Things we've learned from "Doctor Who"
- Thread starter The Borgified Corpse
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One is a possibility (religious mysticism).
The other is an impossiblity... (how many fridges did they find intact after Hiroshima?)
You can get them in supermarkets for about 7 quid... I've got two.
Who needs sonic?
Beware old, unmarked film cans. They might contain lost Hartnell/Troughton episodes but they might also contain demonic circus people that want to kill you.
While Maria certainly gets the obligatory shrewish mother (who makes Jackie Tyler look like friggin' Mother Teresa), I was pleasantly surprised to learn that she has a fairly attentive, well-meaning father. What's worse is the recurring theme of abusive fathers (particularly "The Idiot's Lantern" & "Fear Her" so close together).
While Maria certainly gets the obligatory shrewish mother (who makes Jackie Tyler look like friggin' Mother Teresa), I was pleasantly surprised to learn that she has a fairly attentive, well-meaning father. What's worse is the recurring theme of abusive fathers (particularly "The Idiot's Lantern" & "Fear Her" so close together).
Maria's mother isn't shrewish-- she hardly ever criticizes Maria, certainly not in the way that Sylvia did Donna. She's just self-centered. And really, really dumb.
It is still possible to have a sex life with a paving slab. 
Clyde's mum is ok, but again his father isn't around and isn't a great guy.
The abusive father schtik get's even more pronounced if you take Torchwood into account. There's a not every nice step father in the Faries episode, and the dad who tries to take a shotgun to kill his ex and child (can't remember the ep)
I'm not sure if some people just have issues, or wheather it's just really lazy story telling/characterisation.
At least Rani and Donna have parents still together.
I didn't find anything particularly shrewish about Jackie (whom I adore), AlternateUniversePete seems to be involved in Rose's life, Martha's mum only seemed shrewish because she (quite understandably) thought that a Prime Ministerial candidate was more trustworthy than this weird guy that her daughter had suddenly fallen for, Martha's dad was not absent from her life, and Donna's dad was only absent from her life because he died -- and that only happened because the actor who played him died.
Come on now, Jackie is loveable, but she's definitely a harriden, and frankly Martha's mum was shrewish even before Saxon's people turned up, heck even before Martha met the Doctor. Frankly I was almost hoping the Master would kill her that's how over the top her performance was. Her dad wasn't absent from her life, but was split from her mother and the impression given that he'd left her for fast cars and younger women. It's that disfunctional family = character shorthand that certain writers seem to use far too easily.
Fair point about Donna, did her dad die though, I thought he was just always conviniently away from home? If the actor hadn't died I think he'd have been around more.
There is a prevalance of broken families though within Who/Torchwood and Sarah Jane, you can't deny it.
Fair point about Donna, did her dad die though, I thought he was just always conviniently away from home? If the actor hadn't died I think he'd have been around more.
There is a prevalance of broken families though within Who/Torchwood and Sarah Jane, you can't deny it.
*shrugs* I have no idea what you're talking about and completely disagree. The only mother on DW I ever found shrewish was Sylvia.
It's clear from the phone conversation in "Smith and Jones" that Martha's dad is still plenty active in her life and talks to her and the kids all the time. (Amongst other things, he wouldn't be so eager to see Martha and his girlfriend get alone if he didn't.) And I didn't find anything particularly dysfunctional about that family; they were clearly going through a rough patch, but to equate that with out-and-out dysfunction seems to be to be an instance of projecting someone else's writing practices from other shows onto this one.
No, there's a line in "Turn Left" that makes it clear that he had died some time between "The Runaway Bride" and "Partners in Crime."
Almost certainly, especially since Wilfred's introductory scene in "Partners in Crime" was originally written for her Donna's dad.
Well, if you're going to complain about that, the first thing I'd point out is that Martha's family is no longer broken at the end of "Last of the Time Lords." Her mother and father get back together, let's recall. The second thing I'd point out is that Rose's family "heals," sort of, when Jackie and AltUniversePete get together and AltPete accepts Rose as his daughter by rescuing her. And there was nothing particularly broken about Donna's family when she was introduced.
I don't watch Torchwood or The Sarah Jane Adventures, so I can't comment on that.
The third thing I'd say is: .... well, yeah, but so what? 50% of all marriages in real life end in divorce. A large number of families in the real world are not nuclear families, and I don't see how the fact that this is reflected in art is particularly notable. You might as well ask why there are so many women on TV.
40% of UK marrigages end in divoce, so not the majority.
Shrewish implies a woman (and I apologise for being sexist here) who finds fault, complains for the sake of it and generally somewhat overbearing and even unlikeable. If at least some of those traits don't fit Rose's Martha's and Donna's mums to a tee I'll eat my hat.
I'm sorry, Martha's family were going through a rough patch? As I recall her mum and dad were barely on speaking terms and Martha was having to act as intermediry.
I fully accept that not all the families were broken by the end, nor that Dr Who should shy away from the fact that not every marriage is happy, but when the three major companions created by RTD (plus Maria in SJA) all had overbearing mums, and three out of the four had parents who were no longer togeather then I think it's cheap and unimaginative characterisation. IMO
Shrewish implies a woman (and I apologise for being sexist here) who finds fault, complains for the sake of it and generally somewhat overbearing and even unlikeable. If at least some of those traits don't fit Rose's Martha's and Donna's mums to a tee I'll eat my hat.
I'm sorry, Martha's family were going through a rough patch? As I recall her mum and dad were barely on speaking terms and Martha was having to act as intermediry.
I fully accept that not all the families were broken by the end, nor that Dr Who should shy away from the fact that not every marriage is happy, but when the three major companions created by RTD (plus Maria in SJA) all had overbearing mums, and three out of the four had parents who were no longer togeather then I think it's cheap and unimaginative characterisation. IMO
Awesome for the UK, then -- they're certainly doing better than the US! But I still don't see how a "broken" family is something that's even particularly notable, especially since it's questionable just how "broken" some of RTD's families really are.
I suppose that depends on how you interpret the three. I'll happily concede that Sylvia was pretty shrewish, but it seems to me that with both Jackie and Francine, that was only a part of their overall personalities. Jackie, in particular, was quite lovable once she moved past her initially--and understandably--hostile reactions to the Doctor. And Francine, let's not forget, was being manipulated.
Yes, and it was also portrayed as a very recent thing that Martha was handling with a lot of grace and good humor. To try to compare the Joneses to a fundamentally dysfunctional family -- I'm sorry, but anyone who would seriously argue that has no real sense of what dysfunctionality really is. Really, the relationship between Sylvia and Donna--"I've always been a disappointment to you, haven't I?" "Yeah."--is a lot more dysfunctional than the one that Joneses had going on (if also less colorful).
I don't think Jackie was particularly overbearing, sorry. I mean, her daughter just up and disappeared for a year without her having the slightest clue where she'd gone. I think her reaction was completely reasonable. And let's not forget that she wises up and helps Rose and the Doctor save the day more than a few times after "World War Three"--getting Rose the truck in "The Parting of the Way," trying to help the Doctor when he's unconscious during "The Christmas Invasion," doing Rose's laundry and hugging and kissing the Doc in "Army of Ghosts," making it clear to Elton that she never wants to disappoint them in "Love & Monsters."
Francine, I think it's an over-exaggeration to refer to her as being overbearing. It's important to remember that she was being manipulated by Mister Saxon, after all, and that she realized how wrong she'd been. Certainly she wasn't overbearing by the time of "Last of the Time Lords" or "The Stolen Earth"/"Journey's End."
Sylvia's just a bitch, though.
I would completely agree with you, except that: 1. Sylvia and her husband weren't supposed to be no longer together, and 2. Francine and Clive got back together, creating what I thought was a rather interesting arc.
Actually I wasn't counting Sylvia and her husband; I was counting Rose's parents, Martha's, and Maria's from the Sarah Jane Adventures
Sorry but Jackie was overbearing even before Rose took off with the Doctor "Get another job, claim on the insurance- yap yap yap" as for Francine (I'd actually forgotten her name that's how much I disliked her) I would reiterate, she was coming across like a stuck up cow way before Saxon's people got anywhere near her. She had already made her mind up about the Doctor.
And again, I don't care that Francine became a better person eventually (spending a year in slavery to a meglamaniac is great for creating humility) when she first appeared she was a shrew.
Of the three Jackie is the only one who I have any time for.
*COUGH* Back on topic *COUGH*
I've learned that gigantic aliens can somehow manipulate their bodies to fit into suits which make them look like average humans.
I've learned that gigantic aliens can somehow manipulate their bodies to fit into suits which make them look like average humans.
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