Character Highlight: Nardole (Doctor Who)

Here’s the Sunday Who Review, which was preempted yesterday for a 100 Years of Buster Keaton write-up. 

After seeing Nardole’s first appearance, I couldn’t have imagined a) him coming back as a full-time companion and b) me enjoying him so much as a companion!  In “The Husbands of River Song,” I found him doofy and not very funny, and “The Return of Doctor Mysterio” was only a slight improvement.  When I heard he was joining the show in series 10, I sighed, prepared to like Bill and tolerate Nardole (a few Nardole-related spoilers.)

Much to my surprise, though, Nardole grew on me a lot.  I suppose it maybe helps that there’s so little “there” there in his early appearances, so he’s practically a blank slate.  Reintroduced in series 10 as something like the Doctor’s Alfred, a cross between a valet and a confidante, Nardole is tasked by the Doctor with helping him (the Doctor) keep his own promise to guard the Vault.  Given the Doctor’s notoriously-itchy feet, that’s no easy task, and while most of Nardole’s role early in the season is relegated to stern party-pooper who tries the keep the Doctor earthbound – fat chance – he still plays it well enough.  Even though the Doctor and Bill sneaking around on adventures in time and space behind Nardole’s back is the early order of the day, the story doesn’t frame Nardole as too much of a chump in the scenario.  Rather, he endeavors to be the Doctor’s voice of reason, a thankless job but necessary in this case, and when he comes to terms with the fact that he can’t keep the Doctor on Earth, Nardole steels himself for the possibility of having to guard the Vault on his own.

Now, after his Christmas specials, the idea of Nardole steeling himself for anything would be a big stretch, so we’re already coming out ahead, but he gets better from there.  Once he starts joining the Doctor and Bill on their travels – at first reluctantly, then as a more equal participant – we start getting a better notion of him.  This Nardole can still be doofy, but it’s mostly in a more entertaining way.  I like his random little anecdotes about past exploits, like his dabbling in alien martial arts, and his awkward-but-endearing methods of trying to “ingratiate” himself with the locals wherever they go.

He also proves himself to be helpful in many of the usual companion ways.  He’s often brave (the “scared but going through with it anyway” variety, which I like,) he’s shrewdly observant and makes important connections, and his tech skills and general sci-fi-relevant knowledge often come in handy.  And, probably most of all, he takes the Doctor to task when he thinks the Doctor needs it.  The Doctor asks Nardole to shoulder some heavy stuff over the course of the season, and Nardole does his best, helping out and not betraying the Doctor’s trust but still urging the Doctor to do the smart thing and come clean about what he’s going through.

The reason Nardole wound up getting a Character Highlight post instead of a Favorite Characters like many other companions is because, even though I do really like him, he’s still kind of… blank.  He’s an alien, but we have no idea where he’s from, what his species is like, and how he connected with River in the first place.  While those non-sequiturs of his are fun, they’re also a reflection of how Nardole can be basically anything the writers need him to be because so little has been established for him.  And, don’t forget, in “The Husbands of River Song,” he gets his head chopped off and attached to a robotic body, and the Doctor, evidently, puts him back together out of assorted parts.  What does Nardole think of that?  Who knows, because the only references we get to it are jokes.

There’s a bit in “The Doctor Falls” where Nardole says to the Doctor, “This is me we’re talking about.  Me.  You know what I was like.  If there’s more than three people in a room, I start a black market.”  It’s a line indicating how being with the Doctor has changed Nardole and how he worries that, without the Doctor, he’ll fall back into his old ways, but that’s not what I think when I hear it.  I think, “Since when?”  This scene suggests Nardole is similar to Jack, a former conman who reformed while traveling with the Doctor, but the only things during Nardole’s whole time on the show that fit into that narrative are this scene and the mere fact that, when we first meet him, he’s working for River (albeit not very competently.)  We don’t see Nardole go on any journey from con artist to hero.  Hell, we don’t even see him go from doof to person-with-a-backbone; it just happens, because it’s decided that that’s what he’s going to be.

It reminds me a bit of Clara, in that there are a couple different characterizations for Nardole and no real in-story reason for the change.  It’s more pronounced with Clara, since none of Nardole’s personalities are as defined as hers are, but it’s still a frustrating writer habit that keeps me from fully embracing Nardole as much as I otherwise might, enjoyable as he is.