For the Grandads

Hi friends! I'm just coming off a lovely weekend at the Fan Studies Network North America conference, which was as delightful and insightful and as invigorating as ever. This week, I'm sharing my presentation script for reasons of a) I believe in accessibility and b) I'm tired. With minimal cleaning up, I present my views how Doctor Who deals with Classic companions returning in the new series:

My presentation looks at the ways that Classic Who companions have been addressed in the revival. By bringing in Classic companions, Who gives us an opportunity to reevaluate and examine how aging female characters are represented and treated by the ongoing narrative in a way that few other shows are capable of due to its longevity. No other shows, except for perhaps soaps operas, would have a similar opportunities to bring back characters from decades ago. My argument uses Bauwel’s theories of post-feminist aging in media as a framework to organize my close readings of returning companions.

Disclaimer: Necessary Doctor Who disclaimer - I am looking solely at Classic companions returning to New Who (so no Jo in Sarah Jane Adventures) and therefore also ignoring the most recent development on the technicality that she is a New Who companion returning within the show and the inclusion of Donna in the 60th specials. I also recognize that there have been many male companions on the show and my examination is gendered solely on the concept of what the ‘female companion’ entails and not necessarily the concept of companion in total. The show seems to support this by having very few to no male companions returning over the years.

Companion Background

Female companions have a long and storied history on the show and I've discussed in other projects the variety of character types and roles they've fulfilled across the show’s expansive history. Still, the idea persists that these women were simply on the program to play dumb and look pretty. 80s producer Jonathan Nathan Turner infamously referred to Nicola Bryant’s character Peri as someone who will, “often be wearing lots of leotards and bikinis. A lot of dads watch Doctor Who and I'm sure they will like Nicola.” This has translated into many fans referring to attractive female companions as “for the dads,” attractive eye candy to complement the family-oriented sci-fi.

New Who complicated this idea by filling in the blanks of the companion’s personal life - adding overt layers of emotionality to the companion’s story that get narratively fulfilled by the end of their tenure with the Doctor. These additions have their own pros and cons in regards to gender representation, but they do highlight a new approach to the concept of what a companion can be.

However, in order to stay ‘relevant,’ these companions are still a majority of young women - aside from some specific stunt casting - and without the inclusion of previous companions, older women would’ve remained invisible. The inclusion of older companions with newer, younger companions opened up discourses around the role and expectations of what being a companion means.

Bauwel’s Framework

In her article, "Invisible Golden Girls?," Sofie Van Bauwel talks about three distinct categories in her examination of post-feminist depictions of female aging. She examines post-feminist discourses on feminism through the tropes of masking aging, losing femininity, and the implied wisdom of aging. Women are not allowed to appear old, are not allowed to lose the femininity of their fertility, or have the ‘naivety’ of youth. She cites, “ageing women are depicted as dependent, in decline, silly, and not attractive.” However, this is set in contrast to women who push off aging through healthcare regimes and not settling down to becomes wives and mothers. Younger women are seen to articulate fears and anxieties about growing older: lying about their age, worrying about their attractiveness, refusing to become mothers and therefore irrelevant to society. Since older women aren’t given the status of main characters on screen, these are the only narratives established about them.

Sarah Jane Smith & Melanie Bush

Sarah Jane Smith was the first companion from the Classic series to return to New Who, in the 10th Doctor’s first season. A fan-favorite companion of the 3rd and 4th Doctor in the 70s, she was modeled after a modern ‘woman’s liberation’ character, a journalist and independent spirit. In the revival, she is depicted as continuing to solve mysteries and get into the danger without the Doctor’s protection. Her age is continually contextualized and remarked upon for humor throughout the episode School Reunion, as her introduction to the then-current companion Rose resulted in a kind of romantic jealously that recontextualized her previous relationship with the Doctor. When Sarah meets the Doctor she says, “You can tell you're getting older. Your assistants are getting younger.” Her arc in the episode is about how the Doctor has moved on past her - evoking the disposability of older women. Her continued appearances in the show led to a spinoff kids show Sarah Jane Adventures, where she became a mother and mother figure to a group of preteens.

Melanie Bush more appeared more recently as a featured character in the 2023 episode, “The Giggle,” (again, hilariously, greeted by David Tennant) as working for the militaristic UNIT. A companion of the Sixth and Seventh Doctor’s in the 80s, Mel was portrayed as a peppy, exercise-obsessed computer programmer who, due to narrative of her first season, had no backstory or reasoning for being on the TARDIS. In New Who, Mel is a technical expert who helps UNIT’s alien taskforce and is portrayed as much ‘calmer’ (according to the actress) and, cool (she rides a vespa), and much more comfortable in positions of power. In later episodes she joins the doctor and his companion, Ruby, out on multiple adventures, at one point entirely trading with Ruby. She is seen as an important B character, grounding the Doctor in his adventures concerning Earth. In the series finale, “Empire of Death,” she, the Doctor, and Ruby are the only people remaining after the destruction of Earth from the ancient god Sutekh (long story) and they hide out on the memory TARDIS, an physical amalgamation of all the previous memories, experiences, and iterations of the craft. Mel is here surrounded with pieces of her Doctors, the Sixth Doctor’s coat and later seen cuddling with the Seventh Doctor’s vest. The Doctor asks her, “We travelled together, didn’t we?” and Mel responds, “Best time of my life.”

Tegan Jovanka & Ace (McShane)

Tegan and Ace appear in the 60th anniversary special, “The Power of the Doctor” (kind of…I have a lot of thoughts about what the actual 60th anniversary special was). They also recruited as UNIT freelancers to fold them into the plot and throughout the episode are sent on various side missions. Both the characters are seen to still have aspects of their characters, they have moved on with their lives and gone on adventures of their own. At the start of the episode Tegan is a traveler in contact with ecologists and seismologists, Ace hangs out at museums and keeps track of paintings. Narratively, it expands what the characters were seen to do on the show itself. Still, Tegan is headstrong and invites herself on to the TARDIS, while Ace performs the more daring daredevil stunt of the two. However, both make multiple comments about the time spent away and Doctor’s continued neglect. Ace says, “this used to be easy,” and Tegan tells then-companion Yaz, “We used to be you, decades back.” Through sci-fi shenanigans they both get to briefly reunite with their Doctors and get some emotional closure on strands of their original story - Tegan with losing fellow companions, Adric, and Ace’s emotional falling out with the Seventh Doctor. Again still, Tegan’s age gets remarked upon when she sees her Doctor. She says, “you sort of look like you used to but not quite,” and the Doctor replies, “I could say the same to you.” While it’s clearly a play on the contentious relationship between the characters and the actors, Tegan is the only corporeal one in that moment - the only one ‘alive’ in a sense - and the Doctor it commenting on her aging.

• Their age is embodied on screen, they are not framed as in decline but still vibrant and capable of action under duress, rare for women of this age in any genre
• Often framed as the Doctor having moved on from them, no longer “viable” for Doctor Who the show, but relevant for potential spinoff validity. They’re best days are behind them because their best days are when they were young and with the Doctor.
• You could read it as though they are forgiven for their age for reasons of nostalgia and fan service which is overwhelmingly dominant in their stories, would not be acceptable to have this many older women under other circumstances
• While still limited in terms of representation, the sheer number of older female companions is itself of note. Through Classic Who’s focus on young female companions, New Who is now full of older women all at different stages of life with different strengths and personalities. Checkmate.

As an addition, in Power of the Doctor, there is a ‘companion support group’ scene featuring characters across the spectrum of the show coming together to talk about their adventures, including the oldest living companion at the time, William Russell. This scene sets up the idea that many companions from the classic series have the potential to return in the future as they have continued lives outside the TARDIS. The possibilities for returning companions opens up multiple discourses on how the narrative navigates female aging on screen.