Do the mothers on this show get on your nerves?

[Sci]

Got to agree with you there Starkers. Not all mother's are like this, so perhaps RTD is drawing on his own experiences?

More likely he's drawing upon the reaction that any sane mother would have towards learning that her daughter is traveling time and space in an incredibly dangerous fashion with a man she barely knows who refuses to give his real name.

That's all fair and good, and worked well with Jackie, but we only needed to see it once, not with every single female companion.

That's a bit like saying we only need to be introduced to a new companion once in the series and can just join the Doctor and the rest of his companions in media res without having any idea who they are or why they trust the Doctor. That's just not how it would work, realistically.

 

[Starkers]

Twaddle. Sorry but we don't need to see the family of every companion, nor do we need to have said family playing a major role throughout the series. We certainly don't need three mothers who are essentially variations on a theme. What RTD did by showing us Rose's homelife was a very good idea, repeating the trick was, as I said, laziness. (Although I'm guessing it had something to do with anchoring the series in the now...because modern kids don't have the imagination to like the past/future/alien worlds every week)

 

[DWF]

More likely he's drawing upon the reaction that any sane mother would have towards learning that her daughter is traveling time and space in an incredibly dangerous fashion with a man she barely knows who refuses to give his real name.

That's all fair and good, and worked well with Jackie, but we only needed to see it once, not with every single female companion.

That's a bit like saying we only need to be introduced to a new companion once in the series and can just join the Doctor and the rest of his companions in media res without having any idea who they are or why they trust the Doctor. That's just not how it would work, realistically.

And yet oddly enough it worked that way wtih Mel.

 

[Sci]

That's all fair and good, and worked well with Jackie, but we only needed to see it once, not with every single female companion.

That's a bit like saying we only need to be introduced to a new companion once in the series and can just join the Doctor and the rest of his companions in media res without having any idea who they are or why they trust the Doctor. That's just not how it would work, realistically.

And yet oddly enough it worked that way wtih Mel.

I'm sure it could work once in a while. But most of the time, we should see explorations of a companion's family life.

 

[Starkers]

Why? And even if we do, do those explorations always have to take the same form?

 

[Sci]

Why?

Because the characters on Doctor Who should be more psychologically realistic than the characters on some two-bit procedural show where the characters only exist to come into work and have no lives outside of the office -- or the TARDIS, as the case may be.

And even if we do, do those explorations always have to take the same form?

I don't agree that they have taken the same form, but I'm happy to say that I'd not mind seeing plenty of variations in family explorations.

 

[Starkers]

I don't mind people being three dimensional (in fact I prefer it) but that doesn't mean we have to visit home again every other week. If a young woman went travelling through Austrailia and met a handsome older man to travel with, well she might or might not even tell her mother, she might just get the odd phone call. I don't need to phycially see family members in order to understand how a character feels about family. And why the focus on mothers? Why are fathers either hopeless or absent (sometimes both) and why do all mothers have to be controlling, and frankly not very likeable?

And why just family? Wouldn't it help us understand Donna. Martha etc to see all their friends as well? Is Rose less of a 'real person' because I never met her mate Shareen? Of course not.

I really do hope we won't be popping back every other week to see Amy Pond's mum (maybe she's an orphan? Result!)

 

[jbny67]

And yet oddly enough it worked that way wtih Mel.

Nothing about Mel ever worked for me.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

Maybe we should have a companion with an eccentric family that is never seen, only described, like Maris on Frasier or Xander's parents during the 1st 5 seasons of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

 

[Lonemagpie]

Seriously, did they write in the show's bible "mothers must be annoying twits?"

I'm mostly referring to the mothers of the Doctor's companions, but the mother from "Fear Her" also deserves a bit of recognition.

I do wonder if RTD has issues - all three companion mothers are shrieking pains in the arse

 

[Starkers]

Seriously, did they write in the show's bible "mothers must be annoying twits?"

I'm mostly referring to the mothers of the Doctor's companions, but the mother from "Fear Her" also deserves a bit of recognition.

I do wonder if RTD has issues - all three companion mothers are shrieking pains in the arse

And all three had fathers who were somewhat less than perfect (my reccolection of Donna's dad is that he was henpecked and somewhat hopeless but it's been a while since I've seen The Runaway Bride so I might be wrong)

Given what the show did to dads (Take Fear her and the Idiot Lantern for further details) I always expected Maria's dad in SJA to turn evil at some point! Her mum at least fits the RTD mould!

 

[auntiehill]

I often wonder what the hell RTD's mother did to him to make him hate mothers--and parents in general-- so much.

Well, that and the pig thing.

 

[Starkers]

Either he has issues, or else it's cheap storytelling shorthand. I don't have a problem either way, what annoys me is the repetition.

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I often wonder what the hell RTD's mother did to him to make him hate mothers--and parents in general-- so much.

Well, that and the pig thing.

He says it's because mothers and daughters often have antagonistic relationships. Nothing to do with hating mothers, or fathers.

 

[Starkers]

I think the salient point is often not always

 

[Bob The Skutter]

I think the salient point is often not always

Doesn't seem like Martha particularly had a bad or antagonistic relationship with her mother, until the Doctor showed up and the PM got involved... It was just a bit dysfunctional with the parents around each other.

 

[Starkers]

Her mum came across as controlling and not very nice even before the Doctor showed up though...

 

[Bob The Skutter]

Her mum came across as controlling and not very nice even before the Doctor showed up though...

That is true.

 

[Sci]

Her mum came across as controlling and not very nice even before the Doctor showed up though...

Not to me. Watching "Smith and Jones" the other day whilst introducing Doctor Who to a friend, what struck me was that while Martha seemed to have a good relationship with her mum and dad, both of them seemed to be in their own little world because of their relationship problems with each other.

Martha was trying to play the mediator when she had to, and trying to stay away from it the rest of the time, and for the most part the situation was played for laughs. But "Smith and Jones" made it very clear early on that Francine was a woman whose husband had just left her for an immature twenty-something blonde sex kitten and was therefore understandably not at her best -- yet she was still trying to hold the family together and keep it functional.

I don't think Francine was a bad mother, or even had a particularly bad relationship with Martha. I think she was at a bad point in her life, and when the Doctor showed up, she sensed that he was potentially dangerous -- and then ended up misdirecting a lot of her anger at Clive to the Doctor, which Mister Saxon then exploited. I think it's very telling that at the end of "Last of the Time Lords," Francine and Clive are back together and Francine is embracing the Doctor, having realized both what a good person he is -- and that she has forgiven her husband. And when she reappears in "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End," her role is simply that of a loving mother.

I think, in other words, that Francine is probably someone who normally had good, healthy relationships, who we met at a really bad point in her life when she wasn't at her best.

ETA:

Honestly, of the three, the only Companion Mum who strikes me as being controlling and not very nice would be Sylvia Noble. She is, after all, the only Companion Mum who ever emotionally abandoned her child. "To be honest, I've given up on you..." "I was always a disappointment to you, wasn't I?" "Yeah."

 

[OmahaStar]

And yet oddly enough it worked that way wtih Mel.

I can't help but disagree. NOTHING worked with Mel. Shrill bitch needed to have a stake rammed through her heart and then tossed into a volcano.

I absolutely agree about the two awesome dads (I was sorry to see Alan go more than Maria)

You're not the only one. I adored Alan. First, the character as written was one who cared about his child - something really rather unusual for modern Who. Second, the actor who played him was drop dead gorgeous. Easily one of the top ten hotties of Who.


And now, to the initial question of this thread ... Yes, the mothers get on my nerves.

Jackie was a whiney, useless layabout. From the very beginning, talking about how her daughter could collect compensation, right through the end. She didn't care about her daughter traveling with the Doctor. She cared that she wasn't getting paid for it. That's all she ever wanted, money. She got it with AlternaPete. Keep her there.

Francine or Frances or whatever - Ok, so she started out in a bad place, with an asshole husband. While generally she's annoying, she at least seemed somewhat calmed down in her appearances on season four.

Sylvia - She's Mel 30 years later. Shrill, annoying, controlling. In a way, she is Hyacinth Bucket taken to the extreme. It's all about appearances, and making sure she controls those appearances. Pretty much the exact opposite of her father Wilf, who is made of awesome.