#companion exit

[relative-dimension]

“Flashpoint”

Season 2, episode 9 - 26th December 1964

[id: Jenny and Barbara watch as the Doctor stands at the controls of a scanner, the screen of which displays static. The Doctor is saying “Can I do anything with this scanner?” /end id]

The way in which the first ever companion exit is handled is really interesting. By the time we get a few Doctors in, the formula for both regenerations and companion exist becomes fairly established, with either a choice to leave the Doctor behind, after which the Doctor is sad, or a dramatic death in the climax of the story, after which the Doctor is sad. Here, though, half an episode is dedicated to the slow build-up towards that speech which has been deemed iconic enough to be representative of Hartnell for The Five Doctors.

The decision is also not strictly Susan’s, although to say that Dr Who forces her out or leaves her behind would be misrepresenting things - Susan and David’s relationship has actually been built up over the implied time which passes over this serial (I don’t know how long it takes to walk from London to the Daleks’ mine, but it can’t be that fast) and it’s clear from the way she acts during this that while she wants to keep travelling with what’s implied to be the only family and connection to her own culture that she has, as a teenager she also needs some sort of stability in her life, and David could provide part of that, along with the rebuilding of the planet. It’s a shame that the show has never returned to the promise that “one day, I will come back” (although I’m sure it’s been done several times in Big Finish and with books etc) and also immediately taking on another teen girl does make it a little less impactful, but really this is a very effective exit.

Also it makes me excited because next episode is Vicki’s debut, and she’s genuinely one of my favourite companions in the whole show. Sorry Susan lovers.

Fun: 4/5

Production: 3/5, there were shades of it in the last episode of their first story, but this episode’s climax takes the hilariously easy defeat of Daleks to a whole new level.

Pacing: 2/5, because Susan’s exit takes so long, the end to the Dalek plot happens incredibly quickly and slightly out of nowhere, they just decide that one of Barbara’s failed plans from last episode will actually work this time.

Character Writing & Use: 4/5, in fact, the ending is so rushed that Susan doesn’t even get any scenes until her exit. This may have been due to production issues or scheduling during shooting (I didn’t check lol) but it does make her exit a bit of a shock when she was barely present earlier, however I think the strength of that scene makes me forget about that, I think it’s really good.

Depth: 3/5, as much as it makes little narrative sense and strips the Daleks of a lot of their menace very quickly, the defeat of the Daleks through mass resistance to their attempts at control could say something about antifascism if you squint. More significantly, though, Susan’s exit is much more character and theme driven than the often plot-based exits of many of her successors.

Not Ageing Horribly: 3/5, Susan does begin a somewhat irritating trend of female companions who get married off to side characters for no particular reason at the end of their contracts. That being said, this is much less shit than the other times that’s been done, since with Peri that was a last-minute retcon when it’s a miracle that episode ever got made, and with Leela they weren’t even sure she’d be leaving then, whereas here it’s clearly threaded through the story, and other reasons are given.

Overall Score - 19/30

[bisexualamy]

Your take on Power of Three is sooo good and correct! Underrated ep!

Thank you! "Power of Three" is another ep where I believe that I could Fix Her with minimal rewrites. I really think it's remembered poorly because the villain is underwhelming and underdeveloped. I think if they'd just simplified the villain, or turned the episode into a non-antagonist episode like they did with "Twice Upon a Time", more people would give it the credit it deserves. The point of "Power of Three" is not the villain.

Power of Three is an episode primarily concerned with what happens after people leave the TARDIS. Modern Who did this earlier, with Sarah Jane in "School Reunion", Jack in The Utopia Arc and later in Torchwood, and pretty much all of the farewell sequence in "End of Time." Chibnall did it later as well with the companion support group. But I think "Power of Three" is unique in that its tone is markedly more positive than previous examples. It's a lovely slice of life episode and a lovely ode to Amy and Rory, who've at that point were our companions the longest anyone's been a companion in Modern Who.

We get the Team TARDIS domesticity that many of us love. We get glimpses of Amy and Rory's friends back home, and the joy they take in "boring" things like weddings and dinner parties. It has the introduction of Kate Stewart and a lovely homage to the Brig. It has my favorite scene with Amy and Eleven by the Thames, where two people who have such difficulty being emotionally direct and genuine are able to now, after years of growing together, admit plainly that they love each other and they're terrified of losing each other. The episode is full of references to how the Doctor's fingerprints are all of Earth and its history, some good and some bad, but ultimately he is loved. His impact isn't just dramatic, be that saving the Earth or bringing about terrible tragedy. The Doctor is Amy and Rory's friend. The Brigadier's friend. Kate's friend. That's it.

I love "Power of Three" because, for the first time since the revival, we're seeing companions who grow beyond the Doctor, whose relationship grows and changes to include the Doctor less or differently, without tragedy being the catalyst. Amy and Rory aren't traumatized like Martha. They don't have their memories wiped like Donna. They aren't forcibly ripped away like Rose. They just built a life they like, and as they're growing up they're finding a lot of joy in all the different ways they can live their life.

Amy has learned to appreciate a life that is slower and simpler. Rory has grown confident both in his relationship with Amy and his career. Amy and Eleven explain the episode's point right at the beginning:

AMY: To think it's been ten years. Not for you, or for Earth, but for us. Ten years older. Ten years of you, on and off. ELEVEN: Look at you now. All grown up.

This is Amy's character arc, and Amy/Eleven's relationship arc, in a nutshell. This is the end of their story. And as much as I love "Angels Take Manhattan", I feel like really, in "Power of Three", Amy and Rory demonstrate that they're already ready to move onto the next phase of their lives. Maybe it could've ended less tragically. Maybe the Doctor could've visited them for decades and decades in the future. But they were never going to travel again like they did back in Series 5 and 6. And that can be wonderful.

[companion-showdown]

Who is your favourite companion?

ROUND 2 MASTERPOST

propaganda under the cut

Vicki Pallister

nobody does it like vicki, running around time and space causing chaos wherever she goes while her surrogate grandfather watches on in approval also her introduction has poisoned my brain, i can't think of a companion whos come from a shittier situation, i mean the man who murdered her father spends half his time playing dressup so he can terrorise her, and the other half pretending to be her only friend in the universe laid up in bed injured and ill so she'll wait on him had and foot. the only positive thing in her life is her pet sandy who barbara kills, and its just arrrrgghghghgh (@sandymybeloved )

Zoe Heriot

teenage girl who thinks of herself as an emotionless human computer who through her travels with the doctor discovers herself and becomes a kick arse force for chaos until the time lords took her memories and sent her back to an emotionally stifling existence that she hated (anonymous)

[maddsmallow]

lads, they fuckin did it. im SHOOK. i gotta replay chapter one now to see if they integrated his new 3D model into it or if they just kept his old pictures

OKAY NOW MAKE JESSE A COMPANION TOO, YOU COWARDS

[raywritesthings]

The more I think about the series 3 finale, the more I think it should’ve been a four-parter, with an extra episode between “The Sound of Drums” and “Last of the Time Lords” in order to actually show the audience Martha walking the Earth and inspiring humanity rather than just telling us she did it and a single scene of her talking to some folks in London.

Maybe she picks Tom up at the beginning of this hypothetical third of four parts and he goes with her, completing the Martha-as-Doctor arc by giving her a companion (and a full episode and a half to explore their dynamic/romance instead of just a few scenes before this version of him is killed off). And then Martha wanting to try and make their relationship work even after the reset has so much more weight to it, because this is someone she spent a whole year with and got to know so well and even love. And spending a whole year traveling with Tom also helps her to make the decision to put an end to things with the Doctor at the end, because now she’s seen what it’s like to be around someone who sees her and respects her even while they’re going through an otherwise really awful time (and maybe the audience sees the difference and also gets just why how Ten acted during most of Martha’s run was terrible.)

The only other change I would make to the series 3 finale is in the last part, and specifically the bit where the people of Earth’s faith is used to dismantle the Master’s plan. Because it’s always bugged me how Martha puts all the work in only for the Doctor to get all glowy-Jesusfied. So I’d have it be her who gets the awesome powers. Because Martha’s the one the people of Earth saw evading the Master and inspiring them and being a total badass (like Tom says in canon, they say *Martha* is going to save the world, not the Doctor). And she uses those powers to restore the Doctor and fix the TARDIS, because Martha is a healer, not a soldier. And everything else can proceed about the same as it did, but it’s Martha who gets that awesome moment because she deserved it.

[grandadtwelve]

andred?????? when rodan was right there???????

[thenotoriousscuttlecliff]

I'm convinced that Chibnall did not want to ever do a romantic relationship with the Doctor. I really think he's someone who sees the doctor as a strictly asexual and aromantic figure and that is how he wrote Thirteen and that's how Jodie played it. Which is why Thasmin feels so awkward in the show, it doesn't really feel true to this incarnation of the Doctor that they've been secretly carrying a torch for Yaz all this time. Thirteen was never portrayed as having an special interesting in Yaz or caring about her more than any of the other companions. If Nine or Ten got separated from Rose they'd never stop going on about missing Rose. Twelve needed a bloody mind wipe to stop thinking about Clara. But Thirteen barely acknowledged Yaz even when she was in the same room. So having her say admit she was secretly in love with her just didn't ring entirely true. It just never felt like this was a story he wanted to tell, never really wanted to do anything more than simply acknowledge the ship existed, which is why it was done in such a half hearted fashion, a bit of last minute fan service for shippers they wanted to get through quickly so it wouldn't actually impact the finale. And the fact this was the first time they'd done a explicitly gay romance with the Doctor just makes it even worse, because something like that really needed to be handled with a lot of more care and attention.

[daughter-of-the-clayr]

i've seen a couple of people talk about yaz's ending and. i have some thoughts.

warnings for discussions of suicide ideation under the read more

i don't mind yaz's ending. i think it was a little rushed, but i don't think it was bad. she had to go bc of showrunner changes, but there's nothing wrong with the bones of it, it was just a bit rushed - and it is both happy and tragic in a way i deeply enjoy.

i agree with people when they say that yaz wouldn't leave the doctor of her own free will, that it'd have to be the universe pulling them apart. but - and this is important - yaz's story is one about recovering from suicide ideation.

yaz's ending couldn't be her dying.

i think she'd be okay with dying - to some degree i think she expected it, particularly during flux. i don't think she has a death wish anymore, but she had a "aware of her own mortality" vibe during all her seasons that made it clear that she was okay with it - that she thought travelling with the doctor was worth the risk. but, if she died, having chosen to live, having chosen the 50p - out of universe that sends a terrible message. and in universe it's - rough at best.

it's okay if you're suicidal - don't attempt suicide, a chance to heroically sacrifice yourself and die for the "right reasons" will present itself!

yeah.

looking at other companion endings - trapped in an alternate universe? bad. walking away? ooc - yaz would never walk away from the doctor of her own free will. she'd never choose to leave.

she leaves because the doctor asks her to. and the doctor asks her too because 13 is trying to be kind. because yaz has just had - probably the worst post-regeneration experience of any companion, and definitely the worst in nuwho, and because the doctor has been hurt by companions' rejection in the past and because yaz - was scared.

and nothing short of death would keep yaz from staying - even the doctor forgetting her (or her forgetting the doctor, but that would be even crueler, considering) - she'd just try and befriend her again.

yaz leaves because the doctor asks her to - and she walks out to a home with supports, to ryan and graham and dan and the companion support group.

yaz leaves because she loves the doctor, and the doctor asks her too. she doesn't walk away because she wants to - she walks away because she loves her. and 13 asks her to leave because she loves her too - and she lets her go because she loves her.

to love someone is to let them go - and that's the tragedy of yaz's ending. and that's why i like it.

[pmni]

y'know   ...   pom's   arrival   coinciding   w   kaufmo's   abstraction   makes   me   wonder   if   her   being   a   jester   was   really   a   coincidence   ...

[whispers-of-gallifrey]

Just watched Fury from the Deep and I love Victoria's exit so much it breaks my heart. She's so worn down by their travels always ending up full of danger and death and her always being put in the position of damsel in distress. She really doesn't want to leave jamie and the doctor but she doesn't want that life and I love that it let's her make that choice. And I love that Jamie's concerned she won't be happy living in, what is to them, the future but she acknowledges she's changed too much to go back to Victorian England, and she's highly unlikely to get back there anyway, not without more death and danger. That the doctor changes his mind about slipping away in the night and agrees to stay another day so Victoria can think about her decision properly without feeling as pressured. The fact that she knows the doctor won't say a proper goodbye because that's his way. The way she stands on the beach watching them row out to the tardis, knowing she'll never see either of them again. The fact she doesn't go back to the tardis with them to collect her belongings. Jamie's "I don't care where we go next" because he's miserable that Victoria made that decision. The Doctor's "I was fond of her too, you know" which is the closest he'll get to admitting how much he cares about them all. I just love it

[bellamysgriffin]

so if im thinking what my ideal ending for amy/rory would have been i think we would have nixed the whole river is her daughter storyline for so so so so so so many reasons, but the reason she leaves is... yeah she gets pregnant and realizes she wants to raise a family with rory. OR! something more like she knows rory's still going for her but he's ready to settle down and live life one day at a time and she kind of does it for him. like another version of her choosing rory/a family with rory/family life in general over the crazy adventure life with the doctor which i think suits her arc

alternatively, i think god complex is a good ending if it had been the proper ending.

[relative-dimension]

“Day of Reckoning”

Season 2, episode 6 - 5th December 1964

[id: Susan and Jenny run down the centre of an empty road, pushing Dortnum in his wheelchair ahead of them. /end id]

As the midpoint to this serial, I really like this structure. Often when the plot of a long serial revolves around the Tardis team being split up and then finding each other at the very end of the final episode, it seems a tad unlikely, but here all of their individual motivations make sense, as well as the idea they each know that’s where the others would go.

Entertainment: 3/5, it works as the middle portion of a longer story, but the best bits are yet to come.

Production: 4/5, the location shooting for this story is the first to involve the main cast, and really fucking good. Richard Martin really makes the most of the opportunity, and the sequence of Barbara and Jenny moving through London with Dortmun in particular is great.

Pacing: 3/5

Character Writing & Use: 4/5, the groups that the core cast splits off into work really well here. Ian gets to have the most direct interactions with the Daleks’ systems, Barbara gets to be with Jenny and Dortmun, and Susan and Dr Who have their characters pushed by the story. Of course, this does mean that their time individually is limited, and Susan’s inexplicable romance with David is bizarre, but it works really well for the most part, certainly much better than when this is attempted in other stories.

Depth: 4/5, the idea of Daleks in London, the bombed-out buildings, the general destruction of the Earth and of England in particular is really where all the ideas of Daleks as Nazis comes from, in my opinion. This was less than twenty years after the end of the war, and for writers who grew up in the Blitz, the idea of an invasion of England would have called back to that in particular. In isolation, it’s not a direct allegory for anything really, but the idea of “extermination” (something first seen in something approximating its modern usage in the final episode of this serial), this invasion of England, and the "dislike for the unlike” briefly mentioned in their first story, all add together to form the beginnings of that idea.

Not Ageing Horribly: 4/5

Overall Score - 21/30

[nightmanatee]

first thoughts here:D

so like i still respect and love chibnall for all the changes her did bc he did so much for the fandom and doctor who... BUT how the FUCK do you fuck up with both yaz's and the doctor's endings? like the doctor didn't tell yaz ANYTHING???? how could yaz just simply AGREE on "i need to do the next beat alone"?? how the HELL there is no kiss not even a GOODBYE HUG??? like why making thasmin canon if you DON'T elaborate on this? only for 2 eps to explicitly talk about this? i can't believe that we got nothing???

[katefathers]

dissecting companion exits: a doctor who rant in the year 2024

So it's been over a month since I did that Doctor Who podcast, which has miraculously got me back on my Doctor Who bullshit, and after "The Giggle", I've been thinking a lot about companion exits, and how they worked for me and how they worked both inside and out of the narrative. And because what else is social media for than ranting about fiction, here I am.

I find it really interesting how in both Moffat and RTD Who, many of the exits work more successfully outside of the narrative than inside of it, yet for completely different reasons.

Like, "The Giggle" really emphasised how ridiculously tragic the Moffat companion exits were. And while I can't speak for Bill as I haven't watched her series, for both Amy and Clara, those exits didn't make much sense inside the narrative. Amy and Clara could have had non-tragic exits. Amy's run in particular seemed to be working towards her and Rory choosing to stop travelling with the Doctor. They weren't doing it full time, they were getting older (it was highlighted how Amy needed reading glasses now), and it would have made solid character and thematic sense to have them choose to end this chapter in their lives. To focus on their careers, and maybe have kids, and find the joy in the slow path. A slow wind down--a bittersweet yet poignant departure--would not have been untoward.

Clara could have left that way too. She could have either walked off into the sunset with Danny Pink (if he hadn't been killed off. Because he was killed off, right?) or found some other calling. Embracing teaching at Coal Hill. Teaching on another planet. Anything! But I think in both cases, Moffat wanted his "Doomsday", and so what made logical narrative sense took a backseat. These exits worked more outside of the story--"because the showrunner wanted tragedy"--than inside.

Donna, I think, could have also had a non-tragic exit. I know her tragic ending has been reversed, but if Donna had two series instead of one, I think an ending where she chose to leave the Doctor would have been possible. I mean, she loved travelling, but it's clear that she also wanted to do things like get married and have a family, and I think if she had one more series (or was in all four specials), she could have had a Jo Grant exit. But they couldn't get Catherine Tate for another series/all four specials, and RTD was set on leaving before Series 5, so Donna doesn't.

And the constraints of TV filmmaking are what I believe hampered the RTD companion exits. And there are two major ones: actor availability and the time the BBC allowed him to tell his stories.

Granted, while having two tragic exits that weigh on the Tenth Doctor and contribute to him going all "Time Lord Victorious" could have been the plan all along, assuming it wasn't, both Donna and Rose's exits make the most sense when read from an outside perspective: neither Catherine Tate or Billie Piper had signed on for more full episodes.

Rose's second exit, in particular, is the poster child for "outside the narrative" storytelling. I mean, when the Doctor says "But you've got to [stay in the parallel universe]", you nearly expect him to end that with "because your actress didn't sign on for more episodes". Outside the narrative, leaving Rose with TenToo wraps up the Doctor/Rose romance, keeps them mostly safe from the whims of future showrunners, and yet leaves Rose's story a little open-ended for the audience so they imagine whatever they want to happen in Rose's--and future Doctor's--future. Inside the narrative, however, I didn't find it particularly satisfying. The Doctor has been pining for Rose for two series. Rose has worked incredibly had to get back to him. As a character, she's crafted as someone who would stay with the Doctor forever. They have this sweeping, incredibly romantic reunion! Inside the narrative, her staying makes the most sense. It's the most satisfying ending. Especially if you don't have the space to make an ending with Rose's permanent exit gratifying.

Because like Donna and the bigeneration in "The Giggle", Rose ending up back in the parallel world could have been more satisfying if RTD had more time to build up to that exit. In general, much of "Journey's End" feels rushed, and the end of the episode is particularly bad, leaving a number of holes that never get filled. Mickey gives a very brief reason why he's staying in his home universe, but we don't see him say goodbye to Rose and Jackie. We never get a proper reunion between Rose and Jack, or resolution to Rose making Jack immortal, which she is clearly unaware of, nor do we get a goodbye between them. I remember wondering when "Journey's End" first aired, do Mickey and Jack even know that they won't see Rose again? Do they walk off with a quick "see ya later", thinking they'll meet up occasionally? Because Rose sure as hell didn't think she was leaving her home universe. And while we got TenToo on his own to establish that he is (mostly) the Doctor, we don't get much between him and Rose prior to being left on Bad Wolf Bay to build any kind of connection between them. We don't see Ten come to the decision to leave the two of them; we never really know how he feels about it. Yeah, Doctor Who is a very plot-forward show, but "Journey's End" was juggling a lot of plot and a lot of characters, and it should have been longer--or the Series 4 finale should have been a three-parter--to give both the story and characters time to breathe. The audience is left to infer A LOT, and for me it was unsatisfying at the time, and now with over a decade of distance, it's actually even more unsatisfying.

While it might seem like I have more of a problem with RTD's companion exits, I think they're more successful from a technical and audience standpoint than Moffat's. RTD has the incredible ability to write backwards, making you feel like an ending was always something that he was working towards, even when he wasn't. Although both Donna and Rose's stories could have been different given more time, and if they played out in a different medium like a novel, they still, mostly, work. Donna forgets, but gets a family and a mother who values her a little more. Rose gets both the Doctor and her parents--she doesn't have to sacrifice one for the other anymore. Moffat's, on the other hand, feel very slapdash, and I don't recall feeling like we'd been working towards them. Because, as I said, it always seemed like he was working towards a totally different ending.

I'm not entirely sure where I'm going with this, but I find the difference between Moffat and RTD's approach to companion exits really fascinating. One wanted a specific style of ending, but didn't seem to know how to foreshadow it--how to make it work as part of a cohesive narrative. The other had a strong handle on narrative and character arcs, but their ability to craft something satisfying--to give his audience all the information--was hindered by episode length. Going forward, I hope RTD can manage his time better so that the companion exit is more satisfying, like Martha's. But I also hope he takes a leaf out of Moffat's book and plans a non-tragic ending. Because Moffat did set up two fairly sold, amicable partings, and Doctor Who needs more of those again.

[thetimelordbatgirl]

How it feels to see one of the alleged leaks is ANOTHER Doctor Lite episode in S15 that focuses on Ruby working with UNIT:

[silenthilllz]

this is really fucking cute