LogFAQs > #929665549

Needless to say, there will be spoilers in this thread. Don't read if you're planning to watch Modern Who any time soon.

Let's compile a list:

Rose Tyler: sucked into an alternate dimension against her will. Eventually given a happy ending, with a half-human clone from the Doctor's severed hand.

Martha: left of her own volition, joined UNIT. Ended up getting married to Mickey.

Donna: Brain wiped against her will. Eventually finds a niche in real life and gets married, but she loses the best year of her life and can never remember it.

At least these three had some semblance of a happy ending eventually, but 2/3rds of them still suffered some traumatic event as a result of their stay on the TARDIS.

Amy: killed by a Weeping Angel. Has her baby melt into goo in her hands because the real one was stolen to be trained into an assassin.

Rory: killed by a Weeping Angel. Turns into an Auton after dying 4 times in a row and getting deleted from reality.

Clara: gets killed by her own stupidity, the Doctor makes a hard heel turn to get her back against her wishes.

Bill: gets turned into a Mondasian Cyberman, with a brief "my body is dead by my soul is free" moment at the end of her penultimate episode.

Nardole: Has a heroic moment after being mistreated for an entire season.

See, all these companions have these big, grand exits that involve the very core of their being getting changed through some great trauma. Nardole probably had the least traumatic exit, and even then he got this overblown heroic send-off at the end of his run. It's like, why can't things just come to an end naturally? Why do Doctor Who companions have to like barely survive being shot into a nearby star, or end up getting completely fucked up to "properly send them off", when the older companions could basically just be dropped off somewhere to live their own lives at the end?

I get that it's due to this unspoken rule of drama, but considering that the older series had casual enough departures, it would be nice to see Modern Who take a page out of their book and just have another companion hop off the TARDIS at some point. Martha hopped off because she wasn't vibing with the Doctor, and she ended up being one of the better recurring characters.

I hope when Yaz, Ryan and Graham eventually step away, they have some say in the matter and it's not because "travelling with the Doctor is dangerous, ooh spooky! you could fall into a black hole or make a heroic sacrifice to justify your life at the end!" Just have one of them decide they've had their fill, or have them find happiness beyond their wildest dreams off-world and decide to stay to pursue that. At this point, forcing them down the same "epic dramatic conclusion" path is like making a link of Doctor Who sausages - it looks and tastes just like the last one, it's the same runoff bits getting jammed into the same casing.

And to end off, there are the more casual TARDIS crew:

Jack Harkness: lives to be 2 billion years old because the Doctor removes him from time and he couldn't die. Spends his last billion years and a half as a giant floating head.

Adam: I think his name's Adam? He gets a brain modification on a space station so the Doctor boots him off back at home.

River Song: doesn't leave the TARDIS to die, because her death was fortold in earlier seasons. She still spends a lot of her screentime having Important Doctory Stuff happening to her, but W/E.

I'd rather see more shit like Adam, frankly. Just boot someone off the TARDIS, or let them leave casually. At least for once, don't make a massive fucking event out of it.
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And I am done with my graceless heart, so tonight I'm gonna cut it out and then restart
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