Spoilers,
obviously.
However,
that number has definitely increased in recent years – with caveats. During Moffat’s tenure, the go-to exit has
been “death, but…” I suppose it should’ve been obviously early
on, what with the many deaths of Rory Williams, but looking back now on
Moffat’s time on the show, Rory was just the beginning. In fact, nearly all of Moffat’s major
companions have exited the show via some qualified form of death.
First, of
course, is Amy and Rory. They’re the
most “definitely dead” of the bunch, although their deaths are the least
traumatic – both are sent back in time by Weeping Angels and die of old age
before the present. So, they both lead
long, apparently fulfilling lives together, but as it now stands, they’re both
dead. Then there’s Clara, killed by a
quantum shade as a result of her hubris.
It’s a harsher, more painful death, with a long build-up as she realizes
what’s going to happen and that there’s no way to stop it. Of course, two episodes later, the Doctor
does just that, sort of, getting the Time Lords to pull her out of her
timestream at the moment of death. She
and the Doctor go their separate ways not too long after that, and while she’s
still technically dead (for her, time is frozen before her final heartbeat,)
she’s also capable of traveling anywhere in time and space with a TARDIS she
happened to acquire and is also maybe kind of immortal(?) until she goes back
to her moment of death. Finally, we have
Bill (this one is at least slightly tentative, since we don’t know what may be
happening at Christmas and possibly beyond.)
Despite having the most horrific death yet – getting a hole blown
through her torso and then being converted into a Cyberman – hers is also the
most blatantly undone. In the eleventh
hour, Heather shows back up with her sentient-engine-oil powers (I have to
describe it that way every time, because it gets no less insane) and completely
handwaves away Bill’s Cyberness. As it
currently stands, Bill is definitely not dead, but she’s also not precisely
human anymore.
(All of
these, by the way, are prefaced by strong foreshadowing, either in the same
episode, the previous episode, or a good chunk of the season leading up to
their death. By the time Bill’s the one
saying, “Just promise you won’t get me killed,”
it’s a wonder she’s not killed then and there by the falling anvils.)
It gets
even crazier when you think about other major Moffat characters who get at
least one “dead but not” experience on the show. River is killed off in her first appearance,
only to get uploaded into the Library (not to mention, most of her episodes
take place earlier in her timeline.)
Strax is also killed in his first episode, only to pop up again a season
later with virtually no reference as to how he’s alive again. Jenny is murdered by the Whispermen, but
Strax easily revives her, what? Ten,
fifteen minutes later? Ashildr, of
course, dies while fighting the Mire and is brought back by their medical
repair technology, getting the full immortal treatment. And Nardole’s first appearance features him
getting his head cut off and attached to a giant robot, and when he shows up
again, intact, in the following year’s Christmas special, there’s maybe one
handwavy line about the Doctor “putting him back together.” (There’s also Missy in “The Doctor Falls,”
with her predecessor telling her she won’t be able to regenerate, and I think
we all know that’s never gonna be true.)
All in all, I think that makes Vastra the only significant Moffat-era
creation who’s never died or “died.”
A couple
things about this. First of all, it gets
boring. A character death, for my money, ought to be
something significant, and in a show like this, used sparingly. When nearly every character dies, it starts
to feel repetitive. There’s not a particular
amount of surprise because a) again, foreshadowing, and b) that’s what they all do. And
more than that, with all this “dead but not” business, it gets pointless. It’s the ultimate “have my cake and eat it
too” narrative: weep bitter, bitter
tears over the poor, dead companion, but hey!
It’s all right! Here they are
again! When everyone dies and then comes
back, each death means less, because we know it’s not going to stick, and we
may or may not even get an explanation as to why that horrible, heartwrenching,
definitely-very-permanent death gets swept under the rug and completely
forgotten about (not to mention, it takes away some of the specialness of the
Doctor being able to come back from death through regeneration.) With someone like Jack, who dies and is
brought back, the reasons for his resurrection are made clear, and it continues
to have lasting (very long-lasting)
physical and psychological repercussions for him. Here, everybody dies and comes back Just
Because.
Chalk
that up as another reason to look forward to series 11. Hopefully, new showrunner Chris Chibnall (who
handled Jack on Torchwood) will
understand, first, that there are other ways for companions to leave the show,
and second, that deaths cease to mean much if they refuse to stick.
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