XPost: rec.arts.drwho 
 From: john_e_russell@hotmail.com 
  
 "Frankymole"  wrote in message 
 news:d976uq$7tj$1@news7.svr.pol.co.uk... 
 >> "greenyammo"  wrote in message 
 >> news:csxte.15850$Vo6.13634@fe3.news.blueyonder.co.uk... 
 >>> Doesn't have to be mindless does it though does it? Is anybody out 
 >>> there actually interested in Mickey and Rose's mum? Is that why we 
 >>> tune in every week? Eastenders does this sort of thing on a far 
 >>> superior level. 
 > 
 > I care about Mickey and Rose's mum because of the way they influence (and 
 > are influenced by) Rose's growth. 
 > 
 > It's more of a conventional family than the "UNIT Family" of the 1970s but 
 > performs the same function for viewers.  Only this time, to coin my mum's 
 > phrase, "without all those boring soldiers". 
 > -- 
 > Frankymole 
 > 
  
 I was just recalling that years ago most programs didn't give their main 
 charecters "family". All those police dramas where all you saw was them 
 solving crimes at "work" as if home didn't exist. But in the last 20 years 
 we've seen a subtle change, with the use of the "home" to give the 
 charecters more depth. Taggert (original with his disabled wife Jean), 
 Wexford, Midsomer Murders are examples of this. 
  
 RTD has just applied this idea to Dr Who. Rose has become the most complete 
 of the Dr's companions becuase we have seen her existence outside of being 
 the companion. We have been asked to understand the emotional aspects of 
 being the companion, leaving  home, friends family, and of those left 
 behind. 
  
 --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05 
  * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)