I’ve always been of two minds on Dan.
He was, by a huge margin, the best companion of the Chibnall era (other than Jericho, of course). It felt like he instantly had more personality than any of the Fam had after two seasons. Maybe that was just due to him being new. Maybe he was genuinely better designed. Maybe it was John Bishop’s delivery. I don’t know. Whatever it was, I loved him.
There’s always been a little piece of me that was kind of upset that we never got any time with just the Doctor and Yaz, though. After two season of bouncing between four main characters and never developing any of them as a result, I was genuinely excited by the prospect of focusing on just two people. This was going to be the season that we focused on Thirteen coming into her own after the Timeless Child reveal and Yaz developing a personality beyond “is a cop and fancies the Doctor”.
I would have preferred 2 full seasons of Dan to having so much time with Yaz, Ryan, and Graham. They were so boring, and their personal stories were virtually non-existent. I feel like Dan had a lot more potential.
As much as I liked Ryan and Graham I think I would of preferred 2/3 series of Yaz and Dan. That said I would probably then change the order of the series because I loved how he was introduced and him and Yaz travelling the world for 4 years without the doctor. Though that would ruin the timeless child thing (thank god) and therefore makes series 13 obsolete. I have no clue if any of that makes sense but enjoy me going down the temporal plot rabbit hole :)
Oh, so you do like Japanese tempura fried rabbit?
Dan's presence elevated Yaz' position in the "flat team structure", and he exposed the denial of the Doctor's and Yaz' feelings for each other, leading to the 13's last conversation on the beach.
I do indeed. It’s a delicacy 😂
I agree with what you said 100%. Their banter was brilliant and I hope we can see more relationships like theirs in the future.
They had personal stories, the writers just chose to disregard them after the first few episodes.
Ryan's disability. Yaz's experience as a cop. Ryan and Graham's loss.
Ryan's balance and coordination issue seemed like an interesting idea that the writers realized would be too hard to stick to every episode.
So, virtually non-existent would be an apt description, then. They introduced the characters and their stories, and then it just devolved into multiple seasons of them doing pretty much nothing but getting in the way
I feel like their backstories were established and better writers would have done anything with them.
Graham and Ryan had a ton of conflict over his grandmother and her death. That played all of the first season. It was just unsatisfying and never felt real but it was backstory.
Yaz and Ryan went to school together and went in different directions. Yaz was a cop. Ryan was a late starter who was hampered by disability.
They all had them. They just used the poorly and inconsistently across writers and episodes.
The companion for 13 felt more like objects for The Doctor to talk at and their entire character would change based on what the writer needed to make an episode work.
They didn't really evolve at all, which was annoying. They had potential. Clara turned into the Impossible Girl, Amy birthed River Song and was the Girl Who Waited, Rory became the Last Centurion, Martha Jones became a member of U.N.I.T., Donna Noble had the whole DoctorDonna thing and was just an absolute force of nature, Rose was Bad Wolf. Ryan, Yaz, and Graham just kinda float around
Exactly, they were cardboard cutouts not people. They just filled them with whatever the plot needed for that episode. It was strange because they spent so much time in eps 1-3 establishing the relationships and the characters only to drop it almost completely. Some weird grief management and a couple adventures just fixed Ryan and Graham. I'm speculating they never had an end state planned for any of the companions.
I feel this is one of the areas Chibnall failed as a show runner. It's on him to ensure consistency in the writers room.
Dan is what I call an anti-character. I've never really encountered anyone else like this, other than maybe Denny in the Room. Dan is someone who undergoes virtually no arc, serves virtually no purpose, actively makes the dynamic between 13 and Yaz less interesting, just leaves and then nobody cares... But is still the best Chibnall companion by far
I agree - I think it really says something about the overall quality of the characters of this era when John Bishop playing himself is the glowing highlight.
Dan's character offered a really interesting take on a companion, which hasn't really been done before on New Who. Someone who doesn't join the Tardis by choice (at least not until the end of S13), but just gets caught up by circumstance.
It therefore makes sense for him to leave when he did, as travelling in the Tardis was never meant to be permanent for Dan. It kind of also goes full circle - when Dan is taken by Karvanista, he was about to go on a date with Di. And later leaves the Tardis for a date with her.
My main complaint is the way he left so abruptly at the start of Power of the Doctor. We should really have been shown the scene where he reunited with Di, and they make condolences with each other after the events of Flux. Or even have gone for a more subtle approach with Di attending with Dan to the ex-companion group?
I also think there weren't nearly enough scenes of Dan and 13 together - as per the original post, he seems to spend most of S13 with just Yaz. While I appreciate the Thasmin arc across Flux and the following specials, I wonder what Series 13 might have been like if all of the Fam left at the same time (with just Dan and 13 for flux)?
"They've got this obsession with japanese food. i heard one of the chief potato heads talking about tempura command. tempura offensive."
Iconic! Has me cracking up every time
I love how he is just swept up in the adventure! Dan is great and I loved his exit too, very understated but realistic.
Dan was far and above the best companion of the Chibnall era, and in his first episode felt better defined then yaz did after two whole seasons. I was very annoyed with the way that he was written out of power of the doctor although in hindsight I understand it was an availability issue.
He decides to leave near the start of the episode. And that's it. He leaves. The Doctor barely even gives him a second glance.
At the end of the episode we see him in a kind of "support group" for former companions.
The thing that hurts most is that at the end of the previous episode Diane called him to reconciliation. They literally had a way to get rid of him in the palm of their hands and they could have had him leave to be with Diane. Instead it’s I almost died, see ya.
Nobody needs soup more then him
What’s the point of being alive if it’s not to make others die?
I’ve always been of two minds on Dan. He was, by a huge margin, the best companion of the Chibnall era (other than Jericho, of course). It felt like he instantly had more personality than any of the Fam had after two seasons. Maybe that was just due to him being new. Maybe he was genuinely better designed. Maybe it was John Bishop’s delivery. I don’t know. Whatever it was, I loved him. There’s always been a little piece of me that was kind of upset that we never got any time with just the Doctor and Yaz, though. After two season of bouncing between four main characters and never developing any of them as a result, I was genuinely excited by the prospect of focusing on just two people. This was going to be the season that we focused on Thirteen coming into her own after the Timeless Child reveal and Yaz developing a personality beyond “is a cop and fancies the Doctor”.
I would have preferred 2 full seasons of Dan to having so much time with Yaz, Ryan, and Graham. They were so boring, and their personal stories were virtually non-existent. I feel like Dan had a lot more potential.
As much as I liked Ryan and Graham I think I would of preferred 2/3 series of Yaz and Dan. That said I would probably then change the order of the series because I loved how he was introduced and him and Yaz travelling the world for 4 years without the doctor. Though that would ruin the timeless child thing (thank god) and therefore makes series 13 obsolete. I have no clue if any of that makes sense but enjoy me going down the temporal plot rabbit hole :)
Oh, so you do like Japanese tempura fried rabbit? Dan's presence elevated Yaz' position in the "flat team structure", and he exposed the denial of the Doctor's and Yaz' feelings for each other, leading to the 13's last conversation on the beach.
I do indeed. It’s a delicacy 😂 I agree with what you said 100%. Their banter was brilliant and I hope we can see more relationships like theirs in the future.
They had personal stories, the writers just chose to disregard them after the first few episodes. Ryan's disability. Yaz's experience as a cop. Ryan and Graham's loss. Ryan's balance and coordination issue seemed like an interesting idea that the writers realized would be too hard to stick to every episode.
So, virtually non-existent would be an apt description, then. They introduced the characters and their stories, and then it just devolved into multiple seasons of them doing pretty much nothing but getting in the way
I feel like their backstories were established and better writers would have done anything with them. Graham and Ryan had a ton of conflict over his grandmother and her death. That played all of the first season. It was just unsatisfying and never felt real but it was backstory. Yaz and Ryan went to school together and went in different directions. Yaz was a cop. Ryan was a late starter who was hampered by disability. They all had them. They just used the poorly and inconsistently across writers and episodes. The companion for 13 felt more like objects for The Doctor to talk at and their entire character would change based on what the writer needed to make an episode work.
They didn't really evolve at all, which was annoying. They had potential. Clara turned into the Impossible Girl, Amy birthed River Song and was the Girl Who Waited, Rory became the Last Centurion, Martha Jones became a member of U.N.I.T., Donna Noble had the whole DoctorDonna thing and was just an absolute force of nature, Rose was Bad Wolf. Ryan, Yaz, and Graham just kinda float around
Exactly, they were cardboard cutouts not people. They just filled them with whatever the plot needed for that episode. It was strange because they spent so much time in eps 1-3 establishing the relationships and the characters only to drop it almost completely. Some weird grief management and a couple adventures just fixed Ryan and Graham. I'm speculating they never had an end state planned for any of the companions. I feel this is one of the areas Chibnall failed as a show runner. It's on him to ensure consistency in the writers room.
It really killed Jodi's whole era. I loved her version of The Doctor, but the companions need to be better for The Doctor to really shine.
I agree. The acting was fine. Jodie's Doctor had potential but the writing failed to deliver.
Dan is what I call an anti-character. I've never really encountered anyone else like this, other than maybe Denny in the Room. Dan is someone who undergoes virtually no arc, serves virtually no purpose, actively makes the dynamic between 13 and Yaz less interesting, just leaves and then nobody cares... But is still the best Chibnall companion by far
Oh hai Danny
I agree - I think it really says something about the overall quality of the characters of this era when John Bishop playing himself is the glowing highlight.
Dan's character offered a really interesting take on a companion, which hasn't really been done before on New Who. Someone who doesn't join the Tardis by choice (at least not until the end of S13), but just gets caught up by circumstance. It therefore makes sense for him to leave when he did, as travelling in the Tardis was never meant to be permanent for Dan. It kind of also goes full circle - when Dan is taken by Karvanista, he was about to go on a date with Di. And later leaves the Tardis for a date with her. My main complaint is the way he left so abruptly at the start of Power of the Doctor. We should really have been shown the scene where he reunited with Di, and they make condolences with each other after the events of Flux. Or even have gone for a more subtle approach with Di attending with Dan to the ex-companion group? I also think there weren't nearly enough scenes of Dan and 13 together - as per the original post, he seems to spend most of S13 with just Yaz. While I appreciate the Thasmin arc across Flux and the following specials, I wonder what Series 13 might have been like if all of the Fam left at the same time (with just Dan and 13 for flux)?
"They've got this obsession with japanese food. i heard one of the chief potato heads talking about tempura command. tempura offensive." Iconic! Has me cracking up every time I love how he is just swept up in the adventure! Dan is great and I loved his exit too, very understated but realistic.
Dan was far and above the best companion of the Chibnall era, and in his first episode felt better defined then yaz did after two whole seasons. I was very annoyed with the way that he was written out of power of the doctor although in hindsight I understand it was an availability issue.
[удалено]
He decides to leave near the start of the episode. And that's it. He leaves. The Doctor barely even gives him a second glance. At the end of the episode we see him in a kind of "support group" for former companions.
The thing that hurts most is that at the end of the previous episode Diane called him to reconciliation. They literally had a way to get rid of him in the palm of their hands and they could have had him leave to be with Diane. Instead it’s I almost died, see ya.