Well... it might actually work. For once and for all (I trust) the writers will have to ditch the companion-infatuated-with-sexy-Tenth-Doctor motif. I'm also pretty sure Catherine Tate reads her reviews, and is aware that her initial festive turn divided critical opinion. I would hope that as a performer/writer she'll make a major contribution to Donna's development - in terms of her career she certainly has the clout to do this, much more so than Billie or Freema.
I didn't much mind her in the Christmas Special but that was as a one off and you are right the character could work and would be a refreshing change if she did. I just keep thinking "dumbed down Tegan" and I never much liked Tegan. I'm also concerned that the casting has more to do with celebrity than clever ideas about how this will work.
Similar thoughts to me. I'd like to think that gervase_fen is right; but it's the misfires in the finale that stick in the mind, not the successes (which I enjoyed at the time) and which make me a bit more wary of the future than I have been until now.
Tegan frequently came across as a bit thick, though I'm now struggling to think of specific examples, and easily manipulated by some basic button pushing (but again I'm struggling to think of examples).
Wonders if low impression of Tegan is tainted by 13-year-old Davison crush...
At the end of The King's Demons the Doctor admits he gets her to stay with the TARDIS crew by basic button pushing. In Frontios she gets so annoyed by the Doctor's "she's my android PA" ruse ("I got her cheap because the walk's not quite right. And then there's the accent...") that she nearly gives the game away.
And anyone who dresses like she does in seasons twenty and twenty-one while surely knowing she's going to do lots of running around, usually on quarry-type planets, is asking to have either her sanity or her dress-sense questioned.
I've seen it stated (though without a source) that Tegan evolved from a rough character outline by JN-T called 'The East End Slapper' - too busy putting on her make-up to notice the monster coming to capture her. Janet Fielding has complained of how JN-T would overrule a reading of Tegan's character as intelligent in the studio, despite what had been worked out between Fielding and the story's director, on the grounds that Tegan was a 'dumb, stupid Australian'. Both of the examples you give are good examples of how Tegan can be difficult to like, on paper at least. I was very much a Nyssa admirer in the early 1980s but Tegan seemed more interesting ten years later.
I'm very proud - both of my car and my icon making skills. This is my favourite self-made icon. LJ only gives you something like 48k to play with, so you have to be pretty harsh with image compression!
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dancing_serpent
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Date: 2007-07-04 07:33 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-04 07:55 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-04 08:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-04 09:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-05 09:06 am (UTC)Wonders if low impression of Tegan is tainted by 13-year-old Davison crush...
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-05 09:23 am (UTC)And anyone who dresses like she does in seasons twenty and twenty-one while surely knowing she's going to do lots of running around, usually on quarry-type planets, is asking to have either her sanity or her dress-sense questioned.
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Date: 2007-07-05 10:07 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-05 09:06 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-05 03:01 pm (UTC)Hello
Date: 2007-07-05 01:28 am (UTC)Looks good! Very useful, good stuff. Good resources here. Thanks much!
G'night
Re: Hello
Date: 2007-07-05 09:01 am (UTC)