Character arc and fit
Dec. 28th, 2007 03:25 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
beccaelizabethOne of the ways to figure out a character arc for a Doctor Who companion is to ask
what is the problem to which traveling with the Doctor is the solution?
With Rose, that's pretty easy. First we see of her she's got a job she's bored with, and then she goes off to do interesting things and useful work and save the world. And if she'd left to go do that somewhere else that'd be a perfect story arc, because she had a need that needed the Doctor for a while and then she grew into it and didn't need him any more.
... we didn't exactly get that. she got all needier as she went along and her daddy had to save her. I kinda really hate that.
So what was Martha's thing? I'm not so sure. I mean, when we first meet her, she's introduced as part of a family that obviously treats her as the solution to all their problems and yet doesn't listen when she offers her advice. So the problem is something about an imbalance in looking after people. Yesno?
Only then she spends the year looking after the Doctor and then traveling the world to tell them to wait for her not-boyfriend to save them. And we get to the end of the season and she quits to look after her family. Which is... even more of the initial problem. Traveling with the Doctor was the problem, not the solution? But he did teach her to walk away!
Jack's problem was that, having been betrayed, he couldn't rely on people and he was exploiting them for funnies and it was a big mess. And then by the end of the five episodes he could rely on people and risk his life for them and it was all very heroic. Story arc! Er, and then they... betrayed him again. Which, you know, probably doesn't help.
And yet he then went out and gathered a team and saved the world a lot. ... while exploiting people and conning them and stuff.
So not exactly back to the beginning, but another turn on the spiral, which is what tends to happen to characters.
And then he found the Doctor again and found out why he'd got dumped and got the opportunity to dump him back. I don't really see how any of that was progress.
BUT his other problem was that he wasn't loving the whole immortality bit, and travel with the Doctor to the end of the universe cured him of that some, and then a year being tortured to death by the Master probably got the suicidal impulses out of his system, so yaays for progress.
... as therapy goes it leaves something to be desired, but whatever, if it works *shrugs*
I don't know. Is it maybe just not a very useful question?
Because I'm coming up more often 'Doctor is the problem' than 'Doctor is the solution'.
He saves the universe a lot, but...
what is the problem to which traveling with the Doctor is the solution?
With Rose, that's pretty easy. First we see of her she's got a job she's bored with, and then she goes off to do interesting things and useful work and save the world. And if she'd left to go do that somewhere else that'd be a perfect story arc, because she had a need that needed the Doctor for a while and then she grew into it and didn't need him any more.
... we didn't exactly get that. she got all needier as she went along and her daddy had to save her. I kinda really hate that.
So what was Martha's thing? I'm not so sure. I mean, when we first meet her, she's introduced as part of a family that obviously treats her as the solution to all their problems and yet doesn't listen when she offers her advice. So the problem is something about an imbalance in looking after people. Yesno?
Only then she spends the year looking after the Doctor and then traveling the world to tell them to wait for her not-boyfriend to save them. And we get to the end of the season and she quits to look after her family. Which is... even more of the initial problem. Traveling with the Doctor was the problem, not the solution? But he did teach her to walk away!
Jack's problem was that, having been betrayed, he couldn't rely on people and he was exploiting them for funnies and it was a big mess. And then by the end of the five episodes he could rely on people and risk his life for them and it was all very heroic. Story arc! Er, and then they... betrayed him again. Which, you know, probably doesn't help.
And yet he then went out and gathered a team and saved the world a lot. ... while exploiting people and conning them and stuff.
So not exactly back to the beginning, but another turn on the spiral, which is what tends to happen to characters.
And then he found the Doctor again and found out why he'd got dumped and got the opportunity to dump him back. I don't really see how any of that was progress.
BUT his other problem was that he wasn't loving the whole immortality bit, and travel with the Doctor to the end of the universe cured him of that some, and then a year being tortured to death by the Master probably got the suicidal impulses out of his system, so yaays for progress.
... as therapy goes it leaves something to be desired, but whatever, if it works *shrugs*
I don't know. Is it maybe just not a very useful question?
Because I'm coming up more often 'Doctor is the problem' than 'Doctor is the solution'.
He saves the universe a lot, but...