DOCTOR WHO: Is it Time to Have Gwen Cooper Replace the Ponds?

Yes.

There, now you don’t have to read any further if you don’t want.

But for those who want to journey on, allow me to make the brief argument that the best thing that could happen to the WHOverse would be replacing the Ponds on the TARDIS with Gwen Cooper. Now, there are three caveats to make that actually render this move highly unlikely. The first is that TORCHWOOD has apparently been renewed for Season 5; or, at least, according to Australian news (via theoncominghope) that “Jack will be back in 2012,” which means … something. The second is that Karen Gillan and Arthur Darvill are under contract for next season, and even though THE GOD COMPLEX sees them exiting from the TARDIS, the Doctor tells Amy they haven’t seen the last of each other; these two pieces of information seem to lead to the idea that Amy and Rory aren’t going anywhere except tooling around the UK for a bit in Rory’s new Jaguar E-Type. And the third caveat is that neither Moffat nor Davies has shown any real inclination to bridge the two shows in any real, meaningful way; there’s been a few guest shots, and Moffat has mentioned he’d love to use Jack at some point, but for the most part the Doctor and Torchwood have remained separate. I think initially that was a good decision because it allowed Torchwood to carve out its own identity, but after four seasons the show has proven itself to be wildly uneven.

And a bonus fourth caveat – I haven’t watched the latest season but everyone whose opinion I know and trust has said, at best, its been woefully mediocre television, and given the slow ratings decline over the course of the season, I was kinda thinking we’d be more likely not to see Season 5. I haven’t seen anything about the final episode, so for all I know Gwen’s atoms were disassembled and turned into a hundred Cybermats.

Darwin, who treats the closing theme music of DOCTOR WHO and BUFFY as a Pavlovian Bell signifying it's time to go outside.

All of that is to tell you that, yes, I realize adding Gwen Cooper to the TARDIS and removing Amy and Rory is less likely than my dog Darwin deciding he suddenly has no interest in rabbits, salami, and cheese.

Because, you see, he likes rabbits, salami, and cheese, though I only let him eat the latter two.

As an academic exercise, then, adding Gwen Cooper to the TARDIS would solve a lot of the problems with the Ponds that we’ve seen this season. Amy and Rory are fine characters and last season they were great Companions, but this season they’ve been far less entertaining. Now, this is a TV show, of course, so the problems have less to do with any inherent flaws in the characters as much as it does with the writers seemingly not knowing what to do with them. We found out near mid-season that the Amy we’d been watching all season wasn’t Amy at all, but a Ganger, made of Flesh, while the real Amy was jailed away in a white room preparing to give birth to Melody/River.

After a nice start in THE IMPOSSIBLE ASTRONAUT and DAY OF THE MOON, the Ponds have mostly been underutilized this season. One of the “problems” with this particular married couple is that the Doctor is always there between them, thanks to the childhood Amy spent waiting for him to come back, and even convincing herself the “Raggedy Doctor” wasn’t actually real, at all, but a figment of her imagination. So desperate are they to reinforce their love to the other that every time either of them gets in the least bit of trouble, the other starts freaking out.

They’ve each had their moments this season (Rory’s had more of them), but they seem to be devolving as Companions, always complaining about where they end up or seemingly engaging the adventures in a half-hearted manner. Their collective low point for the season came a couple weeks back in NIGHT TERRORS, where both of them looked completely disinterested in being part of this adventure. Never mind that they were there to help a kid, Amy and Rory came off as the idiot couple you want to see get whacked first in a slasher film because they look selfish assh*les, and a chore to have to watch.

Now, if we want to make excuses for NIGHT TERRORS we can do it, because it was an episode originally meant to air in the first half of the season – meaning not only was this Amy her Flesh doppleganger, but before we knew, for sure, that Amy was pregnant. In this light, maybe TERRORS was designed to show that Rory and Amy were anything but ready to have a child. If that’s the case, then writer Mark Gatiss deserves credit for properly depicting that idea. Ultimately, however, the show didn’t air in the first half of the season, but the second half and in that light Rory and Amy look less like a young married couple not ready to have a child and more like selfish, disinterested travelers.

I welcome all sorts of Companions to the TARDIS except those that don’t want to be there and act like they’d rather be doing something else.

After NIGHT TERRORS we had THE GIRL WHO WAITED, where we got a really interesting Amy – unfortunately, it was an Amy from 36 years in the future and she had to die so we could get “our” Amy back. Double unfortunately, as I explained in my review, the thing that I most wanted to see – the transformation of Young Amy into Old Amy – was kept hidden from us in order to give us the SHOCK! moment of seeing an older Amy Pond. That we lose the more experienced, interesting Amy could have been a great turning point for our Amy, but she has little contact with her older self – certainly not as much contact as Rory has with her, but Rory’s primary concern isn’t seeing Amy become capable of sword fighting, reprogramming robots, and building a sonic screwdriver.

WAITED should have been Rory’s time to shine as he fought and struggled to save two versions of his wife, but instead of the producers taking advantage of this story to show us what Rory can do, it emasculated him all over again; he’s struggled to find equal footing in the TARDIS with his Amy, and then they give him Super Amy to knock him right back down the ladder. There’s few things worse to watch in long-form storytelling than to see a character have large chunks of his growth taken away from him.

In this week’s THE GOD COMPLEX, Rory and Amy are nearly completely useless to the plot until Amy gets used as the focal point for defeating the minotaur. While the mystery is being solved, however, they’re more like passengers than Companions. Shouldn’t they have a more active role by now? I like how Amy tries to comfort Gibbis but it just feels like a disconnected moment and not something we would expect her to do. Remember when Russell T. Davies would build in working girls for Rose to play off of because she was a working girl, too? Given that Amy grew up without her parents thanks to the crack in her wall, and then lost her child when Melody was taken away from her, it would be an incredibly simple thing to give Amy people who are dealing with the loss of a loved one, or young kids who are struggling to find their own way in the world in which to interact. Same thing with Rory – he’s a compassionate dude, so the writers should be giving him people to bring out his nurturing side, like they did in THE REBEL FLESH. I’m not saying you do this every week, but if you give them characters to help bring out different aspects of their personality, then they grow as characters and become more well-rounded in the eyes of the audience.

What GOD COMPLEX revealed most of all, though, was that the Eleventh Doctor needs a Companion to challenge him, not worship him. Rita, the Woman Who Would Be Martha Jones, was an intelligent, insightful, inquisitive, open-minded, upbeat character. So, of course, just like Older Amy, she had to die.

The lesson was learned, however. (Or reinforced, if we consider the lovely interplay between the Doctor and Idris back in THE DOCTOR’S WIFE.) Even Smith seemed decidedly enthused in his performance regarding his interactions with Rita, and if the proof in that pudding (or custard, as it were), then let’s give the Doctor someone who doesn’t need him the way Amy needs him. After the doe-eyed Rose we got the independent Martha, so after the worshiping Amy, let’s hope we get someone a bit older, a bit more willing and able to stand up to the Doctor.

River is an obvious option, of course, and since Alex Kingston and Matt Smith have such great chemistry, I wouldn’t mind seeing River come aboard to replace her parents, but I think it’s important to advance the story forward, too, and I’m not sure River can do that. I feel like River has served the show well and that she works best when she’s playfully getting between the Doctor and his Companion.

If TORCHWOOD were to be cancelled, however, I can’t think of a Companion-type who could come in and help put the show back on the tracks more than Gwen Cooper. While it might seem like I’m asking the show to go backwards and grab an established character, there’s been so little interaction between Gwen and the Doctor that we’d get the benefit of having an established character that can stand up for herself, as well as a new relationship to explore. Gwen would make a fascinating Companion because she’s used to weird things happening and she’s used to the Torchwood way of doing things; I want to see a character who’s proactive, who’s smart, who can make her own decision, and who’ll call the Doctor on his bullsh*t.

The first time the Doctor hits her with “Rule Number One: The Doctor lies,” Gwen’s going to get in his face and tell him to knock that sh*t off.

Gwen’s also a problem solver, so we won’t get any more of Amy and Rory complaining that they didn’t end up at a vacation spot. (Of course, I’d love to see a Doctor-Lite episode with them at a vacation spot and having to solve some problem on their own, without the Doctor’s help, but this isn’t why they’re complaining.) It would be a nice twist to see the TARDIS actually land at a vacation spot with nothing apparently wrong and Gwen itching to find something to fix.

I’d give Rhys something to do on Earth to serve the season-long arc, stepping into the TARDIS from time-to-time to have an adventure when he’s got information for the Doctor to take advantage of another great character. Rhys helps keep everything grounded and so it would be nice to see him used in the TARDIS when the Doctor and Gwen have perhaps gone too far afield.

Really, though, when I say I want Gwen Cooper in the TARDIS, I don’t mean “Gwen Cooper” as much as I mean a “Gwen Cooper” or “Martha Jones” or “Romana” type that can both play the Companion and stand up for herself. We’ve got three glimpses of a new character that fits this bill this season – in Rita, in Mels, and in Idris – and each time they get taken away from us.

I wish one of them would stick around. The Doctor needs a Companion, not a Congregation.

Alternatively, I just wish that Amy and Rory were given a story arc that could push those characters forward. Rory has proven he’s willing to challenge the Doctor, but every time he does the show caps his knees and knocks him back down. Let’s come up with a story line that can push these characters to evolve. Or let’s bring in someone else; it’s time for the Doctor to hang out with a woman again, not a starry-eyed girl.