10 Simple Fixes For Doctor Who's Future

Yes, the Fifteenth Doctor and Ruby Sunday are the very best of pals and that's lovely, but it's not very interesting is it?

Ruby just stands and watches the Doctor "bring death to death" in the finale. She asks no questions and doesn't interrogate the Doctor's plan, she just stands in the background as he tells off a very bad dog. Where's the tension? Where's the butting of heads? Just because they're best friends it doesn't mean they have to be nicey-nicey 24/7. Especially because that's not how real-life friendships work.

Look at some of Doctor Who's other "best friend" pairings. The Fourth Doctor and Sarah Jane adored each other, but she still took the mickey out of him or chided him for his cold response to the death of Laurence Scarman. The Tenth Doctor and Donna were the best of friends, but they constantly bickered with each other. And the Eleventh Doctor and Amy were at each other's throats from their very first episode!

Sarah, Donna, and Amy were great Doctor Who companions because they had agency, and weren't afraid to stand up for themselves or offer a different perspective.

We saw flashes of this in Boom, which was fantastic. But that was... pretty much it. The result was a fun yet two-dimensional Doctor-companion relationship, so hopefully we see a lot more friction between them going forward – whether that's Ruby, or Season 2's new companion Belinda Chandra.