Since Doctor Who came back, it seems more than ever that the companions are more vulnerable to exits that are far from happy. Only Martha seems to have survived an exit without any big dramas thus far.

In Torchwood, four of the original six regulars have been killed off, for a TV show, that must be a record of sorts!!!

In Classic Who, it was very rare to have these sorts of exits. Companions fell in love, they left abruptly or they were just written out for a varying amount of comparitively feeble reasons compared to today. Okay, some did die, but again 3 out of 26 or so is still small.

So do you think it makes good drama that a regular can now have a greater chance of dying? Do you think the exits of the past would have worked in new who? I didn't like the way Rose was written out but on the other hand, it made for a cracking and tearful last few minutes of Doomsday. So yes, I think the expectations of New Who does make it seem unlikely a companion will just leave like they did in the past, and in Torchwood's case, I wonder if even poor old Gwen will survive the next series....

So what are your thoughts on this?

We haven't seen any companions die in New Who - other than Jack, and he was resurrected (repeatedly). Torchwood is another story, of course.

Don't forget Rory (twiceish) and Amy also faced the grim reaper...and both brought back to life.....


On a whole even though Donna and Rose got a "tragic" ending....their life is far from over...Rose is still the defeander of Earth on a parallel world....her tragedy is that she isn't with the man she fell in love with....and Donna has got married and is happy in her own world, her tragedy is that she doesn't know how brilliant she is, but as Turn Left shows, she can get there without the Doctor as well....so all is not lost for either....and Martha as you say came out with even a better fate....so its no all bad for New Who companions....and now Amy has got married to the man she loves....yes things can still go wrong, but somehow I feel she may just get a happy ending.....

So they are basically as vunrable as the writer wants them to be really

I forgot that

As you say though, both were resurrected.

Which, I personally think, means they don't count!

The NuWho companions never really leave. RTD would bring them back for his all-singing, all-dancing, all-shit finales.

You'd frequently have Rose, Donna, Mickey, Martha and their godawful mothers sitting around the campfire singing while Ten gurns like like a loon.

You never believed a character was gone in RTDs reign because the bugger used to bring them back all the time.

Would I be right in saying that a) actor's departures are generally more anticipated than they used to, and b) there is more centralised script control, allowing most consistent character arcs?

But it still shows that they are vunerable....



oh yeah ofcourse....because having a series where the companions die at least three times alltogther and are brought back to life is so much more believable than bumping into someone again who has just left, or made to leave after a while

Rose left, and RTD did have the intention to bring her back....but for spoiler reasons made it so the Doctor thinks its impossible, and told us the usual lies he did in order to protect leaks...but within Doomsday, the fact that Mickey had come back, we already knew that the whole "Its impossible to cross universe" idea that the Doctor said in Age of Steel was wrong.....

Martha, we were told she would be back, Martha said so herself.....so it wasn't even a question of being made to believe that she was gone for good.....

Donna, her mind was wiped, and since then we haven't seen that Donna who remembers everything....so technically she hasn't come back.....Wilf was the Companion in the Specails...she was just the family member....and then technically, none of them, once they leave as companions, (apart from kind of Jack, who again we weren't told was gone for good, but bringing him alive in the same story showed that there was a reason) ...don't really come back for full time at all as companions....

It seems both RTD and Moff can't seem to kill or get rid of companions that easily.....even River, who supposedly died, is back there in the series.....


and yes we often saw them singing at campfires....and by the way....how can the Tenth Doctor being gurning...when in another thread you said that all he did was blub???


Oh wait a minute I could be wrong, but wasn't in the Big Bang that there was actual dancing?????



True...I would agree with that....

Torchwood is another story but it does seem to follow Doctor Who in that the regulars are more vulnerable, esepcially in the line of work they undertake. With it being an adult drama, I think it has even more scope to kill regulars of spectacularly as we have seen in Series 2 and 3.

And I wasn't saying any companions had died, just that they are more vulnerable to dying than before!!!!


This was sort of my point at the beginning. Because of the nature of the show now, with bigger plots and stories, you can't really just give a simple ending to a chracter anymore. Every time we hear a companion is leaving, it's shrouded in secrecy and we never know for sure if that companion is going to survive. With Rose, I really thought she would be a gonner as she would never leave The Doctor voluntarily. They had to be forcibly seperated. Death seemed the logical answer, but thankfully they found a way round it.

So she did come back.


So she did come back.


she came back at the End of Shite/Time. Unfortunately.


.
Did he ever stop?

Did I say she didn't???



Again did...I...say...she....didn't????




and again...did I say she didn't????

What I was trying to say that you make a point saying that you can't believe a character is gone because RTd kept bringing them back...but yet don't have the same issue with Moff who killed Amy and Rory, and they still ended up being well and alive in the same series....so technically you know that they too aren't gone for good, yet like I said, the Doctor bumping into someone who is alive is more possible than having someone who died come back alive again, and the others like Martha were never gone for good, and Donna technically didn't either come back as the one who knows the Doctor .....Its typicall you picking and choosing.....I don't have an issue with you getting annoyed that no one ever leaves for good in New Who...but at least be consistant in your criticism....


.



You tell me.....your the one who can't make up your mind...or the fact that you just like making things up in order to be able to make some cheap shot.......

Wow. Such...resentment, for a TV show and its characters? Hmm.

You should butter some toast then drop it, disobey the 5 second role and proceed to eat the now mucky toast. That's genuinely something more worthwhile to hate.

At least use 'IMO' once in a while, it makes such resentment worthwhile to read.

All three of RTDs major companions never really left the series they always came back generally for the end of season panto.


Rory and Amys "deaths" were in the parameter of the story. Donnas, Martha and certainly Roses' were big orchestral emotional full stops. Rose was trailed as "the one who will die" across the season when what actually happned is that she blubbed on a beach in Wales.

It wasnt a death. It wasnt a leaving. It was part of RTDs policy of revolving door companions. Why should I invest in them if I know they are back at the finale.

What most people resent about you post Broadshoulder, is that, IMO, you have a "holier-than-thou" attitude that grates with most of us here. I agree with you on some points, after all, you are entitled to your opinion. But please let others have their opinions too

Just because someone's opinion is different to yours doesn't make you right about everything

OK, I shall amend my post.

That's good. Reading your amendments, I can see that you really are good at putting your point across, and it all makes sense to me - I agree with what you've put

(I think you'll agree that "I don't agree because..." is better than "I disagree. so there" )

and again I wasn't arguing that that they weren't coming back....I was talking about your point about believability.....apart from Rose, we were never told that the others couldn't come back...so your point doesn't stand...and anyway in the case of Rose, it was the Doctor who says she can't come back...yet in that very story Mickey had proved his stance in Age of Steel wrong.....so within the context of the story it still could anywhere....and if Billie hadn't been available then she wouldn't have come back....so again even production wise it could have gone anyway...and they only all came back for series 4 and EOT....so technically that isn't all finales.... and we have only seen one of Moff's yet...





So were Martha's and Rose's and Donna's What you say makes no sense...

Martha didn't even get a big woo hoo ending...she just left...and clearly said she will be back...so again, your argument doesn't work....and we were never told that Donna can't return...only that she can't remember...and she didn't...so again the point you make doesn't work, as the only one we were told wasn't going to return was Rose, and the so called companion dying in series 4...well we weren't told who would.....unlike for Rose....and surely the fact that in Army of Ghosts, we have Rose telling us that this is the story of how she died, kind of gives it away that she isn't really dead.....so the clues were always there...


the investing argument means you shouldn't have invested in River Song because we saw her die, and in Amy and Rory...because we saw them die...only to return in the FINALE!!!!!


Oh well if you want to carry on with your inconsistancies...fair enough!!!

But we were told they were leaving? Yeah? Interviews, other offers, magazine spreads..

And Oh look - here they come again with their mothers - back at the end.

It was a revolving door policy until these people got tiresome.

Actually no...we weren't told about Martha.....it was speculated.....but we weren't told. As for Donna, we knew that she would be there for one series....but that doesn't mean she would be leaving for good...so no your point still doesn't work.....and through most of series 2, we were told that Billie was staying.....it was only towards the end it was announced that she was definitely leaving....but for Freema...no....

and oh look Amy's parents at the end of Big Bang.... and again one series fianle by Moff...how do you know it won't be the same???? When he can kill him the very same series and have them back again....

I wouldn't waste your time anymore Crazzy - this discussion between you two has got very circular!

And for the record - I find myself on your side of the fence...

For a change...

yeah....its definitely going in circles....


And hey we are usually mostly on the same side of the fence...untll it comes to the cracks in the alliance...but its fun to argue with you....

We were told if she ever saw anything that reminded her of her time with the Doctor then her head would explode. But what's that, her family turning into the Master and then getting chased by the Masters.. oh her head is going to explode. No, she'll just emit a pulse and faint. Bit of a cop out if you ask me. I think they should have killed her, anything is better than the stupid pre-Doctor Donna.


You are technically right about Rory. Not so much Amy because it was the same story. And we knew River could come back because she had already had all these adventures with future Doctors, we are seeing her life in reverse (ish)

Back to the OP I do think the endings seem to be more dramatic than just waving goodbye, but that's probably due to the way TV is in general.

Yeah - 'tis true, we agree more than disagree.

I also like discussing things with you, as it helps me see things from a different side, that I wouldn't normally see things from.

And you don't get personal (I've found myself stooping sometimes as people can get quite vindictive at times), which is majorly refreshing.

P.S. - as for the Alliance thing - I have my 'I told you so's' at the ready... Hahaha!

I think the companions need to be more vulnerable. We've seen far too many cheat death- Jack (repeatedly), Rose (we were promised she'd die!), Donna (memory wipe and then 'defence mechanism'), Rory (twice), Amy (once).

Some good one off characters have been killed off, but I never believe a companion will actually die permanently now- if one were killed, and not brought back, there would be a far greater sense of danger from then on.

Just because a character isn't an active traveller in the TARDIS, it doesn't make any sense to just arbitrarily label them as 'left'. Most shows, whether they're sci-fi or soap opera, will happily bring back a character that was once popular for a guest appearance if the actor becomes available.