stunt_muppet

Not by fighting back so much in arguing, but just by persisting in doing what she thinks she should do. She adores the Doctor, she's very protective of him, she considers him her responsibility in a way, but it's never to the point of losing herself in him.

I do love that about her - Jo's still so much her own person, all throughout her adventures. She's never the Doctor's hanger-on. You know she's traveling with him because she wants to, not just out of attachment or obligation or whatever.

Re: selective disobedience: I ALSO love that, by the end of her run, he's giving her instructions and telling her to stay behind purely out of habit, and doesn't even bat an eye when she turns up later to rescue him from something. I mean, he scolds her here, since it's only their second serial together, but by the time we get into her last season he doesn't even bother doing that. :D

I think one of the key things is that Jo doesn't engage him, even when she doesn't intend to do a thing he says. Arguing with the Doctor just sort of feeds the whole 'separateness/superiority' thing, since he's not about to lose an argument if he can help it; Jo doesn't give him that opportunity, which alters the balance of his relation to her, a little bit. I think. I could just be rambling.

Basically the way the Doctor treats the Brig, except without the yelling.

You know, I hadn't thought of it that way at all, but now that you mention it, that's really perfect. And it explains a lot, actually. :D

Who has been calling the Brig incompetent? I've never come across anybody in fandom who's said that.

Mostly folk on older newsgroups that I came across when I was first breaking into Old-School. Looking back I now realize that they were kind of scary and full of weird-ass fanboys. And most of them seem to have only seen the Brig in, I don't know, The Three Doctors or something. Which he spends in an understandable state of confusion since, you know, the Doctors run off with UNIT HQ. *shrug*