A Nice Way To Start The Week

The Doctor's new companion is named Martha Jones and she is the first full-time companion of color since the series first aired on November 22, 1963 (Yes on the day JFK was assassinated). Last season, The Doctor had a companion (white, blonde) who's boyfriend Mickey was black, and he traveled with the Doctor for a few episodes, but wasn't the main. In the novels, The doctor had a black cop from the future who was a full-time companion, and also an East Asian gal, but the novels aren't counted as television canon.

Now there's Martha. When I watched the season opener last night -- you know, after I took a quick flight to Canada, erm, I mean England -- I marveled at a few things;

1) The mocha beauty that is Freema Agyeman, and the actress who played her sister and the other who played her mother.

2) The acting talent among the whole ensemble. Martha is a joy to watch, underneath her beauty. I believed every word she said. Again, I have to bow to the craft known as "acting". To so completely become someone else and emote the accurate responses to stimuli which is only fictional. Amazing. Particularly, in the beginning of the episode, Martha is running a four-way conversation with her family members on her cellphone. I totally believed she was speaking on that phone to a sister, brother, mother, and father that she loved. And in doing so, her personality sparkled. You could tell that she was the peacemaker of her family, and that she loved the position because she loved all of them--she even loved her father's girlfriend, who was obviously her own age and a blonde bubblehead (yes, right, I said blonde).

3) Her father's blonde, white girlfriend. No, I wasn't struck by the actress, but by the fact that this new series seems not to have a single care for racial differences. The Doctor's first companion had a black boyfriend who was a constant presence for two seasons. Then after the two seasons, in the Christmas special after the first companion leaves, an interim one-shot companion is a white woman marrying a black guy. Now in the new series, we have a black companion who the Doctor (in ten incarnations has always been a white guy) plants a big kiss on, and she's subtly ready to have a relationship with him. And her brother has a white wife (blurry in the background of his short scene; he and his girl have a baby together). And Martha's father, the darkest colored actor to date on th series, has a white, blonde girlfriend.

Now, I know this is a science fiction programme (English spelt!), but come on. A fact about Russell T Davies is that he is gay. He's had The Doctor kiss a dude in the first season. He also produced "Queer As Folk", that Showtime series about gay people. So it's no mystery to me that Russell is giving the Whovian characters a world in which he himself would like to be living, one where there's no discrimination (alien incursions, crashing spaceships, animate plastic killing machines, yes--but no racial discrim).

But I can't buy it. If you're going to bring sci fi elements to the world I live on, thus giving me a reason to identify with the companion characters of the Doctor (for such they are designed), then make it the REAL world. Not every single black person is in a relationship with a white person. And for those who are, it is not so easy. But if I'm wrong, then I'm moving to England!

4) The Doctor's bare feet. See! I TOLD you white guys love their feet!! Here comes the Spring. I wish I had a dollar for every toe I've already seen white males sporting this year.

So there's the scoop. New Doctor Who.

And what's more--I was informed that I have been licensed in the state of New York since the end of January. Finally. So the plans that I laid 3 years ago have come to pass. But nothing like I wanted them to.

So what shall I do with my NY license? Well, back when I first wanted it, I was going to try to get hired in a counseling center in NYC. I think I will still try that. Only this time, I'll do it part time, and I won't be depending on the work to survive. I'll use the extra money to pay off my car and my friends.

And that's not a bad plan.

And as I look at the old posts from the old blog, I notice that when my plans failed, and I came up with new objectives, the new objectives were met! Do you know how encouraging that is? I now fully believe that if I plan something, and those plans don't work out--I have the ability to survive. I can make new plans and carry them out!

I am, in fact, NOT a loser. I'm a survivor. I don't even care how old I am. I'm a fighter and I'm a survivor.

AND I'm a friend of Matt Atherton's. And the new Doctor Who Companion is black! So THAT'S all right then!