It's time for Season Reviews to step aside again for a bit so we can do something else. Should We Consider Them Companions? has been a popular series, of late. It's amazing how many characters have been on the show that fall into such a grey area that I'm able to have so many debates of this nature!
Having done exhaustive research into the long history of the Brigadier in our last entry on this subject, we will now do the exact opposite and look into someone of considerably less longevity. Back in Series One of New Who, we had Adam roll in for just two episodes. The character was used in a very unique way. He appeared to be someone who was meant to become a companion but had, somehow, failed. Even Turlough, who was trying to kill the Doctor when he first climbed aboard the TARDIS, did a better job than Adam did!
He was also meant to illustrate just how good of a person Rose actually was. That she was travelling with the Doctor for all the right reasons and that the Doctor valued her greatly because of it. Of course, she would get knocked off her pedestal an episode later when she breaks all sorts of major Time Laws during Father's Day. But that was, perhaps, one more purpose that Adam had in the whole narrative: To show that the Doctor was idealising Rose too much.
Whatever the case, I do think Adam was used very well in Series One. His small presence in the show achieved several important goals in the whole arc of the season. Bruno Langley - even though he's done some serious things that have gotten him cancelled - still does a great job of playing the role.
But the question still remains: Do we actually consider Adam Mitchell a proper companion?
PUTTIN' HIM THROUGH THE QUALIFIERS
While I have done quite a few of these essays, this may still be your first time encountering one. Or, you may have just forgotten my basic format since it has been a while since I've written this sort of entry. So I will quickly recap what I think a character in Doctor Who needs to have to be considered a companion:
1) Onscreen Longevity: A character has to be on the show for an extended period of time. We have to actually see them in a large number of episodes.
2) Travelling in the TARDIS story-to-story: A companion leaves with the Doctor at the end of a story and goes on to travel with him for several more.
If you'd like a more in-depth examination of these two traits, check out this link: https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/03/point-of-debate-should-we-consider-them.html
Let's see how Adam fares when we run him through the Qualifiers....
TRAIT #1: HOW LONG OF A GAME DID ADAM PLAY?
So, as mentioned, Adam only gets two episodes: Dalek and The Long Game. It's not much, really. Which means he's not doing particularly well in the longevity department. For a companion to really be considered one, they should get a good season under their belt.
If we want to give Adam just a bit more credibility, we can point out that one episode of New Who is the equivalent of two episodes from the Classic Series. So, by Old Who standards, he actually got four episodes. But this still doesn't help him much. Four episodes only equates to the average length of one story from the show in its original run. So that doesn't really make all that great a difference.
We can build a bit more of a case for Adam by pointing out that not all companions stay for an entire season. Later on in Series One, itself, Captain Jack will come along and only get five episodes before he goes. Fans, for the most part, seem to consider that an adequate enough time to qualify him as a companion (who would, of course, eventually become a recurring character). There are other examples like this. Dodo would be another character who stays on for less than a season but still achieves companion status.
So, if other people can get less than a season in and still be companions, maybe we can think the same about Adam. Especially when you consider that Nine only got a season before he went. Things that happen during his brief era have to be a bit condensed since he was only around for so long, himself. This justification does, sort of, make it conceivable that Adam could be a companion even with such short longevity.
TRAIT #2: HOW LONG BEFORE THE DOCTOR DECIDES HE ONLY TRAVELS WITH THE BEST?
For the second trait that a character needs to become a companion, Adam does meet the minimum requirement. At the end of Dalek, he does climb aboard the TARDIS and travels into The Long Game. To me, it is crucial that a companion does this. They need to depart from one story and travel into the next. There are any number of characters in the show's history that travel in the TARDIS for the course of one tale. But this does not qualify them as a companion. Once they start making it into other adventures, however, my outlook on them changes.
Of course, a really proper companion travels to more than just one new story. They should make it through several adventures before they depart. They don't have to do this as often as, say, Tegan or Sarah Jane Smith - but they should still be taking quite a few trips.
Which does mean that, maybe, Adam doesn't quite measure up in this department, either. Is journeying to just one new story really enough? Maybe it makes a character a little bit more special - but it doesn't, necessarily, give them companion status.
In terms of this particular trait, Adam sits in the same general area as Katarina. Who, of course, received her own entry in this series only a short while ago (although she had to share it with Sara Kingdom!). I left it somewhat ambiguous as to whether she was truly a companion just because she took one trip into a new story. I think we have to do the same with Adam.
MORE ARGUMENTS AGAINST
There is a very vital point that we could make against Adam being a companion. Throughout his all-too-brief era, he actually seems more like an an enemy to the Doctor than a friend. Or, at the very least, he is definitely a thorn in the Time Lord's side. In Dalek, he is working for Henry Van Statten. Who is, very much, the villain of the story (he might even be worse than the actual Dalek - even the Doctor points this out!). Which makes Adam, through guilt of association, a bit of an antagonist, too.
As we shift to Long Game, he becomes even worse. We can see that succinct moment where he pockets the phone Rose has forgotten to take back from him and thinks to himself: "I'm going to use this to my advantage!" Later in the plot, he tries to leave a message for himself in the past that will enable him to reap all sorts of rewards from his foreknowledge of events to come. His quest to gather even more information for his benefit leads him to a situation that legitimately endangers the life of the Doctor and Rose.
His poor judgement eventually leads the Doctor to being furious with him. He returns Adam to his proper place in Time and Space with the results of his operation still intact. Forcing him to have to "lie low" for the rest of his existence and never make much of himself. Otherwise, people will notice that his forehead can swing open and probably want to dissect him in order to understand how he does it!
Clearly, the Doctor and Adam part ways on very bad terms.
Companions, for the most part, are good guys. They help the Doctor - not hinder him. The Time Lord also tends to get along fairly well with his companions. They become close friends. Very little of this sort of thing goes on between the Doctor and Adam. For the most part, the genius human just causes trouble. He even competes with the Doctor, a bit, for Rose's hand!
Can we truly consider someone who creates so much turbulence in the Doctor's life a companion?
It's difficult to say, really. Not all of the relationships the Doctor has had with his companions have been so positive all the time. As we already mentioned earlier, Turlough actually wants to kill the Doctor when he is travelling with him for the first little while. Even when he makes the decision to break his "assassination contract" with the Black Guardian, he's not always the most likeable person. He frequently implores the Doctor and other characters to quit trying to be heroes and choose actions that will lead to self-preservation.
Tegan tends to judge Turlough for being like this even though she doesn't always have the most harmonious relationship with the Time Lord, either. She does tend to bully him a bit here and there and gives him the most thorough of tongue-lashings at the beginning of The Visitation. They also don't part on the best of terms at the end of Resurrection of the Daleks. It's not as bad as the split the Doctor and Adam had - but it's not that great, either.
Adric and the Doctor can definitely lock horns, too. Particularly after the Time Lord's fourth regeneration. Their bickering reaches its crescendo during Earthshock. It should also be pointed out that, for a brief time during Four to Doomsday, he takes the side of the story's villain (there are other occasions where he appears to betray the Doctor but we do, eventually, discover that he's just doing this to lull his opponent into a false sense of security that he will press to his advantage at the appropriate moment - ie: he pretends to join the vampires in State of Decay but still tries to save Romana when they are trying to sacrifice her).
Peri has a very difficult time accepting the Doctor's Sixth Personae and argues with him frequently. To the point where the Doctor jokes about it at the end of Mark of the Rani.
These are just some examples of relationships between the Doctor and a companion becoming rocky that took place in the 80s. They happen in other eras of the show, too. Ian and Barbara fight quite a bit with the Doctor for being so callous during most of Season One. Ben also starts siding with the bad guys during Macra Terror. Clara experiences a very similar situation to Peri when Eleven transforms into Twelve.
The Doctor does not always get along well with his companions. In fact, he will become extremely hostile with Rose in the very next episode. So, if we try to disqualify Adam because he created some problems for the Time Lord then we would have to discount a whole bunch of other companions as well.
However, it should be pointed out that, with other companions, the Doctor tends to mend fences with them, eventually. Adam and the Doctor don't ever really get on that well. So there might still be some validity to this point.
SOME ARGUMENTS FOR
There are some other issues that increase Adam's sense of significance that we should also look at.
In the short time that Adam is around, it is clear that a romance of sorts starts to develop between him and Rose. It reaches its end pretty quickly as we get to about the mid-way point of Long Game. But it's still exists for a substantial period of time before it dies. Giving such a storyline to Adam definitely makes him seem like a bit more than just a mere support (it is also one more way in which the character is "used" by RTD - he helps to demonstrate that the Doctor and Rose are developing deeper feelings for each other). The fact that Mickey, another love in Rose's life, becomes a valid companion next season helps to re-enforce this idea. Climb aboard the TARDIS because you're hot for someone on it, and this entitles you to become a companion.
Of course, we can still invalidate this point quite easily. Ace, alone, had several romances bloom as she travelled with the Doctor. But I wouldn't consider Mike from Remembrance of the Daleks or Captain Sorin from Curse of Fenric to be companions. So, maybe being an existing companion's love-interest doesn't earn you the status of a companion, after all.
It should be noted, however, that neither Mike nor Sorin actually get a chance to travel in the TARDIS. Both end up dying before the closing credits of Episode Four. So they had the potential to be more than just supports. If they had survived, Ace might have asked the Doctor if they could come along on new adventures so that she could continue to explore her feelings for them. Unfortunately, the opportunity was just never allowed to happen.
Which leads us to another point in Adam's favour: Potential. In many ways, he was meant to be a companion. It's just that certain circumstances and/or bad choices got in the way of things. Again, he fits the profile of Katarina quite a bit. Her potential, too, was nipped in the bud. In her case, at least, she died heroically. Whereas Adam was kicked off the TARDIS.
Which is, of course, the one thing that sets the two "possible companions" apart and could be what disqualifies Adam, altogether. Katarina was still in the Doctor's Good Graces when she went. He would have wanted her to keep travelling with him if she hadn't sacrificed her life. Whereas the Doctor was done with Adam. The young man was still alive, but he was not wanted aboard the TARDIS anymore.
Mind you, it could be argued that the Doctor might have been a bit too hard on Adam and should have given him another chance. Which, once more, shifts him back to the status of a companion who was meant to be. Which, in turn, could actually make him a "proper" companion.
COMPLETE AND UTTER SILLINESS
There is one final point I wish to make in this argument. It's one that's in favor of Adam being a companion. But, admittedly, it's fairly ridiculous.
The Ninth Doctor's era is far too short. He was a magnificent Doctor who really should have done, at least, the standard three seasons. Although, I loved Eccelston's performance so much that he could have easily beaten Tom Baker's record and I would have been fine with that. Especially since he really does seem to have resolved the bulk of his Survivor's Guilt by the end of Series One. It would have been nice to see what they would have done with the character after that. The Ninth Doctor's sense of angst was never grating (unlike the Tenth's!), but I would have assumed that, from his second series onward, we wouldn't have seen much of it. A much "lighter" Ninth Doctor who is enjoying life more would have made interesting viewing.
Sadly, Eccleston was having too much trouble with BBC politics and decided to only do one season. Which, in some ways, worked best for the show. It introduced the new audience that was coming onboard to the concept of regeneration very quickly. Doctor Who might not have survived if we had gotten several more years of Nine. He might have been loved so much that it would be impossible for new fans to accept a different Doctor after him.
So here's where the actual silliness comes in: Because his era was so short, I would like it to have more significance. To, basically, give the Ninth Doctor "better stats". He seems more impressive if we claim he had three companions instead of two. So that's why I like to think that Rose, Adam and Captain Jack were all travelling companions of the Ninth Doctor. It's an extremely silly form of reasoning, I know. But I've never been one to take any opinion I have all that seriously!
Ultimately, of course, I still leave it to you. If you want to see Adam as a companion, you have my support. Or, if you consider him more of an interloper who the Doctor sorted out very quickly, you can view him that way, too!
Another "grey area companion" has been explored to their fullest limit and debated as thoroughly as possible. Hope you enjoyed the discussion. I would be happy to hear any insights of your own.
I'm coming along fairly well with my re-watch of Season Seven. So it will probably be another Season Review coming up next....
Other Should They Be Companions? Debates:
River Song:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/03/point-of-debate-should-we-consider-them.html
Katarina and Sara Kingdom:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/06/point-of-debate-should-we-consider-them.html
The Brigadier:
https://robtymec.blogspot.com/2022/06/point-of-debate-should-we-consider-them_26.html
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