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
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for the comment! It will be posted shortly...