Even someone from a more recent era could be interesting – and do double duty by reminding viewers not all changes in all areas have been that rapid.
There’s that van Gogh episode I loved, where the Doctor briefly takes Vincent to the present day so he can see his paintings will be appreciated and honoured in due course. They played it well – he’s a bit distracted by the automobiles outside the museum, but once inside he’s completely focused on the art on the walls and what people have to say about them.
They did a nice job with his costuming, too. It’s always a bit shocking how little men’s clothing has changed since the advent of mechanisation. Nobody’s looking at him twice.
Someone like Leopold from the film Kate and Leopold would work well. He knows what electricity is and knows the inventions from his era will change the world, and there’s been enough early feminism in his time that women wearing slacks won’t freak him out (or make her a she and she could say she wants to explore Rational Dress). Electronics wouldn’t be so hard to explain at a high level.
A point of conflict could be they always want to see Earth times future to their own era, never the past. The Doctor could take them to meet Leeuwenhoek or somebody, which could lead to a nice meditation on the path of progress.
The BBC has enough Edwardian, Tudor, Elizabethan, and Victorian era costumes in their wardrobes that DW could have a new companion from any of those eras at a reasonable budget.
I’ve been having to explore this [stet] for the unpublishable novel I’m slowly writing about to start rewriting. The more I look at the 1890s-1900s the more I realise what a “modern” era they were, so long as you were middle or upper class on the East Coast or in Western Europe. And then you get a shock as people die in childbirth or of minor infections.
It was even more recent than that. Four of my mother’s siblings died in childhood. My grandmother was the only one of her family to make it to adulthood. None of my generation in my extended family have died of anything beyond cancer and alcohol-based stupidity.
I was reminded of this comment over the last two days as I watch the “Fury From the Deep” storyline, where Victoria’s screaming literally saves the day in more than one episode and provides the solution for the story’s enemy. *sigh*
Yeah. I blame the writers for that. Sad news about Deborah Watling a couple of weeks ago, of course. But damn, Victoria annoyed me. Zoe kicked ass, though.
I saw the Christmas episode (I sailed the high seas under a black flag to get it) and I must say I am excited about the new Doctor and the way the show will go. Only thing that sucks is I have to wait so damn long to see it!!
I acquired the episode through other means as well, watched last night. A bit of a normal sappy Christmas episode, but not bad.
Relatively minor nitpick, and not related to the newest Doctor, but whoever wrote the episode clearly didn’t bother to get a feel for the first Doctor’s speech patterns at all. The “smacked bottom” threat was the only line that seemed to fit him, but even then it felt a bit like “generic grandpa talk”.
And, if they were going to show the old footage, you’d think that even for a very short time they could have found better stand-ins for Polly and Ben… Polly may have been passable, but Ben looked like they just grabbed the nearest stagehand and slapped a random wig on him.