Top Five Big Damn Hero Moments: Romana I (Doctor Who)

How much do I love Romana, in either incarnation?  Heaps, and while I think Romana II may have the edge, Romana I is great, too.  Here are my favorite moments of hers (spoilers.)

Signaling K9 (Series 16, Episode 5 – “The Pirate Planet:  Episode 1”)

I like this one, because it’s such a Fourth Doctor move.  Four does this kind of stuff a lot, spouting out what feels like random non-sequiturs to the person he’s addressing while actually giving a blatantly direct order in plain sight.  Romana is definitely taking a page from his book when she calmly tells the guards who’ve captured her, “What I said was, no K9, you mustn’t… fetch the Doctor.”  Cool as a cucumber, that one.

Standing Up to the Guards (Series 16, Episode 6 – “The Pirate Planet:  Episode 2”)

It might be weird to include two moments from one instance of Romana being captured, but I love her here.  While this moment doesn’t really accomplish anything in terms of freeing her, her blasé attitude toward her captors is just witheringly perfect.  Gruffly ordered by one of the guards into their aircar, Romana replies, “I shall take that as an invitation.”  She then bats away his weapon and hands him her stuff to carry, asking, “Will you drive?  I trust you know where we’re going.”  100% imperious Time Lady with zero rat’s asses to give.

Saving K9 (Series 16, Episode 10 – “The Stones of Blood:  Episode 2”)

Brainy Romana to the rescue!  When K9 is severely damaged by one of the Ogri, the Doctor is convinced there’s no way to repair him in time to save his essence.  He’s preparing to put K9 out of his misery right there, but Romana rattles off a spectacular string of technobabble demonstrating that she can pull off a last-ditch rescue by repurposing certain TARDIS systems.

Determining Vivian’s Origin (Series 16, Episode 12 – “The Stones of Blood:  Episode 4”)

In general, “The Stones of Blood” is a pretty good showing for Romana.  Impractical footwear aside, she demonstrates her smart-cookieness through much of the serial.  Here, she’s able to reason out alien-in-disguise Vivian’s real planet of origin based on patterns she finds in Vivian’s cookbook and some bits of extra intel from Emilia.  Not too shabby.

Standing Up for Astra (Series 16, Episode 26 – “The Armageddon Factor:  Episode 6”)

As eccentrically endearing as Four is, he’s not always one to get broken up over casualties, and Romana typically makes him look warm and fuzzy by comparison.  But in this episode, she’s the one confronting him about the cost of their actions.  Once they realize that Astra is the sixth segment of the Key to Time, Romana insists that assembling the Key would be murder.  The Doctor argues that it’s not their fault the sixth segment took the form of a living being, but Romana refuses to let him deny their culpability.

Favorite Characters: Romana I (Doctor Who)

Here’s a topnotch companion, an elegant Time Lady who’s thrown unexpectedly into a series of adventures with the Doctor.  Her personality and typical go-to approach to things are incredibly different from the Doctor’s, which makes her a really entertaining companion to watch. 

A recent Academy graduate, Romana is recruited to help the Doctor in his mission of collecting the six segments of the Key to Time.  She’s brilliant and highly learned – she doesn’t let the Doctor forget that his test scores at the Academy were deplorable compared to hers – and she insists on doing things by the book, the polar opposite of the Doctor’s MO.  Plus, because of her high intelligence and firm belief in doing things the proper way, she has enormous faith in her own rightness; she’s virtually always convinced that she knows exactly what she’s talking about and the Doctor’s haphazard methods are doomed to failure.

What I really like is that the show makes neither Romana nor the Doctor the “right” one.  Sometimes his approach works better, and sometimes hers does.  Romana’s weak spot is her inexperience – she’s never even left Gallifrey before, and despite her books smarts, she doesn’t really know how to gauge whether or not she can trust someone or improvise a quick solution to an immediate crisis.  And so, she learns to listen to/learn from the Doctor’s wealth of practical knowledge gleaned from centuries traveling in time and space, but she also teaches the Doctor that a more measured approach can be effective, too.  In this way, their dynamic is much balanced than it could have been if she was always the rational one keeping the fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants Doctor in line or if she was always the naïve one who thinks she knows a lot more than she really does.  She’s both, and variations in between, on any given day, and that’s what makes her work for her.

Many would probably call her cold, and in some ways she is, but again, she makes it work.  She’s very analytical and thus sometimes can’t see the trees for the forest, and her incredibly self-assured manner frequently verges on haughty (although, mostly, I don’t think she sets out to be so – it’s more a side effect of her faith in her intellect.)  It makes for a good contrast with the eccentric, bohemian Four.  They play wonderfully well off of each other; the early growing pains of their relationship are fun to watch, but I really enjoy seeing them learn how to work together, to complement one another’s personalities instead of just oppose them.

Similarly, it’s cool to watch Romana grow and change over the course of her first season with the Doctor (I won’t discuss Romana II yet – a different regeneration needs a different post.)  She still doesn’t have the Doctor’s experience, of course, but she learns a lot and becomes much more able to operate on her own during adventures.  Does she still get herself in trouble?  Of course, but she can handle herself a lot better once she gets there, continuing to find ways to be useful until either she or the Doctor returns her to safety.  I like her curiosity, her cool reasoning, and her confidence.  I like her penchant for exploring the TARDIS wardrobe and boning up on local fashions to ensure that she fits in wherever they go.  I really like the occasional reminders that she doesn’t know much about Earth (I love when she asks K9 what tennis is, or when she doesn’t understand what powers a horse.)  All in all, a great, pretty unique companion with a lot going for her.