Doctor Who: Regenerating with The Times

 

Doctor Who was and is a leading sci-fi series that aired in 1963 and ran until 1989, then was breathed new life in 2005 when the canceled series was revamped… with a continuation. Let me explain…

In Doctor Who, the main character is known as The Doctor. He is an alien humanoid belonging to a race of timelords, beings who are relatively ageless and upon death go through a transformation called Regeneration. When a timelord regenerates, their face, personality, and sometimes even gender changes. Considering this, Doctor Who continued in 2005 with a new regeneration of The Doctor, rather than remaking the show entirely. However, did this almost twenty-year gap between Doctor Who series affect how the series represent themselves? In my analysis below, I find that to be the case. It seems even for time travelers, culture and history can catch up with us.

First, I’m going to be doing an analysis of The Doctors treatment and relationship with his companions. As a timeless space traveler, you might get a bit lonely, so The Doctor picks up what the show calls “companions”, people, usually of the human variety, that come along with the Doctor on his adventures. The feelings and agendas made with the characters have a noticeable difference if viewed upon closely.

Classic Doctor Who- In the original Doctor Who, the first companion of The Doctor’s is his granddaughter Susan Foreman. In the show, it has the relationship of more so being a teacher and student. The two were caring for each other like family, but the story did not explicitly show these familial bonds. the Doctor eventually chooses to leave her so she could pursue a “normal” life. The Doctor has a similar track record with companions after this, people he picks up and seems more like an elder or a teacher to them before dropping them off. Almost no romanticism of any kind ever happened between The Doctor and his companions.

New Doctor Who (Or commonly named NuWho)- The first companion the Doctor comes across is a young beautiful woman by the name of Rose Tyler, who falls in love with the Doctor and in turn the Doctor falls for her. The change in the style of companion is an indicator of social history and influences of the times. Rose Tyler is also a rather strong female character that sometimes disobeys or questions the Doctor, showing the reflective societal progression of females within a relationship of any kind to men. While still subservient to a degree because of habits in media, the extent to which the women are seen as subordinates is intensely different

In Classic Doctor Who the companions to The Doctor were never too spry or young and had a sense of platonic devotion to The Doctor, who was always played by older men, while the first companion we’re exposed to in the last twenty years become a romantic interest to The Doctor. The reason for this is because of the change in how science fiction is seen. In older sci-fi movies the romanticism of the characters were not as important as the workings of that science fiction or the puzzles presented by the plot. The Classic Doctor Who abided by this as the Doctor was somewhat of a  puzzle solver, obsessed with fixing difficult issues within the universe, but in the science fiction age we’re in now, the idea of fiction is influenced by Hollywood’s idea of putting love in every story and making tension in relationships along with emotionally stunted or lonely characters that find love in places they didn’t expect.

Often within NuWho there is an intense focus on The Doctor’s loneliness as a nearly immortal being, which is often amplified when he is alone. The companions fill this place for him and help him find the humanity in his heart and completion in another. Rather than being subservient characters that follow and listen to the Doctor like a teacher, companions become more like reflections of the Doctor’s inner emotions, and so their relationship is more focused on each other than on the issues they face.

Societal history and influence of society in the genre objectively influence many parts of what Doctor Who tries to portray, and the companions are a great example of this change. This change of pace on followers and friends of The Doctor can arguably be seen as better or worse depending on what Whovian you ask. One thing is for certain, it makes for some damn good television.