Day 124: The War Machines Episode 2

This episode sees the departure of Dodo. Her departure scene is completely unlike anything we've ever seen before, in that it is less of a departure scene and more of a closing of a plot point. The summary is that she was hypnotised in order to lure the Doctor to the evil supercomputer WOTAN. The Doctor realises this in this episode, breaks her out of her hypnotic state, and then puts her to sleep. And that is the last we ever see of the character. But, to be honest, I wasn't expecting anything better, because the fact of the matter is that she was a poor character. Of her stories, she only existed to be introduced in The Massacre, and she only brought influenza to The Ark, a mild amount of compassion to The Celestial Toymaker and almost nothing to The Savages. She only exists as a function of the plot, a character for viewers to recognise. But even then, she doesn't quite work because of the inconsistent way in which the character is portrayed, moving from mildly annoying hip youngster to just another screaming girl. She fails to connect with the audience, doesn't do too much and is generally unmemorable as a companion. Her departure scene represents the way she was treated on the series, not as a character who had potential, but as another plot point to be used within the next couple of episodes. Because sometimes she could have potential, and The Gunfighters shows us a character who was enjoyable and watchable, the only problem is that they needed to throw things out and start again. Perhaps with something that will connect to the audience more...