“Tout nous échappe sans cesse, même les êtres qu’on aime. Mais reste la certitude que certains moments ont été ce qu’on appelle le bonheur.”

~ Laurence Tardieu

Sneaking on at work = no time for fact checking DON’T JUDGE MEEEE 

taotu:

wolfperson1:

Ramble on: marielikestodraw: jeyradan: I’m not biased. Really, I’m not. Well,…

taotu:

marielikestodraw:

jeyradan:

I’m not biased.  Really, I’m not.  Well, okay, I probably am, but just hang on for a minute.

Remember Doctor Who, that crazy, black-and-white science-fiction epic we watched without understanding it at all when we were kids?

Where anyone could be a companion?  You could be a man or a woman or a girl or a boy; you could be human or alien or Timelord; you could be from the past or the present or the future; you could be an orphan or a soldier or a metal dog or a shape-shifting android, for all the Doctor cared.  That was the whole point.  You never knew.  It could be anyone.

It could be you.

Nowadays, it could still be you.  As long as you tick off at least three of the boxes in the “young, white, conventionally-pretty female from modern England” category.

Hey, Doctor.  Remember these two?

Those guys were the most badass not-companions you’ve had since the reboot.  That’s right, a middle-aged dude from the nineteenth century and his ass-kicking, awesome-being non-white friend.  Awesome.

All I’m saying here is, let’s have some representation.  Hell, let’s have some imagination.  Where are my Asian companions?  My alien companions?  My companions with disabilities?

We are so ready to step outside the box, Doctor Who.  Why don’t you join us?

After all, that’s what you’re all about.

*slow clap*

Not saying that Doctor Who wouldn’t (EDIT: Typo fix’d) be well-served by bringing a more diverse group of actors/actresses and character backstories into the mix, but: Martha wasn’t white, Donna was neither young (okay, it depends on your definition of ‘young’, but I don’t count 40+ as young) nor conventionally pretty, Jack wasn’t young or from modern-day England, Rory is certainly not conventionally pretty - is there a long way to go? Hell yes. But I’m not judging the casting choice for the new companion until I see her in action

(And hey, we’ve only seen her cast, not in costume. We can still hope for an alien companion!)

Sorry, Tao, but I’m going to do some math here. to prove the point on this one.

I got all of this data from wikipedia, so apologies for any inaccuracies.

Here are the companions from the reboot onwards:

Rose: (White, Female, Young, 35 episodes)

Jack: (White, Male, Young, 11 episodes)

Mickey: (POC, Male, Young, 10 episodes)

Donna: (White, Female, Not Young, 16 episodes)

Martha: (POC, Female, Young, 19 episodes)

Sarah Jane Smith: (White, Female, Not Young, 4 episodes)

Wilfred Mott: (White, Male, Not Young, 8 Episodes)

Amy: (White, Female, Young, 29 episodes)

Rory: (White, Male, Young, 23 episodes)

River: (White, Female, Young, 10 episodes)

Before I go into the math, a few things:

1. I’m counting Sarah Jane as “Not Young” even though she was young when introduced to the show
2. I’ve left out anyone who made less than 4 appearances and I’m counting all appearances, not just those as a companion (I think… this is based on the wiki data)
3. I’m counting River as Young. She’s not super young, but she’s getting younger by the minute
4. Percentage is calculated by dividing the number of episodes that companions matching certain characteristics were in by the total number of episodes that all companions were in. Note, to get this last number, I added up all of the episode counts listed above. Yes, companions overlap, but I want to count appearances separate from each other.
5. Note that not all numbers add up. I’m rounding to the nearest hundredth of a percent.

Now, on to the math:

Percent of appearances by a white companion: 82.42%

Percent of appearances by a female companion: 79.57%

Percent of appearances by a young companion: 83.03%

Percent of appearances by a young, female companion: 56.36%

Percent of appearances by a young, white companion: 76.06%

Percent of appearances by a young, white, female companion: 44.85%

Percent of appearances by a POC Female companion: 11.52%

Percent of appearances by a POC Male companion: 6.06%

Percent total appearances by POC companions: 17.58%

TL,DR: OP has a fair point.

That is some bad-ass math, lady. I am going to set Tom to the task of doing the same math for the original run of the series now, because I am totally curious how it stacks up. Frankly I think this reboot is failing more than in any other way in terms of diversity of origin stories.

I’m not denying they’ve got a fair point. They do. Thus me saying “they’ve got a long way to go”. ESPECIALLY regarding the race of the actors hired. Also I was considering age of the actor hired more than the character, when counting River and Jack into the elder group. Sorry, Alex Kingston and John Barrowman, no offense. I’m not even sure how old your characters are supposed to be, in truth.

HOW DID I FORGET WILF. D8

Frankly, even though men are over-represented in general, the Doctor could use some more men tagging along on his adventures too. Particularly men with personalities that aren’t 80% about the person they’re in love with, which would eliminate Rory and Mickey entirely. Sorry, Rory/Mickey fans, but IMHO that never works as a primary character trait whether the character is male or female. Hell, the only male companion since the reboot who was traveling without a female companion in tow was Wilf, I think? (Wait is this just a thinly veiled attempt at requesting a male Asian companion from outer space- NEVER YOU MIND.)

My initial reaction to the new casting was “well, that’s not a very interesting choice”, but we’ll see how she works out/how interesting or unique they make her character (seriously, alien companion, PLEASE).

When I decided to respond to that post, mostly I was distressed by them pointing out the non-white companion of “The Doctor” in the Christmas special as if the Doctor hadn’t had a companion who was a POC. Because everybody always forgets Martha. And Martha deserves love. (Everybody also forgets Mickey, but I reeeeeeeally didn’t like Mickey so I am not jumping on any high horses for his sake)

EDIT: Fixed typo, tried to make it clear my original post and the post I reblogged it from are different posts, don’t know how they got all mushed.

(Plus there’s the treatment of them depending on who they are…)

bandofbrothels:

We were inspired by the brilliant French!jazz Doctor Who theme cover made by the brilliant Bill Bailey. We were also inspired by Jean Dujardin losing control over his own eyebrows. Now we’re glad to present you

Docteur Qui: the TV show that never was.

Episode 1. In which Le Docteur goes to Cairo, speaks fluent Camel, explains who really built the pyramids, claims that James Bond is a real person…

…and, most importantly, meets his companion.

NO

NO

LAUGHING AND CRYING

Tssk. She’s the Doctor and he’s her companion. And if he doesn’t learn properly he’ll get eaten by mutated chickens that will then be deemed Islamists by the French press.

lisavillella:

february 5/ valentine’s countdown

10) Eleventh Doctor and River Song. Hello, Sweetie.

areyoumarriedriver:

The Brilliant book 2012

superdupertimemachine:

The Impossible Planet/The Satan Pit requested by libertinium and peacemilly

hardcore-wolfspirit:

spoilers…

i have serious mixed feelings about her. pretty sure it’s mostly all jealousy.

also FUCK the eyepatch is on the wrong side sorry people

transpar-nt:

sh00shandpap:

ohmyfuck can we just take a moment to appreciate matt smith’s incredible acting skills- i mean just look at how he smiles, but then simultaneously tries to fight back the surge of emotions he’s feeling regarding river’s death because he feels like it is his fault because it’s ALWAYS his fault and he hates it so much and he hates that he knows about what’s going to happen to her and he can’t tell her and it just tears him up inside because he loves her so fucking much and yet he can’t do anything because he has to protect the order of time and UUUGHGKJABSFJKSBAJKFASF

ACTING? you mean Doctor Who is not a reality tv show? this is like the time i found out santa claus isn’t real.

it’s not the face but the expressions on it
it’s not the voice but what you say
it’s not how you look in that body but the things you do with it
you’re beautiful