Doctor Who: speculative questions about current and old canon, ships, and other companions

[timepiececlock]

I was re-dicussing with mswyrr our Vash=The 9th Doctor comparison theory here, and it got into a discussion about the Doctor's relationships with Rose, Sara Jane, and other companions.

Some vague discussion of the newest episode was there, and this assertion came up regarding the episode:

mswyrr: "I think it's a rewriting of canon to say previous Doctors loved their companions the way Nine/Ten loves Rose. They didn't."

I've not seen much of the older Doctors except Eight's movie and the 6 minute clip of Sarah Jane's scene for leaving the show. But what I got out of that clip was the sense that the Doctor didn't at all care for her the way he cares for Rose or the way his conversation with Sarah Jane at the end of "School Reunion" implied. He did exactly what Sarah Jane accused him of doing: he dumped her with barely a thought. Which is not to say he didn't care for her at all, but just that it appeared (by his abrupt dumping of her) to be more of a friend/teacher's pet kind of affection. I can't at all imagine him leaving Rose so callously, and I don't buy into the idea that it's just because it was an old tv show and that's how things worked back then.

But my speculation is mostly moot, given how little I know of Four/Sarah Jane except that short parting clip. What do you guys think?

A.) Do you think this latest episode ret-conned to imply a deeper past affection on the Fourth Doctor's part for Sarah Jane than the original series implied? Or do you think it was actually just confirmation and not convenient rewriting of canon?

B.) Do you think that he does or doesn't see Rose as different from his other companions?


I can't answer A, but my answer for B is "yes," because of two main reasons:

(1) because he told her she outright that she was different in this episode (or at least different from Sarah Jane of the past, who he did dump)

(2) because she was clearly that significant to the Ninth Doctor, and the Doctor's Tenth incarnation was literally born from the Doctor's act of giving his life away out of love for Rose [I make the distinction here between sacrificing your life as an act of pure nobility and the deliberately romantic aspect Nine's sacrifice was given]. Though Nine and Ten are becoming more visibly different, I think the Doctor's feelings toward Rose are actually where Nine and Ten are the most similar. No surprise, given the circumstances of his regeneration.


EDIT: I guess I should say that when I think about it, my answer #2 is actually not answering the question B, it's answering a different question entirely: which is whether or not Ten loves Rose enough not to just dump her... That's a different question from "is she different from the other companions?", because I don't necessarily mean that loving Rose meant he didn't love any of his other companions.
...ARGH. I'm confusing myself here. It's really hard to try to answer these questions when I've only seen stuff of Eight, Nine, and Ten, and the most I know of the others is a 6 minute clip of Four. This is why I want your various and sundry opinions.


That's enough of my view; what say you folk?

Comments

Re: *in from time_and_chips*

[nostalgia-lj.livejournal.com]

I think you misunderstood the context of "it's just because it was an old tv show and that's how things worked back then." I didn't mean a lack of affection along the lines of gazing-into-each-other's-eyes and holding hands; I meant more that (in that one scene) he didn't give much indication that he was at all bothered by the idea of leaving her behind. If there was the kind of affection that "School Reunion" suggests, then it wasn't at all indicated in that parting scene. What I meant by the reference to old TV is that it being old doesn't mean they didn't know how to write a properly moving goodbye scene, whether or not open physical affection was a factor. Maybe it was just a poorly done scene?

Companion departures I'd say are by far one of the weak spots in old DW. You get actors/actresses leaving abruptly, departures being written by people who don't know the character, and to be honest a lot of them are a bit OOC. (Hell, I'd say that scene loses a bit even just by implying that the Doctor is Gallifrey's bitch.) I can't remember the circumstances of Sladen leaving, but in general the moving farewells just didn't happen all that much. (Leela's is the worst for me. It's just so bizarre.) Hand of Fear's thing is, I'd say, implying repression going on a bit, because losing Sarah is painful and he doesn't want to get into it and she's all angry and emo.