And so we continue with an examination of what I have affectionately dubbed "the Three Companion Dynamic". We've covered the occasions where the Doctor travelled with three people during the 60s. We now have a long period in the show's history where it's either one or two other companions only. Eventually, of course, we'll hit the 80s and another attempt will be made to crowd up the TARDIS a bit. If I don't ramble on too long about that, we might even look at the companions of the Chibnall era, too, before this entry's over.
In the meantime, however, you should definitely have a look at Part One of this essay. I will be referring to it quite heavily. So, if you haven't read it - here's the link:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/04/analytical-threes-company-what-makes.html
Here's Part Two if you missed it. Not quite as significant of an entry but you might still enjoy it.
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/04/analytical-threes-company-what-makes_7.html
Many fans claim that the only period in the show where the three companion dynamic worked all that well was during those first two seasons of Ian, Barbara and Susan (and, later, Vicki). They tend to find quite a degree of disdain with the attempt in Season Nineteen to try that particular combination again.They maintain that the chemistry between Tegan, Nyssa and Adric just didn't work.
Once more, the Great Contrarian must rear his ugly head. I thought this was a very good TARDIS team. As strong as the one we had in Seasons One and Two? Not quite. But still more-than-passable.
Now I could just end the essay, here, by stating this is purely an opinion issue. That you can feel whatever way you want about this era of the show and I can have my own views on the matter. And we can happily disagree. But that would leave me feeling hollow inside. I wouldn't be able to sleep at night if I didn't take the time and trouble to thoroughly prove how right I am!
"STYLE FLEXING"
If you've bothered to read Part One of this essay, you'll have seen that I list Five Essential Ingredients for a successful three companion dynamic. I based these components on things we saw over and over again throughout the reign of the TARDIS crew that lasted from Unearthly Child to the final episode of The Chase. In Part Two, I showed how the Jamie, Ben and Polly combination didn't work very well because they often ignored those elements. Or, when they did employ them, they used them poorly.
Nearly twenty years passed until three companions were used again. Television had changed a lot during that time. Its most obvious transformation was a need for a faster pace. In the 60s, it did almost feel like we were watching "a play on TV". The plot would frequently stop for long discussions to take place between characters. Audiences of the 80s, however, had little patience for such moments, anymore. Things needed to feel like they're moving a lot more quickly or our attention would waver.
Doctor Who, itself, was a very different Beast by the 80s. As I had mentioned in Part Two of this essay, the show was putting a stronger emphasis on the Doctor being the protagonist. He was now, most definitely, the central character of the series and was given far more attention than he got during those first two seasons. It would be difficult to go back to a format where three other leads would require some substantial screentime.
The show had also gone through a huge change in episode structure. During those early days, we had lots of six-part stories. An adventure that ran for so long gave plenty of time for the "character moments" that a three-companion dynamic required. By the 80s, however, they were mainly producing four-parters. Finding places in a story to slow down for the sake of characterization was going to represent a challenge.
Naturally enough, the show adapted. It still used those core ingredients I described whenever it could. But it also came up with a new recurring element or two to help the three companion dynamic gel better with the times the program was being made in. For lack of a better term, we'll refer to these special modifications as "style flexing". We'll not only see this going on in Season Nineteen, but the Chibnall era also contains examples of this. As we progress along, I'll try to point these style flexes out wherever possible.
SETTING UP THE SEASON NINETEEN TARDIS TEAM
The first time we see a modification to a three companion combination happens before the crew even comes together. Back in the 60s, two of the three companions tended to climb aboard the TARDIS at the same time. In the first team, it was Ian and Barbara (although we did still get introduced to all three companions at once). During Troughton's first season, it was Ben and Polly (who, technically, first joined when he was still Hartnell).
Having two companions join at once like that had several advantages. With Ian and Barbara, it created a bit of shorthand with chemistry. The two school teachers knew each other quite well already - so this made it easier to bestow them with a sense of familiarity. The writers didn't have to go to the trouble of trying to build a rapport between them over a series of episodes. It was already there. With Ben and Polly, it made introducing the characters easier. If all three companions had joined at once, getting us acquainted with them would have been far more complicated. Instead, we met Ben and Polly first and then Jamie joined later.
But our 80s trio took a very different tact. In fact, I found their approach to be quite brilliant. For the better part of Season Eighteen, Adric was established. We were given quite a few stories to get to know him. Then, as the season neared conclusion, Nyssa was brought in for Keeper of Traken.
But the smartest choice made by the production team of that time was to not have Nyssa join the TARDIS at the end of her introductory story. She's left behind on Traken and only re-unites with the Doctor and Adric towards the end of Part Two of Logopolis. Which gives us two whole episodes to become familiar with Tegan. This was a great way to assemble the team. Rather than have to learn about everyone at once, it's a much more gradual process.
In my opinion, there was no better way to bring three companions together. It's a great bit of style flexing right in the setting up of the dynamic.
THE CORE INGREDIENTS USED BY THE SEASON NINETEEN TEAM
Yes, there is some style flexing going on even before Nyssa, Tegan and Adric assemble. But, once they are together, we do see tonnes of those elements needed for a good three companion dynamic. Even as early as Logopolis, Nyssa and Adric break off on their own a few times during its last two episodes. This continues throughout all of Season Nineteen. Sometimes, the crew is kept together for quite a while. The Visitation, for instance, sees the Doctor and his three friends stay united for all of Episode One. But most stories of that season create a division in the crew within the first few minutes of a new adventure. In many instances, smaller teams are formed rather than solo missions. Four to Doomsday is probably the best example of this. For most of the story, everyone is working in teams of two.
We see a bit of a style flex going on with the idea of giving certain characters some time off. In some cases, it's pretty obvious. It's quite blatant at the beginning of Kinda that Nyssa is getting written out of the story. However, this device is much more subtle in other episodes. If you're watching carefully, Tegan gets a break during Episode Three of that same story. We cut to her once or twice lying unconscious in the jungles of Deva Loka. Otherwise, she's left alone. Adric has a very small presence during the last three episodes of Castrovalva. Most of the time, he is trapped in the Mathematical Web that is hidden behind the Portreeve's Tapestry. He only makes brief appearances here and there. His argument with the Doctor at the start of Earthshock also gets him significantly out of the story for the first two parts. He wants to be alone in the TARDIS while the Doctor, Nyssa and Tegan explore the caves they've landed in. These are great examples of a more subtle use of the "giving characters time off" technique. Essentially, it comes to the same results: other characters are given an opportunity to shine more for a bit. But it's considerably less obvious than the examples we saw with the original companion trio. Where a lead would be almost, forcibly, written out of an episode or two (ie: Barbara staying on the spaceship in The Sensorites). Which is why I consider this a bit of a style flex.
Regenerating the Doctor just as the three companions assemble was another great example of the production team using a good sense of timing. Tom Baker was always, very much, the center of attention during his stories. To suddenly have to give him a bit more of a back seat would have been far too jarring. But, since we didn't really know what Peter Davison's interpretation of the role was going to be like, it made it easier to accept a Doctor who was less central. A similar choice would be made with Jodie Whitaker's Doctor.
We do also get a few decent character arcs among the companions. The biggest one being Tegan struggling back and forth with whether or not she truly wants to leave the TARDIS. That very nice scene with Nyssa during the beginning of The Visitation (and the subsequent berating of the Doctor when they've landed three centuries early) really cement the conflict she's going through.
We also get Adric having all sorts of trouble with social awkwardness. Which causes him to butt heads with Tegan's strong personality on several occasions. To the point where she even renders him unconscious during Part Three of Four to Doomsday. But it's not just Tegan that he gets in fights with. Let;s not forget the huge row he has with the Doctor during Earthshock. Or even the smaller battle he has with the Time Lord at the beginning of The Visitation where he's being reprimanded for using the TSS at the end of the previous story.
Nyssa probably gets a bit less attention in this department. But we still see her dealing with the loss of her stepmother and father and then the destruction of her entire homeworld.
A BIT MORE STYLE FLEXING
There is one more adaptation that the production crew makes with this particular situation. I've actually touched upon it a bit, already, in the last section. In order to heighten some of the drama between the companions they were made very argumentative. Certain fans complained about this. Before Season Nineteen, TARDIS crews tended to get along with each other. Suddenly displaying a crew that bickered a lot was probably a bit unsettling for fandom to see after so many years of the "we're all friends who love each other" formula that had existed previous to this era.
Personally, I felt this decision really worked. I actually found all the fighting quite entertaining. It was also very realistic. These were three people who had only gotten to know each other very recently and were now travelling together. It was almost inevitable that they would have problems getting along. Particularly since both Tegan and Adric had pretty strong personalities. It's for that same reason that I think the fights between Sixie and Peri worked. Again, it just seemed realistic. She had started travelling with one version of the Doctor that she found quite agreeable (even "sweet"). But then all that abruptly changes at the end of Caves of Androzani. Once more, two very strong personalities were forced together. In both these situations, it made sense that there would be conflict. So I'm glad these relationships could, on occasion, go in more volatile directions.
MOVING ON TO CHIBNALL...
Well, that's about all we needed to say about Season Nineteen. My word count isn't too high yet so let's move on to the last era that features three companions. One that has also suffered some heavy criticism. I'm sure, however, that my opinion won't surprise you. So I'll just state it nice and clearly:
I absolutely adore Ryan, Yaz and Graham.
In fact, they're my favorite companions in New Who. I really do feel that, overall, they've been handled magnificently. I'll even be controversial enough to claim that they were particularly excellent in Series Eleven.
The character arcs that we're getting these days are what impress me the most. Even though I usually go through the core elements in the order I listed them in Part One, I'll skip ahead a bit this time and get straight to the good stuff.
Ryan actually gets the best treatment in this area. In his first season, he has to deal with the death of his grandmother, the building of a genuine friendship with Graham and reconciling with his father. It's a lot to give one character to do but it all happens quite organically. Particularly the way he deals with Graham. I love that he finally calls him "Grandad" in the penultimate episode but the fist-punch only happens in the season finale.
Graham, of course, is dealing with a lot of the same stuff Ryan is.. His grief over Grace is beautifully depicted during several scenes of Arachnids in the UK and It Takes You Away. People even love to point out that slight look of sadness in his eyes during Praxeus where he's having a discussion with the astronaut's husband about love.
Some have complained that Yaz was handled poorly during Series Eleven. I just think she was written differently. Graham and Ryan had so many arcs going on that it would have felt artificial if Yaz had been give a whole bunch too. Instead, she is treated more like a female companion of the RTD era. We see a lot more of her life outside of the TARDIS. We get to know her family and even dip into her ancestry a bit in Demons of Punjab (in much the same way as a bit of Rose's family history is revealed in Father's Day). We do see some really good growth in her, nonetheless. It's just less apparent. Throughout both of her seasons, we witness how badly impacted Yaz was by bullying. How the experience has moved her towards a career in law enforcement. Travelling with the Doctor has made Yaz even more dedicated to seeing justice carried out. But, as I said, none of this is as blatant as the arcs the other two companions are moving through. It's still there, though. I particularly love how, in The Timeless Children, she charges through the spatial anomaly to Gallifrey far faster than anyone else. Such small gestures say so much about her character.
OTHER THREE COMPANION CONVENTIONS
The other major ingredients from Seasons One and Two that we see in great abundance is the separation of the TARDIS crew (or "fam" as they are more frequently referred to) and the use of smaller teams. It is interesting to note that, because Yaz doesn't get such big blatant arcs, she seems to get more solo missions. This, of course, gets her more attention and screentime. It's a nice way to compensate for the fact that she's being handled differently from Graham and Ryan.
Just like Davison, Whitaker's Doctor appears at the same time as a new three companion dynamic is formed. This time, though, we don't get that gradual introduction like the one that took place over Season Eighteen. We meet Graham, Yaz and Ryan all at once. But Chibnall took a bit of a page from those Early Days by giving all the companions a history with each other before they board the TARDIS. But that adjustment of giving the Doctor more of a back seat in the story can happen more naturally because it takes place at a regeneration. Although, admittedly, the Doctor is pushed much more to the forefront during Series Twelve. This does result in less break ups into separate plot strands. Nikola Tesla's Night of Terror and The Haunting of Villa Diodati both see all three companions sticking together quite a bit. This does create some complicated scenes like the ones we saw during the Ben, Polly and Jamie era. This might be my only valid complaint about this particular group of companions. They do tend to stick together a bit too much in Series Twelve. But, in many ways, it's justifiable. The Doctor really gets put through Hell in this season and she needed the extra attention. And it does result in that really awesome scene during Villa Diodati where the Doctor highlights that the team structure isn't always so flat.
About the only ingredient that gets completely ignored is the "giving characters an episode off here and there" device. Chibnall always wants the fam to be active together. In order to accomplish this, he does some very interesting style flexing.
Which leads us to....
STYLE FLEXING FOR THE FAM
There's two significant adjustments that I see Chibnall make that allows for a modern day version of a three companion dynamic to work:
1) Teamwork makes the Fam work
There's a very nice sequence at the beginning of Rosa that establishes that the Doctor is having a hard time getting Graham, Yaz and Ryan home. Basically, since Ghost Monument, they have taken quite a few trips in the TARDIS to incorrect destinations. This establishes that the three humans currently travelling with her have become familiar with who she is and, more importantly, what she's about. They know the Doctor is always on the side of justice and are happy to assist in any way they can.
This is immediately reflected in the actual adventure that they have in Rosa. They aren't just forced apart - as is often the case when separation occurs in a three companion team - instead, they are sent off on missions. Quite frequently, they are eager to undertake these tasks because they know it will be accomplishing something good.
I don't really think we've ever seen a TARDIS crew that works better as a team than this one. Over and over, they willingly accept special tasks that they know will help to create a solution to the central conflict of the story. Praxeus probably exemplifies this best. The fam is sent all over the world to investigate various problems that will, eventually, present an ultimate solution to the latest doom that is about to befall the Earth. It really shows just how well-oiled of a machine this current TARDIS team is.
There are countless other instances like this throughout both seasons. Look at how well they work together just a few episodes later to set up a defence system against the Cybermen in Ascension of the Cybermen. Or go back to an earlier story like Kerblam! and see how well they gather intel as they work in different departments. We see this sort of teamwork in almost every story. The sense of unity that exists between these three characters really helps us to appreciate them. Such an endearing trait makes a crowded TARDIS like this more pleasant and engaging.
2) Lengthening the episodes
Chibnall made several alterations to Doctor Who when he took the helm. There is one change that, without a doubt, I appreciate the most: giving the episodes a longer run-time.
So often, episodes in the RTD or Moff era felt like they moved too quickly. The stories, in general, felt too "light" because of this. Multiple episode stories didn't have this problem so much - but those one-parters could really seem like they were lacking something, sometimes. I loved the Classic Series as much as I did because they weren't afraid to take some interesting digressions in the writing. There was plenty of time for interesting side-plots, character moments or deeper explorations of certain themes.
Chibbers, bless his heart, chose to reduce the number of episodes but make them several minutes longer. Once more, the stories have time to "breathe". This, I feel, has benefited the show enormously. Particularly when you have a three companion team.
There have been an endless array of moments where two companions stop to have an insightful conversation. Previous to this era, the New Series never had much time to do this. But we now get this type of interaction in great abundance.
There are countless examples: Ryan and Yaz's discussion about racism during Rosa. Graham pointing out to Yaz how incredible it is to be able to travel in time during Demons of Punjab. Graham praising Yaz for her courage during Timeless Children. And my absolute favorite: Ryan admitting to Yaz in Tsuranga Conundrum that he understands a bit better, now, why his Dad acts the way he does.
I absolutely love all these little sidebar conversations that occur. They let us see more vulnerable sides to our lead characters and make them far more three-dimensional than most New Who companions have been.
All because the episodes are just a few minutes longer than they used to be.
FINAL CONCLUSION:
In summary, I will say that the three companion dynamic we had in the first two seasons of Doctor Who was still the best one. All other companion combinations of this type are measured against its standard.
Having said that, however, the only trio that falls viciously short of that standard would be Ben, Polly and Jamie. Other fans may claim that Adric, Nyssa and Tegan and Yaz, Graham and Ryan all have too many problems - but I beg to differ. If you really take the time to examine these eras like I have, you'll see that they're not as strong as Ian, Barbara and Susan (and, later, Vicki) but they still stand up quite well. Should you have an extensive DVD collection like I do (or something else of that nature) go back and watch Keeper of Traken to Earthshock. Then watch Series Eleven and Twelve in one huge binge. You'll see all the nice little nuances that have been worked into the characters.
If you take a proper look, I think you'll find the Three Companion Dynamic works far better than you think.
Nothing feels better than completing a nice multi-part ANALYTICAL essay!
I think what I enjoy most is all the research that has to be done. Watching old episodes over with a special eye for certain details does great things for my Fan Heart. I will even admit that I really do think the Three Companion Dynamic, when properly handled, is the best formula for the show. The stories feel so much richer when you have so many lead characters to deal with. A lesser number of companions just doesn't work as well.
In my opinion, at least.
More ANALYTICAL essays:
Fixed Points in Time (my very first ANALYTICAL essay):
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/03/analytical-robll-fix-it-study-in.html
The Quality of Mercy (a look at the Doctor's sense of compassion)
Part 1:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/10/analytical-quality-of-mercy.html
Part 2:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2015/11/analytical-quality-of-mercy-honest-look.html
Progressive Doctors 2: The First Doctor -
Part 1:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2016/04/progressive-doctors-2-first-doctor-part.html
Part 2:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/01/analytical-progressive-doctors-first.html
Monday 13 April 2020
Tuesday 7 April 2020
ANALYTICAL: THREE'S COMPANY: WHAT MAKES A TRIO OF COMPANIONS WORK - PART 2: LATER ITERATIONS
Look at that! I'm actually sticking to my intentions and moving on to the second part of my latest topic. For once, I actually appear to have some degree of legitimate focus!
Part One of this essay looked at a three-companion dynamic that, without a doubt, worked enormously well. I tried to pick out a few important elements in that chemistry and highlight their importance.
As we embark upon Part Two, we're going to look at other periods where three companions travelled with the Doctor. We'll see how well they incorporated those core ingredients that I explored in Part One.
Just in case you missed Part One, you should take a look at it. Much of what I say, here, won't make a lot of sense if you don't. And, really, have you got anything better to do?!
Here's a link:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/04/analytical-threes-company-what-makes.html
Before we go too far into these later iterations of three companions and a Doctor, we do need to actually point out a few scenarios that we won't bother to examine. These periods, by technical definition, do have three companions participating in the adventure. Nonetheless, I still feel they don't properly qualify for any substantial dissection.
1) Extremely short periods
Some feel a character doesn't truly become a companion until after they've taken their first proper trip in the TARDIS. While they are still in their introductory story, they're just someone the Doctor has met. It's when the Time Lord invites them aboard at the end of that first story that the transformation into a "proper companion" begins.
I'm more of the persuasion that if we've been told that a character is going to be a new companion in the series, then they are that the moment we see them for the first time. But, if I adhere to that idea, then that means that a story like The War Machines is a three-companion era. Ben, Polly and Dodo are all having an adventure with the Doctor. Dodo does get written out of the story fairly early on, but there is just the briefest of time where all three characters are in the plot together.
The other period where we see "a short burst" like this is with the Fifth Doctor in Season 20. Turlough first gets introduced in Mawdryn Undead when Tegan and Nyssa are already aboard. Nyssa leaves the TARDIS a story later at the end of Terminus. But that does still mean we had three companions for two whole stories (or eight entire episodes if you really want to break it down).
To me, both of these instances are just too short for us to really take all that seriously. So I won't try to analyze the chemistry that was going on during those periods.
2) Robot companions
For the entirety of The E-Space Trilogy of Season Eighteen, the Doctor is travelling with Romana, Adric and K9. This should be considered a three-companion era. It's still pretty short, yes. But not that short.
We also see Kamelion joining the TARDIS near the end of Season Twenty during The King's Demons. He is meant to be wandering around in the time vessel during the better part of Season Twenty-One. We don't actually see him - but he's still about (sure wish they'd kept in that scene that they shot in The Awakening!). He has a presence again during Planet of Fire. But, at the end of the tale, the Doctor is forced to destroy him. While the shapeshifter is not onscreen during The Five Doctors and most of Season Twenty One, this should still all be a three companion era.
Whether a robot is a legitimate companion or not may become a POINT OF DEBATE essay for some time down the road. But, for now, I will just go on record saying that they are more a prop than an actual character. Which means that, for me, they don't qualify as a companion. So these would not be "true" instances of three companions travelling with the Doctor.
With that out of the way, we can now look at eras that do legitimately represent a three companion period. Sadly, this next case is one that I can't heap too much praise on.
BEN, POLLY AND JAMIE - THE WEAKEST LINK
I find it strange that fans will complain about Tegan, Nyssa and Adric or Ryan, Yaz and Graham but don't really go on that much about Ben, Polly and Jamie. More than likely, it's the fact that it's quite hard to actually get any kind of a genuine perspective of their era. There's only a handful of existing episodes that feature them. After that, it's novelisations, telesnaps and animation. All forms of entertainment that only so many fans are interested in indulging in.
But if you do bother to take a solid look at the stories of this period, you will find that most of the conventions that I enumerated in Part One of this essay are barely used. The TARDIS crew being broken up and working in smaller teams, for example, happens much less frequently. If you give a proper look at a lost story like The Macra Terror you'll see the three companions together for the better part of the first two episodes. Then, finally, they start splitting. Not only does such a writing decision rob us of an easier way to explore plot strands, but group scenes with a full three-person TARDIS crew become a struggle for dialogue distribution. Everyone just ends up getting a line here and there and conversations with the Doctor and his companions can become almost disjointed. Inevitably, you get a lot of actors standing around with nothing to say. Which can make for some very weak scenes. Whereas if the team divides quickly, everyone gets much juicier dialogue.
This era also seems to do almost the opposite of giving the Doctor a back seat. Here, the Doctor frequently abandons the rest of his team to work alone. Highlanders, Underwater Menace and Macra Terror all log in quite a bit of time where the Doctor has no companions with him. Instead, he's interacting a lot with supporting characters that only exist in those particular stories.These are, pretty much, the first steps that the show takes in really emphasising the Doctor as the protagonist of the series. Even when the First Doctor was travelling with just Steven and a female companion, he is only put so much to the forefront. But as Troughton takes the reigns, it really does feel like the show is about the Doctor, now.
Focusing more on the Doctor when you've still got three other leads that need attention was probably not the best of choices, though. Ben, Polly and Jamie become almost useless for a large period of time. If you really pay attention, you'll notice that the only real contribution Polly makes to any story occurs in The Moonbase when she comes up with a combination of chemicals that can injure a Cyberman's chestplate. The only time Ben helps to propel the plot in any serious way is at the end of Macra Terror. He diverts a crucial gas flow and blows up the Macra (but is only capable of doing it because the Doctor is shouting instructions to him through a door). Poor 'ole Jamie doesn't really get much of anything to do in most of these episodes. When things get whittled down to just two companions in Seasons Five and Six, placing the Doctor center stage really starts to work well . But Season Four should have adhered to a flatter team structure (see what I did, there?!).
No one tends to disappear for an episode much, either. Even when opportunities for an actor to get written out present themselves. During the early episodes of The Moonbase, for instance, Jamie gets injured whilst playing around in zero gravity. This could have easily worked in a similar manner to the Doctor's injury in Seeds of Death. Throw him on a gurney with his face concealed for an episode and let Frazer Hines visit the tropics for a week. But, instead, we do regular check-ins with him where he's sure an approaching Cybermen is the Phantom Piper. These sequences even become a bit tedious. Over and over, a Cybermen starts heading towards Jamie but then decides to snatch away another patient in the sick bay. The sense of repetition that's created just so Jamie is used enough in the episode feels almost silly. It would have been far better to just write him out for Part Two and give Ben and Polly a bit more to do.
Perhaps the biggest crime of all, though, is the lack of character arcs. There's a bit of an effort here and there to point out that Jamie comes from a very primitive culture and has a harder time understanding the things around him (ie: he calls a jet in Faceless Ones "a flying beastie"). But, otherwise, the companions come across as being fairly generic. Nothing about their past ever seems to really get brought up. Nor do we see them mature much in any kind of way. Every adventure Polly falls into danger.while Jamie and Ben handle a bit of action. Something that's been going on with male and female companions since the show's earliest days. Even though "earliest days" was only three seasons ago, the formula is starting to wear thin. Unless, of course, you "dress up" the characters a bit and make them seem like more than just a plot function. But this cast comes across as somewhat bland because the writers don't seem to be putting much effort into the finer details of any of these individuals. Even references to Ben being a sailor have all but disappeared.
All these devices that we brought up in Part One are not completely chucked to the curb, however. They do get employed from time-to-time. Sadly, though, they often get misused when they are. Jamie and Polly, for instance, do get separated and form a mini-team for a bit during the latter part of Underwater Menace. But all they end up doing is crawling along a ledge together as they try to escape the rising waters of Atlantis. For an entire episode, we just check back with them every few minutes to see them a bit further along in a tunnel as they flee in terror at the approaching flood. Like Jamie in Episode Two of Moonbase, the whole thing just starts feeling really redundant.
SOME BEHIND-THE-SCENES INFLUENCES
Fans like myself who have developed a keen analytical eye for Doctor Who because we have endlessly re-watched it will point out that the show does definitely have some weaker seasons. Many are quick to site Season Twenty-Four as one of them. But, if you really do your homework, Season Four is just as bad (possibly worse!). Again, it's a bit more difficult to examine the evidence - but it's there. Its poor handling of the three-companion dynamic is just one of many sins that the overall season commits.
I mention Season Twenty-Four, however, because much of its onscreen failings were the results of behind-the-scenes problems. First off, Colin Baker was fired and needed to be somewhat-hastily re-cast. This became particularly troublesome since he opted not to come back for a proper "swansong story" that would see him regenerate in the final episode.
But there were more problems than that. The script editor had quit in a huff towards the end of Season Twenty-Three and also needed quick replacing. When a new script editor is hired, the producer tries to get their predecessor to lead them by the hand for a bit. Andrew Cartmel, the man who got the job, was not afforded that grace. Essentially, two people in key positions had to hit the ground, running. And that only went so well.
In a similar fashion, problems with production seem to haunt Season Four. In this case, these issues relate directly to the companions.
It seems that Ben and Polly were created by an outbound production team. The new people filling their posts felt lumbered with these two and were interested in getting rid of Anneke Wills and Michael Craze as quickly as possible. When their contracts expired, they would be written out. This meant, of course, that not a whole lot of focus was put into the development of their characters. Which would account for a lot of their "uselessness" that I mention in the previous section. If the creators of a program have zero interest in their leads, the roles they're portraying probably won't be particularly stimulating. Ben and Polly can feel quite flat in places because of this.
The introduction of Jamie also represented some problems. It seems that he was originally meant to just be in one story. In the first version of the final scene of The Highlanders, he gets the Doctor, Ben and Polly back to the TARDIS and bids them farewell. More than likely, he was going to do that famous "look of bewilderment" that so many stories close on as the Police Box fades away before the eyes of a supporting character. It was decided, somewhat last-minute, that the scene would get re-written and Jamie would join them, after all.
Suddenly including Jamie like this would definitely create consequences for future scripts that weren't expecting him. He would now need to get shoe-horned into the plot. Existing dialogue that may have been meant for Ben and Polly would need to be, at least, partially re-allocated to him. This is why we have those "disjointed moments" I described where the entire TARDIS team is trying to have a discussion together. Quite likely, a lot of writers probably weren't even sure what to do with Jamie. Which is why he really doesn't seem to accomplish much in his first few stories. He tends to tag along with Ben a lot and offers some extra brute force where it might be needed. Otherwise, he does seem fairly superfluous.
Now, don't get me wrong, I do think Jamie is one of the best companions, ever. But a lot of the things that get us to fall in love with him only start happening when he's in the two-companion dynamic with either Victoria or Zoe. It probably would have been better for the production team to place Highlanders later in the season. Maybe just before The Faceless Ones. The lack of interest they were showing Ben and Polly would have still done some damage. But a lot less than what we got because Jamie almost seems to pop up out of nowhere several stories before Ben and Polly are meant to leave.
STARTING TO GET THINGS RIGHT
You may have noticed in my analysis that I haven't given much mention to The Faceless Ones. That's because I wanted to give it its own special section. I do think this adventure is a very nice turning point for this particular TARDIS team. Finally, we start seeing some of those elements I discussed in Part One of this essay being used in earnest.
Within the first few seconds of Episode One, the leads are split up. The Doctor and Jamie become a very definite team throughout the better part of the story. Ben and Polly get a fairly extended period of time off as both have disappeared by the end of Part Two and only really return at the end of the final episode. The Doctor even takes a bit of a back seat as quite a bit of time is devoted to Jamie and his new-found friend, Samantha. All those conventions that I think make a good three-companion dynamic work well are not only on display in this tale, they are well-crafted, too. This isn't Jamie and Polly crawling through water-filling tunnels again. Things are finally starting to look up...
Unfortunately, it's too little, too late. By the end of the adventure, this latest iteration of three companions get split up. Quite cleverly, Ben and Polly have returned to the exact same day that they left with the First Doctor in The War Machines. So they decide to return home and get on with their lives. It's a farewell that's only mildly better than the one Dodo got last season. Which really shows just how little they were cared about by key members of the production team.
Just as things were getting good, this particular three-companion combination is brought to a harsh end.
FINAL ANALYSIS
I've not said a lot of good things about this era. So, before I wrap this up, let me just add that it's not without its charms. Michael Craze and Anneke Wills really do try their best with what they've been served. Of particular note is Ben's struggle with the brainwashing he received during The Macra Terror. Even with the limited visuals that we have of that whole sequence, we get a sense that Craze is really going for it.
There was definitely a potential for this to be another great three companion era.While they are still just a twosome, Ben and Polly do seem quite interesting. Had concentration on their development continued as Jamie was brought in, we could have become very fond of them. If the characters had been better respected,.their departure during Faceless Ones might have packed the same emotional punch as Barbara and Ian leaving at the end of The Chase. And we certainly saw Jamie go on to bigger and better things. If only he'd been introduced at a better point in the season.
This really could have been a great time for the show. Sadly, some poor decisions were made. And several of those bad choices had a very strong bearing on the crafting of all three of these companions.
That's a fair amount of analysis, for now. I had really expected to cover all three periods where we had three companions. But it looks like I had a lot more to say about Ben, Polly and Jamie than I expected. So we'll take another break here and tackle those other two eras soon.
We might be able to look at both of them in just one more entry. Or I might blather on too much again and need to do this in four parts!
We'll see...
Here be a few more ANALYTICAL essays from Days Gone By....
Regeneration Recovery: Common Symptoms
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/01/analytical-regeneration-recovery-part-1.html
Crossing Time Streams - Part 1: Basic Rules
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/11/analytical-crossing-time-streams-part-1.html
Crossing Time Streams - Part 2
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/11/analytical-crossing-time-streams-part-2.html
Part One of this essay looked at a three-companion dynamic that, without a doubt, worked enormously well. I tried to pick out a few important elements in that chemistry and highlight their importance.
As we embark upon Part Two, we're going to look at other periods where three companions travelled with the Doctor. We'll see how well they incorporated those core ingredients that I explored in Part One.
Just in case you missed Part One, you should take a look at it. Much of what I say, here, won't make a lot of sense if you don't. And, really, have you got anything better to do?!
Here's a link:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2020/04/analytical-threes-company-what-makes.html
Before we go too far into these later iterations of three companions and a Doctor, we do need to actually point out a few scenarios that we won't bother to examine. These periods, by technical definition, do have three companions participating in the adventure. Nonetheless, I still feel they don't properly qualify for any substantial dissection.
1) Extremely short periods
Some feel a character doesn't truly become a companion until after they've taken their first proper trip in the TARDIS. While they are still in their introductory story, they're just someone the Doctor has met. It's when the Time Lord invites them aboard at the end of that first story that the transformation into a "proper companion" begins.
I'm more of the persuasion that if we've been told that a character is going to be a new companion in the series, then they are that the moment we see them for the first time. But, if I adhere to that idea, then that means that a story like The War Machines is a three-companion era. Ben, Polly and Dodo are all having an adventure with the Doctor. Dodo does get written out of the story fairly early on, but there is just the briefest of time where all three characters are in the plot together.
The other period where we see "a short burst" like this is with the Fifth Doctor in Season 20. Turlough first gets introduced in Mawdryn Undead when Tegan and Nyssa are already aboard. Nyssa leaves the TARDIS a story later at the end of Terminus. But that does still mean we had three companions for two whole stories (or eight entire episodes if you really want to break it down).
To me, both of these instances are just too short for us to really take all that seriously. So I won't try to analyze the chemistry that was going on during those periods.
2) Robot companions
For the entirety of The E-Space Trilogy of Season Eighteen, the Doctor is travelling with Romana, Adric and K9. This should be considered a three-companion era. It's still pretty short, yes. But not that short.
We also see Kamelion joining the TARDIS near the end of Season Twenty during The King's Demons. He is meant to be wandering around in the time vessel during the better part of Season Twenty-One. We don't actually see him - but he's still about (sure wish they'd kept in that scene that they shot in The Awakening!). He has a presence again during Planet of Fire. But, at the end of the tale, the Doctor is forced to destroy him. While the shapeshifter is not onscreen during The Five Doctors and most of Season Twenty One, this should still all be a three companion era.
Whether a robot is a legitimate companion or not may become a POINT OF DEBATE essay for some time down the road. But, for now, I will just go on record saying that they are more a prop than an actual character. Which means that, for me, they don't qualify as a companion. So these would not be "true" instances of three companions travelling with the Doctor.
With that out of the way, we can now look at eras that do legitimately represent a three companion period. Sadly, this next case is one that I can't heap too much praise on.
BEN, POLLY AND JAMIE - THE WEAKEST LINK
I find it strange that fans will complain about Tegan, Nyssa and Adric or Ryan, Yaz and Graham but don't really go on that much about Ben, Polly and Jamie. More than likely, it's the fact that it's quite hard to actually get any kind of a genuine perspective of their era. There's only a handful of existing episodes that feature them. After that, it's novelisations, telesnaps and animation. All forms of entertainment that only so many fans are interested in indulging in.
But if you do bother to take a solid look at the stories of this period, you will find that most of the conventions that I enumerated in Part One of this essay are barely used. The TARDIS crew being broken up and working in smaller teams, for example, happens much less frequently. If you give a proper look at a lost story like The Macra Terror you'll see the three companions together for the better part of the first two episodes. Then, finally, they start splitting. Not only does such a writing decision rob us of an easier way to explore plot strands, but group scenes with a full three-person TARDIS crew become a struggle for dialogue distribution. Everyone just ends up getting a line here and there and conversations with the Doctor and his companions can become almost disjointed. Inevitably, you get a lot of actors standing around with nothing to say. Which can make for some very weak scenes. Whereas if the team divides quickly, everyone gets much juicier dialogue.
This era also seems to do almost the opposite of giving the Doctor a back seat. Here, the Doctor frequently abandons the rest of his team to work alone. Highlanders, Underwater Menace and Macra Terror all log in quite a bit of time where the Doctor has no companions with him. Instead, he's interacting a lot with supporting characters that only exist in those particular stories.These are, pretty much, the first steps that the show takes in really emphasising the Doctor as the protagonist of the series. Even when the First Doctor was travelling with just Steven and a female companion, he is only put so much to the forefront. But as Troughton takes the reigns, it really does feel like the show is about the Doctor, now.
Focusing more on the Doctor when you've still got three other leads that need attention was probably not the best of choices, though. Ben, Polly and Jamie become almost useless for a large period of time. If you really pay attention, you'll notice that the only real contribution Polly makes to any story occurs in The Moonbase when she comes up with a combination of chemicals that can injure a Cyberman's chestplate. The only time Ben helps to propel the plot in any serious way is at the end of Macra Terror. He diverts a crucial gas flow and blows up the Macra (but is only capable of doing it because the Doctor is shouting instructions to him through a door). Poor 'ole Jamie doesn't really get much of anything to do in most of these episodes. When things get whittled down to just two companions in Seasons Five and Six, placing the Doctor center stage really starts to work well . But Season Four should have adhered to a flatter team structure (see what I did, there?!).
No one tends to disappear for an episode much, either. Even when opportunities for an actor to get written out present themselves. During the early episodes of The Moonbase, for instance, Jamie gets injured whilst playing around in zero gravity. This could have easily worked in a similar manner to the Doctor's injury in Seeds of Death. Throw him on a gurney with his face concealed for an episode and let Frazer Hines visit the tropics for a week. But, instead, we do regular check-ins with him where he's sure an approaching Cybermen is the Phantom Piper. These sequences even become a bit tedious. Over and over, a Cybermen starts heading towards Jamie but then decides to snatch away another patient in the sick bay. The sense of repetition that's created just so Jamie is used enough in the episode feels almost silly. It would have been far better to just write him out for Part Two and give Ben and Polly a bit more to do.
Perhaps the biggest crime of all, though, is the lack of character arcs. There's a bit of an effort here and there to point out that Jamie comes from a very primitive culture and has a harder time understanding the things around him (ie: he calls a jet in Faceless Ones "a flying beastie"). But, otherwise, the companions come across as being fairly generic. Nothing about their past ever seems to really get brought up. Nor do we see them mature much in any kind of way. Every adventure Polly falls into danger.while Jamie and Ben handle a bit of action. Something that's been going on with male and female companions since the show's earliest days. Even though "earliest days" was only three seasons ago, the formula is starting to wear thin. Unless, of course, you "dress up" the characters a bit and make them seem like more than just a plot function. But this cast comes across as somewhat bland because the writers don't seem to be putting much effort into the finer details of any of these individuals. Even references to Ben being a sailor have all but disappeared.
All these devices that we brought up in Part One are not completely chucked to the curb, however. They do get employed from time-to-time. Sadly, though, they often get misused when they are. Jamie and Polly, for instance, do get separated and form a mini-team for a bit during the latter part of Underwater Menace. But all they end up doing is crawling along a ledge together as they try to escape the rising waters of Atlantis. For an entire episode, we just check back with them every few minutes to see them a bit further along in a tunnel as they flee in terror at the approaching flood. Like Jamie in Episode Two of Moonbase, the whole thing just starts feeling really redundant.
SOME BEHIND-THE-SCENES INFLUENCES
Fans like myself who have developed a keen analytical eye for Doctor Who because we have endlessly re-watched it will point out that the show does definitely have some weaker seasons. Many are quick to site Season Twenty-Four as one of them. But, if you really do your homework, Season Four is just as bad (possibly worse!). Again, it's a bit more difficult to examine the evidence - but it's there. Its poor handling of the three-companion dynamic is just one of many sins that the overall season commits.
I mention Season Twenty-Four, however, because much of its onscreen failings were the results of behind-the-scenes problems. First off, Colin Baker was fired and needed to be somewhat-hastily re-cast. This became particularly troublesome since he opted not to come back for a proper "swansong story" that would see him regenerate in the final episode.
But there were more problems than that. The script editor had quit in a huff towards the end of Season Twenty-Three and also needed quick replacing. When a new script editor is hired, the producer tries to get their predecessor to lead them by the hand for a bit. Andrew Cartmel, the man who got the job, was not afforded that grace. Essentially, two people in key positions had to hit the ground, running. And that only went so well.
In a similar fashion, problems with production seem to haunt Season Four. In this case, these issues relate directly to the companions.
It seems that Ben and Polly were created by an outbound production team. The new people filling their posts felt lumbered with these two and were interested in getting rid of Anneke Wills and Michael Craze as quickly as possible. When their contracts expired, they would be written out. This meant, of course, that not a whole lot of focus was put into the development of their characters. Which would account for a lot of their "uselessness" that I mention in the previous section. If the creators of a program have zero interest in their leads, the roles they're portraying probably won't be particularly stimulating. Ben and Polly can feel quite flat in places because of this.
The introduction of Jamie also represented some problems. It seems that he was originally meant to just be in one story. In the first version of the final scene of The Highlanders, he gets the Doctor, Ben and Polly back to the TARDIS and bids them farewell. More than likely, he was going to do that famous "look of bewilderment" that so many stories close on as the Police Box fades away before the eyes of a supporting character. It was decided, somewhat last-minute, that the scene would get re-written and Jamie would join them, after all.
Suddenly including Jamie like this would definitely create consequences for future scripts that weren't expecting him. He would now need to get shoe-horned into the plot. Existing dialogue that may have been meant for Ben and Polly would need to be, at least, partially re-allocated to him. This is why we have those "disjointed moments" I described where the entire TARDIS team is trying to have a discussion together. Quite likely, a lot of writers probably weren't even sure what to do with Jamie. Which is why he really doesn't seem to accomplish much in his first few stories. He tends to tag along with Ben a lot and offers some extra brute force where it might be needed. Otherwise, he does seem fairly superfluous.
Now, don't get me wrong, I do think Jamie is one of the best companions, ever. But a lot of the things that get us to fall in love with him only start happening when he's in the two-companion dynamic with either Victoria or Zoe. It probably would have been better for the production team to place Highlanders later in the season. Maybe just before The Faceless Ones. The lack of interest they were showing Ben and Polly would have still done some damage. But a lot less than what we got because Jamie almost seems to pop up out of nowhere several stories before Ben and Polly are meant to leave.
STARTING TO GET THINGS RIGHT
You may have noticed in my analysis that I haven't given much mention to The Faceless Ones. That's because I wanted to give it its own special section. I do think this adventure is a very nice turning point for this particular TARDIS team. Finally, we start seeing some of those elements I discussed in Part One of this essay being used in earnest.
Within the first few seconds of Episode One, the leads are split up. The Doctor and Jamie become a very definite team throughout the better part of the story. Ben and Polly get a fairly extended period of time off as both have disappeared by the end of Part Two and only really return at the end of the final episode. The Doctor even takes a bit of a back seat as quite a bit of time is devoted to Jamie and his new-found friend, Samantha. All those conventions that I think make a good three-companion dynamic work well are not only on display in this tale, they are well-crafted, too. This isn't Jamie and Polly crawling through water-filling tunnels again. Things are finally starting to look up...
Unfortunately, it's too little, too late. By the end of the adventure, this latest iteration of three companions get split up. Quite cleverly, Ben and Polly have returned to the exact same day that they left with the First Doctor in The War Machines. So they decide to return home and get on with their lives. It's a farewell that's only mildly better than the one Dodo got last season. Which really shows just how little they were cared about by key members of the production team.
Just as things were getting good, this particular three-companion combination is brought to a harsh end.
FINAL ANALYSIS
I've not said a lot of good things about this era. So, before I wrap this up, let me just add that it's not without its charms. Michael Craze and Anneke Wills really do try their best with what they've been served. Of particular note is Ben's struggle with the brainwashing he received during The Macra Terror. Even with the limited visuals that we have of that whole sequence, we get a sense that Craze is really going for it.
There was definitely a potential for this to be another great three companion era.While they are still just a twosome, Ben and Polly do seem quite interesting. Had concentration on their development continued as Jamie was brought in, we could have become very fond of them. If the characters had been better respected,.their departure during Faceless Ones might have packed the same emotional punch as Barbara and Ian leaving at the end of The Chase. And we certainly saw Jamie go on to bigger and better things. If only he'd been introduced at a better point in the season.
This really could have been a great time for the show. Sadly, some poor decisions were made. And several of those bad choices had a very strong bearing on the crafting of all three of these companions.
That's a fair amount of analysis, for now. I had really expected to cover all three periods where we had three companions. But it looks like I had a lot more to say about Ben, Polly and Jamie than I expected. So we'll take another break here and tackle those other two eras soon.
We might be able to look at both of them in just one more entry. Or I might blather on too much again and need to do this in four parts!
We'll see...
Here be a few more ANALYTICAL essays from Days Gone By....
Regeneration Recovery: Common Symptoms
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/01/analytical-regeneration-recovery-part-1.html
Crossing Time Streams - Part 1: Basic Rules
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/11/analytical-crossing-time-streams-part-1.html
Crossing Time Streams - Part 2
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2018/11/analytical-crossing-time-streams-part-2.html
Sunday 5 April 2020
ANALYTICAL: THREE'S COMPANY: WHAT MAKES A TRIO OF COMPANIONS WORK - PART ONE: THE BASIC GROUND RULES
Once more, we continue with our regularly-scheduled posts. Series Twelve Mysteries and Pretentious Essay Anniversary Specials are well and truly out of the way. We've also got a pandemic that's making me stay indoors on top of that. So, really, I've got nothing better to do than to sit at my PC and write my little heart out (ironically, I'm not doing half the writing I could Really, I'm just napping a lot!)
THE THREE COMPANION DYNAMIC - NOT SUCH AN ODDITY
If we look at the overall history of the show (both Classic and New) the most common format that we see for the TARDIS crew is just one companion with the Doctor. This is how things were for the bulk of the 70s and the latter half off the 80s. A good chunk of the first four seasons of the Modern Series and then the end of Matt Smith and most of Capaldi also uses this format.
Occasionally, we get two companions. In New Who, it's usually a boyfriend or a husband who climbs aboard for a bit (or Nardole!). It's actually not seen all that frequently in the Original Series. Season Three is made up of mainly Steven and a female companion. The Second Doctor travels for his latter two seasons with Jamie and a female companion. Season Twelve is Sarah Jane and Harry. Finally, for about a season, the fifth Doctor travels with Tegan and Turlough.
And then of course, there's this wild new concept that Chibnall has introduced during the two seasons of his era: Three actual companions and a Doctor. How crazy is that?!
Not that crazy, of course, if you truly know the history of the show. Doctor Who's first two seasons were mainly made up of this dynamic. It returned to that format again in Season Four. When the show reached the early 80s, the TARDIS was, once more, populated by a Doctor and three companions for a time. So, while this might seem odd to those who are only following New Who, it's far from being a foreign concept to the entire show. It is, in fact, how things began.
NOT AN ODDITY - BUT DOES IT ACTUALLY WORK?
While three companions isn't as much of an oddity as some fans may think, many still argue that it's not a good format for the show. Since Chibnall took the reigns, there are those naysayer fans that are trying to tear his work down in any way they can. And one method they use is to claim that the TARDIS is too crowded with Ryan, Yaz and Graham. That there's just not enough room in a story to give the Doctor and three other leads the proper attention that they deserve.
Even people who do know their Classic Who will argue that three companions just doesn't work that well. They will point out the need to kill off Adric during Season 19 because three was one companion too much. Turlough travelling on the TARDIS with Nyssa and Teagan already on board was also kept mercifully short during Season 20. The production team was not going to make the same mistake twice. Nyssa was written out of the show just one story after Turlough was brought in.
If you've really done your homework, however, this theory falls flat. In the very beginning of Doctor Who - it looked as though three companions was going to be how the show functioned. Even after Susan left near the start of Season Two, Vicki was immediately brought in during the next story. No one had a problem with the concept of four passengers in the TARDIS in those first two seasons because the dynamic was very effective. I would even go so far to say that that this was some of the best TARDIS crews in the entire history of Doctor Who. Which was integral during these early days when the show was still developing an audience. Had we not totally fallen in love with these characters like we did, we might not have a show right now.
It may be possible that later iterations of the three companion dynamic don't work as well. They may have been lacking vital ingredients that existed with the original TARDIS teams.
INGREDIENTS FOR A GOOD THREE COMPANION DYNAMIC
If we go by the Ian, Barbara, Susan (and, subsequently, Vicki) line-up, there are a couple of themes running through the character chemistry that I feel really helped make it such a success. Pedant that I am, I will go to the trouble of enumerating them and giving them a bit of a breakdown:
1) Breaking up the team:
Stories during this period always began with all four members of the TARDIS crew talking together in the console room as they landed. For at least a little time during Episode One, they would explore their new environment together. But then, inevitably, the team would start to separate. Sometimes by choice. Like in The Chase where Vicki wants to go exploring and Ian goes after her to make sure she doesn't get into trouble (surprise, surprise - they do!). But, more often than not, the gang gets forced apart. The Reign of Terror, for instance, sees the Doctor trapped in a room in a safehouse while Ian, Susan and Barbara are hauled off by Robespierre's soldiers. Once more, against their will, the team gets split apart even more at the Consergerie when they are assigned to different cells.
There are many advantages to this sort of convention. The biggest one being that individual plot threads can get explored more thoroughly and we are given a fuller adventure. Longer stories like The Web Planet benefit from this enormously. There are several separations and reunions that take place across the six episodes. These splits can happen quite organically. Right in the first episode, the Doctor and Ian go outside to try to find out what's grounded the TARDIS. Barbara then leaves Vicki to her own devices because her gold bracelet allows the Animus to control her mind. Under deep hypnosis, she exits the console room. A further break-up occurs near the end of the episode when the Doctor races back to the TARDIS to find something to help Ian who has been injured by a trap he fell into. Much to his dismay, the Time Lord returns to where they landed and discovers his ship has been moved. For a brief moment, all four of them are alone. Getting the full crew to part ways like this enables the script writer to explore all kinds of different things that are transpiring on Vortis. Which gives a better overall flow to such an ambitious tale.
But even the shorter four-parters like, say, The Romans or The Crusade (or even a two-parter like The Rescue) benefit from this. When a larger crew breaks up, the story can become richer. We don't quite get this advantage in smaller TARDIS crews. We can still experience it a bit - but not quite to the same extent.
2) It's not just about breaking up - it's about smaller teams
Very rarely is the separation of the TARDIS team absolute. Rather than having all four characters get split up, they tend to form a team or two. Very often, Vicki or Susan would stay with the Doctor so he could watch over them. Ian and Barbara might each get forced into their own individual plot thread for a while or they might stay together as a second team.
Just as interestingly, Susan or Vicki might spend some time with Ian or Barbara. In Planet of Giants, for instance, Susan first starts exploring with Ian. Or Vicki is with both Ian and Barbara for the better chunk of Episode Two of The Space Museum when the Xerons intercept the Doctor.
Creating smaller teams like this does great things for character growth. We see something like this demonstrated effectively with the way the Doctor is often more apologetic to Barbara. So when it's just the two of them interacting, we are quicker to see his softer side. This gives us a very nice moment during the last few minutes of Edge of Destruction.
Another great demonstration of this idea is the speculation that Ian and Barbara might actually be falling very slowly in love. Watching the two of them enjoy some domestic bliss together during The Romans while Vicki and the Doctor part for Rome definitely helps establish this. Who knows what might have happened between these two had those slave-traders not come along...
There are some great opportunities for subplots within the TARDIS crew, itself, to develop when these little teams get created for brief instances. Something that becomes much harder to achieve when there's less people travelling in the time machine. It's more difficult for a companion to reveal things about themselves to supporting characters that they have just met for that story. But when you have teams of people who are familiar with each other, it's easier to bring out subtler nuances about the leads. These subtleties are seen best when the crew works in these smaller teams. With private discussions between less crewmembers, more can be revealed.
3) Full-on "breaks" for certain characters
The rigorous filming schedule during 60s Who meant that the writers would often create some way of making a main character disappear for an episode or two. This enabled the actor playing that role to get a brief rest from all the work. This didn't just happen during three companion situations, it was done throughout the entire black-and-white era. Just look at a story like Seeds of Death in Season Six. The Second Doctor is knocked out by an exploding seed pod and we just see his unconscious body for the better part of an episode. During that section of the story, Patrick Troughton went off on a quick holiday to help refresh him. Seeds of Death, however, featured a Doctor who was only travelling with two companions - not three.
But a three companion dynamic benefited from these breaks the most. The truth of the matter is: it is still tough for a writer to give something to everyone when you have so many leads. If one of them does disappear for a bit, it gives a better opportunity for the remaining characters to shine. The Keys of Marinus demonstrates this very well. The Doctor sets his travel dial to deliver him a few destinations ahead of everyone else. For a while, we get to see just Ian, Barbara and Susan working together. This gets whittled down even more when Barbara falls into a trap in the jungle and Susan goes ahead to the polar region with Altos and Sabetha. Now it's just Ian and Barbara for a bit as they face a perilous adventure. Even after they figure out the location of the hidden key and move on to a cliffhanger, we still enjoy just the two of them for the first few minutes of the next episode.
Something similar happens a few stories later in The Sensorites. Barbara stays on board the space ship for a bit while the rest go down to the Sense-Sphere. The Doctor, Ian and Susan get a better spotlight while Jacqueline Hill gets a nice rest. While these mini-holidays might cause a character to be absent from a story for a bit, it prevented a greater sense of character neglect to occur in the grander scheme of things.
4) The Doctor takes more of a back seat
When a writer is trying to make sure a larger cast all has something to do, this does mean that the Doctor's influence in a story will probably become a bit more reduced. For fans who prefer to see the Doctor as a bit of a superhero who accomplishes everything, this might be a turn off. But I actually feel this works a bit better.
The smaller the TARDIS crew, the more obvious the formula of the show becomes. Particularly when it is just the Doctor and one companion. Basically, it's all about the Doctor solving all the conflicts and the companion asking what he's doing so that things get explained to the audience. A larger amount of companions causes this to become less blatant. In many ways, it also makes the show a bit more realistic.
Just look at the conclusion of Dalek Invasion of Earth. The Doctor is busy up in the Main Control Center of the Daleks trying to liberate Barbara and creating a Robomen Revolution. Susan is with her new boyfriend destroying an important radio beacon. Ian is down in the mineshaft diverting a bomb from reaching the planet's core. If this story had taken place a few years down the road with, say, the Third or Fourth Doctor, he would have probably handled all these crises in rapid succession. With Jo or Sarah Jane trailing after him, requiring an explanation of things. Admittedly, this can make the whole adventure feel a bit more harrowing and increase the thrill factor. But it can also stretch the credulity of things. Can anyone really accomplish so much in so little time? I sincerely believe a moment like this works way better with a larger TARDIS crew dividing the labor and even sharing the heroism. The story just ends better with a prevailing sense of teamwork rather than a celebration of the awesomeness of just one character. Okay, the ending of Dalek Invasion of Earth was still a bit sad because Susan left - but you take my point!
To me, a story is far richer when all the characters seem more useful. This is more likely to happen when a writer has to genuinely concentrate on the issue. During those early days of three companions, a writer had no choice but to make this their priority. If that means the Doctor isn't quite as big of a center of attention, I'm very much okay with that. In fact, I think it makes for a fuller adventure.
5) Better character arcs among the companions
I've touched upon this a bit in some of my previous points, but I think it also should be a point in itself. Splitting up the companions, making them into smaller teams, giving lead actors breaks and putting the Doctor in the back seat all get a writer to pay better attention to the team they are building. This, in turn, creates better ongoing arcs with these characters. Little things going on with the companions get touched upon on a more regular basis. Which gives us a better sense of overall character growth.
We see this with everyone involved in those first two seasons. For the first little while, Ian and Barbara just want to get back home. That is their core motivation at the start of the series. Over time, however, they do become attached to the Doctor and Susan and start to genuinely enjoy their travels. When Susan leaves, they even take on a bit of responsibility with the Doctor - thinking they should actually look after him (something the Doctor quite angrily rebels against in Episode One of The Romans). When, at last, they find an opportunity to return to their proper time and place - there is a degree of reluctance to them. They are happy to make it back, but it is tinged with sadness. They will miss the time they spent aboard the TARDIS.
We see a nice struggle in Susan throughout Season One. She loves her grandfather but also wants to become more independent. To find an identity of her own outside the protective wing he always seems to keep over her. This results in quite the blow-out between them during The Sensorites when she wants to go down to the Sense-Sphere alone. Eventually, of course, Susan does find a life for herself with David Campbell. But, even then, she appears to not have the strength to leave. In a very touching gesture, the Doctor locks her out of the TARDIS and bids her farewell through the scanner screen.
And then, of course, there's the Doctor, himself. An almost narcissistic anti-hero at the beginning of the series who seems ready to actually end a caveman's life simply because he is slowing him down. By the end of Season Two, he has done an almost complete about-face. While still possessing a temper that can send even the bravest opposition fleeing, he is also very warm and compassionate. He has shifted from a mere traveller exploring the Universe to someone who seeks to bring justice to the oppressed and maintain a sense of fairness everywhere he goes.
Even Vicki, who only gets a handful of stories in the three-companion dynamic, goes through a bit of growth. As an orphan, she is struggling with some pretty big abandonment issues. We see her admitting to those fears on several occasions (even as late as The Crusade - which is quite a few episodes in to her time aboard the TARDIS). Slowly but surely, she accepts that the Doctor, Ian and Barbara are her family, now. And they are going to provide her with the stability she needs.
Again, all this great character development happens because a larger TARDIS team like this is better at compelling an author to look after such things. It is, perhaps, the best thing about this many companions. Everyone comes across as more three-dimensional.
Those five points, to me, are what made those first two seasons of Doctor Who so great. At least, from the perspective of how the main characters were handled. There's much to be said about other structural elements that also made it into the show (the scare factor created by effectively-written monsters, the injection of light comedy, etc....) but these are what got us to fall in love with the Doctor and his three intrepid companions that accompanied him in the earliest days of his travels. Future combinations of this nature should be keeping all of these elements in mind as they seek to re-create that dynamic.
Sadly, this is not always what happens. In some instances, these critical factors get largely ignored. This is especially the case with the next time three companions become a regular feature of the show.
With these five basic principles laid down, we'll end Part One here. Part Two will explore those other periods where three companions were travelling with the Doctor. We'll look at how much or how little these five key elements were used.
ANALYTICAL essays are, without a doubt, my favorite type of essay to write. Here are a few others that I've done over the years:
The Psychology Behind Multi-Incarnation Encounters:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/11/analytical-psychology-behind-multi.html
What Lies Beyond the Whoniverse:
Part One:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/10/analytical-going-beyond-guided-tour.html
Part Two:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/10/analytical-going-beyond-guided-tour_31.html
Missions for the Time Lords:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/05/analytical-missions-for-time-lords.html
There are many advantages to this sort of convention. The biggest one being that individual plot threads can get explored more thoroughly and we are given a fuller adventure. Longer stories like The Web Planet benefit from this enormously. There are several separations and reunions that take place across the six episodes. These splits can happen quite organically. Right in the first episode, the Doctor and Ian go outside to try to find out what's grounded the TARDIS. Barbara then leaves Vicki to her own devices because her gold bracelet allows the Animus to control her mind. Under deep hypnosis, she exits the console room. A further break-up occurs near the end of the episode when the Doctor races back to the TARDIS to find something to help Ian who has been injured by a trap he fell into. Much to his dismay, the Time Lord returns to where they landed and discovers his ship has been moved. For a brief moment, all four of them are alone. Getting the full crew to part ways like this enables the script writer to explore all kinds of different things that are transpiring on Vortis. Which gives a better overall flow to such an ambitious tale.
But even the shorter four-parters like, say, The Romans or The Crusade (or even a two-parter like The Rescue) benefit from this. When a larger crew breaks up, the story can become richer. We don't quite get this advantage in smaller TARDIS crews. We can still experience it a bit - but not quite to the same extent.
2) It's not just about breaking up - it's about smaller teams
Very rarely is the separation of the TARDIS team absolute. Rather than having all four characters get split up, they tend to form a team or two. Very often, Vicki or Susan would stay with the Doctor so he could watch over them. Ian and Barbara might each get forced into their own individual plot thread for a while or they might stay together as a second team.
Just as interestingly, Susan or Vicki might spend some time with Ian or Barbara. In Planet of Giants, for instance, Susan first starts exploring with Ian. Or Vicki is with both Ian and Barbara for the better chunk of Episode Two of The Space Museum when the Xerons intercept the Doctor.
Creating smaller teams like this does great things for character growth. We see something like this demonstrated effectively with the way the Doctor is often more apologetic to Barbara. So when it's just the two of them interacting, we are quicker to see his softer side. This gives us a very nice moment during the last few minutes of Edge of Destruction.
Another great demonstration of this idea is the speculation that Ian and Barbara might actually be falling very slowly in love. Watching the two of them enjoy some domestic bliss together during The Romans while Vicki and the Doctor part for Rome definitely helps establish this. Who knows what might have happened between these two had those slave-traders not come along...
There are some great opportunities for subplots within the TARDIS crew, itself, to develop when these little teams get created for brief instances. Something that becomes much harder to achieve when there's less people travelling in the time machine. It's more difficult for a companion to reveal things about themselves to supporting characters that they have just met for that story. But when you have teams of people who are familiar with each other, it's easier to bring out subtler nuances about the leads. These subtleties are seen best when the crew works in these smaller teams. With private discussions between less crewmembers, more can be revealed.
3) Full-on "breaks" for certain characters
The rigorous filming schedule during 60s Who meant that the writers would often create some way of making a main character disappear for an episode or two. This enabled the actor playing that role to get a brief rest from all the work. This didn't just happen during three companion situations, it was done throughout the entire black-and-white era. Just look at a story like Seeds of Death in Season Six. The Second Doctor is knocked out by an exploding seed pod and we just see his unconscious body for the better part of an episode. During that section of the story, Patrick Troughton went off on a quick holiday to help refresh him. Seeds of Death, however, featured a Doctor who was only travelling with two companions - not three.
But a three companion dynamic benefited from these breaks the most. The truth of the matter is: it is still tough for a writer to give something to everyone when you have so many leads. If one of them does disappear for a bit, it gives a better opportunity for the remaining characters to shine. The Keys of Marinus demonstrates this very well. The Doctor sets his travel dial to deliver him a few destinations ahead of everyone else. For a while, we get to see just Ian, Barbara and Susan working together. This gets whittled down even more when Barbara falls into a trap in the jungle and Susan goes ahead to the polar region with Altos and Sabetha. Now it's just Ian and Barbara for a bit as they face a perilous adventure. Even after they figure out the location of the hidden key and move on to a cliffhanger, we still enjoy just the two of them for the first few minutes of the next episode.
Something similar happens a few stories later in The Sensorites. Barbara stays on board the space ship for a bit while the rest go down to the Sense-Sphere. The Doctor, Ian and Susan get a better spotlight while Jacqueline Hill gets a nice rest. While these mini-holidays might cause a character to be absent from a story for a bit, it prevented a greater sense of character neglect to occur in the grander scheme of things.
4) The Doctor takes more of a back seat
When a writer is trying to make sure a larger cast all has something to do, this does mean that the Doctor's influence in a story will probably become a bit more reduced. For fans who prefer to see the Doctor as a bit of a superhero who accomplishes everything, this might be a turn off. But I actually feel this works a bit better.
The smaller the TARDIS crew, the more obvious the formula of the show becomes. Particularly when it is just the Doctor and one companion. Basically, it's all about the Doctor solving all the conflicts and the companion asking what he's doing so that things get explained to the audience. A larger amount of companions causes this to become less blatant. In many ways, it also makes the show a bit more realistic.
Just look at the conclusion of Dalek Invasion of Earth. The Doctor is busy up in the Main Control Center of the Daleks trying to liberate Barbara and creating a Robomen Revolution. Susan is with her new boyfriend destroying an important radio beacon. Ian is down in the mineshaft diverting a bomb from reaching the planet's core. If this story had taken place a few years down the road with, say, the Third or Fourth Doctor, he would have probably handled all these crises in rapid succession. With Jo or Sarah Jane trailing after him, requiring an explanation of things. Admittedly, this can make the whole adventure feel a bit more harrowing and increase the thrill factor. But it can also stretch the credulity of things. Can anyone really accomplish so much in so little time? I sincerely believe a moment like this works way better with a larger TARDIS crew dividing the labor and even sharing the heroism. The story just ends better with a prevailing sense of teamwork rather than a celebration of the awesomeness of just one character. Okay, the ending of Dalek Invasion of Earth was still a bit sad because Susan left - but you take my point!
To me, a story is far richer when all the characters seem more useful. This is more likely to happen when a writer has to genuinely concentrate on the issue. During those early days of three companions, a writer had no choice but to make this their priority. If that means the Doctor isn't quite as big of a center of attention, I'm very much okay with that. In fact, I think it makes for a fuller adventure.
5) Better character arcs among the companions
I've touched upon this a bit in some of my previous points, but I think it also should be a point in itself. Splitting up the companions, making them into smaller teams, giving lead actors breaks and putting the Doctor in the back seat all get a writer to pay better attention to the team they are building. This, in turn, creates better ongoing arcs with these characters. Little things going on with the companions get touched upon on a more regular basis. Which gives us a better sense of overall character growth.
We see this with everyone involved in those first two seasons. For the first little while, Ian and Barbara just want to get back home. That is their core motivation at the start of the series. Over time, however, they do become attached to the Doctor and Susan and start to genuinely enjoy their travels. When Susan leaves, they even take on a bit of responsibility with the Doctor - thinking they should actually look after him (something the Doctor quite angrily rebels against in Episode One of The Romans). When, at last, they find an opportunity to return to their proper time and place - there is a degree of reluctance to them. They are happy to make it back, but it is tinged with sadness. They will miss the time they spent aboard the TARDIS.
We see a nice struggle in Susan throughout Season One. She loves her grandfather but also wants to become more independent. To find an identity of her own outside the protective wing he always seems to keep over her. This results in quite the blow-out between them during The Sensorites when she wants to go down to the Sense-Sphere alone. Eventually, of course, Susan does find a life for herself with David Campbell. But, even then, she appears to not have the strength to leave. In a very touching gesture, the Doctor locks her out of the TARDIS and bids her farewell through the scanner screen.
And then, of course, there's the Doctor, himself. An almost narcissistic anti-hero at the beginning of the series who seems ready to actually end a caveman's life simply because he is slowing him down. By the end of Season Two, he has done an almost complete about-face. While still possessing a temper that can send even the bravest opposition fleeing, he is also very warm and compassionate. He has shifted from a mere traveller exploring the Universe to someone who seeks to bring justice to the oppressed and maintain a sense of fairness everywhere he goes.
Even Vicki, who only gets a handful of stories in the three-companion dynamic, goes through a bit of growth. As an orphan, she is struggling with some pretty big abandonment issues. We see her admitting to those fears on several occasions (even as late as The Crusade - which is quite a few episodes in to her time aboard the TARDIS). Slowly but surely, she accepts that the Doctor, Ian and Barbara are her family, now. And they are going to provide her with the stability she needs.
Again, all this great character development happens because a larger TARDIS team like this is better at compelling an author to look after such things. It is, perhaps, the best thing about this many companions. Everyone comes across as more three-dimensional.
Those five points, to me, are what made those first two seasons of Doctor Who so great. At least, from the perspective of how the main characters were handled. There's much to be said about other structural elements that also made it into the show (the scare factor created by effectively-written monsters, the injection of light comedy, etc....) but these are what got us to fall in love with the Doctor and his three intrepid companions that accompanied him in the earliest days of his travels. Future combinations of this nature should be keeping all of these elements in mind as they seek to re-create that dynamic.
Sadly, this is not always what happens. In some instances, these critical factors get largely ignored. This is especially the case with the next time three companions become a regular feature of the show.
With these five basic principles laid down, we'll end Part One here. Part Two will explore those other periods where three companions were travelling with the Doctor. We'll look at how much or how little these five key elements were used.
ANALYTICAL essays are, without a doubt, my favorite type of essay to write. Here are a few others that I've done over the years:
The Psychology Behind Multi-Incarnation Encounters:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/11/analytical-psychology-behind-multi.html
What Lies Beyond the Whoniverse:
Part One:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/10/analytical-going-beyond-guided-tour.html
Part Two:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2019/10/analytical-going-beyond-guided-tour_31.html
Missions for the Time Lords:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2017/05/analytical-missions-for-time-lords.html
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