Doctor Who: 5 Things To Learn From Classic Series & 5 Things That Are Better

3. Supporting Characters

To be clear - I DON'T mean companions. There are pros and cons to the way companions on Who are presented in either era. But, on the whole, both Classic and New Who have substantial successes in the companion department. This has to do with the "One off" support characters, or recurring ones. Classic Who had more time to build a world and atmosphere. However, it often neglected to provide characters that had anymore investment than what they needed to walk on and do. Tellingly, in the 5th Doctor story "The Visitation", there's a character from a 16th century English village identified in the cast listings as "Scythe Man" - Aaaand that's pretty much all they needed to invest in him. The villagers in "The Visitation" are about as important as the trees and buildings in the same story. They are merely scenery, which makes the threat to their world a bit difficult to care about. People sometimes criticize "Star Trek" (ALL series) because it actually often posits that alien worlds have ONE culture, ethnicity, and appearance (Often, one costume designer too). A cursory glance at our own world should explain why this is silly, but Classic Who often had a similar problem: Even recurring characters, like the ENTIRE UNIT cast in the Third Doctor's time, seemed to just only ever be UNIT soldiers. They only existed to the purposes of the show. The two most prominent officers, Mike Yates and Sergeant Benton, RARELY ever showed up out of uniform, or spoke of a life outside of work. (Benton did threaten to take his kid sister to a dance once, so maybe there really wasn't much to write home about there....) Yates' only character development was that he turned traitor (And later repented). But even that shock revelation didn't amount to much: All we knew about Yates was that he had a name, and served under the Brigadier for UNIT. For all we knew, he was constantly mumbling to himself at home about conspiracies and wishing there was a British Fox Mulder he could've turned to.

In the new series, Yates would've had a couple discussions with Benton about what they were doing - Was it right? Why does the Doctor get so much trust, when clearly his allegiance isn't 100% with UNIT? Yates seemed interested in Jo Grant, and maybe the fact she became so starry eyed for the Doctor would've made him wonder what exactly was motivating ANY of these UNIT officers so enamoured with him. Maybe Yates' turning traitor would've been proceeded by him learning of the Doctor's attempts to skedaddle as he had in the past - Or made him feel that UNIT was being used by the Doctor for his own gain. Or Yates would've had a family. Maybe one that lost a much loved member following a UNIT operation - Something that would've made him question what WAS the right way for the world to be saved? If anyone's groaning out there.... Yeah, these are cliches in some ways. BUT, they at least invest some level of development in the guy, rather than just expect us to care about him at the level of "Oh, he's wearing a UNIT uniform, he's a good guy". The New Series, for better or worse, gives us families of companions which broaden their reasons for being the way they are (And conveniently explain why, with the whole of time and space, we stop back at Earth perhaps TOO often). In addition to that, one-story supporting characters often have added depth. Let's look at "The Waters of Mars"

In this story, there are SEVERAL one-off characters, notably Adelaide Brooke, with whom the Doctor spends the most time. But even minor characters are given more - Steffi, a German character, is shown in her dying moments watching a replay of her daughter sending her a message and slowly breaking down as it plays. In the classic series, she'd have her German accent, and probably a last name like "Hauptmann" - that'd be her character then. ALL the characters get at least SOMETHING to make you care - two even get an implied relationship kept on the downlow, so when one dies, the other has a REASON to start screaming. In Classic Who, you did that whenever the end-of-episode sting showed up, even if all you had to scream at was Colin Baker's coat or Tom Baker's grin. Sometimes the character development can be piled on to the point of gloopy schmaltz (AHEM Tyler family). But for the most part the New Series treats its human characters with humanity, and not as set dressing. Again, props given.