windemere | Best Mates

This will be rambly...you have been forewarned.

I'm going to use New Who to talk about this. Not because I don't like the original series (I do!), but because it was set up a bit differently. The Doctor had companions along with him in his adventures, but never really got close to them as friends. Except for maybe Ace and Seven. After all, he started out with his granddaughter has his traveling companion. But he never viewed them as equals (except for Romana, and even then...). And Grace who is a whole 'nother story.

New Who is different. At the beginning, it wasn't. 'Rose' started off much the same as the original series, but maybe even more so because the Doctor had just come from the Time War and he was even less interested in having people along for his pity ride of grief and self-loathing. But then Rose walked into his life and things changed. Not at first. At first she was a traveling companion like the others had been. But I think by the time they'd finished with the Slitheen and Rose had stared into the face of death for him and he'd nearly sacrificed her to save the world and Jackie had - kind of - acknowledged she had no say in this, they were friends. Not dear best mates, but more than just companions. She never wanted to leave him and I don't think he wanted her to go. It's after this that Rose screws up a lot and he threatens, but it's empty threats. She nearly destroys the world to save her father. She brings pretty-boy Adam on board who betrays them, and pretty-boy Jack who doesn't. And by the end the Doctor loves her enough (as a best friend or otherwise) to send her home to save her life. And she loves him enough to come back and save his. And then he dies for her. The Doctor hasn't done that for many people and not, I think, as directly as that.

After the regeneration is over and Rose - partly - accepts that he's the same but different and is willing to go off with him, they start out almost where they left off. It takes her until Tooth and Claw to really trust him again, but once there they are the best of friends and pretty much inseparable through season 2. And whether it's something more or not doesn't really matter. But at the end, when he looses her, it's not just Rose who's world comes crashing down. He's allowed himself to get close, to have a best mate, and now she's gone and he's alone again. That has to be crushing.

When Donna waltzes (not really) into his life in the wake of it, he doesn't know what to do with her. She's there, it's convenient and he has to save the world anyways, so he might as well take her along. And I think it takes his mind off what's just happened - burning up a star just to say goodbye - and get back to doing what he's supposed to do. When he asks her at the end to come with him, I don't think it's because he wants another friend he can watch die, but because Donna made him - for a short while - stop thinking about Rose and get on with things, and I think he hopes she'd continue to do that. But Donna knows better.

Martha is completely different. Martha is an amusing entertainment to him at first. She's smart, goes along with things, isn't helpful at all, and means that the TARDIS isn't empty with just him. But it's telling that the first 7 episodes happen in only a day or two because Martha doesn't change until the party back on Earth. I think, if not for that evening, he would have left her or found a way to make her leave, because he knows she's not filling up the empty spaces as he hopes. But she nearly dies hanging onto the bell tower with her sister and he pisses off another mum and I guess it just seems better to have her come along. But she's a companion; she's not a friend. It's really proved when Jack waltzes back in (dead) and he and the Doctor are best buddies again (despite how they parted). Martha feels ignored and used and she is. With Jack, the Doctor doesn't need her and once on Utopia she's just along for the ride. Until the end when she saves the whole planet, possibly the universe, and he finds he has a place for her again. But she's realised that she is never going to be to him what she wants to, or even what Rose was, and so she leaves. And he never understands why.

He isn't expecting Donna. He wanted her along for fun, but she was too scared. Now she's determined it's worth the fear and wants a ride. But he's not thinking about that at first. He just wants, as he says, a mate to enjoy the universe with. Martha was too much trouble and he doesn't want to go through that again. But mates is all Donna wants too. It's why they get along so well. There's nothing else there except too really great friends having fun. Which is why this show should be about. It nearly breaks his hearts to make her forget and leave her on Earth because she's like a sister to him and he doesn't want her to go.

The other's that trail in after Donna, for an episode (or Wilf's two) are just conveniences. They are caught up in whatever the disaster is and along for the ride, but the Doctor never has any interested in inviting them along further (example: Christina). Wilf is fun, and I think he reminds him of Donna and their times together, but it isn't meant to be.

When he comes back as Eleven he's even more bonkers than Ten, except in better ways (or in ways less likely to destroy the universe if left to its own devices). But he's figured it out. He doesn't want another Rose (can't have one, it would kill him); or another Martha (too much trouble); or really another Jack (too complicated); he just wants a best mate.

And Amy is, right from the start. She's been his best friend since she was a little girl, and it's telling that after a brief few hours eating weird food in her kitchen, he comes back. Ostensibly to save her and the house and the town/country/planet, but he comes back. Late, as usual. She doesn't want to forgive him for that; for turning her entire town against her. But she's loved him (as a friend/other) since she was little and I think he's the only thing Amy Pond has ever really loved. He's certainly the only one that made her feel important or special. When he comes back, it's a given she'll go, because she can't not. Not matter how much she thinks she hates him or how much she's smart enough now to know better, she's always going to go running in her night clothes. That's what they do for him. It takes till the end of 'The Beast Below' for them to really find their footing with each other. Amy has to prove she can be his partner, his equal, and she does. After that, it's just acceptance on both their parts. The hug at the end is a hug of best mates having just saved a 'world'. Donna and the Doctor used to hug like that. Rose and Nine too. Even Ten and Jack. Martha too, yes, but he usually turned against her soon after, and it took 7 episodes for him to properly hug her and ask her to stay. With the others, he always just assumed they would, and they did.

So, let's look forward to a season of running and hugging and the best of mates traveling the universe and time. I hope it lasts for a while.