#i'm still a few episodes behind so i haven't seen dan or yaz's endings yet

[iridescentoracle]

#i think it's also a little bit because our modern norms of long-distance communication mean the idea of friends Ceasing To Be In Contact #has become weird to us and associated with something having gone wrong #in the 60s it wasn't AS weird to be like 'i will always treasure our friendship but due to our respective lives we may never meet again' #now we not only need a traumatic reason for them to part ways (which agreed seems to be a written-by-fans thing) #we need an insurmountable barrier to keep them from ever being in contact again to justify actually leaving the show #ian and barbara knew they'd probably never see the doctor again! they accepted that and it was no one's fault! #but now there's all this Angst over the classic companions he 'didn't come back' for #and they can't allow that to be a thing with the new companions so they have to make it the Most Separation Ever #hashtag break the tardis navigation again #establish the doctor has no control over his travels it's so much SIMPLER (via incomingalbatross)

#this is another change that I’d attribute to the shift towards character-driven storytelling #s1 set a precedent where The core conflict of the show is between the companion’s ordinary life and their life with the dr #which. is better dramatically to resolve by making a Thing out of it and elaborating on Why they can’t go home or why they can’t stay #whatever Reason classic companions have to be traveling with the dr doesn’t tend to be a big deal #because classic didn’t have any long-term plotlines or character arcs the way nuwho does #(which isn’t Bad it’s just a different storytelling format) #basically. I’m not sure if Every modern companion leaving under Good Circumstances would work well under nuwho’s format #honestly I think the fact that all of chibnall’s companions left to their home time basically unchanged is one of the era’s biggest weaknesses #ESPECIALLY Graham and Ryan weren’t given the kind of character work that would allow a tragic/dramatic departure #they leave the tardis almost entirely unchanged from when they entered and that’s like. #I mean it’s FINE for a certain format and style of television #but dr who hasn’t done that since classic and just throwing it into nuwho doesn’t Work (via osgoodification)

No offense to modern Doctor Who but why does every companion stay in the TARDIS until some horrible life altering thing forces them to leave (death, trapped in a parallel universe, memories forcibly taken, etc.). I miss how in Classic Who most companions just said “Hey Doc, this has been fun but I think it’s time I went home” or “hey this planet is pretty cool, I think I’m going to stay here” and the Doctor was just like “okay cool, I’ll always remember you fondly, bye!”

[matt0044]

#god all of these takes are FASCINATING and remind me how much i need to properly watch classic who#i'm still a few episodes behind so i haven't seen dan or yaz's endings yet#but i actually loved how ryan&graham left#doctor who#BUT i do think ''every character always leaves of their own accord and is totally happy about it'' is not better than#''everyone leaves tragically/dies/is trapped and can never come back for Magic Science Reasons/etc''#it's just also like. vice versa. both need to be real options that happen sometimes if either is going to have narrative/emotional impact!#if everyone leaves tragically it stops actually having real emotional weight bc you see it coming and it's just a question of How#i wasn't actually sad about clara or bill's endings (even though i really liked bill and i REALLY wish she'd gotten more than one season!)#because by that point it was just... so pat. we get it horrible things happen to companions and it's very tragic. do something NEW#idk like yes nuwho is definitely character-driven and characters need arcs for that but how those arcs end should have some actual variety#or it just gets stale#i don't disagree that ryan and graham didn't get as much character work as they could have but to me them leaving on their own terms#was just such a breath of fresh airReblog

No offense to modern Doctor Who but why does every companion stay in the TARDIS until some horrible life altering thing forces them to leave (death, trapped in a parallel universe, memories forcibly taken, etc.). I miss how in Classic Who most companions just said “Hey Doc, this has been fun but I think it’s time I went home” or “hey this planet is pretty cool, I think I’m going to stay here” and the Doctor was just like “okay cool, I’ll always remember you fondly, bye!”