@phaseshift – I think it’s a ‘well, yeah?’ RTD’s first Companion was Rose. Of her two Significant Others, her Mum got the most screen time. They had a loving, but difficult relationship. Then his second Companion was Martha, and her Significant Other with the most screen time was her Mum. They had a loving, but difficult relationship. The third and final regular Companion was Donna, whose most Significant Other was her Granddad – but who had a loving but fairly difficult relationship with her … hmm, am I noticing a pattern here? 😈
Moffat moved the Significant Other onto the TARDIS, eventually giving the Doctor a married couple as Companions. It’s not that Moffat doesn’t have any female guest leads, he does. But Moffat’s general preference is to have a male-female pairing. Rory would talk with the female guest leads, Amy with the males. That’s inevitably going to fail the Bechdel Test, which is that two women in the cast need to talk to each other, about something other than a man (ideally for more than three lines). If there is only one Companion, and that Companion is female, the number of episodes passing the Bechdel Test will be higher. She’ll be doing a lot of the talking to any female guest leads, and if the monster-of-the-week isn’t male, Bobbie’s your aunty. 🙂
Another point is that if you do decide to have a male-female Companion team, the percentage of lines given to women is inevitably going to drop – because all those ‘explain the plot to me, Doctor?’ moments are now shared. With a male actor. Who ought to be given lines, because gawd knows we’re paying him enough. 😉
Finally, Doctor Who is always going to be playing catch-up with the Bechdel Test, because it’s the inheritor of thirty seven years of unconscious (mostly) sexism – not only does it have a male lead – Most of the monsters are male. Technically, two women discussing how to defeat the Daleks fails the Bechdel Test. Equally, two women discussing how to rescue the Doctor will also fail.
Craig 9 years, 4 months ago.
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