Man, I
love Zoe. I think the Two years are
really strong for companions overall, and this is such an enjoyable
character. She gives young Hermione
Granger a run for her money as “most adorable know-it-all ever,” and she’s one of
a pretty select group of companions to prove an intellectual challenge to the
Doctor.
We’ll get
this out of the way first: Zoe is from
the 21st century, and though she’s more than 50 years out from our
time, it’s still more than a little ridiculous.
When the Doctor and Jamie meet her, she’s living and working on a giant
space station with artificial gravity, and her 21st-century fashions
feature the odd (non-ironic) sparkly cat suit.
Still, she’s so much fun that I don’t mind the whole “space age 21st-century”
thing.
Educated
in a place that evidently raises children to be human computers, Zoe is a
certified genius, initially running calculations for the Wheel with results
that are trusted better than the ones their actual computers come up with. Throughout her time on the show, Zoe’s
braininess comes in handy often. Between
her flawless mental equations and her photographic memory, Zoe variously passes
an insanely-hard test devised by machines, works out a route through
ventilation shafts based on a single trip through the building’s corriders, and
talks an obstructive computer into overloading itself – in short, she’s a
logical-mathematical badass. Numerous
episodes depend on her quick thinking and awesome adeptness to save the day.
Zoe is
supremely confident in her intellectual prowess and not the least bit shy about
saying so. This can annoy Jamie and the
Doctor, especially when she’s disparaging the former’s intelligence and
seemingly out-thinking the latter. But
while I’d say she is a bit smug,
she’s more matter-of-fact than anything else.
It’s a thread that kind of gets dropped early on, but Zoe’s education is
known for leaving its students unable to express, or even feel, emotion as
other people do. I wouldn’t go that far
with Zoe – her delight at learning something new is infectious, her friends are
a frequent source of exasperation, and anyone who travels with the Doctor is
going to be well-acquainted with fear.
However, she’s certainly more direct than the average person and
generally values honestly-stated facts over more expected niceties.
Although
she’s not as openly affectionate as either Two or Jamie, it’s clear that Zoe is
very devoted to both her friends. She’s
not really one to suffer fools, but she doesn’t complain much about their
goofier tendencies, either. Instead,
they bicker, they tease, they run, they get into and out of trouble together,
and while you’re likely to find her standing over the Doctor’s shoulder telling
him he miscalculated, I don’t get the impression that she’d have it any other
way. Zoe might have been reared to be a
fact-oriented figurer in a relatively sterile environment, but it says a lot
about her that, after one meeting with the Doctor and Jamie, she tries to stow
away on the TARDIS. Her first taste of
something more has her eager to continue this very different sort of education,
and over the course of her time with the Doctor, I’d say she finds it.
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