Doctor Who: Are there too many people in the TARDIS?

Now that Doctor Who season 11 is drawing to a close, let’s try and evaluate whether a three-companion set-up really works.

Somehow, there are only two episodes left of Doctor Who season 11. And since we’re not really doing a big overall arc this year beyond the fact that this newly constituted Team TARDIS is growing closer, it’s hard to know exactly how to judge its overall progress as a narrative thus far. (No matter how good the individual stories have been.) But maybe that is the big question — and has been all along.

Does Doctor Who work with three companions?

Adding three companions into the mix was a big change for Doctor Who. Since the series’ return in 2005, the show hasn’t had more than one full-time companion alongside the Doctor at a time (though there have been a few notable longtime guests like Rory, Jack Harkness or Nardole). You have to go all the way back to the Fifth Doctor/Peter Davison era to find a regular trio of TARDIS travelers like this. Which means that it was certainly pretty alien to a modern audience.

Picture Shows: The Doctor (JODIE WHITTAKER), Graham (BRADLEY WALSH), Ryan (TOSIN COLE), Yaz (MANDIP GILL), Mabil (LOIS CHIMIMBA). Doctor Who season 11 production still. Photo: Ben Blackall/BBC America

Yet on the whole, it’s been a rather refreshing change. Graham, Yaz and Ryan have been warm and lovely additions to the Doctor Who family. They have generally charming personalities and great chemistry with one another as a group. As characters, they’re all entertaining and compelling to watch, for different reasons. And they all sparkle alongside Jodie Whittaker’s Thirteen.

Has the show done a perfect job of fleshing each of them out as people? No. Has it managed to build unique relationships among all three of them rather than simply treat them as a group? Sometimes, but it’s been a struggle. Has it given them all individual desires and goals in their lives? Again, the answer is something of a mixed bag.

On the whole, the three-companion set-up feels new and fresh, particularly after multiple seasons focused on magical girls who themselves served as the key to some mystery the Doctor was meant to solve. (See also: “The Impossible Girl” and”The Girl Who Waited.”) It’s an experiment that’s been worth trying, particularly because Graham, Yaz and Ryan are so different — both from one another and the recent companions who’ve come before them. They have different backgrounds, challenges and desires. (And the actors who play them all have wonderful, genuine chemistry together.)

The only problem is that occasionally there just isn’t enough time to give them the stories they deserve.

Picture Shows: Yasmin Khan (MANDIP GILL), Graham O’Brien (BRADLEY WALSH), Ryan Sinclair (TOSIN COLE). Photo: Coco Van Oppens/BBC America

We’ve talked about this problem in the past, particularly with Yaz, who doesn’t really have much in the way of a clear narrative arc at present, and Graham, whose story appears to have settled into “being the adorable comic relief” despite the tremendous loss he suffered in the season premiere. With so many main characters to serve — three companions, at least one or two new secondary characters every week and the Doctor herself — it’s difficult to fit meaningful stories or even singular moments for everyone into any given episode. And that’s kind of a problem.

Consider “The Witchfinders”, for example. With two big-name guest stars in Siobhan Finnerhan and Alan Cumming and a fairly complicated combination of historical story and alien mystery, no one outside of Thirteen herself got any significant story. To be honest, this was largely fine with me, as this episode was the first to really address the effect that the Doctor’s new gender has on her ability to gallivant about through particularly problematic parts of history. And it’s well past time that happened. But, it’s also still true that Yaz and Graham had little to do, and Ryan found himself basically serving as a sounding board for King James’s emotional issues (and borderline sexual harassment).

Perhaps we won’t be able to make a full judgment until season 11 is complete, but at the moment one does have to wonder whether it’s too crowded in the TARDIS, or whether the Doctor Who writers need to do a better job at balancing out stories between the cast members. Perhaps in season 12 we’ll see more actual episodes tie into the stories of the companions themselves (“Demons of the Punjab” was particularly good at this). Because they’re all great characters, and they deserve some real time in the spotlight. Otherwise, what’s the point?

Doctor Who season 11 continues next Sunday at 8 p.m. ET on BBC America.