*Disclaimer: Ugh, I hate it when predators/abusers are in stuff I love. Hearing the sexual harassment allegations against Noel Clarke was gutting – I feel for all the women that he hurt, and it makes me mad that I can no longer just enjoy Mickey as an ancillary companion.*
(Slightly)
new feature today in that it’s distinct from the usual Favorite Characters
post. While I can’t positively adore everyone in the Whoniverse (pretty darn
close, though,) the completist in me wants to get around to all the companions,
Doctors, Torchwood/Sarah Jane team members, and major supporting players at
some point down the road, and characters who don’t make the upper echelon need
a platform. Mickey’s not one of my
favorite companions, but he’s still worth writing about. (Some Mickey-related spoilers.)
To be
fair, Mickey is horrendously hampered by his first appearance on the show. Like Rory, he’s introduced as the boyfriend
of the companion. However, while Rory
spends his first episode noticing hinky alien goings-on and asking Excellent
Questions, Mickey gets “eaten” by a trash can, is replaced by a ludicrously
fake Auton duplicate (the Autons have evidently stepped up their game quite a
bit by the time they tangle with Eleven,) and ends the episode literally
clinging to Rose as he cowers in fear.
Seriously, if she’d been wearing a skirt, he’d be hiding behind it. He’s the doofy boyfriend who’s not cut out
for all this alien stuff, who’s nice enough but not in the Doctor’s league. And Nine’s frequent jibes as Mickey,
willfully calling him by the wrong name and telling him he’s an idiot, just
make both of them look bad.
So who
could come back from all that? Mickey
Smith, that’s who! During his time on
the show, Mickey becomes a character to take seriously as both a person and a
companion. The first step is making him more
than a pit-stop on Rose’s journey to the Doctor. In Mickey’s second episode, he and Jackie
take equal part in demonstrating the fallout of Rose’s gallivanting in time and
space – because the TARDIS brings her home late, she finds out she’s been missing
without a trace for a year, much of
which Mickey spent under the suspicion of murdering
her. We all know life with the Doctor can
affect the people who travel with him, and sometimes things go very wrong, but
we don’t often see evidence of how the companion’s choices can ripple out and
affect the people back home. Even apart
from knowing his girlfriend had been whisked away to who-knows-where-or-when by
a time-traveling alien, Mickey dealt with repeated police inquiries, whispering
and harassment from suspicious neighbors, and the helpless position of knowing
the truth but being unable to tell anyone.
That’s some seriously messed-up stuff.
Later in series 1, he takes Rose to task for keeping him in a holding
pattern while she dashes about the universe; traveling with the Doctor is
obviously her choice and it’s hugely valid, but he doesn’t deserve to be
treated like a toy she plays with when it suits her, and he tells her as much.
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