Also, bring back Ace.

First, a complaint. I have, in my room, one of those light fittings with four bulbs that you can move independently, altering the light in a particular part of the room. They can be very useful for getting the lighting just right and it provides more illumination than a regular light fitting.

It is also im-frakking-possible to get the lights pointing in the direction I want. I have two options: go blind from light shining right in my eyes or go blind from scrabbling around in darkness.


Anyway, on to lighter (pun entirely unintentional) matters. I've just discovered that the character of Donna Noble (played by Catherine Tate) from last year's Christmas special is to be brought back as a regular companion on Doctor Who. I have mixed feelings about this. Catherine Tate is primarily a comedian and I'm not convinced of her acting talent but she did well enough in The Runaway Bride. Donna Noble may certainly be an interesting character with a bit of expansion and I suspect that I'll take Tate more seriously when she doesn't spend the entire episode in a bridal dress.

Martha Jones (Freema Agyeman) will also be appearing in the new series, along with some Torchwood episodes. I think this could be interesting because, other than with Sarah Jane Smith and due to Rose's means of departure, we've yet to see what life is like for a companion after travelling with the Doctor. I guess we'll be getting some of that from Donna as well, but Martha's certainly had the more interesting Time Lord experiences.

There's always a particular view of Doctor Who from the viewing public. A Time Lord (often infuriatingly referred to as "Dr. Who") and his female companion roaming the universe in a police box, fending off aliens with a sonic screwdriver and, when things get to tough, that Time Lord can just regenerate.

Well, about the only part of that that's been true for the series run is the police box. The concept of the Time Lords was not introduced until 6 years into the series run and the sonic screwdriver had only appeared the year before that. Admittedly, in the long run of Doctor Who 6 years isn't all that much time but it's strange how it isn't the origin of the program that has stuck with people.

11 years is a comparatively longer time and that's how long it took for the concept of regeneration to truly take hold, at the transition from Jon Pertwee to Tom Baker. It had happened before but it had never been called "regeneration" and it was only some time after that that the "renewal" of the First Doctor into the Second was explicitly identified as an actual regeneration.

The whole "one female companion" thing is what bugs me. The Doctor started out with three companions. Then, a pattern of two companions was established: a girl to scream and a man to fight and do manly things. That's not even going into the various UNIT characters who hung around during the Third Doctor era. Throughout the series run, the Doctor had several companions at least as often as he had one.

That's something I'd like to see more of in the new series, a group dynamic in the TARDIS. While there have been groups of characters, Mickey Smith and Jackie Tyler with Rose in series 1 being the most obvious, it's always presented as the primary companion and the hangers-on. Jack Harkness shows up to do a variety of bad ass things when needed but he seems to be more of an ally than an assistant.

I would really like to see two companions on an equal footing, joining at more or less the same time, though without knowing each other prior. It would create an interesting dynamic if done well, in my opinion.


This, ladies and gents, is what happens when I have no topic, The Discontinuity Guide lying on my desk and a lack of time for the post. I'll be doing two things for the first time tomorrow, driving a car and watching Genesis of the Daleks (not at the same time, for safety reasons), so I should have something interesting to mention.