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Leela

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« on: January 29, 2012, 03:41:27 pm »


Leela was a warrior of the savage Sevateem, a tribe of regressed humans. She joined the Fourth Doctor on his travels, and with him fought for good causes. She knew little of technology and was continually amazed by her surroundings and the tasks she faced. Leele never lost her primitive edge and remained quick to take up arms throughout her time with the Doctor.

She left the Doctor after she fell in love with Andred, a member of the Chancellery Guard on Gallifrey, choosing to remain there to live with him. K9 chose to stay with her as well.

Leela was primitive, yet also very smart. Despite the Doctor's efforts to "civilise" and educate her, she kept her savage ways. She translated advanced ideas into terms she could understand. She usually dressed in animal skins and was armed with her knife and Janis thorns, which she did not hesitate to use, despite the Doctor's disapproval. Leela ranks as one of the most violent companions, regularly threatening or using deadly force against other humanoids. Although other companions have killed, Leela remains the only TV companion to be shown killing on a frequent basis.

Leela was first conceived by producer Philip Hinchcliffe and script editor Robert Holmes. They wanted someone in the mould of Eliza Doolittle in George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion: a bright but unsophisticated primitive who would learn from the Doctor. Writer Chris Boucher had submitted a story proposal entitled "The Mentor Conspiracy" which featured a character named Leela which fit Hinchcliffe and Holmes's ideas.

Although The Mentor Conspiracy was not produced, Boucher reused the character of Leela for The Day God Went Mad (later renamed The Face of Evil), seeing her as a mixture of Emma Peel from The Avengers and Leila Khaled. Boucher was asked to write two endings to the story, one where Leela left with the Doctor and one where she stayed behind. The decision to have Leela become a companion was made soon after.

Initially, Leela was to have only appeared in three stories. It was later decided that she would stay for all of Season 15. One consequence of this decision was a plot contrivance being added to Horror of Fang Rock to allow the character's eye colour to change, so that actress Louise Jameson would no longer have to wear uncomfortable coloured contact lenses.
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« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2012, 03:21:50 pm »

Ok, so this was my first Leela experience. I. LOVE. HER!!!!!

In my mind I always had this really savage view of her. I have read some stuff about her which didn't always paint her in the most sane light and so I think I just expected her to be some busty knife wielding maniac who shouts a lot, but I was so pleasently surprised. Within one story she soared up towards my 'favourite companions' group and now I can't wait to see more of her.

I realise this is one of her later stories (penultimate I think), so what I really liked is that by this point she still hadn't become entirely comfortable and knowledgeable about the world around her. There are instances with other companions where they came in with a great back story and then it was forgotten and they quickly became part of the mould, which with the bits I know about Leela's past, I was expecting to see again here, but she still had this awesome niavete about her which works really well. You get the impression that she is  very intellegent for her time or perhaps amongst her people, but she is still learning and trying to keep up with the Doctor and the new people she surrounds herself with. I also liked how she broke things down into terms she could understand. There was a point when the Doctor was talking about the 'molten core at the heart of the planet' and she just called it the 'fire in the middle'. Such an easy line to overlook, but it really stood out to me as totally brilliant for the character.

Another thing I really liked is that she seems to have a very dry sense of humour, which I think goes hand in hand with her pride. There is a quote (which I put in the quotes thread) where she is nodding and agreeing through a conversation between the Doctor and K9 and she blatently has no idea what they are talking about, but she saw an opportunity for a one liner and it came off really funny, but also allowed her to at least try and put accross that she was keeping up with what they were talking about, but the actress played it in such a good way that you weren't totally sure if she even realised how funny it was. I like that. She had lots of very dry comic moments throughout the story. Another which made me laugh was when the Trog boy asked if he could travel with them, and without even thinking she just flat out said no to him. Not in a malicious way, but as though it was the most absurd thing she had ever heard. It really made me laugh.

The things about her that I thought would be all wrong, were the things I ended up liking the most. She was brash and quick to run in and wasn't polished, and I thought it would make her annoying, but instead I think it made the character better and more interesting

So yea, I could go on about her for ages. One story in and I love her. I can't wait to watch her in more and I am firmly at the front of the 'Bring Leela Back' brigade.
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« Reply #2 on: January 31, 2012, 04:31:36 pm »

Leela is a great character and is particularly good in this story. TC has pretty much picked out all her good points so I won't go on too much, but I've always liked her and as a character I think she deserves a lot more popularity and recognition than she gets.
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« Reply #3 on: February 01, 2012, 02:18:30 am »

I think Leela is absolutely spot on about 95% of the time. In this story I thought she was particularly strong, though that may just seem to stand out more given that I find the bulk of the story to be really weak. Credit to Louise Jameson though who always played her absolutely brilliantly the entire time. The only thing that ever let the character down was a few bits of dodgy writing.
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« Reply #4 on: February 01, 2012, 05:58:10 pm »

It's definately nice to see lots of positivity towards Leela in here. I know she isn't an unpopular character, but she is often overlooked. She got sandwhiched between Sarah Jane and Romana so I suppose it's hardly surprising. She was a great companion though. A real departure from what we had had before, or since for that matter. I always enjoy watching her in the stories, especially if it's a bit of a boring one because she always brings some good one liners or funny obliviousness.
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« Reply #5 on: February 01, 2012, 06:04:30 pm »

Leela's my favourite companion, and not because of her costume.  Well, not just because it.  Well...

I'd say Louise was one of the best actors to have played a companion, and it really shows in the depth and breadth of a character that was an enormous departure from the norm.  I remember her saying at the time that the two main models she used for the characterisation were a child and a dog, and I can definitely see that in Leela.  In a way, although she's one of the least educated of the companions, she's one of the most intelligent, because she's always asking why and trying to improve herself.  She's still the only companion to insist on (and get) a genuine answer to the TARDIS being bigger on the inside - even though she thinks it's silly.
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« Reply #6 on: February 02, 2012, 01:46:42 am »

Leela is great, but I think at times the writers forced bits of anger or violence in because they felt they should and in some instances I think it sort of jarred with the scene. Still though, a great character and one I would love to see in the show again. They could do far worse than bringing her back, or even using her as a sort of template to give us a change to the type of companion we get these days.
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« Reply #7 on: February 02, 2012, 06:16:18 pm »

Leela was, for me, one of the strongest elements to this story. The writers really got her spot on here. Until I watched this story (I watched most of her stories out of order), I was a bit unsure of the character. I liked her, but she didn't stand out for me, but with this story it all seemed to click into place and I liked her a lot more in other stories as a result.
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« Reply #8 on: February 02, 2012, 06:16:42 pm »

Leela was, for me, one of the strongest elements to this story. The writers really got her spot on here. Until I watched this story (I watched most of her stories out of order), I was a bit unsure of the character. I liked her, but she didn't stand out for me, but with this story it all seemed to click into place and I liked her a lot more in other stories as a result.
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« Reply #9 on: February 03, 2012, 05:07:29 pm »

Leela isn't one of my favourites but I did like her a lot in this. She got better for as time went on and it's a shame the writers really started to find her towards the end of her run. She isn't an unlikeable character by any means, but in her earlier stories she just felt a bit all over the place.
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« Reply #10 on: February 04, 2012, 07:35:44 pm »

One of the things I like about this story is the rapport between Leela and the Doctor. In many of the earlier stories I often get the feeling like the Doctor doesn't particularly want her around. Or maybe its that Tom doesn't want Louise around. Either way, it often felt a bit awkward.
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