Doctor Who: The intriguing nature of season 11’s companions

We were all so focused on the (admittedly, amazing) female Doctor in the Doctor Who premiere that we forgot to talk about how great her new companions are.

Most of the discussion surrounding the Doctor Who season 11 premiere was, generally speaking, focused squarely on the arrival of the Thirteenth Doctor. This makes sense, particularly given the groundbreaking nature of the story. There’s basically no way the first thing we all talked about wasn’t going to be Jodie Whittaker’s debut as the first female Doctor in the history of the storied 55-year-old franchise. But Thirteen’s arrival wasn’t the only thing that happened in the episode. Far from it, in fact.

One of the things that happens when a creative shift takes place behind the scenes on Doctor Who is change. And usually quite a lot of it. Such is the case in season 11, which not only has a new Doctor, but a new showrunner, a new behind-the-scenes writing team, and a new set of companions. And it’s that last bit that’s kind of gotten short shift in our post-episode discussion of “The Woman Who Fell to Earth.” (I, too, was guilty of this, just for the record.)

But the Doctor’s new traveling companions are equally as interesting and groundbreaking in their own right as Thirteen is, and worthy of a closer look as we consider where season 11 might go. After all, we spent a pretty big chunk of the premiere with them before we ever met the Doctor, which indicates that they’re going to be primary drivers of the story in their own right. Chibnall himself has said that the show, in large part, is about the companions, who – in his vision – are decidedly normal, everyday people. Which honestly sounds pretty refreshing after the last few seasons of Steven Moffat’s obsession with sidekicks who turned out to be almost as magical as the Doctor was. Let’s hear it for regular folks again.

Sure, there’s three companions now, which is something of a pretty big shift after years of one-on-one Doctor/companion relationships. But it’s certainly not unheard of (see also: The First Doctor, the Fifth Doctor). And the pre-existing relationships between Graham, Ryan and Yaz offer lots of potential for future stories. After all, the three are connected to one another in various ways, but none of them are what you might call close. Ryan and Yaz are old school chums, but they haven’t seen one another in years. And Graham is Ryan’s step-grandfather, but the two don’t seem particularly attached to one another, and they’re both grieving the death of Grace.

How will these three interact? And how will the relationships betwixt and between them change? Given that they all just discovered the existence of aliens roughly two days before getting transported into the vacuum of space, it feels like anything could happen. And it will definitely be interesting to see how their connections develop.

However, it’s Ryan Sinclair who appears to be the linchpin at the center of this group. He’s the one with connections to both Yaz and Graham, and he was the first to both discover and believe in all the alien business. It would appear – at least for the moment – that a big part of his journey will involve repairing his relationship with Graham in the wake of Grace’s death. (And possibly building one with Yaz? That’s a total guess, obviously. But this is television, which loves to pair people off, romantically speaking.)

Additionally, here’s hoping the show continues to explore one of the most interesting facets of Ryan’s character – the fact that he lives with a disability. Ryan has from dyspraxia, a developmental coordination disorder. We see him attempting to learn to ride a bike at various points in the premiere, as well as struggling to climb a crane ladder during Team TARDIS’ final showdown with the villainous Tim Shaw.

The great thing about this isn’t just that it’s another way to make Doctor Who more inclusive (though that’s certainly true, and great in its own right). No, it’s fantastic simply because his disability is depicted as an additional fact of his character – it isn’t presented as holding him back in any way. Ryan is still a hero, and though he occasionally stumbles, he still pushes through. Where will the rest of season 11 take this character?

I don’t know, but I can’t wait to find out.

Doctor Who‘s eleventh season airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on BBC America. Keep an eye on Culturess for more coverage of the new season!