Doctor Who - thoughts on what the new season is bringing

[rumpelsnorcack]

I watched the footage of our team from Comic-con talking about Doctor Who and it hit me viscerally that Amy and Rory are going to leave.  I understand that that is fairly obvious and has been since the day they appeared on the show and that in many ways it's well overdue - they hung around longer than most other modern era companions.  Team Doctor kept stressing the message that this is how the show works and it's necessary and I agree with all that. What got me was realising for the first time that characters I'm totally attached to are going to leave.  I've been sad before, mourned other companions before (Donna, for example - her ending will never not hurt me) but it's always been with a sense of 'yay new companion, so excited' or 'Wheeee! New Doctor, it's about time' etc.  This time, while I'm curious about the new companion I know I'm going to be devastated when Amy and Rory leave.  I'm worried that I won't re-engage with the show again too.  I've always enjoyed it, looked forward to it, been excited to see what was coming but I've seen the way die-hard Rose fans have been about everything that happened since and I'm afraid the same will happen to me.  On the plus side, we still have Moffat running the show (yay!) and we still have Eleven (double yay) so I hope that's enough to push me past the loss of the Ponds.  There was a rumour back a while ago that Mat Smith would be leaving the show after this season and I remember getting quite upset at the idea.  Back then, while I was attached to Amy and Rory I was quite prepared for them to go (it was, I think, between the first two Eleven seasons) and I think it would have been easier if they had gone then ... or in the middle of last season as it appeared they had.  Now, because they've 'gone' and/or died and come back so many times, I think it's going to be harder.

Anyway, that's me - a bit of a maudlin thought on what this companion switch will mean to me.  Still, maybe once they've gone I can go back to not being completely stressed every time something happens in case it kills one of them. Here's hoping I recapture what I had in my teens when watching Four and Five or how I felt watching Nine and Ten. I doubt I'll love any future companions in the way I have loved Amy and Rory, but I can try to regain what I had before.  Besides, it was mostly (so far) season 5 that made me feel the way I do; season 6 has been hard in many ways so perhaps a new companion can wipe that slate clean a little and rekindle the happiness that was always hiding behind the stresses of season 5.  Season 6 in many ways was a little too dark for me, I think.

So, here's to knowing I'm going to cry like a baby when Amy and Rory leave but here's also to hoping for a fun rebooted future!