SiriuslyPotter

I didn't mind either, I love Rose.

Yeah, I didn't like that, Martha's development could of been done a lot better, I only felt I knew her as a character at the end of the season, I felt I knew Rose after only a few episodes.

But I loved the Doctor's arc so much, so I can't complain.

stoptheqtip

I felt like Rose had been my BFF for years by the end of Rose The weird thing is, Martha is more my kind of character, and yet Rose appealed to me more. .

Me too. I like complaining about stuff- it's theraputic- but saying bad stuff about Doctor Who feels a bit like heresy.

SpySyd

I think the point wasn't to show how awesome Rose was, but to show us that she was different to the Doctor, that she wasn't a simple companion, or assistant like so many had been and will be. Martha saved the world, she was brilliant too, but she didn't mean the same thing to the Doctor. That's what she came to realize at the end of the series.

Raonaild

I liked Rose well enough, but I think they pushed too hard in the new series to sell her as some sort of perfect companion, and it was getting to me by the end of S2. It also grated during S3 when she kept coming up throughout the whole season even after she left the show.

The problem with the Doctor getting too attached to any one companion is that companions come and go, but the Doctor is always going to be around - that's how the show works. I don't want to see him him living in the past, pining for a companion who is no longer around. I want him to live in the present and pay attention to the companion standing right there in front of him, sharing in his latest adventure.

Wayward Melody

They way the Doctor pined after Rose appealed to me because I ship them together, that said it did change his characterization, a bit. I also felt for Martha because of all the talking and name dropping that went on during S3. I was really glad that she basically said “can’t do this anymore” and left. We know she’ll be back but I liked her showing the edge.

indigo sunrise

I also really loved the Rose references in season 3, because I am a huge Rose fan and I also ship them, so I was very glad he didn't just move on, because I didn't either, so that worked out great I get that a lot of people thought it was too much though, and that he shouldn't single companions out, but that's the way life works, you meet tons of people and some just stand out more than others. I would have felt very cheated if they hadn't mentioned her as much as they did, because in season 1 and 2 they often made a point of it to show that Rose did mean more to him than most previous companions, and it is only realistic imho that it would take some time to get over losing her. But yes, I also felt very bad for Martha at times. Poor girl.

SpySyd

It is, but then I think RTD wanted to add a little touch of his own to it, with Rose. And I think S3 made sense, in regards to that. He knew a lot of us wouldn't get over Rose easily and he knew that the way he'd portrayed the Doctor with Rose during those two series, the character had to suffer from the loss, more than from other losses (not talking about his people).

lunas_borednow

I agree, given the amount of time given to exploring the relationship between these two it would have been cheep to just ignore that he lost her. I might be bias from being a huge shipper of the two.


It took me forever to see Rose because I missed it on it's first run started the series half way through End of the World. I only got to see it recently. I loved almost everything about it. It had the Mickey eating waste bin

Raonaild

The thing is though, what if you just started watching during the third season? Then you'd been constantly hearing about some character who never actually appears.

Even if the Doctor only did this for certain characters, he's had 40+ companions over the years. Why doesn't he keep bringing up his granddaughter? Jo? Sarah Jane? Romana? K-9 even? Or how about companions who died, wouldn't those have affected him more than other companions who just left? The Doctor has built up a huge amount of emotional baggage from his companions over the years, if they kept constantly bringing it up the way they have with Rose, that's all the show would be about. And for you, it would be annoying if he did keep bringing these other people up, because you don't really know them. For me, it's annoying for the Doctor to be so completely focussed on Rose because it trivializes all the other people the Doctor has travelled with and loved in one form or another over his 900+ years.

Wayward Melody

But the Doctor chose to leave Sarah Jane and Rose was taken from him. A lot of the Doctor’s life is reflective of his choices, his control. The way he and Rose severed ties was something he had no control over.

That said, I do agree, for authenticity sake that maybe another companion might have come up at some point during RTD’s Who.

SpySyd

I do think it's part of why this loss' been so hard on him

Not constantly. But what can you do? She's touched him in a way that he has to talk about her. And I'm sure he'll tell Donna about Martha. I really wonder if it would have annoyed people as much had Martha not been annoyed by it herself. Donna sure didn't seem to be upset by it (granted, it was only one "ep").

Yes, of course, he's about a lot of other things. But I believe in something you don't regarding Rose, and to me, the way RTD handled S3 makes perfect sense. I can see your point, I get it, really. I just think there was something that started with Nine that might never had happened before, not to that extent. I'm not denying his emotional baggage and it was actually great to see SJ in S2.

The thing is that Rose didn't leave him, nor did he want her to stay behind. She was ripped away from him, which again, might explain a bit of his trouble over getting over it. I don't think it trivializes all the past companions, it makes me sympathize with him even more (not because it's Rose, but because it's another loss he hadn't expected). It shows, maybe, a more human side of him and quite frankly, I like it. Maybe it's a side RTD had always wanted to explore more? I know this show has been around for decades, lots of stuff happened but I also think the New Who reinvented it, a little bit. IMO, it's not just a continuation of the Classic Who. It's a new Who too. The situation with Rose being maybe the most obvious change. Of course, that's only my opinion

Wayward Melody

Plus, I think it offered Martha an interesting place in the Doctors history. By the end of S3 she really took strides to not be hopelessly and pointlessly in love with someone who didn’t love her, and I love that. It made me glad that someone else was doing a form of “leaving”.

Raonaild

That's not exactly how it happened though. Even though he wasn't happy about it, the Doctor chose to send Rose to the parallel universe knowing she wouldn't be able to get back, in the same way he chose to send her home in Parting of the Ways, to keep her safe. In both cases, Rose refused to stay away and went back to him, but in Doomsday she ended up back in the parallel Earth again.

It was a similar story with Sarah Jane - the Doctor dropped her off on Earth because he was compelled to go back to Gallifrey and he wasn't allowed to take Sarah Jane with him. But Sarah Jane said she didn't want to leave, and the Doctor wasn't happy about it either.

I agree that one of the key differences between the new series and the old is that they focus more on feelings than in the past, and intentionally get into some deeper emotional territory than they used to. However, I think the differences between the New and Classic series aren't as great as they're usually made out to be - the classic series is not all one thing, it was a show that evolved over it's original 27 year run, and to me the new series is just part of that same continuum after a 20 year gap. This has become more clear to me after reading the novels and listening to the audio plays that took place within the gap - some of them are incredibly similar to New Who stories (in particular, Human Nature and Dalek which are directly based on a novel and play), but set with classic series Doctors and companions.

But even just considering the new series, Rose was around for two series, but she's gone now. RTD definitely tried to make Rose some sort of perfect companion, which worked for the first two seasons, but to me seems a little shortsighted since the show is going to continue for another three years at least. How do you keep the show and the Doctor moving forward if no companion can possibly live up to Rose?

SpySyd

I don't think the situations are quite comparable because it seemed that at the end of S2, the Doctor had accepted the idea of Rose sticking around forever (her forever, of course). Also, one of the points of SJ's short return was to show that the Doctor wouldn't do to Rose what he'd done to SJ. Either because she was more special or because he'd changed and learned from his "mistake". The two times he sent Rose away were for her own safety. Not because she was in the way. He seemed quite ecstatic to have her back afterwards (even though it was short-lived in Doomsday and he was then first mad because he didn't want her to regret leaving her family).

They can't live up in his hearts, in that specific way, but not as companions, assistants. I mean, even I, who's not a fan of Martha at all, could see how much she achieved by herself at the very end of S3. She was fantastic. I honestly don't think he'll behave with Donna or the future companions as he did with Martha. He was still recovering, trying to move on from a big loss. I'm pretty sure he'll barely mention Rose next season, if he does at all.

Wayward Melody

I hope that doesn’t happen, and not form a Rose standpoint either. I think it would cheapen kind of what Martha went through. I wonder what the dynamic is going to be like with Donna. It’s gonna be an interesting season, to be sure.

What’s everyone’s favorite part of this specific episode?