f4f3: (Default)
f4f3 ([personal profile] f4f3) wrote2006-07-04 09:53 am

Dr Who and his "Companions"

Watching this weekend's Who (brilliant, great cliff-hanger, can't wait etc) I was struck by a piece of dialogue between Rose and her mother, to the effect that one day Rose would be left behind by him on some distant planet, no longer Rose and no longer human.

It put me in mind of a dialogue from Alan Moore's Marvelman comic . Marvel Man was an English revamp of Captain Marvel, who was himself derived from Superman - albeit one modelled on a young Paul Newman.

Evelyn Cream, a very accomplished assasin, is explaining to the head of intelligence that he has betrayed them and made a deal with Marvel Man. Sir Dennis is repulsed - he regards MM as a monster, and tells Cream that associating with such a monster will kill him. I'm quoting from memory here, but the dialogue is something like:

"He isn't human, Cream. Have you ever wondered what we must look like from his perspective? Like animals."
"The difference between you an I, Sir Dennis, is that you have made him an enemy, and I have made him an ally."
"No, Cream, he's made you his pet."

I wonder how a 600 year old alien really thinks about a 19 year old human.

[identity profile] pigeonhed.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 10:22 am (UTC)(link)
Science Project?

[identity profile] f4f3.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 10:30 am (UTC)(link)
Hmm, nice thought, but he does get emotionally involved - at least, as far as you can with a lower life form.

Come to think of it, that would explain why he never has sex with any of his assistants any more than we (for a given but very large definition of we) would with our pets.

[identity profile] pigeonhed.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 12:25 pm (UTC)(link)
maybe he's just a committment-phobic guy?

[identity profile] f4f3.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 01:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Do you really think a male could shun serious commitment all his life in return for a life of travelling and hedonism? Um. Me too.

[identity profile] deililly.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 11:12 am (UTC)(link)
Wasn't there something about him being part human?

[identity profile] f4f3.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 01:14 pm (UTC)(link)
eek! I must admit I have a gap in my knowledge of the Who canon that extends from Tom Baker to, um, Paul McGann...

[identity profile] deililly.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 02:16 pm (UTC)(link)
I am the original behind the sofa girl. To be honest before Christopher there I didn't watch. Was far too easily freaked out as a child! (and as an adult. Most of the Doctor Who baddies still have me behind the sofa. Cybermen marching give me the wibblies!) I have been reading up online though. Wonder where I saw that...

[identity profile] f4f3.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 02:33 pm (UTC)(link)
Looks like I'll be in EK most of next week - any preferrence for a kafe klatch? (Except Thursday)

[identity profile] deililly.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 03:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Hmm... Tuesday or Wednesday sound good?

[identity profile] f4f3.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 03:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Should be - I'll let you know for definite on monday if that's ok?

[identity profile] deililly.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 04:09 pm (UTC)(link)
Yep that's fine :)

[identity profile] rparvaaz.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 12:14 pm (UTC)(link)
Depends primarily on the alien's emotional make-up, I guess. Could be a rare, if brief, emotional link. OR it could be a game.

[identity profile] pigeonhed.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 12:24 pm (UTC)(link)
he also got emotionally involved with a tin dog...

[identity profile] rparvaaz.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 12:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Okay...so scratch the 'rare'... ;)

[identity profile] f4f3.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 01:19 pm (UTC)(link)
*sniff* he may only have been tin to you...

[identity profile] f4f3.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 01:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Well he's had something like 20 companions, so it would hardly be rare.

I've had three cats, come to think of it...

[identity profile] rparvaaz.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 01:21 pm (UTC)(link)
I already scratched 'rare'! Hah!

[identity profile] f4f3.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 01:39 pm (UTC)(link)
Thia is what happens when I try to be sequential... But you "hah" very nicely, so you can have that one for free.

[identity profile] pigeonhed.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 02:47 pm (UTC)(link)
I've had something like twenty companions too... what does that say about me?

[identity profile] pigeonhed.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 02:48 pm (UTC)(link)
never had a cat or a tin dog though. Or in this weather a Cat On A Hot Tin Dog even...

[identity profile] f4f3.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 03:00 pm (UTC)(link)
I always wanted a tin dog, but I ended up with furry cats instead.

[identity profile] parthenia14.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 12:36 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh, so that's the 5 minutes I missed... Going to have to catch it again tonight on BBC3.

*wibbles*

[identity profile] f4f3.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 01:20 pm (UTC)(link)
We don't get cable up here. Or Channel 5. Or avacadoes.

[identity profile] pigeonhed.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 02:01 pm (UTC)(link)
we get avocadoes but not channel 5.

[identity profile] f4f3.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 02:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Swap? I like "House" more than I like guacomole.

[identity profile] parthenia14.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 03:12 pm (UTC)(link)
If I could ever figure out how to burn my millions of .avi files, I could supply you with an entire season of House, from the evul that is my hard drive. AND OMG!! Grey's Anatomy, which is just marvellous.

My rels in the far south west (Dorset) don't get Channel 5 either. I think it's a centralist bias.

We get avocados but not avocets or advocaat.

[identity profile] f4f3.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 03:47 pm (UTC)(link)
I've heard varying reports on GA, but I will give it a go. I sort of like it that we only get 4 channels up at the cottage, and I can always get House at home - I'm just too lazy to burn my recordings on to DVD!

We don't get Excocets, but we do get Harriers - one of them went over the first tee at about 100 ft this lunchtime.

[identity profile] pigeonhed.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 04:07 pm (UTC)(link)
An exorcist flying over the first tee at 100feet would be worrying.

[identity profile] f4f3.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 08:18 pm (UTC)(link)
It was the exhaust trail of green pea soup that really pissed me off.

sorry about this

[identity profile] pigeonhed.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 04:09 pm (UTC)(link)
I just had an image of Richard Gere as the Doctor and Julia Roberts as Susan...
"I'm not really his neice"

Re: sorry about this

[identity profile] f4f3.livejournal.com 2006-07-04 08:19 pm (UTC)(link)
Hee - of course, it sort of makes you wonder about Bernard Cribbins...