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... a.k.a. "Russell T. Davies Works Out His Issues With Mothers Onscreen, Yet The Fuck Again."
Wow. Just when I thought I couldn't respect or admire or sympathize with Donna Noble any more than I already do, Davies gives me an episode which makes me realize how truly special she must have ALWAYS been, in order to survive growing up with Sylvia Noble for a mother, with even the smallest shred of her self-esteem left intact after adolescence.
In fact, as much as Davies' previous portrayals of companions' mothers have been taken to task, I feel comfortable with declaring, with no reservations, that Sylvia is officially the single worst mother in the whole NuWhoniverse, spin-off shows included - and yes, this means that my opinion of Chrissie Jackson on The Sarah Jane Adventures has automatically improved, albeit only marginally, simply by relative comparison.
For all the flack she gets, Jackie Tyler was an unconditionally loving and supportive parent. Yes, she was arguably overprotective of her daughter, and yes, that's probably one of the reasons why Rose was occasionally prone to behaving like a spoiled, ungrateful brat, but considering how Jackie lost her husband Pete, who was taken from her by random, dangerous circumstances that neither one of them could control or predict, it makes sense that she would have become cautious, and even somewhat smothering, as a single mother of an only child. Jackie balanced her loyal devotion to motherhood with a dogged determination to live a fulfilling life of her own (when she told alt!Pete that there was "never anyone else," I always assumed she meant emotionally, since her cougar-on-the-prowl antics with Elton proved that she had no compunctions about hooking up with other men for recreational sex, if nothing else), and good for her. Even if I'm not a fan of Rose, I *HEART* Jackie.
Francine Jones is a bit more difficult to bond with, but in spite of how harmful her actions were, there was never any malice in her heart. Like Jackie, her motives become difficult to dismiss, once you recall how she lost her own husband, because unlike Pete, Clive left Francine by choice, betraying her to be with a younger, prettier white woman. If I was snake-bitten that bad, by someone so close to me, I'd be seriously gun-shy about sharing my love, too. So, yes, unlike Jackie, Francine's "tough love" for her daughter came with certain strings attached, and yes, that's probably one of the reasons why Martha fell by reflex into an achievement-oriented, needy-for-approval, conciliatory appeaser role so often, but it must not be forgotten that, even when Francine committed her own injurious betrayal, her road to Hell seems to have been paved with genuinely good intentions. Moreover, her heroically risky, day-to-day deeds of resistance on board the Valiant show she was no traitor at heart.
And yes, even Chrissie Jackson has demonstrated rare moments of lucidity, in between hectoring ex-husband Alan and cavorting carelessly with new boyfriend Ivan, when she's actually been more on the ball about being concerned about daughter Maria's whereabouts than Alan, and I say this as someone who considers Alan to be the best parent in the entire NuWhoniverse. Granted, these brief periods of worrying about Maria frequently seem to be motivated more by a desire on her part to point out Alan's shortcomings as a single dad, and they're vastly outweighed by her habitual insensitivity toward the deeper needs of Maria, or indeed, of anyone outside of herself, but there have only been a few times when Chrissie's callousness seems to have been motivated by active spite, rather than by mere thoughtlessness.
But Sylvia Noble ... Jesus Christ, she's such a full-on Disney animated villainess of a fucking BITCH that I'm now literally incapable of imagining Donna's childhood without conceiving of her as a poor, put-upon fairy-tale princess as a little girl. Think about how much STRENGTH Donna must have had, even when she was young, to withstand that constant barrage of hateful, wilting negativity from her own mother, with all the subtle, passive-aggressive, sniping little insults that Sylvia has shown herself to be capable of, never mind her open declarations of her own daughter's perceived worthlessness, straight to her face.
More than all of the "Here's where the Doctor and his companions made a difference!" divergence points of the (admittedly logically wonky, but still effectively creepy) alternate timeline, THAT was what disturbed me most about "Turn Left," was its portrait of a brave, beautiful, brilliant woman, who had a hole in her heart because of the total lack of love or support that she's ever received from her mother, in her entire goddamned life. And this is where the whole "The companions need to be people with whom the audience can identify!" argument falls completely apart, because I'm a college-educated American guy in his early 30s, who's never gotten anything but love and support from his parents, but I FELT for that working-class British gal in her early 40s.
As a sad aside, as much as I still love Wilfred Mott, and think he's an awesome granddad, I'm beginning to wonder if he wasn't a terrible father to Sylvia, because otherwise, I'm honestly at a loss to account for how such an affectionate, encouraging old guy like him could produce such a mean old bitch like her for a daughter.
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