Female Heroes--Strong Because They Need to Be?

Please excuse the profanity.  I claim no responsibility for the captions on any but Lt. Col Carter's.

So this internet meme has been going around Facebook for awhile, but this month, someone added to it with Princess Leia, then Janeway and Sarah Jane.  On Dec 14, when I'd posted the Sarah Jane,  my husband contemplated it and said, "You know who really beats them all?  Samantha Carter!"  So I asked him to write it up.

What I like about this meme is that (Bella excepted), it shows that there are strong women in science fiction and fantasy, and they are awesome in different ways.  I have a lot of strong women in my novels, too:  Sister Grace (whom Vern calls his "magical tank."), Neeta Lyffe (who actually considers beheading zombies "just part of the job"), the Rescue Sisters (nuns who do search and rescue operations in outer space) and Tasmae, (charged with protecting her world.)

I never consciously try to create strong women; they just come about in my books when they're needed.  (I also have strong men, and strong dragons, and sometimes all of the above--like in Live and Let Fly.)  I think the key to all of these women, though is as Rob put it in Carter's post " All because it needed to be done."  And I wonder, is that more common of female heroines than male?

What do you think?

The Doctors' Companions Timeline!

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Dr. Who: Mourning Donna Noble

Note to Dr. Who Fans: Contains spoilers of the Season Four Finale.

Yesterday, we watched the season ender of the latest Dr. Who. Without giving too much away, in the process of saving the universes and time itself (you know, the usual), Donna has to lose all memory of her time with the Doctor, and he takes her back home to the life she had.

I found that the most tragic way to end a friendship with the Doctor, and it bugged me all day (still does.) I talked to Rob about it, in true geekdom fashion; he agreed. "She's been put back in the little box," he said.

For me, it's more than that, though. Sarah Jane got put into the little box; Martha Jones got put into the little back. Rose was trapped in a "little box" of an alternate universe. But they remembered the "big box," and all they were and what they did. What they were capable of doing. They took those experiences with them, and even if they regretted losing the life they'd had, they were better for it.

Donna never gets that. She's had all the incredible experiences, done things she never thought herself capable of, and she doesn’t remember. Never mind the phenomenal knowledge of the Doctor; there were times when her she used her own limited knowledge combined with unique insight, to do the extraordinary. Like Rose Tyler told her, "You've always been brilliant. You just needed the Doctor to show you."

But he didn't. He couldn't. And when he left her, she was back to her old, "Just a temp" ways, loud, narrow-minded and a little ditzy, probably afraid to push beyond her small box because she might fail. "For a moment, she was the most important person in the universe," the Doctor said. But she had to go back to believing she is a nobody.

In a way, it makes me think of what would happen if some brilliant person got Alzheimer's or a massive brain injury in the prime of his or her life. It's just tragic.

Yet, as the doctor told her family, because of Donna, there are worlds still shining, and people singing of Donna Noble. They know what she was, what she could be.

Why is it so important to me that she know as well?

Back to the trivial: Orphan Sock Blog Week starts next Monday! If you want to blog about those socks that mysteriously lose their partners, e-mail me with your blog address and I'll post it on my blog next week.