Agreed with all of this. It would be nice to hark back to the Tegan/Turlough/Nyssa/Adric days, or even further back, Steven/Vicki/Dodo days.
@Emh, I've always been super amused that your username is a combination of love for Star Trek and Doctor Who.
I remember in a BF interview that Janet Fielding said writing for multiple companions were tough because writers struggle to go give companions stuff to do. Nick Briggs even commented that's still true with the audio adventures as sometimes one or two companions gets ignored. That's when they has 2 hours to work with. With 45 minutes, it might not be possible to have large ensembles especially with 10 episodes.
One thing I'm hoping for is that whoever the new companion is, they're not tied back to Earth like Amy, Rory, Clara, and Bill were. At least with Bill we finally had a good explanation for it. I don't mind having family and recurring characters on Earth, like the RTD era, but I'm tired of the "part-time" traveling.
Several shows can have a huge cast with less episodes. Netflix has done a bunch, Game of thrones has approximately 12,000 recurring characters, etc. Even with a budget that doesn't match stuff like that, a decent writer could make two companions work easily Heck, NuWho already has made two companions work. Its more the ability of the writers that decides what can work, not necessarily the number of episodes in a season.
Thanks. It was a happy coincidence because for while I didn't even correlate the EMH's "Doctor" moniker with The Doctor until sometime later. While I've heard those complaints from the Big Finish world, and I can certainly understand the difficult for the audio plays, I have to agree with kirk55555's assessment that other shows have proven that all that's needed is the right kind of writing. And I certainly wouldn't call a lead with two traveling companions as "large ensemble." Absolutely this. While it made some sense with latter day Amy and Rory (although only on rewatch because I didn't like it the first time around), it was very obnoxious with Clara and, to some degree, Bill. I want proper adventures in space and time with a strong disconnect from contemporary Earth.
Yes. No going back to Earth every Tuesday and Thursday - the episode where 9D brings Rose home only "8 hours" after they left, but it was 8 months instead...
Honestly, I don't really see why Jack would act any differently around a female Doctor. Jack omnisexual anyway, gender and species don't matter to him, as long as the person's attractive he'll go for it. And I get the impression the 51st century is "sexually enlightened" anyway, and I'm sure people switching genders is common and not even thought about or indeed noticed. So really, Jack should display the same attitude towards a female Doctor he has towards the male Doctors he's known. River, being the Doctor's wife, might make some playful comments about the Doctor now being a woman, but having been from the same time period of sexual enlightenment as Jack, I can't see it being an issue for her, other than a few jokes about "well, now I have a wife" or something like that.
I would have loved to see Captain Jack meeting 11. Matt being a younger guy, Jack would have certainly come onto him. "Ahhh Jack, still an impossible thing I see". Hopefully Chibnall doesn't have the aversion to using past showrunner's characters that Moffat seemed to. I don't see a reason to completely ignore characters from previous eras of the new series once there's been a change in leadership.
I have a few ideas. 1 How about another Doctor as a companion? You could have a female and male Doctor argue over who is the companion. What about the guy that was in the 1996 Doctor Who movie? He never got a chance to be on a show. Also you could have the new female Doctor play both herself just new in her body and maybe herself in 3 years who has to team up with her old self for a year? I always liked it when Tennant and Smith got to do double duty as 2 versions of himself. What if you did that bit for a year? 2 How about a season with no companion at all? Tennant did those movies were he was all by himself so why not try something like that again? 3 A shapeshifter who can be both male and female and you rotate in new actors to play the character. 4 Abraham Lincoln.Winston Churchill, etc. Basically someone who was a real person in our past. If you want to be really bold go with Jesus Christ. What if the myth of Jesus was true because it was made possible by the Doctor, somehow? Jason
It's just wrong to have a new Doctor working with a predecessor their entire first year, especially now we have the first female Doctor who'll need to secure herself as The Doctor. She won't be able to do that while having one of her male predecessors tagging along. RTD said in The Writer's Tale that he regretted that in the end, since not having a regular companion during Tennant's specials was actually the most challenging part of writing them. The Doctor needs a regular companion for the very simple reason that he (or rather, she, now) needs someone to talk to. Even Tom Baker back when he turned surly and didn't want to work with people accepted this fact as the show's truth. Though his solution was to have the companion be talking cabbage.
I would think a male companion would be guaranteed now. If you're going to change the gender of The Doctor then it's time for the primary companion to be a man. Or at the very least a male and female companion. I'd like to see an older companion too. Maybe someone pushing 50. An older Ian type. But I seriously doubt the BBC will go with an older companion. A male and female companion would set up the inevitable and annoying love triangle talk though.
Also, Twelve/Nardole in the most recent Christmas special. One and Steven traveled together in at least one serial as well, The Massacre.
I'd love see a companion that isn't from London. Love to see a companion that isn't English at some stage. Like the idea of a couple being the companions. And yes to Captain Jack and River returning at some stage
Since you are already using the first doctor in the Christmas special why not have him talk the new doctor into bringing Susan and maybe a husband she now has aboard as companions? Maybe even some kids. What if you had what amounts to a nuclear family living aboard the Tardis? Only you can switch it up if want as well. Maybe the husband is alien or one of the kids who might have been adopted turns out to be the new Master that comes after Missy? If Time Lords can change age and gender why can't they revert back to a childhood state? Jason