"The Next Doctor" companion comparison thing

[dreamer_easy]

"They leave, because they should, or they find someone else, and some of them... some of them... forget me."

The Doctor's referring to his most recent run of companions, of course, but I thought it'd be interesting to see which earlier companions also fit those categories:

Because they should (in the Doctor's opinion, at least)
Susan
Rose

They find someone else
Vicki
Jo
Leela
Peri
Martha

They forget me
Jamie
Zoe
Donna

Interesting to contemplate how many old series companions don't fit into the list - who were dumped, or died, or made it home again, or who'd had enough, or who found a calling, or even turned down a berth in the TARDIS. There's quite a variety of reasons companions leave.

Comments

[qthewetsprocket.livejournal.com]

i'd actually put martha in the 'because they should' category, because technically she didn't hook up with dr studly mcmuffin until after she left ten.

but yeah, the list was rather limited to stuff we've seen happen in new who, and understandably so imo...then again, maybe i was just too busy recovering from the fangasm of seeing the succession of ALL TEN DOCTORS together for the first time in the series to be very discriminating at that point. :)

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Oh yah, good point - with Martha, as with Susan, it's kind of both things at once.

PAUL MCGANN COUNTS LIL LAL LOL

[qthewetsprocket.livejournal.com]

i actually squeed out loud at seeing mcgann's face. CANON, MAMA-JAMMAS! :D :D :D

[tide-and-time.livejournal.com]

As requested....

I think RTD wrote that line back in Midnight specifically so the TARDIS would come last in a specific line of succession with the more long-term new series companions. That has more to do with my theory that the most faithful companion is the TARDIS though and that is the "death of the most faithful companion" that Dalek Caan was referring to. Jack and Mickey weren't really companions in the same sense that Rose, Martha, Donna and the TARDIS are - and I think that is exactly why RTD chose those four names."

The fact that the issue of companions breaking his heart comes up at the conclusion of the Xmas movie and that a piece of Time Technology stolen from the Daleks is also a key part of the story after Dalek Caan's reference to the most faithful companion dying in the previous story (and RTD's interview comments about the next story being TARDISless leads me to conclude it will be the TARDIS that dies.

[cassiphone.livejournal.com]

I think "because they should" covers a lot more mileage than that - I didn't read it as being because the Doctor thought they should, but that they needed to in order to - continue their life, grow as people, get out from the crazy lifestyle, etc.

Barbara and Ian, Stephen, Sarah, Romana, Tegan, Nyssa, Turlough, Mel... whether it was their choice or the Doctor's, almost all of them fit in there - basically all the ones who had a reason for going that the Doctor agreed (at least partially) with!

Not Liz, obviously. :D He really resented that one. And the pause before 'they forget me' was I thought him being tactful about all the dead ones.

[druidsfire.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I had the squee moment with the video flashback too. :)

[thistwilight.livejournal.com]

His face... when he said "some of them forget me." Aw, you know he was thinking of Donna.

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

He could barely get the words out. Poor little sausage. :(

[kateorman.livejournal.com]

Oh yah - for a lot of companions, travelling with the Doctor is a sort of apprenticeship, during which they discover and/or refine their heroism. :) But I could only think of two companions who the Doctor actually kicked out for their own good. In Rose's case, three times!

omg, Donna is "dead", isn't she? Just as Dalek Caan predicted. The Doctor can't bring himself to use the word.

[john_amend_all]

You could probably shoehorn the dead ones in under 'they forget me', since their corpses aren't going to be doing an awful lot of remembering.

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

You could also count them under "because they should". Dead companions going mouldy in the TARDIS corrdors would be a bit unseemly! =:o}

[neth-dugan.livejournal.com]

And Jamie.