doctor who season 1-4 as a re-introduction
ok, so i had an elaborate set of reasons for this, but my LJ ate them, so i'm just going to state the thesis and see if anyone who reads this without me crossposting it all over has anything to say about it. then maybe i'll say more and with evidence and such:
i think RTD thought the only way to have a dramatically-believable and audience-hooking companion for the doctor at the start was to have a quasi romance, but he always intended to back away from that and eventually reset to something more like the traditional doctor-companion relationship. and i think rose to martha to donna is that trajectory, and the shipwars on LJ are an unintended consequence of that policy.
i think RTD thought the only way to have a dramatically-believable and audience-hooking companion for the doctor at the start was to have a quasi romance, but he always intended to back away from that and eventually reset to something more like the traditional doctor-companion relationship. and i think rose to martha to donna is that trajectory, and the shipwars on LJ are an unintended consequence of that policy.