Okay, I think I figured out what is bothering me about this season of
Doctor Who. This may contain spoilers up to and including the episode "Time Heist," so if you're not caught up, you might want to stop reading. Fair warning.
One of the things that bothered me about the Amy Pond years was the fact that she wasn't really the Doctor's companion during a lot of it. She was this girl he would go pick up from time to time to go on an adventure and then he'd drop her back off on Earth and go do...who knows what. Couple this with the lack of investment in each other as characters and I found myself wondering why he kept going back for her specifically to go on adventures with him. It's like taking your weird Uncle Reginald with you when you go skydiving. Sure, you might have fun, but why not take your fun Aunt Charlene instead?
Now, when Clara joined the show (and the Doctor was still Matt Smith) there was better chemistry, so it made a little more sense to me that he would keep going back for her. And now, with Peter Capaldi, the chemistry is fun and odd and you get the idea he goes back for her for familiarity sake as much as anything else. But he pulls that off, effectively, if it was his choice to go that way with it. So it still irks me that he has to pick her up at the start of every episode and then drop her off at home again at the end, but I can deal with it. I know why he goes back for her.
But now we've introduced a boyfriend for Clara. Granted, the season still has a ways to go, so the boyfriend could turn out to be of importance later. But where the season stands now, the boyfriend pisses me off. Not the actor, not the character - he's really kind of cute and endearing. Not as much as Rory, but he seems like a decent guy. But the fact that the show runners felt it necessary to include a boyfriend for Clara pissed me off, initially because I wanted to yell at them that we, the audience, would watch the show even if there wasn't any romantic tension on it. Remember series 4? With Donna? And they were just best friends? And how amazing that was? Yeah, we'll still watch if there are no sex scenes. So why are they dedicating so much time to showing Clara's life on Earth? This is supposed to be a show about a time traveling alien and his amazing adventures with his friends. Why do we care if Clara is getting some?
And then today, it hit me. As I was watching "Time Heist," it hit me. At the beginning of the episode, when the Doctor is picking Clara up, he's trying to entice her to go with him to amazing places to see amazing things and she doesn't want to go because she has a date.
What?
Do you know how many millions of men and women all over the world would forego going on a date in a heartbeat if the Doctor offered them a chance to go traveling in the TARDIS? I would! I would forego a date with Tom Hiddleston to travel with the Doctor. I'd forego a date with Moby to travel with the Doctor. I'd forego a date with David Tennant to go traveling with the Doctor (unless the Doctor looked like David Tennant, in which case I'd go on a date thought time and space with my David Tennant Doctor). Again, going back to Donna, if there is one thing we learned from Donna, it is that when the Doctor invites you to go along, you go! Now! Without hesitation. Drop everything, jump in that ship, and take off to see things you would never otherwise get to see. How often does a madman in a box offer you the chance to see the whole of creation? And who would pass that up in favor of going on a date?
Okay, sure, there probably are those who would because the person they're going on the date with is THE ONE and they don't want to pass up that once-in-a-lifetime opportunity either. But if it was me, if I was the Doctor, and I invited someone to go with me who chose not to go in favor of staying on Earth in the hopes of getting a goodnight kiss from some other person, I'd find someone else to invite and never go back for that first person again.
Now, that's if this was real life. In the context of a television show, this is telling us that Clara only travelled with the Doctor because she thought he was cute when he was Matt Smith. And now that he's Peter Capaldi, she's not so keen on it. She's a woman who would rather have a romantic relationship than all of the adventures in the multiverse. What is this telling young women who watch the show? That travel is only fun if you're with someone you're attracted to? That relationships are only worth pursuing and/or maintaining if there's the chance of schmecking? I have very much enjoyed the character of Clara Oswald so far. She brought out things in Matt Smith as an actor that I didn't think he could do. She kept up with the Doctor and was never a wilting flower sort. She didn't get all moony over him as Matt Smith, even if she was supposed to think he was hot. Their flirtation was more subtle. A flirtation between equals. But now that the Doctor has said he's not her boyfriend and he's not going to flirt with her, she loses interest in all the other amazing things a relationship with the Doctor provides? Going on adventures with him has to fit in between teaching classes and going on dates? Since when did traveling with the Doctor get relegated to chore status, right below doing laundry but just above scrubbing the toilet?
I really hope I get to be the Doctor someday. I will have friend who travel with me through time and space and our friendships will be magical and completely platonic. My companions and I will recognize the amazing things we have to offer one another, and the relationships don't have to be muddied with all of that "will they/won't they?" nonsense. We won't. But our adventures will be...
Fantastic.