Is It Time For New Companions?

[Aneurin]

Shamelessly stealing from the Docs blog, what are your thoughts on how long the companions should stick around for, and do you think the current companions should bugger off at the end of the new series?

I like Amy and Rory a lot, but I am ready for someone new now. I wouldnt mind if they stuck around for a couple more episodes into seroes 7 while a new companion is bedded in, but I think change is so important for this show and I think that if they stick around for much longer it will run the risk of becoming too much of a partnership, a la Two and Jamie, where one is automatically considered alongside the other.

What are your thoughts?

[missadric2]

I don't think they should leave at the end of every series I love Amy, absolutely adore her and I can't wait to see her again in this series. I don't there should be a limit at all, a companion should stay as long as they think is good for the show that's my opinion

[Exterminate]

I don't think they need to leave at the end of a series specifically. Like Aneurin says, letting them stay on for a couple of episodes of series 7 would be good. There is no need for it to be so rigid. We could have someone travel for a 5 or 6 episode stint and then leave, or companions that come and go in the middle of series' etc.

I do think that two years these days is about maximum a companion should stay for. The show needs variation and I think so does the Doctor. I think that if a companion stays for too long then people will get too attatched and while thats not a bad thing per se, the ethos of the show has always been about that change and not letting you get too comfortable for long. Change is good and as much as I think Amy and Rory are great, i am ready to see the dynamic that Eleven can have with someone new. They started as a pair but it is important now to take the Doctor out of that confort zone too and see how he responds to a different character in the TARDIS. He is, after all, the only Doctor of the new series to do more than one series with a companion

[Oh-Wise-One]

I think it should be very much like a production line. Wheel em in, ship em out! Leave them too long and all the wonder goes, and I love the wonder of it. Longer stints worked in the classic series, but the attention span of the new Who viewers seems more stunted so a shorter time is better

[Peri-Peri]

I tend to find myself agreeing with Exterminate and OWO on this. In and out is the way to go. And we certainly should start shaking it up by having them come and go mid series as well as at the beginning and end of a series. I would also like to see someone come in for a couple of stories and then decide its not for them, or die or whatever. Like Katarina or Adam. But not like Adam because he was awful.

[Vampyros Adric]

I think there needs to be fluidity in the TARDIS. The Doctor is the constant and the companions change. I think that is one of the real paradoxes about the Doctor - we'd all love to travel with him but one day he might just drop you off and never come back again. That was never really explored in the classic series and is a welcome development in the newer incarnation. I have to say that I don't think a married couple has any real longevity as companions. We don't want to see another man vying with the Doctor for the companions attention.I think Amy and Rory could have both been scene stealers but I think they should have been allowed to fall in love on screen and not have it pre-packaged - that took a lot of the journey out of it for us

I am wholly with Peri-Peri on this, lets bump a couple of them off - lets see how the Doctor deals with that (hasn't happened in Nu-Who and didn't happen all that often in Classic Who). And let us have some of the wonder back for the companion. I love Rory and think he's brilliant but you know that if Amy were to say 'I'm fed up with this, lets settle down and have kids' he'd do it like a shot!

As I have said a couple of times before - I'd actually like to see just Rory and the Doctor. I think MS and AD have a wonderful chemistry and it would be almost like Master and Apprentice relationship with a bit of comic potential.....

Then kill him mid season

[Peri-Peri]

Then kill him mid season

haha brilliant

[missadric2]

Haha!!!! Well if the Doctor did ever pick me up and let me travel with him then I would never want to give that life up but that's more real life scenario if I was an actress playing a companion then I would love to stay with the Doctor for a maximum of two years then I would move onto other things its just trying to find the right balance really. Long enough to understand the character but no so long that they become boring. Rose is really getting on my nerves constantly coming back

[The Doc]

Just to add a different slant, nearly 300 people voted in the poll. Here are the results

8% of the people who voted said they disliked both Amy and Rory and would be glad to have them replaced with someone new to travel with the Doctor.

9% of the people who votes said that they would like to see Amy continue travelling with the Doctor, but would like to see Rory leave.

10% however, felt the complete opposite and said they would like to see Rory stick around to travel with the Doctor, and that Amy should leave.

19% of the people who cast a vote said that they loved the current companions, but are now ready to have some new faces on board the TARDIS instead.

But with an overwhelming number of the votes, 54% of everybody who voted said they wanted to see Amy and Rory continue on for at least one more year beyond series 6.

[Vampyros Adric]

Thats actually quite a high sample number for the poll. And maybe reflects that perhaps the Moff has probably got it right with Rory and Amy! I disagree (I voted to lose Amy and keep Rory) but I guess they're not paying me £250,000 a year to be show runner (more's the pity)

[Aneurin]

Well based on things we learned yesterday, I would be very surprised if we see this pair as full time companions once this series is done

[hannahcole93]

Agreed with Aneurin there, I doubt we'll see much of Amy and Rory beyond this series, although most of it does depend on what happens in the series, but another series with both Amy and Rory is unlikely. Don't get me wrong I do love Amy and Rory they're my favourite companions so far, but there does have to be a cut off point, and by what we saw yesterday there's almost certainly going to be some settling down for them, even the Doctor seemed to think they should settle down too...

Even if we do just see them occasionally again like Martha and Donna and Rose it would be good, but the way I believe Rory's character is he's not comfortable with this whole time travel thing and as soon as Amy tells him that she's [spoiler] pregnant [/spoiler] if she hasn't already then as soon as Amy gives the word he'll be more than happy to settle down.

But I personally would love to see them carry on for at least another year, and that's what I voted for on the poll as I absolutely love Amy's character and I've now definitely developed a soft spot for Rory and it would be so sad to see them go, but things move on.

[chrissymarieb]

Well based on things we learned yesterday, I would be very surprised if we see this pair as full time companions once this series is done

I agree with this.  And here is where I start using spoiler tags
[spoiler] If everything is fine with the pregnancy then Amy and Rory will have an infant and the TARDIS is no place to raise a baby.  On the other hand if something happens and God forbid they lose the baby, they may be too devastated by what has happened to continue on with The Doctor.  So either way, I think this will likely be their last season. [/spoiler]

[Peri-Peri]

Well based on things we learned yesterday, I would be very surprised if we see this pair as full time companions once this series is done

I agree with this.  And here is where I start using spoiler tags
[spoiler] If everything is fine with the pregnancy then Amy and Rory will have an infant and the TARDIS is no place to raise a baby.  On the other hand if something happens and God forbid they lose the baby, they may be too devastated by what has happened to continue on with The Doctor.  So either way, I think this will likely be their last season. [/spoiler]

Yup, I am with you on this. I think either way this will probably be their last series as regulars

[thefifthdoctor]

My blunt response would be "see ya, Pond! Don't let the door hit you on the ass on the way out!"

I've disliked the character since day dot (note to fans - that is not how most Scots behave....except on a Saturday night...maybe) and even though she surprised me with her acting on Saturday there, I'm more than ready for them to leave at any point in this series before they overstay their welcome.

I like Double P's idea to bump someone off - I think it's time to pull an Adric again, none of this false death weepy malarky, give us death by plasticine dinosaur!

[missadric2]

See I LOVE Amy and Rory to bits but I wouldn't mind them leaving at the end of the series I would like to see someone new travel with the Doctor

[RiverandTheDoctor]

I think Amy and Rory are brilliant companions and it'll be sad to see them go, but I wouldn't mind if their time came to an end this season. (With guest appearances in future seasons.)

And I'd really like for River to finally step in as a full time companion in season seven and maybe eight as well. I think she'll be around as long as Moffat is around and most certainly into the era of the Twelfth Doctor, but I think she can be a full time companion and then go back to being a recurring companion at different points in her life, which would completely fit with their timey wimey-ness.

I'd also like to see Jenny come back (which probably won't be for a while, since Georgia just had a baby) after River's time as a full time companion. Perhaps even overlap, so step-daughter Jenny and step-mom River have a chance to meet get into trouble much to The Doctor's dismay. She would also be the perfect companion to help him cope after he drops River off after taking her to the Singing Towers, because that will surely be a devestating day for him.

[DAK]

I love the TARDIS team as it is now - Doctor, Amy, Rory, AND River!  I'd love to see some of the adventures River reads from her diary.  "Jim the Fish"  would be awesome.  LOL 

A lot of people seem to want Jenny to return, but I really hope she's gone for good.  I found her character annoying and the entire concept of her creation ludicrous.  Please, no Jenny!!

[Vampyros Adric]

I would like a companion just to be a companion for a change. Not someone who saves a damaged hero, not someone who is hopelessly in love with him, not a Time Lord/Human Meta crisis, not someone who has ...*spoiler*

Someone like Sarah Jane. Or Jo Grant - is that too much to ask?

[thefifthdoctor]

I would like a companion just to be a companion for a change. Not someone who saves a damaged hero, not someone who is hopelessly in love with him, not a Time Lord/Human Meta crisis, not someone who has ...*spoiler*

Someone like Sarah Jane. Or Jo Grant - is that too much to ask?

YES, YES, YES.
And. No. Flirting.