The Power of Threes [WHO-50—2012]

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The Power of Threes [WHO-50—2012]

Amy: Every time we flew away with the Doctor he’d just become part of our life. But he never stood still long enough to become part of ours.

Except once. The Year of the Slow Invasion. The time the Doctor came to stay.

Steven Moffat does love a threesome.

The first few might have been coincidence. After all, the TARDIS teams for The Empty Child/The Doctor Dances and The Girl in the Fireplace were unlikely to be his choice.

And yet in both cases he got to write a story in which Rose and the Doctor took on a new travelling companion – the very companionable Captain Jack in Series 1 and the awkward but determined Mickey Smith in Series 2.

Blink barely featured the Doctor and Martha, but when Moffat returned to the show with a Doctor and Donna two-parter, he added a guest role to the story who was so interesting and significant that she seemed to count as a second companion: River Song.

There’s something about three in the TARDIS that really works. It allows the Doctor to be a bit more remote and alien, and also allows for some diversity among the companions.

Considering his past stories – and his history of throwing romance and domesticity into the mix – it isn’t a surprise that Moffat’s Who wasn’t just about the girl companion, but quickly became a story about three interlinked characters: Amy Pond, her boyfriend/fiance/husband Rory (AKA Mr Pond), and their Doctor.

While Daleks In Manhattan was billed as the big, tearjerker sendoff for the Ponds after three years and two and a half seasons of their intense science fictional space opera, it was The Power of Three that felt to me like the story which got to the heart of the relationship between Amy, Rory and the Eleventh Doctor, and provided the coda about how ultimately the story was always going to end.

Rory: We have two lives. Real life and Doctor life. Doesn’t feel like real life gets much of a look-in.

Amy: What do we do?

Rory: Choose?

{the TARDIS sounds nearby}

Amy: Not today though.

Rory: Nah, not today.

am still, to be honest, a little put out that they didn’t shake hands with the Doctor and part ways with him at the end of The Power of Three. It felt like that was the authentic ending for their characters, and Brian suddenly deciding otherwise on their behalf didn’t ring true to me.

Ah well.

Watching Amy and Rory grow up, from gangly teens & twenty somethings to elegant and accomplished thirty somethings (with a few bumps and dramas along the way) was that rare thing: a Doctor Who story that had never been told before.

I’ve talked already about the relationship between the Eleventh Doctor, the Ponds and domesticity in two essays: Marrying the Ponds and Divorcing the Ponds, which is probably why I struggled a bit to find a new topic to tackle for this era. I’ve already dwelled at length on their marriage, the Doctor’s role in their developing relationship and household, and said most of what I want to say about Rory, Amy, River, and the Eleventh Doctor’s inherent snoggability.

But in thinking about 2012, and what made Doctor Who special in that year, it’s not Amy and Rory jumping off a building and hurling themselves at Weeping Angels that sticks in my mind, it’s the interesting vibe about Amy and Rory and the Doctor not being able to let go of each other, despite the fact that they don’t really fit into each other’s worlds any more.

There’s something wonderfully cozy about The Power of Three, down to the gentle, mostly non-violent Slow Invasion and the introduction of Jemma Redgrave as the Brig’s no-nonsense scientist daughter, now the new leader of UNIT.

The Doctor: Tell me, since when did science run the military, Kate?

Kate: Since me. UNIT’s been adapting. Well, I dragged them along, kicking and screaming. Which makes it sound like more fun than if actually was.

Does anyone else love the fact that the Brigadier’s daughter is basically a Next Generation version of Liz Shaw? The line where she talks about him saying “science leads” and encouraging her to take the power in UNIT away from soldiers, still makes me sniffle. Oh, Brig. You learned eventually.

I also like how effectively Rory and Amy work as a team with each other as well as with the Doctor, when they have to. They’re crack troops now, so experienced at this lifestyle that they barely even register surprise – and yet, in their romp through time on their anniversary, the Doctor still manages to bring them face to face with situations that are entirely new, and weird, and challenging.

Amy: I thought we were going home!

The Doctor: You can’t miss a good wedding. Under the bed! Under the bed!

Amy: It wasn’t my fault.

Rory: It was totally your fault.

Amy: Somebody was talking and I just said, Yes.

Rory: To wedding vows! You just married Henry VIII on our anniversary.

Given Moffat’s history of writing threesome TARDIS teams, I really hope we’re due for another companion to join Capaldi’s Twelve and Jenna Coleman’s Clara. Rory Pond may have redeemed himself as being a companion completely different to Mickey Smith, but it would be nice to have a bloke in the TARDIS who isn’t there as the female companion’s plus one.

Or, and this is a bit radical, we could even have a second female companion in the TARDIS! Maybe one from the future, the past, or outer space.

Though if it’s Kate Stewart, I would not complain in the least. I think she and Twelve would get along rather well, actually…

Kate: You, ah, you really are as remarkable as Dad said. {she kisses him} Thank you.

The Doctor: My! A kiss from a Lethbridge-Stewart. That’s new.

ELSEWHERE ON 2012