#roz forrester

[wgough42]

Discuss

[legok9]

Doctor Who cover art by Jon Sullivan

The Death of Art

So Vile a Sin cover

The Room With No Doors

Oh No It Isn't!

Ship of Fools

Deadfall

Oblivion

Dry Pilgrimage

Where Angels Fear

via Jon Sullivan's ArtStation

[dalesramblingsblog]

Why do the first three EDAs of 1998 seem to decide all of a sudden that Sam is a chronic fingernail-biter? As far as I can recall there was no hint of that trait from The Eight Doctors through to Alien Bodies. It almost seems like an attempt to set something up for Kate Orman and Jonathan Blum to use as a signifier of how far she's moved on in her four-year absence from the TARDIS in Seeing I but from doing a quick scan of that book it's not mentioned at all.

Really does sum up the recurring issues they're having with defining Sam. When they're not focusing on her body in a very MenWritingWomen kind of way, that is.

(There's a passage where Sam recognises "the line of her breasts" and frankly with how often the authors like bringing them up or putting her in a wet T-shirt or having her be exposed to creepy leering sex pests - or both, as happens in Option Lock, woo! - I can't blame her. God it's just so weird, how have we gone from Roz Forrester, Bernice Summerfield and Ace to... this, in a little over a year.)

[vikingschism]

Continuing my readthrough of the Doctor Who Virgin New Adventures, I finished reading Damaged Goods the other day. This book was Russel T Davies' first published foray into Who and it was an absolute banger. Many of these novels don't really hold up to much scrutiny as a reader, but this is one of the few that I think really stands out - not just as a Doctor Who novel, but a novel that is worth reading.

The Doctor and companions find themselves on earth, trying to ingratiate themselves with the residents of a working class housing estate - given what RTD would go on to write in the main show, this sort of setting should sound instantly familiar. However, we cannot forget that these are the VNAs and thus there is a level of grit and grime that feel more like they come from Torchwood. This book gets dark. I can handle that, but it's definitely something to be wary of if you're interested in reading the book.

The main enemy of the book was a really fun concept, definitely one that special effects would struggle to keep up with but in prose can really shine. And speaking of the prose the novel is written well - there's some great lines in here. I particularly love The Doctor describing the challenge of ingratiating themselves with the different households on the estate as having to "breach 76 fortresses". That's a wonderfully evocative bit of dialogue.

And I really have to give RTD praise for the characters - they're well drawn and compelling. One of them is a gay man who is roiling in self-loathing, there's a mother desperate to give her children a better life than her, and a teenage girl who saw something many years ago (as well as The Doctor) but wants nothing more than to have nothing to do with it. And that's only naming a few - all of the characters have their internal struggles and these are all well done.

In all, I highly recommend the novel. I will caveat that it is dark and not for the faint of heart - expect a similar level of grimness as Torchwood: Children of Earth had. The book was a great time though, and I will look forward to seeing how So Vile A Sin continues this little arc that's developed over the past few books.

[familyparadox]

How does one think the 7th Doctor’s first meeting with the Faction went down. We know Seven met the Faction Paradox before Alien Bodies but we have no details of this encounter.

Out of universe is is clearly a reference to the VNA version of Alien Bodies but I often wonder how the in universe meeting happened. To me it seems that Roz and Cwej would have been with them and involved the Klade as mentioned in Father Time (however is could Fitz and Anjie with eight)

[thebraxiatelcollection]

I love Chris and Roz's relationship in the vnas so much. Chris is the definition of a golden retriever, and Roz Forrester reminds me of a Siamese cat.

[seven-times-champion]

So BF’s latest post they say that in an upcoming Seventh Doctor boxset; “the Seventh Doctor is reunited with all of his companions”

https://www.bigfinish.com/news/v/early-bird-offer-for-classic-doctor-pre-orders

I doubt they actually will live up to that statement. Because even if we only include companions who have been in audio before and only ones who have been in more than one episode that would still give us... *deep breath* Mel, Ace, Hex, Sally, Aristedes, Raine, Mags, Klein, Will, Benny, Chris, Roz. No way is that happening, cool as it would be if it did!

[michelada12]

Just an average night at KFAM 189.16 📻

[dialogue from Frasier]

[i-am-become-a-name]

sort of listening to cold fusion, and if Tegan does not get adopted by seven I'll riot.

[companion-showdown]

Who has the worst time aboard the TARDIS?: Nominations

I don't have any rules so much as guidelines of what counts towards a "worst time" and "aboard the tardis"

The first is simple, anything can count towards a companion's bad time, were they occasionally board and annoyed, or did they die once a week for 1000 years, doesn't matter, those are both bad times, although I'm sure once the actual tournament starts one would be declared worse

As for "aboard the TARDIS", obviously bad times that happen while literally aboard the TARDIS, but also bad stuff that happens somewhere that the TARDIS takes the companion

One final note, is while how the characters come to an end is obviously a factor, once the tournament starts I expect votes will be cast based on the adventures as a whole, for example while Earthshock probably wasn't a great day for Adric, I wouldn't anticipate him getting particularly far because the rest of his time travelling wasn't notably bad (in my opinion)

Nominees

now we are back to full size tournaments please remember that all main TV companions automatically qualify, as well as some EU companions (full list here), so please don't send me nominations for them

Katarina

Sara Kingdom

Adam Mitchell

Kamelion

Oliver Harper

Compassion

Sam Jones

Roz Forrester

C'rizz

Marc

Chris Cwej

Tasmin Drew

Hex Schofield

Missy

Molly O'Sullivan

The Doctor

Simm!Master

Fey Truscott-Sade

Father Kreiner

Bret Vyon

Anya Kingdom

Mark Seven

Izzy Sinclair

Magenta Pryce

Destrii

Jess Collins

Collins Family

Alice Obiefune

for anyone who has not nominated before, there is no set way to nominate a companion, most people just send me an ask but any method were I am guaranteed to see the nomination will be accepted

Nominations will be open for at least 24 hours (until 26/06, 15:30 BST (GMT+1/UTC+1)

[autoacafiles]

So who in totals travelled with the doctor? I know we saw donna, but what other companions are there?

This is gonna be a big one, so *Takes a deep breath* In his first incarnation, the First Doctor started his travels with his granddaughter Susan, accidentally taking her school teachers Ian Chesterton and Barbara Wright. Along his travels, people would come and go, including Vicki Pallister, Steven Taylor, Katarina, Sara Kingdom, Oliver Harper, Dodo Chaplet, Ben Jackson and Polly Wright.

In his second incarnation, the Second Doctor would continue his travels with Ben and Polly, taking on Jamie McCrimmon, who would stick with him through his life. Along the way, The Doctor would also travel with Victoria Waterfield and Zoe Heriot. It was during this time that The Doctor would also meet Brigadier Alistair Lethbridge-Stewart, who would become an important figure during his most of his lives.

In exile is his third incarnation, the Third Doctor was forced to work with the Brigadier as UNIT's scientific advisor. Working initially with Liz Shaw, Mike Yates and John Benton, he would finally be able to travel again, first with Jo Grant, and later Sarah-Jane Smith.

In his fourth incarnation, continuing to travel with Sarah-Jane Smith and joined by Harry Sullivan, the Fourth Doctor would go on to travel with Naomi Cross, Leela of the Sevateem, Margaret Hopwood, two models of the robot dog K9, "Anne Kelso", Romana in two of her incarnations and Adric.

In his fifth incarnation, The Doctor continued travelling with Adric and took on Nyssa of Trakken and Tegan Jovanka, who he had met towards the end of his previous incarnation. Along the way, he would also travel with Marc, Thomas Brewster, Hannah Bartholomew, Vislor Turlough, Peri Brown and Erimem.

Still travelling with Peri in his sixth incarnation, The Doctor would travel with others including Frobisher, Evelyn Smythe, Charlotte Pollard (retroactively under the guise of Mila due to already travelling with his Eighth Incarnation), Flip Jackson, Constance Clarke, Melanie Bush and Hebe Harrison.

Continuing to travel with Mel in his seventh Incarnation, the Doctor would go on to be joined by Ace McShane, Bernice Summerfield, Hex Schofield, Sally Morgan, Lysandra Aristedes, Mags, Raine Creevy, Elizabeth Klein, Will Arrowsmith, Chris Cwej and Roz Forrester, though ultimately ended up travelling on his home.

The Eighth Doctor would find himself starting afresh, briefly meeting Grace Holloway and Chang Lee, before going on to travel with Izzy Sinclair, Fitz Kreiner, Charlotte Pollard, C'rizz, Mary Shelley, Lucie Miller, Tamsin Drew, Molly O'Sullivan, Liv Chenka, Helen Sinclair, Tania Bell, Andy Davidson and Bliss.

The War Doctor would go on to make a point of travelling alone, never taking on a travelling companion during his life.

Though he would continue travelling alone for much of his life, the Ninth Doctor would finally yield and take on Rose Tyler as a companion, and later Adam Mitchell, Captain Jack Harkness and Tara Mishra

In his tenth incarnation, The Doctor would continue travelling with Rose, though would later go on to travel with Mickey Smith, Martha Jones, a returning Captain Jack, Donna Noble, Gabby Gonzalez, Cindy Wu, Anya Kingdom and Mark Seven.

The Eleventh Doctor would start his travels with Amy Pond, going on to take on Rory Williams, Alice Obiefune, John Jones, ARC, The Squire, Abslom Daak, The Sapling, Valerie Lockwood and Clara Oswald.

Clara Oswald would continue to travel with the Twelfth Doctor, who would go on to travel with Hattie Munroe, Nardole and Bill Potts.

In her Thirteenth Incarnation, the Doctor would spend her entire incarnation travelling Yasmin Khan, being joined by Ryan Sinclair, Graham O'Brien and Dan Lewis.

Throughout many of their lives, The Doctor would constantly meet River Song, though on many occasions would be forced to forget their encounters to preserve the web of time.

And with that, I'm taking a nap - Dev~

[lurking-latinist]

Roz has the braincell today

[dalesramblingsblog]

On the subject of Chris and Roz ('cause I didn't want to hijack the other post more than was strictly necessary), I will say @st4rshiptr00per that it definitely takes them a little while for the writers to get to grips with them. Having gone back and re-read Sky Pirates! only recently, actually, what struck me is that, for all that Dave Stone's comparatively sidelining the duo in their own subplot stood out to me when I first read it back in 2021 (God I've been doing this thing for so long), he... kinda nails the dynamic and banter between the two of them.

I would say that the first truly great book with Roz and Chris in it that's great *because* of Roz and Chris (I like Head Games but it's a very broad and archetypal book; not that it misrepresents the characters, Steve Lyons captures them pretty well, but it's a book about the nature of storytelling so the characters don't really drive the plot as much as they would in a traditional Doctor Who story) is... well, predictably for Mr. Also People Stan, it's The Also People. Cannot stress enough how much I love that book, and Ben Aaronovitch is the first to *really* get Roz on a fundamental level, his portrait of her is sketched so damn vividly that it hurts and she gets a climactic monologue that is just utter perfection.

Past that, Shakedown is... well, it's Terrance Dicks, but throughout all of 1996 you generally have a pretty solid run of writers knowing how to write for Chris and Roz. Books like GodEngine or The Death of Art stand out a lot more for their poor handling of the duo - though admittedly part of that is that they don't even have Benny to fall back on at that point - than they would have a year earlier.

But yeah I love those two, they're definitely not always perfectly handled but the best books featuring them are very much engaged with the question of what it means to be a cop travelling in the TARDIS. I wrote a whole other post on the subject of the NAs, policing and Chris/Roz vs. Yaz back when I was finishing up the series (or at least the Doctorful instalments) with The Room With No Doors about a year ago when I first joined Tumblr, I think it was a pretty decent encapsulation of my thoughts (tho there's a mild spoiler for The Also People I suppose but eh it's a good enough book that it can withstand it.)

[vikingschism]

Continuing my readthrough of the Doctor Who Virgin New Adventures I finished reading The Death of Art by Simon Bucher-Jones the other day. Set in Paris in the late 19th century, the TARDIS crew are trying to avert some catastrophe that is due to happen (which will destroy history, naturally) and The Doctor thinks psychic powers might have something to do with it.

Not going to bury the lede on this one, it was a bit of a confusing mess. By the end it resolved itself into a fairly clear story, but along the way I was constantly unsure what was going on. The experience of reading it was almost dreamlike in a sense; scenes would shift with little to no connection and characters come in and out of prominence with no fanfare. I don't think this was fully intentional however, and it made the book very slow to read.

The concept behind the aliens in this story was cool, however it didn't help with the confusion as there was a lot of jargon introduced very quickly. Again, later on this became more obvious when it was clear what they actually were, but the first few scenes appear so unconnected to the other scenes going on that it's hard to latch on to them. I think that a concept like this could only really be done in a book if executed like it was here - it would definitely be hard to do in a visual medium.

The Doctor and crew were fine here, Chris gets a fun plotline where he has to infiltrate the Parisian police, and ends up needing to pretend to be The Doctor. The Doctor has his fingers in many pies and gets to engage in a bit of scheming. Roz, meanwhile, seems to get the short end of the stick and doesn't get a ton to do. There is some insight on her past though which is interesting. The other supporting characters and villains aren't too interesting overall.

The book does bring back The Shadow Directory from Christmas on a Rational Planet, however they don't seem to do all that much here. The callback does make sense at least seeing as the book is set in Paris.

The next book in the series is Damaged Goods by Russel T Davies, and I'm already halfway through. It's a good one. Expect a review for that one soon.

[familyparadox]

The Fact that Chris Cwej is in “Last Day: part 2” is so funny because he was also in Lungbarrow, both stories see the seventh Doctor being sent of to collect the Master remains. Lungbarrow is actually the story in which Cwej leaves the Doctor. Like how does that work? Roz being there is even more ridiculous because she should be dead by this point? Is this Post Lungbarrow Cwej? If so is this is First, Third or Fourth Body? Is is just some random Cwejen rocking up like the ones in the Bernice Summerfield audio? Not to mention how is Roz there? She should be dead? Benny being there was already wild but Cwej and Roz being here? How does that work? Are they going to bring Roz back to life somehow? Is Cwej on a mission from the Time Lords to kill the Doctor to alter some key event in the War in Heaven? Will Christine Summerfield get a name drop? Will this audio finally solve the mystery of the Seventh Doctor’s encounter with Faction Paradox? I am so excited for this mess.

[thebraxiatelcollection]

This is a Roz Forrester appreciation post. Just want her to know I love her, and she deserves more love.