MickeyThe Gang's All Here
No man is an island- not even if his name is Gilligan. You've all seen the show, or at least enough parodies to know what it was. Pretty much every episode was about Gilligan screwing up the others' attempts to get off the island- which was the whole point. Without the other castaways to play off of, we'd never know what a screw-up Gilligan was. If it had just been Gilligan alone on the island it would have played more like Cast Away.
Since we can't get to know TV characters ourselves, we can only get to know them through their interactions with others. Even when a show is named for one particular person they almost always have at least one sidekick, someone they can talk to and interact with. The one exception that stands out is The Prisoner. No. 6 certainly had other people in the Village with him, but no one on his side. He was essentially alone; and even being able to tell the other prisoners from the jailors didn't help. The other prisoners were never trustworthy and/or reliable; it was like being stranded on an island populated by Gilligans.
Over the years Doctor Who has been through enough companions to cast several series. Of course each different Doctor has a slightly different personality, and so the interplay with his friends was always different following a regeneration- to a degree. Mostly the companions just amplified the Doctor's role as the ultimate hero/fixit man/white knight, since their basic personality trait was mostly screaming for the Doctor to rescue them. That's why I was so sorry to see Rose Tyler leave; she had her share of being rescued but she was easily the most self-reliant, capable and useful of the Doctor's various traveling companions.
Doctor Gregory House, M.D. is an ironic figure: He doesn't like people, but he's very very good at keeping them alive when their symptoms don't make diagnostic sense. It's because he doesn't like people that we enjoy seeing his interactions with them; and not just his perfunctory, required-to examinations of patients in the clinic. We see Chase with a good mind, but not yet having developed real principles or the backbone to stand them up. Cameron's respect for House could easily lead to something deeper if he didn't actively push her away. Foreman is one of the few House can truly respect; while sometimes wrong Foreman will come out and tell House when he thinks he's wrong.
Wilson is the friend House can never admit to; it seems to take an effort of will for House just to chat with him. Wilson seems to be the only one on the show completely unaffected by House's monumental disdain for humanity. Even the most remote person needs someone to talk to, be it pets, household furniture of hallucinations. Wilson is the one person House can stop and talk to as equals, without getting all defensive against House's brusque misanthropism.
Buffy Summers wasn't the first person to fight vampires- not even the first one with superpowers. What distinguished her was who she was when not fighting: Her Scooby friends, Giles growing from an uneasy mentoring relationship to being the closest she had to a father anymore; even her developing relation with Spike once the chip in his head made him a sometimes-useful annoyance instead of a dire threat to humanity. Generally the "relationships" with an enemy or antagonist tend to be strained, even when they're not mostly handled by the fight stuntmen and special effects crew. We really see who people are by their relations with friends, family, comrades; people they can actually talk to, not just talk at.
Since we can't get to know TV characters ourselves, we can only get to know them through their interactions with others. Even when a show is named for one particular person they almost always have at least one sidekick, someone they can talk to and interact with. The one exception that stands out is The Prisoner. No. 6 certainly had other people in the Village with him, but no one on his side. He was essentially alone; and even being able to tell the other prisoners from the jailors didn't help. The other prisoners were never trustworthy and/or reliable; it was like being stranded on an island populated by Gilligans.
Over the years Doctor Who has been through enough companions to cast several series. Of course each different Doctor has a slightly different personality, and so the interplay with his friends was always different following a regeneration- to a degree. Mostly the companions just amplified the Doctor's role as the ultimate hero/fixit man/white knight, since their basic personality trait was mostly screaming for the Doctor to rescue them. That's why I was so sorry to see Rose Tyler leave; she had her share of being rescued but she was easily the most self-reliant, capable and useful of the Doctor's various traveling companions.
Doctor Gregory House, M.D. is an ironic figure: He doesn't like people, but he's very very good at keeping them alive when their symptoms don't make diagnostic sense. It's because he doesn't like people that we enjoy seeing his interactions with them; and not just his perfunctory, required-to examinations of patients in the clinic. We see Chase with a good mind, but not yet having developed real principles or the backbone to stand them up. Cameron's respect for House could easily lead to something deeper if he didn't actively push her away. Foreman is one of the few House can truly respect; while sometimes wrong Foreman will come out and tell House when he thinks he's wrong.
Wilson is the friend House can never admit to; it seems to take an effort of will for House just to chat with him. Wilson seems to be the only one on the show completely unaffected by House's monumental disdain for humanity. Even the most remote person needs someone to talk to, be it pets, household furniture of hallucinations. Wilson is the one person House can stop and talk to as equals, without getting all defensive against House's brusque misanthropism.
Buffy Summers wasn't the first person to fight vampires- not even the first one with superpowers. What distinguished her was who she was when not fighting: Her Scooby friends, Giles growing from an uneasy mentoring relationship to being the closest she had to a father anymore; even her developing relation with Spike once the chip in his head made him a sometimes-useful annoyance instead of a dire threat to humanity. Generally the "relationships" with an enemy or antagonist tend to be strained, even when they're not mostly handled by the fight stuntmen and special effects crew. We really see who people are by their relations with friends, family, comrades; people they can actually talk to, not just talk at.
