The Sweet, Sweet Pie of Smugness

[miss_s_b]

Well, we can't pronounce on ALL the predictions yet, but young, white, cis-female, and conventionally attractive? I think we're there on those:

The Doctor's new companion is revealed

Who she's playing, how the Doctor meets her, and even where he finds her, are all part of one of the biggest mysteries the Time Lord ever encounters. Even by the Doctor's standards, this isn't your usual boy meets girl. - I suspect the biggest mystery the Doctor ever encounters might be overselling it a bit. And boy meets girl? REALLY? Eurgh.

I'm sure I'll be able to put up with her character, maybe even I'll like her, but it would have been nice if the opportunity had been taken to have someone a bit more different :(

Comments

[ginasketch]

Oh geeze how boring.

But then I kind of stopped watching Who in the Tennant era. I have problems with Sherlock too. (So sue me fangirl/boys.)

[miss_s_b]

I never got on with Tennant's performance. Shame really, because IRL he's the kind of bloke I really admire. And yeah, I have poroblems with Sherlock too; just not quite enough to stop watching it.

It are can be April yet? New Bones in April!

[ginasketch]

I've only seen a few episodes of Bones, but what I've seen I've liked.

[miss_s_b]

I like the mix of people they have on it. Not one of them is normal, and it's very gender balanced, and it's accepted that women can be geeky too. I mean, obviously there's Bones herself, but there's also Angela (whose dad is the guitarist in ZZ Top) and I ADORE Caroline, the hardass federal prosecutor lady.

[innerbrat]

There are other shows in April that aren't Korra?

I can process this under the noise of how excited I am for Korra.

[drunkwriter]

The fact that she may turn out to be an utterly extraordinary actress is completely irrelevant here then?

[miss_s_b]

For the purposes of a general commentary on the lack of variety in the stream of faces we see parading across our TV screens? Yes. This is not a comment on her as an individual, it's a comment on television as an industry.

FWIW, I would have had the same reaction if it was an actress I like (or even was familiar with) who fit the same criteria. I'm just bored of my televisual life being filled with young, pretty faces. There's no room in telly these days for (to pick an example at random) the likes of Sheila Keith, or even Michael Ripper, and that makes me very sad.

[drunkwriter]

Oh, I must have missed the part where this was a wider commentary on the television industry. That's a different conversation, though it doesn't invalidate the fact that what was needed was the best actress who turned up to the audition (and as I've never seen Coleman in anything to the best of my knowledge, I'll assume that's what she is until I'm shown otherwise).

If you look at the full range of companions we've had in Doctor Who since 2005, there have been two non-white characters, one non-het, and two aged 35+. Three if you count River as a companion. I don't even know what 'conventionally attractive' means in the context of a series which gave a lead role to the very unconventional-looking Matt Smith. And you may remember US fans being thrilled that they cast a 'fat chick' to play Rose (/eyeroll).

[almostwitty]

To be fair, Matt Smith may be unconventional-looking to you, but he's good enough to be modelling clothes for the likes of Shortlist and other magazines.

[miss_s_b]

I don't really think Matt Smith is all that unconventional. Maybe by the standards of modern telly, but if you cast him in a Hammer film he'd be the impossibly good-looking lead. I think the fact that Matt Smith is painted as being odd-looking is much more of a comment on the narrow standards of modern telly than on the man himself. YMMV.

I also think it's interesting that (for totally innocent reasons) a post about how there isn't enough variety in female form on telly has turned into a discussion of a leading male.

[innerbrat]

...it doesn't invalidate the fact that what was needed was the best actress who turned up to the audition

This is exactly the same line of argument that followed the casting announcements around The Last Airbender movie and it trotted out every single time that someone points out a dearth of people of colour on our screens. The arguments stack up and we end up with the general implication that only white people can act.

You do mention 'turned up for auditions', but don't forget that casting calls often specify race. Usually the decision to cast a specific ethinicity is made before the audition process starts.

It's a tired old argument. Yes, Corry lady is probably a great actress. That's hardly the point. There are many many skilled actors and actresses available, and many of them aren't young, white, conventually attractive cissexuals.

[andrewhickey.info]

But surely 'the best actress who turned up to the audition' will only turn up to the audition if *the character created by the production team* is a good-looking able-bodied woman in her mid-twenties. Had the script specified a fat Chinese bloke with Down's Syndrome and one leg, a different set of actors would have showed up.

So it isn't fair to attack this actor for taking the role, but it's certainly fair to see her as being symptomatic of a problem with the production.

[gwenhwyfaer]

Who was it who said that an obsession with stereotypical beauty was the hallmark of a civilisation in decline?

[almostwitty]

a) Did you really expect anything different, in Doctor Who's 50th anniversary year? They need a companion who non-geek TV viewers will happily watch, as opposed to a penguin that talks or something.

I doubt the BBC did any favours though, by not issuing a photograph of her looking suitably companion-like or mysterious. At least when karen Gillian was announced, there was also a Doctor Who-esque pic of her which made her look pretty but not glam/dull. The only pic I've seen of Ms. Colman so far is from some Inside Soap awards where she's looking like a Hollyoaks wanna-be, which is inevitably colouring my knee-jerk reaction. *

(and because visually, I like Scottish redheads, so Karen Gillan was always going to get double-plus points from me)

[miss_s_b]

Not really, no. Not expect. But hope for, possibly.

[evilawyer]

I agree. But I'm hoping this is more in the vein of the old "one for the dads" than a sign that we're moving back to a setting where youthful good looks are what the Doctor looks for in a campanion and/or he's a total horndog. Probably not, though. A real missed opportunity, as you say. I'd have liked to see someone who fits "smart and educated" (like Zoe, bless her) and outside of the traditional attract-the-18-to-30-year-olds demographic than "hot hottie looking hot." But that's just my grumpy view of things. Never having seen Emmerdale, which I understand is basically a soap opera(?), I'm nevertheless letting myself be seized by the optimism that comes in on the breeze ahead of a new season and figuring she'll do a good job with what she has to work with.

[davegodfrey]

When I heard she'd been in Captain America I was hoping she'd be Natalie Dormer. But she turned out to be the one who stands next to Tommy Lee Jones here.

[innerbrat]

No, that IS Natalie Dormer.

[davegodfrey]

:( And it turns out I'm actually thinking of Hayley Atwell anyway.

Good thing I don't want to be a casting officer.

[innerbrat]

Well, it's hard to tell white women apart sometimes. I understand.

(Natalie Dormer's always been stuck with 'too pretty to be interesting' characters that never do justice to her skill. I first noticed her in Casanova.)

[magister]

It's all a bit depressing, I must admit. Jacqueline Hill would be seen as way to old for a companion these days. I've a nasty feeling she'd be seen as to old for the Doctor...

Certainly I don't think Chris Eccleston'd be cast now.

[davegodfrey]

Matt Smith might be really young, but he doesn't actually look that young, and has a good line in world-weariness. I seem to recall when they were discussing who they'd cast as a new one Moffatt was quite keen on having an older doctor, and surprised himself by choosing someone as young as Matt Smith.

[magister]

All true and as it's turned out, Smith's become one of my favourite Doctors. It's just that of the first 8 Doctors, I think Davison, McGann and Tom Baker are the only ones who might be cast were they to turn up to an audition for the 12th Doctor, the rest being dismissed as too old or not attractive enough. Sad, really.

[drunkwriter]

Feel free to say no, but I'm doing one of my Helium pieces at some point in the next 24 hours on the companion casting - do you mind if I link to this post as a source?

[miss_s_b]

Yeah, no problem. For future reference, anything I post publicly I am happy to be linked to.