Doctor Who: When three companions worked best

The current era of Doctor Who has given us the largest number of companions of the New Series, and sometimes, it’s proved to be difficult to manage. But there was a time when it worked…

Photo Credit: James Pardon/BBC Studios/BBC America

Three companions can often be difficult to manage in Doctor Who. But there was one time when it worked, and worked brilliantly.

A common complaint I’ve come across regarding the current era of Doctor Who is how many companions are featured. With Jodie Whittaker’s Doctor having three companions, it’s the most that the New Series has ever had.

What can be problematic is that some companions can be overlooked in terms of development. This is especially true of Yaz. While Demons of the Punjab was a strong story that went into her family’s personal history, and Arachnids in the UK looked deeper into her personal life, I still don’t think she’s been given as much focus as Graham or Ryan and their shared grief in Series 11.

Of course, it’s not just the New Series that found three companions perhaps too many to manage. The Fifth Doctor’s first season featured the team of Nyssa, Tegan and Adric. These were extremely different characters that struggled to get along, and the writers clearly found it difficult to write for all of them, at times.

A key example of this is the story Kinda, where Nyssa is resting almost entirely off-screen during a rather eventful story where Tegan gets possessed! Eventually, by the end of the season, they just decided to kill one of the companions off and – with the exception of just a couple of stories in Season 20 – there were never more than two regular companions for the rest of the Classic Series.

Having said that, there was a time early in the show’s history when three companions arguably worked well. Very, very early, in fact…

Along with Ian and Susan or Vicki, Barbara was a key member of the original and considerably-sized TARDIS team.

(Photo by Moore/Fox Photos/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

Clear roles

For most of the first two seasons of Doctor Who, a four-member TARDIS team was a key feature of the series. And honestly, it was a feature that worked brilliantly. One thing that helped was that their roles were always extremely clear. This was especially true of Ian and Barbara – two human schoolteachers who were kidnapped by the Doctor and were desperate to get back home.

Along with having the personal angle of trying to find a way back, they also had clear roles in terms of the story. For example, as a science teacher, Ian could explain basic scientific concepts to the audience on a human level, while at the same time be amazed by something brand new.

In terms of Earth’s history, Barbara could explain all about it and what she knew of the people they met, like Marco Polo. The Doctor knew a fair amount of Earth’s history at this point, but not as much as he would do in later incarnations, so having Barbara there helped to give the audience some context.

Fleshing out those roles

If you think that Ian and Barbara’s roles sound purely functionary, that’s far from the case. Sometimes, their functions would allow them to have a huge emotional role in the story. For example, when Barbara and her friends arrived during the time of one of her favorite periods in history, she wanted to change things and save the whole of Aztec civilization.

As for the third companion? In both Susan’s and Vicki’s cases, they were both smart, intelligent girls, but they also had their own baggage. Susan had to struggle with the Doctor’s over-protectiveness, while Vicki had a rather tragic history. Both great characters in their own way while still being a natural part of the team.

Even today, the First Doctor’s team works brilliantly in brand new stories, with Jemma Powell, Jamie Glover, David Bradley and Claudia Grant recreating the original TARDIS team perfectly.

(Image Courtesy: Big Finish Productions.)

The Doctor’s role

But what role does the Doctor play in all this? With so much focus on the companions, how much is William Hartnell’s iconic incarnation focused on? Well, to be honest, this is a key reason why the four member TARDIS team worked much better then than it can work now. Because when Doctor Who began, the Doctor wasn’t the hero that we know now.

Oh, Hartnell certainly had plenty of presence, and he was definitely the most fascinating character of the series. But the First Doctor had plenty of mystery during the early days, and he wasn’t quite the heroic figure that we recognize the Doctor to be now. He also needed the help of his friends a lot more, even if he wouldn’t dare admit it.

Now, while we can’t have a team on television replicate the success of the original exactly, we do have new stories that explore the original team brilliantly thanks to Big Finish Productions. Using the cast of An Adventure in Space and Time to play the original characters, all the stories so far have been strong reminders of why the first TARDIS team worked so well in the first place.

The current team – How to make it work best

These days, the Doctor comes across as less mysterious. There’s more focus on exploring her as a character, and that’s true for all the incarnations of the New Series. So the focus on character exploration is divided even further than it was during those first two seasons.

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I’m not saying this current team can’t be effective. While it can also be more difficult with the Doctor being explored on a deeper level than when the series began, a team of three companions can still work.

What can really help is if the companions fulfilled particular roles better. This is especially true of Yaz. As a police officer, it would be great to see her use the skills she’s learned and put them to use in her travels more often. Perhaps make them a key part of the story, whether on an alien world or in Earth’s past.

Give the companions basic but key roles and then let the story flesh them out from there. For the moment, it feels like the writers need something to define the regular characters better. Not make them one-dimensional, but at least give them a sense of direction. Fingers crossed that the companions are given that direction over time, as the original companions were.

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What do you think? Do you think the Doctor having three companions can work? Do you think it worked well during the First Doctor’s era? Let us know in the comments below.

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