off is actually a robo-dog from the future.
Right, so, only mondern day companions can have any resonance with the audience?
I never knew Sara Jane was from the future!
Or a him.
Assuming you're not just being tongue in cheek, Torchwood premeiered before SJA. Therefore Jack was the first companion to have a spin-off.
Psion is probably talking about the FIRST Sara Jane spinoff, that short one from about the 80s.
Well ... K-9 and Company. In this case, the Company specifically referring to Sara Jane, so the show was about both of them. Although Hartzilla was right, it didn't go very far.
I don't think you necessarily need present day companions, but it makes it more convenient. It allows gives the Doctor someone to explain the future things that necessarily need explanation without requiring the Doctor to explain modern things (i.e., cell phones) that don't need explanation.
Why the need for a modern companion? By now we all know how the DW universe works. We don't need a companion to handhold us through it anymore.
As for explaining the modern world, why? Just assume that the Doctor already explained things like cel phones and airplanes, or in offscreen adventures and just carry on from there. Worked with Jamie and Leela.
As for explaining the modern world, why? Just assume that the Doctor already explained things like cel phones and airplanes, or in offscreen adventures and just carry on from there. Worked with Jamie and Leela.
It's nice for the Doctor to have someone to talk to. Indeed, that is one of the primary purposes of a companion according to RTD.
Of course, back in the 70s Tom Baker insisted he didn't need a companion, and we even got a companion-less adventure just to shut him up on the matter. Although The Deadly Assassin is generally well regarded, I'm not sure how much longer they could have kept that up. Take note, part 3 has practically no dialogue at all.
And, as Lis Sladen mentions in her autobiography, she signed up to star in Sarah and K-9 (as it was still called when Doctor Who Monthly #60 went to press - check the cover) and was slightly irritated to find she'd been demoted to 'company'.
I may have misspoke. I meant we don't really need a companion to be from 2012 for us to empathize with them.
One of the elements that make Doctor Who what it is is the juxtaposition of the mundane and the extraordinary. It helps if one of the main characters is one of us.
Why? and define 'one of us'? Hell most companions aren't even the same gender as me. Is Rose still one of us given her tenure was so long ago she'd probably think a smartphone or a tablet computer was far future tech?
Oh sorry, I somehow missed that you said "modern companion" and thought you simply said "Why the need for a companion?" My bad.
Anyway...back to the clips.
I wonder how many fans upon hearing the special would depict "snowmen" assumed they were going to be Troughten era "Yeti"? I bet there were a few fans muttering curses upon seeing the clip.
I don't mind the idea of literal "snow" monsters; that seems right up DW's alley. I just think they might have looked more interesting if their "teeth" resembled icecicles. Whether or not they are composed of frozen water, visually, I think they'd look better than the cartoonish triangular "chompers" I saw in the clip.
But Strax? Oh, man, he's gonna steal the show, I just know it! Uh, he is the same actor who played the "wet nurse" Sontaran in "A Good Man Goes to War", isn't he? It was a bummer that character died, but I'm thrilled the production found a way to reintroduce a similar character. I rather like the idea of a grumpily reluctant Sontaran ally.
Sincerely,
Bill
I wonder how many fans upon hearing the special would depict "snowmen" assumed they were going to be Troughten era "Yeti"? I bet there were a few fans muttering curses upon seeing the clip.
I don't mind the idea of literal "snow" monsters; that seems right up DW's alley. I just think they might have looked more interesting if their "teeth" resembled icecicles. Whether or not they are composed of frozen water, visually, I think they'd look better than the cartoonish triangular "chompers" I saw in the clip.
But Strax? Oh, man, he's gonna steal the show, I just know it! Uh, he is the same actor who played the "wet nurse" Sontaran in "A Good Man Goes to War", isn't he? It was a bummer that character died, but I'm thrilled the production found a way to reintroduce a similar character. I rather like the idea of a grumpily reluctant Sontaran ally.
Sincerely,
Bill
I did a quick count. About 17 out of 29 or so were contemporary, so a slight majority. There's obviously disagreements over who is a companion, though. In the modern era, the number of contemporaries has obviously increased.
Not just the same actor, but the same character as well. Yes, the Sontaran nurse in Good Man was Strax. I sure would like to know how he survived a fatal gunshot wound.
Maybe because it takes place before that happens?
I think not.
1) If this were before Good Man, shouldn't Strax be with that gang in the year 4000 or whatever who dressed as though it were the 18th century fighting a war whose wounded Strax was responsible for treating?
2) Spoilers indicate that Vastra, Jenny and Strax have another apperance later in the season. Having both episodes set before Good Man kind of guts the drama out of them, plus limits storytelling possibilities. Unless they're going to make this relevant to an ungoing story arc like with River. Strax as the Doctor's latest lover, living their lives in the opposite direction? I guess it has potential...
