Doctor Who: 8 Simple Fixes It Must Make For Series 12

3. Establish A Better Three Companion Dynamic

Both one the strongest and one of the weakest aspects of Series 11 were the companions. No-one really expected Bradley Walsh’s Graham to be as good as he was. Most of the time Ryan would just point out the obvious because Chibnall flicked through the script and thought ‘crap, I need to give Ryan a line, uh-’ then just pencilled in something relatively relevant to whatever was going on, but he did have his weighty, really quite brilliant moments. Yaz, as already mentioned with her police-y stuff, or lack thereof, was a bit useless. She was normally the one sat in the front row for one of the Doctor’s lectures, gawping away and inputting what little of GCSE Physics she could remember.

No-one felt wholly relevant or important. This is one of the biggest faults with series 11, as Chibnall bit off way more than he could chew with his companions. Having three on-board the TARDIS for a significant time is quite a stretch, without leaving a few, rather glaring holes in their development, and that’s what happened, if you could call it ‘development.’

Ryan and Graham’s presence made sense. Their story began in The Woman Who Fell To Earth. After Grace died and Ryan didn’t really see him as much of a Father, let-alone Grandfather figure, Graham really did try to be there for him through it all since he was his only family. This arc did conclude in a ‘Granddad’ moment we could see coming from a mile off, though the executioncould’ve been done better. As for Yaz, she’s the weak link here. Even though it took nine out of ten episodes to get to that ‘Granddad’ moment, not all nine of those episodes were focused on just Graham and Ryan. In fact, their development opposite each other was very much done in fits and starts.

Yaz’s time to shine was in Demons of the Punjab, and though it was the best episode of the series, it didn’t really have much to do with Yaz herself, and more her Grandmother. Finding a way to keep all three companions in perfect balance in terms of relevance or screen time, is a tough feat. Obviously, because Chibnall didn’t manage it in Series 11, although there is a solution...