greatbriton
UNIT Red Shirt
I Go Ding When There is Stuff
Posts: 146
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Post by greatbriton on Apr 25, 2009 6:00:27 GMT
Unless I'm totally blind I didn't see a thread for Ian Chesterton. Though I haven't seen a lot of the Classic Who's, I'm in the second season of Hartnell's now, so I don't know a lot of companions but I find Ian to be extremely brilliant. I think he's a fantastic companion and why nobody has given him a thread yet is beyond me. I just really like his attitude and at the beginning he would stand up to The Doctor. Well, he was kind of kidnapped so that would put a person on edge. But as time went on he and The Doctor have kind of built a respect for each other. Ian stops and problem solves and a lot of times seems to be running the show. I'm loving every minute of Ian's run as one of The Doctor's companions. I'm glad I found a character I can enjoy so much so quickly in Classic Who. What do you guys think of him?
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Post by jjpor on Apr 25, 2009 11:45:35 GMT
Yes, I think he and the Doctor are very much colleagues and equals in a lot of ways; I think it may be partly down to the ealry 60s attitudes - chaps together, solving crises while the womenfolk make the tea (that's unfair actually, because Barbara is awesome too, in her own way). Sexism aside, though, it does give a completely different vibe, the Doctor having a male companion he respects and listens to, and I don't think one they really repeated again; maybe a sign that the show was still finding its feet in the early days, inventing the format as they went along. I do like the way One calls him "Chesterton" all the time; a bit formal maybe, but kind of amusing.
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Post by magnusgreel on Apr 25, 2009 12:15:36 GMT
Yes, I think he and the Doctor are very much colleagues and equals in a lot of ways; I think it may be partly down to the ealry 60s attitudes - chaps together, solving crises while the womenfolk make the tea (that's unfair actually, because Barbara is awesome too, in her own way). Sexism aside, though, it does give a completely different vibe, the Doctor having a male companion he respects and listens to, and I don't think one they really repeated again... You're exactly right I think, and I never had that thought about One/Ian before. However I've said basically the same thing about Four/Harry in season twelve, when the relationship worked and was a bit... if not equal, at least there was a sense of professional colleagues. Sort of. It's not consistent at all of course... it's just a handful of moments I guess. Ian: very "centered", very reasonable, a good man, took charge when necessary without any fuss or chest-thumping or collateral damage. It's easy to take him for granted, but a good character.
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greatbriton
UNIT Red Shirt
I Go Ding When There is Stuff
Posts: 146
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Post by greatbriton on Apr 25, 2009 20:16:09 GMT
I agree the woman are a little in the background, but that's just the times. But I think Barbara is kind of fantastic though. She's pretty strong willed and questions the Doctor quite often.
I would love to see a good male companion for the new Doctor after watching Ian. I love One/Ian's growing respect and friendship. There's a hint of that with Jack in New Who, in my opinion. But its not really delved in to and Jack isn't a long term companion.
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Post by Starflower on Apr 26, 2009 2:34:02 GMT
I disagree on the fact that Women are in the background. In the Romans Barbara and Viki were both a vary large part of that plot. Viki and the Doctor went off to see Nero, Barbara and Ian were kidnapped and sold as slaves. =D In the Daleks they stayed together in one group. Dalek Invasion of Earth Barbara has a good share of action. Susan got dumped on Earth in that ep. =D
A lot of them start out with the Doctor and Ian going in one direction and Barbara and Viki/Susan going in another but by the end of the episode it's Susan/Viki with the Doctor while Ian and Barbara are together.
Ian/Barbara is OTP. ^_^
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Post by clocketpatch on Apr 26, 2009 3:18:22 GMT
In the Aztecs Barbara became a queen.
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greatbriton
UNIT Red Shirt
I Go Ding When There is Stuff
Posts: 146
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Post by greatbriton on Apr 26, 2009 4:03:01 GMT
I disagree on the fact that Women are in the background. In the Romans Barbara and Viki were both a vary large part of that plot. Ian/Barbara is OTP. ^_^ When I posted I had yet to see The Romans. I just watched it earlier today and I do agree with you. But Barbara still doesn't seem to get as much to do or figure out as Ian. She does get a good share of it though. I agree about Ian/Barbara too. I love those two.
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Post by Starflower on Apr 26, 2009 5:03:47 GMT
They get married. =) (and that's canon, not just a fan opinion)
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greatbriton
UNIT Red Shirt
I Go Ding When There is Stuff
Posts: 146
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Post by greatbriton on Apr 26, 2009 5:16:51 GMT
They get married. =) (and that's canon, not just a fan opinion) Awwwwwwww!! Yay!! That makes me happy.
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Post by jjpor on Apr 26, 2009 19:14:18 GMT
They get married. =) (and that's canon, not just a fan opinion) Awwwwwwww!! Yay!! That makes me happy. Yeah - it's a fact! And didn't Ben and Polly too, after Two dropped them off? You can't imagine it happening in today's TARDIS - if two of Ten's companions shacked up with each other, it'd only make him jealous... XD
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Post by Starflower on Apr 28, 2009 0:36:10 GMT
One of the joys of Classic Who. You get these great relationships in the TARDIS, but not over done romance like in NuWho. It's subtle and gets stronger over the time they are there. NuWho it's sort of like:
Oh my gosh! You're really hot! *snog* Oh look, there's the Doctor, I'm going off with him now.
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Post by magnusgreel on Apr 28, 2009 9:38:02 GMT
One of the joys of Classic Who. You get these great relationships in the TARDIS, but not over done romance like in NuWho. It's subtle and gets stronger over the time they are there. NuWho it's sort of like: Oh my gosh! You're really hot! *snog* Oh look, there's the Doctor, I'm going off with him now. Good assessment! I don't think unrequited pining is an interesting state for a character... certainly not to an outside observer. It tends to look the same no matter who's having it. Besides, real closeness is the kind that develops over time. Otherwise it's infatuation, which is in just one party's head, and which can get in the way of actually getting to know the other person. The fantasy image is seen, not the person.
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Post by primsong on Apr 29, 2009 16:07:47 GMT
I love Ian, totally up there among Top Notch Companions Ever - I've seen it noted somewhere that several of One's stories could have been titled "The Amazing Adventures of Ian and Barbara" as so much of it centers on them and how they cope with being thrown through Time and Space with a grandfatherly maniac. It's hard to separate them, they're two sides of a coin - IanBarbara...
One of the things I admire so much about both of them is how level-headed and sensible they can be when needed - all the over-reacting and screaming is left to Susan for the most part. Ian also gets to be the Brawn for the Doctor's Brain, playing "Action Hero Ian" in several instances, which is awesomeness, yet he never descends to the 'brawn-only' level of Dugan... he was a teacher, after all - I think it makes him more well-rounded and believable.
And he likes to eat cardigans. Nom nom nom.
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Post by IMForeman on Apr 30, 2009 2:58:23 GMT
I love Ian. But I love Barbara more. Without her the Doctor would probably still be a grumpy old man. Or at least grumpy. And yes, she doesn't get as much actiony stuff (I do wonder how Ian became so good at fighting from being a teacher...) but there is the aforementioned Aztec awesomeness, and running Daleks over with a truck in another story, and I could go into more but this thread technically is titled Ian Chesterton...
Ian/Barbara is lovely as well, and I mean "lovely" as in completely sweet and angst-free in every way possible.
One thing, though, I do watch the episodes, especially An Unearthly Child in a different light after reading the brilliant but completely disturbing and unsettling Nothing at the End of the Lane by Daniel O'Mahony in the Short Trips and Side Steps short story collection. Basically it (slightly spoilerish?)*retells An Unearthly Child from the viewpoint that the Doctor is a man who kills his granddaughter and puts her body in a police box. Barbara goes crazy and hallucinates them traveling in space, and pretty much the rest of the series. *
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Post by magnusgreel on Apr 30, 2009 3:05:58 GMT
That's just too compelling an idea. I'll remember that one longer than I want to...
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greatbriton
UNIT Red Shirt
I Go Ding When There is Stuff
Posts: 146
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Post by greatbriton on Apr 30, 2009 3:48:06 GMT
That is an interesting idea. I'm intrigued. I love Barbara as well. I think I probably love her just as much as Ian. But I came into watching One's stories after New Who and there were so many awesome female companions, it was rather refreshing to get an awesome long term male companion. So I kinda gave all my love to Ian. Which is unfair to Barbara, I know.
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Post by Abbyromana on Sept 19, 2009 4:15:23 GMT
They get married. =) (and that's canon, not just a fan opinion) Actually, that isn't canon. That's fanon. Nothing in the TV show reveals them ever getting married. It is true there is a unofficial book that references them having a son, but that isn't really canon, at least if you really follow the run of the show. Besides that, I do want Ian to return to the show one day. I could so see Ten or a future Doctor bumping into an older Ian. Now, if there he talks about his relationship with Barbara, I'd be all for it. ;D They really are cute in The Romans, particularly when Barbara is combing his hair and they joke about Fridges.
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Post by clocketpatch on Sept 19, 2009 23:45:27 GMT
You misunderstand me AR: it's CANON insofar as anything in Who is canon, because Who has no canon, but if it did that would be right at the top of the list. because Ian/Barbara is the original ship. The genuine article you might say.
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Post by jjpor on Sept 20, 2009 0:31:04 GMT
I don't want to get into the whole subject of what is, or is not, canon. I accept that Who has a continuity; ie that if a writer wants to write something that flagrantly contradicts something we have seen in an earlier Who story, s/he had better have a pretty good explanation (Terry Nation, I'm glaring at you!), because, well, that's just good writing.
On the other hand, I find attractive the notion that there is no such thing as Who "canon", because for there to be canon, there'd have to be some Lucas or Roddenberry-esque Supreme Overlord laying down the law, and in the case of Who, the work of many hands over the course of a great many years, there exists no such authority (and the likes of RTD and Moffat had better not even think about arrogating such authority to themselves, okay??)
And on the other other hand, there are certain things I need to be able to believe in in order to be able to sleep easy at night:
1. Death
2. Taxes
3. Gravity
4. Ian/Barbara
5. Ben/Polly
6. Doctor/Romana
7. Jamie/Victoria
8. Brig/Liz
9. Sarah Jane/Harry.
;D ;D ;D
And talking of sleeping easy at night, I don't know whether I ever will again after hearing about that story "Nothing at the End of the Lane"; I now badly want to read it, but fear that I will deeply disturb myself if I do. Brrr....
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Post by magnusgreel on Sept 21, 2009 3:30:10 GMT
There's this fan term "fanon" which might mean one's personal canon, what one fan believes canon is, or wants it to be. Star Trek continuity is in the process of being destroyed now, by the way, thanks to the taking of Trek away from Rick Berman and everyone involved since Next Generation, and the new film, which cancels continuitry out in one stroke. Therefore I've bailed out on new product (term meant scornfully) labelled "Star Trek".
As for Doctor Who, I have in my head and heart a continuity from 1963 through 2004 (I have a certain amount of faith that the novels do maintain continuity since that's the mission statement the line of books started out with, though I haven't heard many). Not counting CDs. TV and novels, at least Virgin novels.
New Who is a sort of reboot for me, in spirit if not always in fact. I'd feel better if Nine were the first Doctor in a new version of DW, maybe with a slightly altered title.
Within "my" DW, I totally and completely support the rewriting of "history" with Genesis and other Hinch/Holmes stories, because it's only with Letts then Hinchcliffe that DW becomes something great that matters, for me. These years over-ride everything else. In fact, I resent Hartnell era stories for not maintaining continuity with the Tom stories. Well, DW trained me to look at time in this flexible a way....!
One and Two stories will always be, for me, interesting glimpses into Four and Three's past, but perhaps the stories are sometimes poorly told when they contradict events shown in the 70s. Anyway, there aren't even very many continuity problems. You really can look at 1963-2004 as one story, if you reject a few bits here and there. I had trouble with Mysterious Planet recently. Holmes, king of DW backstory for me, threw in a moved Earth that was there for a very long time. does it move back for later events? I couldn't even follow Journey's End etc, so I don't know about that.
This thread is about Ian. I like Ian. Nom nom nom.
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