Victoria Waterfield and The Tomb of the Cybermen

[carmen_lj]

Cause I was watching Tomb of the Cybermen: one of the most annoying phrases in Doctor Who fandom is "sixties screamer", which should be banned for being an lazy way to dismiss the main female character and erase all the nifty stuff she did (and they all did nifty stuff).

And Victoria is kind of amazing in Tomb. She doesn't get nearly enough credit for it. Deborah Watling's performance is ridiculously charming, managing to make her vulnerable and innocent without being at all cloying. There's her wonderfully played uncertainty about her smashing new dress. And then she gets to be curious and unafraid in exploring the Tomb; politely snarky at the human bad guys who she's totally unimpressed by; wonderfully snarky at the American rocketship crew (every one of those scenes makes me flail slightly in delight); turns out to be a crack shot with a pistol as she takes out a Cybermat; knows her own limitations and goes and gets help from the rocketship crew to open the Tomb again since this technology's at least 500 years ahead of her; cheerfully starts smashing a Cyberman to save the Doctor; distracts the bad guys (successfully) with a well-timed scream and is decent enough to be the one who brings up the bad guys' safety when they might get attacked too. And then has that beautiful scene with the Doctor talking about her family and his.

Jamie gets a whole lot of excellent moments with the Doctor, and the story would be weaker without their banter, but does sod all himself. (In fact, Jamie falls asleep/gets knocked out/doesn't do very much really QUITE A LOT during his run, and yet fandom/the media has failed to dismiss him with a derogatory name.)

Anyway, mostly it is lovely to see Jamie and the Doctor being space-married, but companion-wise, Victoria is by far the more developed and interesting character here. And now I really want to watch The Abominable Snowmen, except that got burnt, boo.

Comments

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

Victoria is the BEST THING about Tomb. Which is pretty damn great for a lot of reasons, but mainly her. I'll also add that she drags Jamie out of that freezer thingie while he's been pulled on from the other side by Cybermen. It's rather delightful, they're all screaming and rushed and it's truly a scene of chaos.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

In a competition between my favourite things about Tomb: Victoria's snark and the Jamie/Two banter, she just wins. The banter is LOVELY, but Watling is just ridic awesome in her deliveries.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

I do admit, Jamie's pain at the "metal breakdown" pun is my second favorite thing about Tomb. (Third would be the adorable googly-eyed potato Cybermats.)

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

It probably goes without saying that I agree with every word of your post. I know I love all the "wrong" bits of Two Who but I adore Victoria as a character and I don't understand why she's so often dismissed.

I dunno what the lj etiquette for post pimping is but I already posted ALL the LOVE here:

http://spiralsheep.dreamwidth.org/143725.html

The incident when she hurls a chemical weapon in the face of an Ice Warrior never fails to be chilling to me.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

THERE ARE NO WRONG BITS OF TWO WHO.

I don't understand why she's so often dismissed.

Well, she does scream on occasion and it's well-known that if a woman screams, then she's useless.

OH THAT IS A LOVELY POST. And the pics of her leaving scene make me go arg, it's one of the leavings that do make me tear up rather a bit.

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

THERE ARE NO WRONG BITS OF TWO WHO.

THIS IS GOOD TO KNOW.

I tend to assume that the fact I probably wouldn't scream if confronted unexpectedly by an Ice Warrior means there's something wrong with me and not with the much more sensible people who would scream. Screaming in those circumstances is NOT an over-reaction.

In my head-canon, i.e. the bits of Who what stand out in my memory, Victoria was the first companion since Barbara to get a complete character-arc of her own, and then probably the last companion to have that until Romana (then Ace and then Rose). This has nothing to do with my favourite companions cos, y'know, SARAH JANE MY CHILDHOOD HEROINE but even she didn't rly get a proper send-off until New Who and SJA imo (although I know many Sarah Jane fans think otherwise and I did LOVE her Old Who leaving scene).

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

In fact, Jamie falls asleep/gets knocked out/doesn't do very much really QUITE A LOT during his run, and yet fandom/the media has failed to dismiss him with a derogatory name.

How about: "The Sixties Snoozer."

Or: "The Sixties Snuggler"?

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Those totally sound more affectionate than mean!

[spiralsheep.livejournal.com]

Bump-head Boy!

[sallymn.livejournal.com]

Yes, I really rather loved Victoria (and Zoe for that matter - Ttoughton had good companions :)

[calapine.livejournal.com]

All the Troughton teams are ridic good. Though it does make me a bit sad when Ben and Polly get dumped so unceremoniously, woes.

[airie-fairy.livejournal.com]

That was just sad. Their departure scene was luckily very them (even though it was obviously rushed) -- especially with Ben's "I understand it (his home era), ya see?" -- but damnit a companion should be central to their own last story. D=

[laura-luvage.livejournal.com]

The female Hartnell and Troughton companions,except for Dodo who I sadly haven't really seen much of, are AMAZING. I seriously side-eye anyone who whines about them being weak, they're characterisation is just as, or nearly as, feminist as current companions. Their kick arse moments are just as worthy as New!Who ones plus their little character moments like Victoria and Troughton talking about family are beautiful.

Also if Victoria hadn't been a 'sixties screamer' she would've never stopped the creature in Fury From the Deep, so without her they would've been kinda screwed.

There needs to be a list of all the awesome things that the Old School female companions did to how awesome they are to throw in the face of those who claim they are not.

I am very protective of my black and white companions.

[calapine.livejournal.com]

Dodo, sadly is probably the weakest character, and there was a lot of behind-the-scenes turmoil at the time which really didn't help. But I do like her rather a bit in Gunfighters, and she does have v good hats.

I seriously side-eye anyone who whines about them being weak, they're characterisation is just as, or nearly as, feminist as current companions.

It is both yayful and bizarre to me that I think the best companion, after fifty years, is still Babs.