Doctor Who Ncuti Gatwa Xmas Special & s1

[James Gasik]

Is it just me, or does Ruby read like "Blond Clara" to anyone else?

She lacks Clara's smugness. She feels more like Rose 2.0 to me.

 

[Pedantic]

She lacks Clara's smugness. She feels more like Rose 2.0 to me.

Yeah, I'd put her somewhere between the two. That, and I'm hoping her family connections continue to play a strong role, I really liked her adoptive mother/grandmother and their shared dynamic. Given the potential for myth/fantasy themes, I'm wondering if we'll see some triune goddess stuff come up. They have a solid cast for the maiden/mother/crone thing.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Is it just me, or does Ruby read like "Blond Clara" to anyone else?

Clara + Rose. Not sure how I feel about the actress, whom I have no prior experience with.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

She lacks Clara's smugness.

Hard disagree. Hopefully she'll dial it back. Jenna Coleman did pretty quickly.

 

[Tonguez]

She lacks Clara's smugness. She feels more like Rose 2.0 to me.

Yeah I got more a Rose vibe, but that might just be the blondeness.
Ruby’s grandmother felt a bit stereotyping caricature but I did like her mother.

 

[James Gasik]

Hard disagree. Hopefully she'll dial it back. Jenna Coleman did pretty quickly.

Well so far Ruby hasn't threatened to slap Ncuti into his next regeneration, so...

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Well so far Ruby hasn't threatened to slap Ncuti into his next regeneration, so...

Some of the Doctor's incarnations have definitely merited a slap or two.

 

[James Gasik]

Some of the Doctor's incarnations have definitely merited a slap or two.

No arguments from me there! I recently re-watched "Robot" and I realized the Brigadier needs to be canonized as a saint for not throttling the Doctor years ago!

Now I really liked Jenna Coleman's performance, but sometimes I wanted to make Clara go stand in the corner for being insufferable.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Now I really liked Jenna Coleman's performance, but sometimes I wanted to make Clara go stand in the corner for being insufferable.

The Danny Pink saga makes me forgive Clara's rough start. That story arc, to me, is the peak of nuWho's continuing discussion of how being a companion actually screws them up in all sorts of ways.

 

[Staffan]

The Danny Pink saga makes me forgive Clara's rough start. That story arc, to me, is the peak of nuWho's continuing discussion of how being a companion actually screws them up in all sorts of ways.

I'm not an expert on Classic Doctor Who, but I've gotten the impression that most of the companions back then just left and/or were abandoned by the Doctor – we've seen at least four of them show up in post-reboot Who, after all, and they all seemed relatively fine other than an overdeveloped sense of adventure. Compare that to the fates of nuWho Companions:

• Rose Tyler: got trapped on a parallel Earth (although later with a human clone of 10, so not all bad).
• Martha Jones: left of her own accord and joined UNIT. Good for her!
• Donna Noble: Got Time Lord-ified and had to be mindwiped by the Doctor to save her life. Fixed in the 60th specials, but still.
• Amy Pond: got sent back in time by a Weeping Angel. Lived out her days with the love of her life, but still bitter-sweet.
• Clara Oswald: Killed by a time shade in the form of a raven, although the Doctor did some shenanigans to keep a zombie version around.
• Bill Potts: Got turned into a Cyberman.
• Graham O'Brien, Ryan Sinclair, Yasmeen Khan: left of their own accord. Good for them!

So, that's 5 out of 9 (or out of 7 if you count "the Fam" as a single collective) companions who suffered severe consequences for being companions. That's pretty rough.