my mickey smith appreciation post.
I’ve been meaning to write this one up for a long time, and now’s as good a time as any, I suppose.
First and foremost, I this post isn’t in response to any Mickey hate, per se, but rather to the seemingly few people in the Doctor Who fandom who actually care that Mickey Smith exists. People always go on and on about Rory, and how he rose from being a dorky third wheel in a sense, to an ass-kicking hero. And don’t get me wrong, I love Rory to pieces, but Mickey’s story arc, which followed the same basic template, barely seems to get any recognition from the fandom at all.
Now, I use the term “basic template” very loosely for a big reason that I’ll get to in a moment. The obvious, and more minor reason being that Rory is not a “copy” of Mickey. I believe that they are two very different characters with two different lives tat followed similar paths, especially in the beginning of their stories.
Like Rory (his arguably more popular counterpart), Mickey grew up very close with his female best friend and her family. The two friends eventually developed feelings for each other and began dating. However, when the Doctor stepped into their lives, both Mickey and Rory suddenly became the “third wheel” in their Team TARDIS, always seemingly under appreciated and labeled as “the tin dog.”
But here’s the big difference between Mickey and Rory that I referred to earlier. Rory knew that he would always have Amy. At one point or another, he knew that he had something worth fighting for. Yes, Rose is arguably worth fighting for, but Mickey was never the one that Rose had faith in. He was never the one that Rose wanted to save her. Amy always wanted Rory to be her hero, but for Rose, it was always the Doctor. This is where his and Rory’s paths differ.
Rory always had a connection to the Doctor through Amy, and the two were always friends. Yes, there were times when he thought the Doctor threatened his relationship with Amy, but nothing ever came to pass regarding that. In Mickey’s case, the threat was real, at least on Rose’s end during Nine’s tenure. To Nine, he was always “Mickey the idiot”—that dunce who always follows Rose around. Even the writers made a point to paint Mickey in that light at first. We weren’t supposed to care about him, and we especially weren’t supposed to like him.
All Mickey’s life, people walked away from him—his father, his emotionally unstable mother, and now Rose. His ties to her were being irreparably severed, and the Doctor was kicking him while he was down. While he did have his grandmother, he had to care for her during the majority of his adult life. He played the role of the caretaker, while Rory never really had to.
Then, out of nowhere, this random big-eared “Doctor” comes into Rose’s life, and the woman who he had come to love since he was a child was now feeling the same thing overnight—but for another man. Hell, Rose’s traveling (albeit unintentionally) got him accused of her murder at one point! Jackie and everyone he knew might have turned on him for a whole year.
But did he sever his ties to his childhood friend? Nope. He remained loyal to her constantly. Even when he realized he never had a chance with Rose and started dating other people (which she blasted him for), he continued to love and support her and Jackie, and he would eventually earn the Doctor’s love and respect, as well.
During his relatively short time as a companion, Mickey found his place in the universe, where Rory had arguably always known his, deep down. When he was flung into a world where he had to face an alternate version of himself, he chose to stay and fight the Cybermen, against everybody’s expectations. And he stayed for his grandmother, the one family member who never left him, and whom he’d lost in our dimension. He didn’t have to (hell, Rose was willing to leave her family behind multiple times), but he did, without a second thought.
And then, after all that, Mickey came back to help the world—again, twice, at that. He never ended his friendships with Rose, the Doctor, or Jackie, and he finally found true love with another one of the Doctor’s companions. He finally became someone’s hero—Martha’s hero. Not to mention he’s now kicking alien ass and defending the earth with her.
Mickey and Rory are far from the same character, and each are amazing characters in their own right.
That said, Mickey deserves just as much love from this fandom as Rory gets.
I… wow. Thank you.