Doctor Who (29 page)

Starting in 2002, Elisabeth had been starring in the Big Finish audio drama series
Sarah Jane Smith.
The first audio adventure takes place years after Sarah Jane left the Doctor's side, just after her Aunt Lavinia has died. K-9 makes no appearance in her audio adventures (his absence later explained in “School Reunion”). The only reference made to the Doctor is when Sarah remarks that her ability to seem casually aloof while fighting evil is a habit she picked up from an old friend. Sladen starred in eight
Sarah Jane Smith
audio dramas in total, with her daughter Sadie Miller joining her.

In 2006, the audio adventures ended just in time for Sarah Jane to appear on television once again. Davies initially didn't want to bring a character back from classic
Doctor Who
just to please fans, but he knew that Sarah Jane's own close relationship with the Doctor would shock Rose into wondering whether she were truly special or just the latest in a long line of replaceable traveling companions. When Sladen was approached, she was initially cautious as well, not wanting to appear in a cameo role simply as a joke for older fans. After hearing the plans for the story, she was happy to return.

In “School Reunion,” Sarah Jane doesn't realize that she already knows the thin science teacher with the familiar name of Dr. John Smith. When she does realize the truth, it's an emotional scene and older fans finally get to see Sarah Jane confront the Doctor about never returning for her after their forced departure. The story explored moving on with your life.

Tennant remarked that in the second season, the program developed into “a love story without the shagging” between the Doctor and Rose.
Some classic-series fans, as well as people involved in classic
Doctor Who,
debated the idea of unspoken romance between the Doctor and a companion. Along with this, there were other characters hitting on the Time Lord and he even had a more direct romantic interest when he telepathically connected with Madame de Pompadour, the two gaining a deep mutual understanding in moments.

Louise Jameson, who played Leela, remarked, “I'm not sure I can quite go with all the snogging! . . . I love the flirting, though. The almost-romance works better for me than an actual one.”

Producer Philip Hinchcliffe reflected, “I loved Rose. She was just wonderful and brought such emotion and depth to the relationship of the companion. The idea that there's some chemistry beyond a mentor relationship is rather daring. I'm not sure I would have had the guts to go with that. There was an undertone with Sarah Jane, but it was such a rule at the time that you weren't to imply anything inappropriate. . . . Rose's feelings make sense when you consider that these people go off with this man who shows them impossible things. Who can they tell afterward who will truly understand? It's deeply personal, these travels they have with him. . . . I think it's important that you don't make it standard practice, though. Rose works as a special exception for a season or two, and I didn't mind at all Eccleston and Piper, but with Tennant it was becoming a bit uncomfortable that romance could actually happen. I prefer a balance where you imply feelings but then remind everyone that this is an alien who doesn't think like a human being, and a relationship can't really happen. The Doctor is always a little bit apart from humanity. How could he not be with the life he's led?”

Elisabeth Sladen saw the romantic elements as a natural progression for the program to stay relevant, telling
Doctor Who Magazine,
“I think the [modern
Doctor Who
] series is braver on relationships. Ours skirted around them, obviously, because of the times. . . . That's what ‘School Reunion' is about, really. It's about having to accept growing older and letting go.”

Writer Simon Guerrier perhaps said it best: “People are free not to like there being romantic implications between the Doctor and a companion, but it struck a chord with many people and was very much a part of what made the new show successful. It was a new area to explore and it worked.”

The strange feelings between the Doctor and Rose came to a head in the season finale. There had been talks that Billie Piper would leave halfway through the second year, but instead she remained, allowing for a build-up to an explosive finale where Rose is literally torn away from the Doctor, exiled to a parallel world. The Doctor uses all his skill and resources to communicate with her one last time. Rose tearfully confesses that she loves the hero, who responds, “Quite right, too.” Then tears welling in his eyes, the Doctor says “Rose Tyler—” only to be cut off.

Rather than have the Doctor move on to his next companion without mentioning the previous one, RTD had the hero deal with the forced separation. Whether one was a fan of the romantic implication or not, Rose Tyler was the first connection with a living being the Doctor had made since watching his entire race die. Unlike the abrupt departures of the past, the emotionally scarred Time Lord was so affected by the people who traveled with him that he needed some time to grieve each departure in different ways. Years later, it seems odd to many that it might have been handled otherwise.

Smith and Jones

“The Runaway Bride” featured well-known TV comedian Catherine Tate as Donna Noble, a direct contrast to Rose Tyler. Noble very much liked her life and didn't appreciate dangerous alien forces entering it. She also saw the Doctor more objectively as a man rather than a romantic hero, recognizing how dangerous he could be if he didn't have someone around to help him hold back his rage and judgment. When the Doctor invites Donna to join him, she respectfully declines.

The third season brought the official new companion Martha Jones, played by Freema Agyeman. The actor had appeared in season two as a different character, so Martha was quickly explained as that character's cousin. Like Donna, Martha didn't see the need to escape her life, but she did thrill at the chance to see incredible things across time and space. An older and more experienced character than Rose, she is more flirtatious with the Doctor, only to feel defeated when she sees time and again that he doesn't notice her advances.

Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones) at Gallifrey One 2013

In a BBC Audiobooks interview, Agyeman said, “I love playing Martha Jones. . . . I do relate to her as well. She's obviously embarking on this new journey in her life with the Doctor and I have started this massive journey in being involved in the world of
Doctor Who
. . . . I was thinking it was going to be this place where I would have to earn my stripes and go through the whole process of being the new girl . . . and it was just like walking into a room of friends.”

Davies wanted to present Martha as a symbolic rebound relationship for the Doctor. When a person has lost a great love, the next relationship they attempt often involves a lot of comparison with the previous one. It's only at the completion of that new relationship that they might finally be ready to leave the past behind and move on—though not necessarily with the new person who's been spending time with them.

The Tenth Doctor was more introspective this season, more guarded. The first season had been very much about the Doctor being an enabler who helped others become heroes. The second explored this further, along with the Doctor realizing how he could still be surprised by the universe. The third season had the Doctor begin to face the consequences of his actions, something the Ninth Doctor had touched on in his final adventure. In one story, the Tenth Doctor hides in plain sight in a small village, only to have his enemies find him anyway, costing many lives that wouldn't have been targeted otherwise. He also learned that his decision to remove Harriet Jones from power, made in a moment of anger when he was still recovering from regeneration, wound up clearing the path for a much greater threat to become Prime Minister. The Master was back, played by actor John Simm and calling himself Harold Saxon. Some fans figured out “Mr. Saxon” was an anagram of “Master No. Six,” referencing five actors who played the role before Simm, not counting Gordon Tipple who played him for one scene in
the TV movie or Sir Derek Jacobi, who played him in
Scream of the Shalka
and for part of the modern day episode “Utopia” (before then regenerating into Simm).

The Doctor knew the Master couldn't be here, as he'd died before the Time War. But the villain gleefully revealed that the Time Lords had been so desperate to defeat the Daleks that they'd actually used their great technology to resurrect him, and in a new Time Lord body at that. He was truly back, with his old telepathic abilities and regeneration powers.

John Simm had become well known recently as the lead actor of
Life on Mars,
playing a time lost police inspector named Sam Tyler (named after Rose Tyler, in fact). Part of why he was cast was because his physical frame and energy made him a good visual counterpart to David Tennant. Having gone through the trauma of repeatedly dying and then being reborn, he was more unstable than ever, taking great joy in creating fear and chaos. To enhance the sense of a dark reflection, he armed himself with a “laser screwdriver” and, rather than acting somewhat asexual, married his “faithful companion” Lucy, a woman he'd traumatized with physical abuse and by showing her the worst the future had to offer.

RTD also added a new wrinkle, saying that the Master was haunted by the sound of war drums in the back of his mind, an unceasing four-part beat that resembled the opening notes of the
Doctor Who
theme. It is a flaw that makes the villain more human, a victim in his own way.

Learning that he and the Doctor were the only survivors of the war, he decides he will turn Earth into a new Gallifrey, with himself as its ruler. When the Doctor says he can't alter the course of human history, the Master echoes the hero's own declaration of power from “New Earth,” saying simply, “I'm a Time Lord. I have that right.”

Once again, the season explored the theme of the Doctor accepting responsibility. Rather than executing the Master, the hero decides he will become the man's jailer. The Doctor has forgiven the Master and will do what's necessary to bring back the man who had been his friend. But the villain is shot down and chooses not to regenerate, just because his death will leave the Doctor truly alone in the universe.

By the end of Rose's run, she'd regained a father, and her mother had regained the love of her life. Martha's divorced parents and younger sister
wound up imprisoned and tortured by the Master. For this reason, and because she knows that a relationship with the Doctor is impossible, she chooses to leave the TARDIS. But Martha didn't remain gone for long. She later shows up in the fourth season as a member of UNIT, by which point the Doctor has found a new companion to keep him on his toes.

“You're Not Mating with Me!”

“He saves planets, rescues civilizations, defeats terrible creatures, and runs a lot. Seriously, there is an outrageous amount of running involved.”

—Donna Noble, from “The Doctor's Daughter” (2008)

 

Catherine Tate and David Tennant enjoyed working together, not only on
Doctor Who
but on other projects. Davies liked the idea of a character who had declined life aboard the TARDIS and then came to regret that decision. But while she was ready to travel with the Doctor, Donna had zero interest in romance, seeing the man as a very intelligent but flawed friend. In a way, Donna came from the mold of classic companions.

After Martha's departure, the 2007 Christmas special “Voyage of the Damned” had the Doctor aboard a space cruiser that suffered a tragic fate. He'd saved some passengers, as well as the Earth, but not a woman named Astrid (played by Kylie Minogue). The Doctor was now filled with guilt over the people he couldn't help. Donna helped him move past guilt and back to taking responsibility, leading him to confront the horrible truths behind the Ood, a race he had known was in servitude but had never investigated. Not long afterward, he's shaken when he encounters Jenny, a “daughter” cloned from his DNA and portrayed by Georgia Moffett, daughter of Peter Davison. Producer Phil Collinson explained that this was done to challenge how the Doctor saw his place in the universe. “To suddenly find himself with a member of family is kind of one of the biggest challenges you could give him, so I'm chuffed we did it.”

In “The Doctor's Daughter,” the hero is guarded about making a connection to this girl whom he considers an echo of what a Time Lord truly is. Donna confronts the Doctor about his insecurities, noting how ridiculous it
is that they're friends yet he can't bring himself to share that he was once a father unless it directly comes up. Eventually, the Doctor admits he is being unfair and closed off, thinking he might find a way to change with Jenny at his side. But tragedy strikes and the young woman is seemingly killed.