YES GOD THIS. This is what has been bothering me that I didn't know how to put into words.
Moffat gave us Amy as subject, and then took that away and relegated her to being an object. Though he first presented River as an object, it made sense narratively, and then as you said, he made her a subject, but then he took that away as well and made her an object again in LKH and TWoRS, and he left the Doctor as the sole subject of the series. And the show just doesn't hold the same allure or power if its sole subject is a really old alien with no other subject characters to counter him.
A huge, huge point of the show is that we have the companion there to counterbalance the Doctor. I think The Beast Below showcases this really well; we have the Doctor, ready to do an unspeakable act to an innocent creature for the greater good, and then we have the companion, who saves the day purely by rights of seeing things with fresh eyes and being the perfect balance to the Doctor's particular brand of cynicism.
Without that companion-as-counter-balancing-subject, the show falls flat. It's just a show about a very old, somewhat mad alien who runs around saving people, and that's entertaining, but so much of the depth and beauty and personal interaction of the show just vanishes.
Uh, that's my two cents anyway. Disclaimer: It is 2am and I have not slept in a very, very long time.
tl;dr: Without the powerful inter-character dynamics that subject-subject interaction brings, Doctor Who kinda bores me.
no subject
Moffat gave us Amy as subject, and then took that away and relegated her to being an object. Though he first presented River as an object, it made sense narratively, and then as you said, he made her a subject, but then he took that away as well and made her an object again in LKH and TWoRS, and he left the Doctor as the sole subject of the series. And the show just doesn't hold the same allure or power if its sole subject is a really old alien with no other subject characters to counter him.
A huge, huge point of the show is that we have the companion there to counterbalance the Doctor. I think The Beast Below showcases this really well; we have the Doctor, ready to do an unspeakable act to an innocent creature for the greater good, and then we have the companion, who saves the day purely by rights of seeing things with fresh eyes and being the perfect balance to the Doctor's particular brand of cynicism.
Without that companion-as-counter-balancing-subject, the show falls flat. It's just a show about a very old, somewhat mad alien who runs around saving people, and that's entertaining, but so much of the depth and beauty and personal interaction of the show just vanishes.
Uh, that's my two cents anyway. Disclaimer: It is 2am and I have not slept in a very, very long time.
tl;dr: Without the powerful inter-character dynamics that subject-subject interaction brings, Doctor Who kinda bores me.