Question of the week: what’s the point of Doctor Who’s companion?

Stuart and I are having a little discussion over on his blog. We basically disagree on the nature of the companion’s role, particularly in the case of a female companion, on Doctor Who.

I argued that “It’s sexist to assume that the companion should not be shown to have other skills that may be as valuable as the Doctor’s and in some areas superior – or if she doesn’t, to fail to address her feelings on the subject.”

Stuart argues that “the companion is wholly subsidiary to the Doctor and need only exist to be a mouthpiece for the audience. I personally have no interest at all in the companion much beyond that.”

What do you think? Let’s throw it open to y’all with a question of the week:

What is the point of Doctor Who‘s companion? Should time be spent developing the role and showing his or her strengths? Or is that just a waste of time when all we really want is a cracking adventure and the Doctor saving the day? If so, is that sexist or simply the nature of a format in which there’s a 900-year-old male genius at the centre of it all? And are you even interested in the companions as characters?

As always, leave a comment with your answer, a link to your answer on your own blog or even leave it on Stuart’s blog for a change

Author

  • Rob Buckley

    I’m Rob Buckley, a journalist who writes for UK media magazines that most people have never heard of although you might have heard me on the podcast Lockdown Land or Radio 5 Live’s Saturday Edition or Afternoon Edition. I’ve edited Dreamwatch, Sprocket and Cambridge Film Festival Daily; been technical editor for TV producers magazine Televisual; reviewed films for the short-lived newspaper Cambridge Insider; written features for the even shorter-lived newspaper Soho Independent; and was regularly sarcastic about television on the blink-and-you-missed-it “web site for urban hedonists” The Tribe. Since going freelance, I've contributed to the likes of Broadcast, Total Content + Media, Action TV, Off The Telly, Action Network, TV Scoop and The Custard TV.

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