On Nardole: Doctor Who Series 10’s Other Companion
With all the excitement and press going to Pearl Mackie’s arrival on the TARDIS, we should not forget Nardole, the other TARDIS resident this season.
One of the more interesting aspects of Steven Moffat’s time as the showrunner in Doctor Who is his love of multiple companions. Even from the very early days of his first season, he wasn’t comfortable with just the Doctor and Amy–within a very few episodes, Amy’s boyfriend Rory was on board too. And though they killed him off on the regular, Rory managed to stick around all the way until the end.
The same was true during the Clara years. If it wasn’t Clara’s boyfriend kicking around, it was one of her students, or a companion’s companion, or a lizard lady from the dawn of time and her wife.
This year, Moffat has done away with pretending there’s a main companion and all others are secondary. Though most of the excitement has centered around Bill Potts and her arrival on the TARDIS this coming Saturday, as the synopsis reminds us, the Doctor *already has a companion.*
