New Year's Special 2021: Revolution of The Daleks( will contain spoilers)

[reiver33]

Doctor Who doesn’t work as an ensemble- the clue is in the title.

 

[AlexH]

There are many, many TV shows that work very well with large ensemble casts, so the number of companions cannot be the problem in itself. However, Doctor Who is all about The Doctor. The Doctor is central to the story and the show. See how in this episode the companions were lost as to what to do when The Doctor was in prison, mainly, but not only, because they didn't have access to the TARDIS. It is also about The Doctor's relationship(s) with the companion(s) and with a single companion that relationship can be much more deeply explored than with several.

Apparently, there was a large number of Doctor Who shippers who had a particular interest in seeing a romantic pairing develop between The Doctor and Yaz, and who are now extremely upset at the John Bishop reveal.

I don't think it's due to the larger cast. There are many good shows that have one primary character with an ensemble cast around them. Even in modern Doctor Who, Amy Pond and Rory were around at the same time as Captain Jack and River Song if I remember rightly, and there were many excellent episodes.

My favourite Doctor Who episode, Blink, hardly featured The Doctor. It can be done. Though given the writers have struggled to give Yaz, Ryan and Graham something to do, perhaps less will be more in future episodes.

 

[MemoryTale]

I don't think it's due to the larger cast. There are many good shows that have one primary character with an ensemble cast around them. Even in modern Doctor Who, Amy Pond and Rory were around at the same time as Captain Jack and River Song if I remember rightly, and there were many excellent episodes.

I had a similar conversation with someone else, and we came to the conclusion that this partnership worked so well because unlike the Fam, the characters were drip-fed in. Amy got some time as the sole companion and was well developed by the time Rory was introduced permanently. By the time he joined at the end of season 5, she was well enough established that losing out on some development time in favour of Rory didn't hurt her.

River was a special case as she never really joined permanently. She was a guest star in episodes that revolved around her, and her relationship with the Doctor. If she'd been wedged into stories that had nothing to do with her, she may have either faded into the background or been given something filler to do.

 

[AlexH]

I had a similar conversation with someone else, and we came to the conclusion that this partnership worked so well because unlike the Fam, the characters were drip-fed in. Amy got some time as the sole companion and was well developed by the time Rory was introduced permanently. By the time he joined at the end of season 5, she was well enough established that losing out on some development time in favour of Rory didn't hurt her.

River was a special case as she never really joined permanently. She was a guest star in episodes that revolved around her, and her relationship with the Doctor. If she'd been wedged into stories that had nothing to do with her, she may have either faded into the background or been given something filler to do.

That's a good point, though thinking back I actually thought the first few Jodie Whitakker episodes did well to develop the trio, but maybe at the expense of The Doctor herself? The conflict between Ryan and Graham worked well enough, and I liked Yaz's developing "just do it" attitude. The issue has been the writers have struggled to find the sidekicks something to do in many episodes alongside the overall disappointing quality of the episodes in general.