Low-hanging fruit would be calling this entry "Doctor? Doctor who?"

I finally figured out one of the things that was bothering me about the new series of Doctor Who.

I think I need to start by defending the fact that I've never seen classic Who and wouldn't know the Third Doctor from the Sixth Doctor if he walked up and bit me, but the fact remains that I am now watching the fourth series of new Who as a first-time watcher. It's a television series about an alien called a Time Lord who travels through space (and, clearly, time) in a spaceship that looks like an emergency phone box, landing on planets and rescuing them from unspeakable dangers just in the nick of time. He's always accompanied by someone else, called a companion (and usually a woman), who helps him out and brings a sort of human perspective to the whole mess.

I will also admit here that of the four series so far, I have not watched the first. This is because I cannot stand the actress who plays the first companion, and one series with her (namely series two, because I got started late) was absolutely and positively more than enough. The character's name is Rose, which I tell you because you will hear more about her and I will gladly say from here until forever that she's annoying. She's blonde, skinny, pretty, and in love with The Doctor. (That's the alien's name, by the way.)

Rose is killed--well, sort of--at the end of series two to make way for the next companion, Martha. I liked Martha better, but I noticed as time goes on that Martha had a few things in common with Rose. Namely, she was skinny, pretty, and in love with The Doctor. Okay, sure, she wasn't blonde. She was black. But at the end of the day, she was not really any better than Rose other than being less annoying.

I never really noticed this as I watched the episodes. I suppose, intellectualism aside, I'm a sucker for a good "unrequited love" plot, and what love is less requited than between a twenty-something Londoner and a nine-hundred-something-year-old Time Lord? Rose's personality was more shallow and less fleshed-out than Martha's, and by time I got to Martha, I was seriously sad for her that The Doctor spent the first ten of thirteen episodes all emokid over Rose no longer being able to travel with him and the last three running around, flirting with Jack (remember Jack?), and then in mortal peril. Poor girls, I thought. They really care about The Doctor. The Doctor doesn't really get it. Maybe it's a deep disconnect between humans and Time Lords or something. And this is the impression I carried with me for quite some time, this business of a deep Time Lord/Real Person disconnect.

And then, I met Donna.

I guess Donna, who is the new companion, was in one of the infamous Doctor Who Christmas specials, but I never saw that episode. I met her for the first time in the first episode of series four, when she's essentially sticking her nose in other people's business for a reason that's not revealed until the end of the episode. Donna is played by Catherine Tate, a comedian (which is a little strange for Who), but she's got something the other companions doesn't.

She's not skinny, she's not traditionally pretty, and she's not in love with The Doctor.

Don't get me wrong. I think Catherine Tate, Donna, whatever name you want me to cal her, is gorgeous. She's a redhead! She's actually got a figure! Yes, yes, yes, and please may I have some more? But compared to Rose and Martha, she really just doesn't end up being the pretty little companion-thing that they are. She's not fat, she's not really even overweight, but she has flesh and curves and an actual figure, never mind real life breasts. For the first time, I feel like the companion is an actual human being, not some sort of convenient model in the middle of London who happened to get plucked up for being in the right place at the right time.

But more than this, she's the first companion that I've seen who isn't completely in love with The Doctor. Now, I don't blame the girls for falling for him, not really, but there's still the fact that it's annoying to spend thirteen episodes a series watching some attractive young woman fall over herself trying to get The Doctor to notice her. Donna isn't. And because Donna's not, and this is important, she can hold her own against The Doctor. She stands up to him, she argues his decisions, she comes up with solutions as readily as he does. It's not a one-sided relationship with The Doctor as a time-space travel guide and the companion oooh-ing and aaah-ing over all the wonders of the universe. She still does, but in the end, she also tells him where to go when he deserves it. I don't know about you, but I like that in a woman.

Of course, I do have the slightly secret fear that Donna and The Doctor will end up embroiled in another of the show's fantastic unrequited love plots, but I don't actually think they will. Donna just seems to have more sense than that, and in the way, qualifies as the first really fleshed-out female I've seen on that show. Comparatively, Rose and Martha were archetypes of humans, first the little shop girl who wants to see more than her average life, then the medical student who wants to save people. Great, fantastic, but there was never really anything there. Donna has motivation, Donna has personality, and Donna uses her brain instead of her throbbing, bleeding, angsty heart to function. I can't think of anything else I'd want to watch.

Well, except when Jack inevitably shows up in this series of Who because, quite secretly, he's my favorite companion. Not that we couldn't guess that.